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Amazon Book Description

Many of these poems show the poet’s most impassioned moods, and are characterised by impressive felicity of style and subtle diction. The poet in several poems shows a high degree of excellence. The mere verbal felicity of style adds to the beauty of these highly impassioned and richly inspired poems.

Sample Poem from Soul Songs

THE WINTER OF MY SOUL

The winter of my soul was in the spring called youth 
when I danced and sang and played the fool,
when I could care for no one really, not even
for myself---
certainly not for the soul I could not see within,
not could I see the souls of others….

That was the harshest winter, though snowless
and without a frigid air yet dead was the ground
I walked on, dead too was my heart as I moved
through the world like an orphan abandoned,
abandoned by hope and faith and love,
till Death itself smiled at me and called my name
and I went to it because I could not see my soul.

But in that utter darkness where death hides,
hides like a coward, 
and in that pain beyond pain that death brings
to those who seek it,
I, like the blind man whom Christ gave sight to,
suddenly knew again my soul and as I called out
to God,
I began the hard long climb out of the pit towards
the eternal Light….

Now I have lived through 300 seasons as birth
and death dance in their turn, and time I once
rode like a prince his horse now rides my back,
pushing me down bit by bit as the years pile up
like burnt logs that will never be lit again…
yet I am happy, not for old age with all its 
myriad slights and insults, and not for that
unfinished part which I suppose is found in
every life, even the longest-- no, my happiness
is simpler, sweeter now that my world has 
shrunk, for my soul has grown and as it grows,
becomes ever more hungry for the food of
Heaven….
© Nolo Segundo

Paperback Only

Author Biography

Nolo Segundo, pen name of retired teacher [America, Japan, Taiwan, the war zone of Cambodia, 1973-74] L.j. Carber, became a published poet in his 8th decade in over 240 literary journals in 21 countries on 4 continents and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, thrice for best of the Net. Cyberwit.net has published 3 collections in softcover: THE ENORMITY OF EXISTENCE; OF ETHER AND EARTH; and SOUL SONGS. These titles reflect the awareness he gained in 1971 when he had an NDE whilst nearly drowning: that he has–is–a consciousness predating birth and surviving death, what poets since the Psalmists and Plato have called the soul.