Breaking the Silence: Poems of Spiritual Luminescence

Steven J. Gold (Editor/Contributor) Steve is the founder/director of Torah-Veda (formerly the Yoga and Judaism Center) based in cyberspace. He is an initiate and practitioner in the Tradition of the Himalayan Masters, as propagated in the West by the late Sri Swami Rama of the Himalayas, and a graduate of the Karin Kabalah Center course on Kabalah: A Process of Awakening. He is the author of several books on spirituality, with a focus on the nondual mystical traditions of Kabalah and Vedanta. Justine Mara Andersen Justine was born a fundamentalist Christian in a small town just south of Mediocrity Ohio. She explored Zen and Taoism as well as Celtic Shamanism at home and overseas. She Realized her dreams, which included working in the comics industry as well as illustrating for Dungeons & Dragons and Lucasfilm. She eventually realized none of that was it... but for or all her seeking and achieving she was left with an uncomfortable agnosticism, which was victoriously destroyed by Lord Shiva. Justine lives in a cottage-like room in the swamps and teaches art for the Sequential Artists Workshop. Phil Foster Phil’s parents read to him as a child. At 10, he first encountered poetry. So far, he has traveled Life as a psychotherapist, protestant clergyperson, drummer, storyteller, retreat leader, lover, father, husband, student of indigenous spirituality, life-professed lay Cistercian of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, recluse, and fool. Poetry episodically takes him into Its confidence, insisting that he jot down a few words. Rita Bhandarkar Mathew Rita was born and raised in the Goud Saraswat community of India, has spent time in London, Iowa City, before settling in Athens, Georgia with her husband and children, where she has lived for several years. She is a CPA by vocation, and a singer of devotional Hindustani Classical Music by avocation. Her contributions to this volume are her first foray into poetry. Ryan NeuCollins Ryan is a community Interfaith minister whose spiritual practice is rooted in devotional meditation. She is a published author, and has won city and national poetry competitions. Her current and probably very long-term project is the creation of an encyclopedic website on the world’s religions and spiritualities called Inside the Cosmic Egg. Laura Sorrells Laura teaches middle school Language Arts in a small town in north Georgia. She is an ecumenical Lay Associate of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery in Conyers, Georgia.