Poetry is our basic connection between our sense of self and the cosmos. Poetry can save us just before we breathe our scared, efficient, reasonable last. The following is part of an introductory speech by the author to an adult-education writing course based upon her book Children of the Gods. I can tell by the questions that people ask that what they really want to know first about this book is the nitty-gritty of how, exactly, it is doing. I can understand that.
Reputation is often our first introduction to a book.
Actually it was Crown books that loved the book the most, and ordered more than anybody else. And I was very excited when Children of the Gods won a San Diego Book Award. We were all wondering why the sales in Hawaii were so high and found out quite by accident that there was a wisdom course on Maui that used the book as a text and as a result of that, many people who took the course bought it to give to friends. There have also been continuing orders from psychologists and psychiatrists who give copies to their patients. This was extremely gratifying to hear, as you may imagine.