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    Fire Gate Poems: A Journey of Spiritual Healing
    Fire Gate Poems: A Journey of Spiritual Healing
    Fire Gate Poems: A Journey of Spiritual Healing
    Ebook115 pages30 minutes

    Fire Gate Poems: A Journey of Spiritual Healing

    By Henry C. Finney

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    About this ebook

    Fire Gate Poems: A Journey of Spiritual Healing presents a collection of poems and images that mark author Henry C. Finneys journey from grief to healing following the death of his son. Writing poetry and Zen meditation contributed greatly to his recovery from the unthinkable-the loss of a child. The verses and illustrations provide glimpses of the landscape he traversed during this journey-its darkest jungles of grief, its rolling hills of recovery, and finally its brilliant vistas of love and happiness.

    After a few verses from earlier years (origins), the poems articulate stages of Finneys return to life. They begin with reactions to the tragedy (abyss), continue with poems of return and renewal, and conclude with verses of wonder. His poetic images are enhanced by black-and-white renditions of his drawings, paintings, prints, and photographs.

    Finneys poems sing of lifes mysteries, sorrows, and beauty; his art celebrates the world. His work demonstrates the healing powers of writing and art.

    The Lives of Grasses

    Recovering from my deep frozen winter
    I wander now
    amid a sea of grasses
    of new-grown wild flowers
    where just last week
    (Ive lost track)
    snow lay deep.

    No path remains.

    Despite your absence
    summer has secretly returned.
    No pretending winter losses any more.
    I re-awaken
    like this field
    whose sea of waving tassels
    swishing, aromatic

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateOct 26, 2011
    ISBN9781462036752
    Fire Gate Poems: A Journey of Spiritual Healing
    Author

    Henry C. Finney

    Henry C. Finney holds an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute and studied painting with James Gahagan, student and protégé of German abstract expressionist painter Hans Hofmann. Finney also earned a BA in anthropology from the University of Michigan and a PhD in sociology from the University of California. He currently lives and works in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

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      Book preview

      Fire Gate Poems - Henry C. Finney

      Copyright © 2011 Henry C. Finney

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      iUniverse

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4620-3674-5 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4620-3676-9 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4620-3675-2 (e)

      Printed in the United States of America

      iUniverse rev. date: 10/14/2011

      Contents

      Fire Gate

      Preface

      Origins

      Childhood Dreams

      Wintry Edge

      Foundation

      Silver Morning

      Ocean Games

      Leaving Home

      Alas

      Large As an Egg

      Flight

      Abyss

      Moon-Faced Buddha: A Requiem

      On River Avon

      Fire Tiger

      Last Sounds

      Netherworld

      Mother and Child

      Return

      The Lives of Grasses

      Strange Angel

      Family Time

      Glowing Red

      Guardians

      The Moment Before Birth

      Farewell

      The Price of Admission

      Renewal

      Wild Flower

      Small Blessings

      Raven Dies and Returns to Talk

      Ode to Basalt

      Night Pond

      Live Ruins

      Cycles

      Wonder

      Lost Page From a Book of Hours

      Home

      Cochiti Gold

      Flash

      Ode to a Chocolate Cookie

      Circus

      Dorland Glimpses

      Uncommon Names and References

      Acknowledgements

      List of Images

      About The Author

      Fire Gate

      house in flames

      enter the fire gate

      to come home

      missing image file

      Figure 1: Tree Line, Oil on Linen, 24 x 30, 1990.

      In memory of

      Christopher Anson Finney

      1970 – 2000

      Preface

      These poems commemorate the death, by his own hand, of my only son, Christopher Anson Finney. They do not trace my exact route through the land of grief I then traversed, so much as they express my moods before, during and after the trek to healing. While initially grim, the journey has ended in wonder, and sometimes joy. I don’t know how or why I’ve been blessed by such a transformation, except to say that it was made possible by entering what I call the fire gate of my grief—hence the reference in the book’s title. That is to say, I was able to heal by honestly facing and

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