Poet's Preface
I began my poetic journey of the past fifty years toward an unknown destination. Now I know I sought to see myself differently—to heal my soul. After many years of inner explorations and poems describing them, in which the butterfly appeared more and more often, I took this ancient symbol of the soul, and applied the butterfly's four stages of transformation to the
phases of growth of my own soul, with healing results. Later I realized that being aware of these stages could heal other souls as well. I have told the story of my journey in prose, in An Invitation To Life. This new book illustrates that journey of transformation in poetry.
Butterfly’s Debut
Several costumes,
Several disguises
Are worn
By the butterfly
Before its great debut
On the stage of life,
In the theater of nature,
In the first act it appears
As an inconspicuous egg,
Then in act two returns
As a lowly caterpillar,
Then disappears off stage
And comes back invisible
Under chrysalis cover,
Finally in act four,
Late in the drama,
The butterfly suddenly
Bursts forth
And into full view
In a dazzling new costume,
Spotlighted by the sun’s rays,
Covered with a rainbow
Of spangled layers
Of colors and designs,
And takes its place center stage
In the drama of its own life,
Delivering the very performance
For which its role was created.
The Soul Survives
In an old engraving,
From seventeen seventy-five,
A Latin inscription-
“Non Tota Perit,”
(The soul does not totally perish)-
With a drawing of a caterpillar
Crawling below a butterfly,
The soul does not totally perish,
Despite every adversity,
And fashions a chrysalis
Even of a broken heart,
Or an aging body or mind,
Then manages to fly-
“Non Tota Perit,” the soul survives.