The Latch

Around 1000 BCE, when literature made the transition from the spoken word of the bards to the written word of the scribes, the earliest texts were created in a style called ring composition. After about 500BCE the linear textual tradition was born and soon came to be the dominate style, so much so that it wasn’t until the last hundred years that scholars and philologist were able to recognize ring composition as a genre with distinctive stylistic features all its own.

The Latch iswritten in the ancient style of ring compositions. The eight chapters of verse relate across the circle to one another, the first and last chapters are thematically related and the same holds true for the rest of the chapters. The second relates to the seventh, the third to the sixth and the fourth to the fifth. The mid-point of the text marks the turning point where each chapter that follows relates to its counterpart in the first half. The final chapter of the book latches the ending of the text back to the beginning, closing the circle.

The Latch …………………. The Introduction

Chap. 8 ……………………………………………………….. Chap. 1

Chap. 7……………………………………………………………………………………….. Chap.2

Chap. 6 ………………………………………………………………………………………. Chap.3

Chap. 5 ………………………………………………………. Chap. 4

Chiasmus

The first four chapters trace the evolution of consciousness from its earliest manifestations, outlining the great discoveries that transformed humanity; the taming of fire, the birth of art, of agriculture, of cities, of writing, of commerce and currency. This ends with the development of western industrial capitalism and the ecological disaster that has followed in its wake. The last four chapters illustrate a possible evolution, a counter current, that develops awareness in a new direction. The Latch is an all-out assault on the greed and possessiveness that has brought the earth to the brink of mass extinctions. It calls for a renewal that seeks to reestablish a connection to basic human nature in an approach that is outside of politics or religion.

THE LATCH is a cycle of poetry that traces the evolution and history of consciousness. It harkens back to a synoptic textual tradition that remembers when the great archetype of humanity was the circle. THE LATCH connects us back to where we began, with a rebirth of an aesthetic vision in an attempt to transform society with revelation rather than revolution.

THE LATCH is a cycle of poetry that traces the evolution and history of consciousness.  Within these poems, language and form are reconnected to the synoptic textual tradition, when the great archetype of humanity was the circle.  THE LATCH joins us to our beginnings by exploring an aesthetic vision in which society is transformed through revelation rather than revolution.

Portions of this book have appeared in Parabola, Janus Head, Shaman’s Drum, Sacred Fire, The Fifth Estate, The Mirror, DuVersity Newletter and Beatlick News.