Fireflies at dawn . . . Winged essences, charred bodies still on fire. This evocative poetry-essay collection issues a call for a renewed embracement of the reader's own expressive self. We've each a persona to hear - a voice to resonate through silences of night and the noises of everyday. Life is a mystery hard to crack. We bang it like a door and strum it like a lyre until it opens some new "portal" through which the voice can authentically sound-out the "truths" of being human. That's the happening of this book. - Altarpieces have always been artistic creations to conceive life's "sacred" space. This book follows that tradition, if rather untraditionally. These pieces speak to "hear" life on one's own terms; from one's own altar and cathedral. This "gathering" created a poet-self identity - called 'Apo'kstrophes' The essays join with the poems to conceive poetry and the spiritual quest with a renewed existential-eco-romantic perspective; sounding that quest with both feet grounded on "worldly other" Planet Earth. The challenge to grasp life at the core is a wrenching-wrestling match with the Other, that ever-present dimension of "poetry" on life's path. - Joining philosophical play with the authenticity of word-pieces as true orients, O'Kelly's book, with many poets helping along the way, has taken up that challenge with unflinching creativity. Want a spiritual adventure? Fly! Take the ride! Oh, the ride! Fins spurred in shivers of hide. Life's dearness reined in the roll of the tide.

ALTARPIECES

Embracements and Exaltations from the Scriptorium of 'Apo'kstrophes'By MICHAEL D. O'KELLY

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Michael D. O'Kelly
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-1340-1

Contents

PRELUDE.........................................................................xiiiThe Project (An Existentially Authentic Intention)..............................xiiiFireflies At Dawn...............................................................xviiDeliverance.....................................................................xviiiCome My Children................................................................2About the Organization of These Pieces..........................................3Mother Lines....................................................................9Primary Lesson..................................................................9Timing..........................................................................10Elementary, My Dear.............................................................11Ginger..........................................................................12Thoughts At Fourteen In The Grocery Aisle.......................................13Because of Mary Jo..............................................................14Survivor........................................................................15Our Wakefast....................................................................16Philosophy 101..................................................................17o little flower.................................................................19Daily Grammar...................................................................20Editing Room....................................................................21Break Ground....................................................................22Rake And Rumpus.................................................................23The Common Cold.................................................................24Sometimes We Think..............................................................25Somewhere In Indiana............................................................26Soothing Agony..................................................................27Hindsight.......................................................................28Some Break......................................................................29Jawbreakers.....................................................................30Communion Service...............................................................31To Tell Of Prodigy In 1957......................................................32That War That Peace............................................................34Sometimes To Rhyme..............................................................35Peepers.........................................................................36Buddies.........................................................................36About this Book.................................................................39Friends.........................................................................47This Lottery....................................................................47Epiphany........................................................................48It Happened (Around 1964).......................................................50The Way Home....................................................................51We Must Ever Cry................................................................52Windblown.......................................................................53The Vow Sounds..................................................................54The Penguin Passes By...........................................................55The Sermon on the Can Full of Could.............................................56Dads Are Not Perfect, But.......................................................58Surgeons........................................................................60Nothing Fancy...................................................................61Proclamation....................................................................63Questern's Miracle..............................................................64Striptease......................................................................65Sleuther........................................................................66Of Tweetie, A Parakeet..........................................................67Garage Sale Counsel.............................................................69Oh, My Son......................................................................70Daughter Talk...................................................................72Aliens..........................................................................73Critics.........................................................................75Something About the "Go" in Chicago.............................................78Breaking Away...................................................................80Primitive Ritual................................................................81Return of the Mountaineer.......................................................84Our Song........................................................................86Natural Remedy..................................................................86About the Author................................................................89Players.........................................................................101Fishing Deep....................................................................101An After Eden...................................................................102The Fisherman...................................................................103Thunderdew......................................................................104Of Wandlessness.................................................................105Whatever It Is..................................................................106The Feeding.....................................................................110Bottomline: The Art of Having a Period..........................................112Childrunning (Karen's Song).....................................................113Speaking for One Who Could Not..................................................114Query...........................................................................115A Sentence......................................................................116Sleep...........................................................................117Of That Something There Is That Moves The World.................................118Muck............................................................................119Extreme Roulette................................................................121Fledgling.......................................................................122A Parents Candlelighting Memorial...............................................123Agonistes.......................................................................124Harmonics.......................................................................125That Glory As Yet Unsung........................................................126Donor Secret....................................................................127About The Abouts................................................................131Venture Capital.................................................................137Rolling Over....................................................................137What...