Adrift in the Holy

by Lou Davies-James

Reviewed by Janet K. Brennan

What is Love? Even if you thought that you knew the answer to this question, in Lou Davies-James exquisite book, "Adrift In The Holy, a Journey Through The Heart," you may come upon some surprises as well as brilliant insight to just what the answer to that question truly is.

"It's knowing that forever you will remain
A part of me, through this life and after death.
You are my own and only true love,
The other half of my lost heart.
Apart we are so much less than ourselves.
Together we are one."

To say that Lou Davies-James believes that love conquers all would be an understatement of everything that this sensitive and poignant poet believes to be true. After reading this exquisite and perfectly orchestrated book, one is moved to realize that not only is love the catalyst of all human emotions but also the ultimate healing salve for the body and the soul

In her poem "Renascence," one can not help but notice the spirituality and incarnate belief that love comes into our lives many times in the form of the One who has always been there.

Davies-James writes:

"Your seal pressed
upon my heart,
flesh and breath,
incidental both
to spirit cast on universal wings,
then taken home"

This book is not only a journey through the heart; it is an in-depth sojourn into all of our emotional crevices. It, indeed, causes us to question many of our own beliefs. This is aptly investigated in her book's name-sake, "Adrift in The Holy," when she questions many of the contradictions of love

"Funny how the light repels, how darkness soothes.
I contemplate the constancies, the vagaries of the heart
and the nature of love."

She then goes on to hypothesize that:

To love, to really love, is a closer walk with
the divine than merely mortal need for connection,
completion.
Believe"

As Ms Davies-James invites us through "Passion," in her metaphoric, " A Storm Rages," the reader is spent in the final stanza, only to move on to "Naranja," where we are seduced into a state of sublime desire.

"Sip the sweet
Juice of Life,
Of love"

And without love, there can not be "Loss and Longing, Sorrow and Despair." Ms Davies-James postulates that to love is to feel, and that can often bring suffering, from which we also learn.

In "Amaranthine's Promise," we read of lost love gone to war and a lover who waits for his return, even unto death and beyond.

"Across the moors she watches,
among the ruins alone,
keeping vigil of her soul
till he finds his way back home"

And in the sorrowful, "My Eidolon," we cry with this poet when she proclaims

"When I in solitary hours
See my sudden shadow
Dart across the recesses
Of a stricken heart.
The recognition shocks me."

The power and absolute sadness can be felt to the core of one's soul. For who has not experienced this dire agony of lost love.

This book flows with rhythm and cadence. It slipped into my heart and I found myself going back again and again to explore the meaning and complicated subject of just what it means to love

Lou Davies-James has written a masterpiece. Her in-depth and competent exploration of the world of love leaves very little in the questioning of that most wonderful statement " And the Greatest of these is ..."

Recommended reading for all ages.

"Adrift In The Holy, a Journey Through The Heart"
Publisher: Under the Arbour Press
http://www.thearbour.com
Florida

For more information on this book or where to buy it, go to Adrift In the Holy at Amazon.com