Author and poet Barbara Schmitz offers a heartful, funny, and deeply moving "spiritual autobiography" that brings the reader along on each stage of her fervent inner quest for mystical experience. Beginning with a Catholic girlhood in Nebraska, she graduates to an unlikely apprenticeship with Allen Ginsberg at the Naropa Institute; a dedicated transcendental meditation practice; and finally to thirty years of joys and struggles with a Sufi teacher (Shahabuddin Less) with whom she travels to Bali, Turkey, India, Kashmir, and the Holy Land. Incisive as lightning-the meaning of her Sufi name,...

Always the Detail represents the nuances of relationships. Barbara Schmitz writes about daily life, bringing to life such intricate encounters as animals and plants, mineral and liquids. Schmitz leaves no stone unturned. With beautiful imagery and astounding cadences, Schmitz comes to life in her poetry.
AFTER MY GRANDMOTHER S FUNERAL
All the other mourners are off
to the funeral lunch of ham,
scalloped potatoes and church-lady cake.
Only me and my husband with my brother
in the still bare spring cemetery
sharing a joint in his white Corvette.
Out of...

These original essays focus on fundamental issues and practical implications of the relationship between disability and the good human life.

Fluid brush strokes and colorful SUMIE art work hightlight this book of original poetry by author and award winning artist Barbara Schmitz. Purchase this book for a gift for poerty and art loving friends or for yourself. An inspiration.