From the Editor’s Desk  Kate Bernadette Benedict

How Divine

Imagine this. An editor with a passion for spiritually-driven poetry and an unabashedly ecumenical appetite puts out a call for poems that would satisfy these cravings to the core. She half expects an empty mailbox, or one filled with Hallmark sentiments. Instead she receives more exquisite material than could possibly use. And, wonder of wonders, the compilation really is ecumenical in spirit, or perhaps one should say “interfaith,” with poems drawing on many traditions: Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, Pagan, Shinto, Agnostic, with some Greek, Egyptian and Norse myths mixed into the salad, along with works of a more general and philosophic nature.

The mood of these poems shines along a spectrum from the most reverent to most audaciously amusing. Said editor loves that too; if doesn’t contain both ecstasy and laughter, it’s not her spirituality.

Unexpectedly, some swell prose turned up as well:  Eric D. Lehman’s celebration of the great-souledness of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and a kicky memoir by Geri Lipschultz who roller skated her way around the great religious mysteries at the age of seven.  

Said editor is awestruck … and hopes her readers will be too.