The Half-Life of Angels: Three Books of Poems

This collection contains three books of poems written by Mark Nepo in his fifties and sixties. The first book, A Thousand Dawns, explores the difference between hardening, which will help us get through life, and softening, which will let us experience life. The second book, The Gods Visit, explores one of the anchoring purposes of poetry, which is to help us settle more deeply into what is. This anchoring into the life of being gives us the strength to go on. And the third book, The Tone in the Center of the Bell, explores how we are shaped by the Oneness of Life. For once we open our heart, the thousand feelings come at us non-stop, the endless waves of a Mysterious Unity. How they wash over us and through us transforms us as we are worn into exquisite shapes by the friction of the world, grounded by our suffering and lifted by love and wonder. Let these poems be companions on your path to know yourself and the inner and outer nature of life more intimately.\nAfter fifty years of exploring, retrieving, and writing, poet and philosopher Mark Nepo is arranging his life’s poetry, more than 1400 poems, into several volumes to be published in limited editions. The Half-Life of Angels is the first volume in this series, containing three books of poems, written in his fifties and sixties.\n“What a beautiful journey this book is. I was moved in some places beyond what I can adequately convey. Mark’s capacity to speak such universal truths through poetry is stunning. He is a master.”
—Brooke Warner, author, editor, and publisher of She Writes Press\nThe Great Waters
In the beginning, I thought I was
going somewhere. I thought we all
were. But falling in while trying to cross,
I finally understood, the journey is to follow
the river. All the rivers, especially the ones
no one can see. The soul is a fish whose
home is in those rivers. So I can take you
across, if you want. But the secret is to go
everywhere by going nowhere. And I will
be here when you fall in. Which is not
a failure but an awakening.