Contingency Plans: Poems

'Contingency Plans' maps the body, the land, and the hollows therein, eager to determine their dimensions, carried along by possibility, to find that what once made us anxious is out of the question, and what has kept us awake now sings us back to sleep. Note to teachers: excellent for classroom use if you are teaching villanelles and sestinas.

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"These are poems of great spiritual crisis and consequence, where the dark night of the soul is a rugged rucksack shouldered by the poet. But the wilderness resounds with the voice of a choir and the wearying road can always beckon you home."

--Oliver de la Paz, author of 'Requiem for the Orchard'

"A great poet confounds me; he uses the same materials I do -- words -- but where I've built a fort, he has erected a cathedral. Wheeler has "revealed the space behind our ribs," and I must remove my sandals."

--Susan Isaacs, author of 'Angry Conversations with God'

"Simultaneously eloquent and potently raw; intimate reflections on spirituality and maturation, in harmony and conflict, that reverberate through every human journey."

--Carol Cassella, author of 'Healer' and National Bestseller 'Oxygen'