To My Children at Christmas

In the title poem of his superb new collection, To My Children at Christmas, James Hannon writes, "I am giving you my heart," and what a gift this is! In these pages we discover the heart of a spiritual seeker, a storyteller and healer, an astute observer of human nature in all its beauty and brokenness. With lyric intensity and narrative skill, Hannon guides us through "full catastrophe living" and "terror incognita" toward a place of hard-won wisdom. Along the way he asks what it means to be human, each moment, in the face of violence and suffering - from the personal sphere to the planetary, and invites us to consider: "How will you help?"

This book shimmers with practical, playful counsel for living: "The sharks are here to stay. / We're learning to live with them." "Breathe./Breathe again./Open your hands./Laugh at yourself./Begin." "With love there is no shame or fear." As a psychotherapist who has known the shadow, and as a Quaker contemplative living into the Light, James Hannon the poet reassures his reader that "the dark will not last forever."

This hope is grounded in poetry and ancient wisdom, in love and family, and in the healing powers of the natural world: "in time our land will be restored, and I will leave to my children a garden." For the generous gift that is these poems, and his encouragement to see our world anew, I join with the poet who "asks only to live today... to sing/thank you! thank you!"

-Alexander Levering Kern Poet and founding editor, Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts (Northeastern University)

These are poems of a man questioning and questing in a complex world. Plain spoken and direct, they are also, at times, full of sudden joy and insight: "I've seen the leaves fall,/ the elm tree toppled./ I ask only to live today,/ as full of juice as your peaches,/ to shout and sing/ thank you! thank you!/ fearless and joyful."

-Nadia Colburn, author of The High Shelf