14 STORIES EMERGED FROM MYSTICAL INTERSECTIONS of humanity, reality, and magic. Author CHARLES FRODE has ushered these worlds of radiance and darkness into life for those who have lost love or long to love; for those traumatized by broken family; for those warring between mind and feeling; and for those who relish a life that is a wonderfully harmonious feeling-flux of darkness and illumination- male and female, animate and inanimate.

14 sinister disturbing gently cynical stories where reality is not good or bad, right or wrong, alive or dead. Everything is one thing without limits either in essence or in our feeble attempts to identify and delimit it with our wonderful words. The stories in this second collection present reality as the wonder of redemption and loss. Some stories are about couples, some not. Some are about an individual's personal existential challenge to survive. Some emerged from somewhere inside the author when he unlocked a hidden door. These fourteen stories embody aspects of the spiritual nature of reality, about the redemptive quality inherent in all human beings. Each story presents some kind of loss in the context of spiritual redemption; hope, ultimate hope, hope for self-redemption; and the inherent dignity of all living creatures. Let each story take you somewhere new where you can consider something about yourself, something about ourselves as humans. About the numinous quality of your own redemption and loss.

Charles Frode's 3rd short story collection, concentrated, bitter and benignly pessimistic squeezings from the season's harvest, the ripest leftover fruit gleaned after the sweetest fruit has been picked, mystical gumbos of differently stirred dimensions of experience. Several stories written by the "You" narrator, could be you, the reader, or Frode, the author. Three apocalyptic stories of how the earth could end by the distortions of ancient trees, by the accumulations of cultures, and by the aberration of algorithms. A handful of stories about an invasion of sanctified cockroaches, an uncannily skilled boy, a mystical story of ALS, a stereotypical young mass murderer, a hunchback a hermaphrodite and a mysterious Greek monastery, a walleyed degenerate and his omnivorous goats, and the transmigration of a matriarchal boar's spirit.

Charles Frode doesn't recall the moment when he first realized that words have power to injure and power to heal, but he recounted to me once the impact that that realization had and still has on him. An author from youth, Frode's poetry originates in his spiritual quest that eventually took him to a Trappist monastery where he met his Narcissus and discovered the archetype he was living out. He subsequently wrote and published his memoir, I Am Goldmund: My Spiritual Odyssey With Narcissus. He has written and published three collections of short stories, and The Garden: Perennial Reflections on Beginnings and Ends.The poems in this collection span 60 years of spiritual seeking; longing loss and love; and 40 years of teaching high school English Language Learners, creative writing students, and currently incarcerated juveniles.

Gardens and gardening are analogues and metaphors for life and death, beginnings and ends. There is a ground in which our seeds are sown. There is the daily nurturing of water, food, care, and love. There are the chronic dangers of disease, insects, disaster, disregard, and drought. There is a harvest of food and beauty. And ultimately there is the season's change, a withering and passing of all that is beautiful and good. And then, a return back to the ground from which it all arose in its time. From which we all arose in our time. What better teacher than the garden? Its seasons, its demands, its lessons, its rewards.

A weekly review of politics, literature, theology, and art.

First published in 1943, “The Sceptred Flute Songs of India” contains the complete poetical works of Indian poet and activist Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949). Naidu (1879–1949) was an Indian political activist and poet. She was a staunch proponent of women's emancipation, civil rights, and anti-imperialistic ideas, playing an important role in India's struggle for independence from colonial rule. Her work as a poet includes both children's poems and others with more mature themes including patriotism, romance, and tragedy, earning her the sobriquet “Nightingale of India”. Her most famous work is "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" (1912), which remains widely read to this day. Contents include: “The Golden Threshold”, “Folk Songs”, “Songs for Music”, “Poems”, “The Bird of Time”, “Songs of Love and Death”, “Songs of the Springtime”, “Indian Folk-songs to Indian Tunes”, “Songs of Life”, etc. A fantastic collection not to be missed by fans of Naidu's seminal work. Other notable works by this author include: “Songs of Nature” and “Muhammad Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity” (1919). This classic work is being republished now in a new edition complete with an introductory chapter from 'Studies of Contemporary Poets' by Mary C. Sturgeon.