Arriving in Magic

This second collection charts a three-year period in the author's life, beginning right after the publication of "The Call of the Unwritten" and into his six-month sabbatical in early 2011 when he unearthed a new way of looking at his life.

In Arriving in Magic, he describes a refusal to "pass the gap that gates the path unnoticed," and this has opened many "gateways" disclosed in poems like "When Will You Be Ready" and 'The Edge of Bleakness". The chapter "Path Crossings" celebrates the people whose presence has given him a magical awareness of life and death.

The "Tuscany" section recalls a trip in 2010 with the poet David Whyte and how this alerted him to the magic of everyday life. "Unearthings" narrates what the commonplace contains when approached with fierce attention.

The final section, "Glad Arrivals," reveals the wonder he came to experience and moves into "The Starving Edge," challenging the age of austerity, asking more than simply the recreation of a broken system.

Ending with an invitation to a "Certain Kind of Vow," this collection is a personal testament adding to what Goethe calls the praise of what is truly alive and what longs to be burned to death.