Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only €10,99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH
    THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH
    THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH
    Ebook196 pages2 hours

    THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH

    By ALFRED K. LAMOTTE

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH - explores the liminal space between poetry and meditation. Many of the poems are prompts for contemplative practice, either by individuals or groups. They unite the mind with the heart, reaching even into our cell physiology to refresh the weary body with "the nectar of this breath." Without using esoteric or religious terminology, these poems probe the most subtle science of breathing, a spiritual practice handed down through wisdom traditions of both East and West. There are also longer poems, full of humor and rebellion, breaking into ecstatic incantation in the tradition of Walt Whitman and the Beats. The book gently reminds us that the same power who spins the galaxies and sings the stars comes to indwell us as our very breath, "and the dignity of this inhalation, how it softly places the spirit in each cell of your flesh, is your Lover's secret name."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSaint Julian Press, Inc.
    Release dateApr 15, 2022
    ISBN9781955194068
    THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH
    Author

    ALFRED K. LAMOTTE

    ALFRED K. LAMOTTE has authored three volumes of poetry with Saint Julian Press. He has co-authored three books of artwork and poetry with Hawaiian artist and spiritual teacher, Rashani Réa. An interfaith college chaplain, meditation teacher, and instructor in World Religions, with degrees from Yale University and Princeton Theological Seminary, he lives on the shore of the Salish Sea, near Seattle WA, with his wife Anna.Visit his Amazon author page at: amazon.com/author/alfredlamotte and meet him at his blog site, ''Uradiance": http://yourradiance.blogspot.com/

    Related to THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Joyful Wandering

      Jan 18, 2022

      Joyful Wandering
      4 min read

    • Article

      Beyond Birth and Death

      Nov 19, 2019

      Beyond Birth and Death
      7 min read

    • Article

      Think What a Poem Might Do: A Conversation with Jill Bialosky and Matthew Zapruder

      Aug 17, 2017

      What, if anything, do you think poetry can do for us in these difficult times? The post Think What a Poem Might Do: A Conversation with Jill Bialosky and Matthew Zapruder appeared first on The Millions.

      10 min read

    • Article

      Beyond The Binary

      Jul 18, 2023

      Beyond The Binary
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Saving Grace of Mary Oliver

      Jan 22, 2019

      Oliver’s queer identity and search for meaning provided the subtle underpinning for much of her work and we—in search of understanding, comfort, fortitude—often saw ourselves and our questions reflected in it. The post The Saving Grace of Mary Oliver

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Wish for Kali

      Apr 1, 2020

      A Wish for Kali
      6 min read

    • Article

      From Mess to Success

      Dec 12, 2019

      Malamud’s quote can certainly be true, especially when you see your novel coming together and feel the joy of accomplishment and creation (no matter how painful the effort). Yet revision can seem far from pleasurable when the plot remains unfocused,

      16 min read

    • Article

      50 Verses

      May 7, 2019

      The Fifty Verses, composed by Thich Nhat Hanh, draws upon key streams of Buddhist thought, from the Abhidharma to the later Mahayana teachings on the nature of consciousness. These verses, and in particular the final ten, can be understood as a kind

      1 min read

    • Article

      Every Act a Ceremony

      Feb 27, 2020

      I met a woman recently who works with a Kogi mama, or shaman, from the Sierra Nevada of Colombia. He came to California a few years ago and performed extensive ceremonies on a particular spot of land. He said, “You’d better do a ceremony here regular

      7 min read

    • Article

      Wardruna

      Dec 31, 2020

      Spirit-walking and deep mythology with Norwegian animists. At first glance, you’d be mistaken for thinking that Norway only represented black metal, burning churches, restaurant prices that will make you drop your dessert spoon, and, naturally, Vikin

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Beauty Of Magnetism

      Sep 17, 2020

      The Beauty Of Magnetism
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Natural World Is a Powerful Teacher

      Feb 5, 2019

      The Natural World Is a Powerful Teacher
      4 min read

    • Article

      Words & Beyond Words

      May 21, 2019

      THERE ARE MANY WAYS to engage with Buddhist teachings. You can read books on the dharma and take classes in person or online. You can meditate on your own or attend retreats. You can engage with Buddhism as an academic or translator, or relate to it

      5 min read

    • Article

      Drums, Lies, and Audiotape

      May 31, 2018

      My wife Ingrid and I had been in Aburi, Ghana for just over a week when our host, Kwame Obeng, informed me that I’d be joining the royal drummers for a performance at the chief’s palace the following afternoon, in celebration of an important holy day

      15 min read

    • Article

      The Bodhisattva Attitude

      Mar 19, 2019

      The Bodhisattva Attitude
      5 min read

    • Article

      Presence

      Jun 24, 2020

      Presence
      1 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      May 1, 2023

      Great One, Maker, Weaver of Things, I want to undress the tree to find you hidden there in the layers of sapwood, as you were hidden in a mango I ate today, its sweet and buttery flesh. A fly entered the house through the front door. Was that you? At

      3 min read

    • Article

      Lean In To Love

      Dec 28, 2021

      Lean In To Love
      13 min read

    • Article

      Invoking Bodhicitta

      Mar 8, 2022

      Invoking Bodhicitta
      2 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Mar 4, 2019

      An April Sunday brings the snow Making the blossom on the plum trees green, Not white. An hour or two, and it will go. —Philip Larkin, “An April Sunday brings the snow,” 1948 Do nothing, only keep agitating, debating; and things will destroy themse

      4 min read

    • Article

      On Certainty and On Doubt

      Sep 1, 2020

      On Certainty and On Doubt
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH - ALFRED K. LAMOTTE

      COVER

      THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH

      ALSO BY ALFRED K. LAMOTTE

      Wounded Bud: Poems for Meditation

      (2013, Saint Julian Press)

      Savor Eternity One Moment at a Time

      (2015, Saint Julian Press)

      Shimmering Birthless, A Confluence of Verse and Image

      (2015, co-author with artist/publisher Rashani Réa)

      Fire of Darkness: What Burned Me Away Completely, I Became

      (2019, co-author with artist/publisher Rashani Réa)

      Nameless: Rashani Réa and Six Contemporary Poets

      (2021, co-author with artist/publisher Rashani Réa)

      SAINT JULIAN PRESS

      POETRY

      Praise for the Nectar of this Breath

      "This is the work of a careful master and its breath will transform your life. As the author says, we are here to die of love, and it is this which holds us. The profoundly measured diction of these words is both weightless and transparent. LaMotte has achieved the work of a life-time in this book, and the precision of emotion and human intimacy is delivered with terrific sonority,  poetic radiance, and integrity."

      ——Kevin McGrath, Harvard University

      Stri: Women In Epic Mahabharata,

      Eros, Song of the Republic,

      and Windward.

      This poetry is some of the finest, an invitation to the alchemical process of unveiling the gold you always were. With mastery and grace, LaMotte's verse activates an awakening process. His poems are passwords opening the heart, taking you to a wellspring of Divine essence that leaps from your own chest. You will not come out of Fred's book the same person.

      ——Chelan Harkin, Susceptible to Light and

      Let Us Dance! The Stumble and Whirl with The Beloved

      Images flow forth from him like mountain streams from the high peaks in Spring.  He is the artist we love and long for, who reminds us that art itself proceeds from a divine source.

      ——Dorothy Walters PhD, poet, mystic, author

      The Goddess Speaks, The Kundalini Poems, and Marrow of Flame.

      Alfred LaMotte's poetry is touching, beautiful, outrageously funny, utterly sublime. As Rumi and Hafez before him, he seems effortlessly to scoop Sacred Letters from his heart, and string them into beautiful Word Garlands for friends and beloveds. Through these poems we dive into the Bridal Chamber of the spiritual heart. Soaked in love and spontaneity, these magical spells are so powerful, even the dead will come alive and burst into tears, laughter, and ecstatic dance!

      ——Shiva Somadev

      Journey into the Heart of Reality

      founder of Kumbhaka Prana Yoga.

      Opening this book is like opening the door of a temple, to imbibe holy sacraments and anoint oneself with the miraculous. These words break open the mundane shell of our existence, revealing the immaculate spirit within. Nothing escapes these portals of revelation. Every wound becomes a doorway into vibrant truth, every shadow a gateway into the light. With words that drip with endless joy and devotion, he peels back the veil of the ordinary, revealing the sacred Heart at the center of existence. These poems not only enchant and illuminate, they also teach the reader how to see.

      ——Maya Luna

      Omega: Feral Secrets of the Deep Feminine and

      creator of The Deep Feminine Mystery School

      Here are poems with lines I whisper every night into the ears of my 4 and 7-year-old sons, to endow their psyches with wild truth and magic. Here are poems I text to ten friends at once, moved by an uncontrollable inspiration, only to receive back waves of awe and thanks for the blessing of Fred's spells. And here are poems who are living companions, made of such rascally, heartbreaking love I’m called again and again to climb out of my old skin, and in that glistening sensitivity, to shine.

      ——Brooke McNamara

      Zen Dharma Holder, Feed Your Vow

      and Bury The Seed

      Alfred LaMotte’s poems are beautiful inviting bridges to contemplative silence and meditation. Paradoxically, they wake us up and comfort us at the same time. As the pandemic unfolded, Fred’s poems helped our Heart Centered Meditation group calm anxiety and strengthen connection to one another, inspiring our reverence for life. They offer a felt experience of the world we want to co-create, grounded in awe of the sacred.

      ——Elizabeth A. Walz, Executive Director

      Genesis Spiritual Life and Conference Center

      THE NECTAR OF

      THIS BREATH

      Poems

      by

      Alfred K. LaMotte

      Saint Julian Press

      Houston

      Published by

      SAINT JULIAN PRESS, Inc.

      2053 Cortlandt, Suite 200

      Houston, Texas 77008

      www.saintjulianpress.com

      Copyright © 2022

      Two Thousand and Twenty-Two

      ©Alfred K. LaMotte

      ISBN:  978-1-955194-06-8

      Library of Congress Control Number:  2021949958

      Cover Art Credit: Marney Ward

      www.marneyward.com

      INTRODUCTION: A BREATH BOOK

      Sweep up the dust of a thousand ruined civilizations in this breath. Gather the ashes of your ancestors in this breath. Whisk the DNA from all the microbes that ever swarmed the gut or swam the blood of rodent, honeybee, or leprous medieval peasant in this breath. Reap the protein from each virus, harvest molecules of leopard scat and wolverine, the very color code of parrots in this breath. Garner the rune of an alien chromosome, fossilized in meteorite, or learn the secret gene-Om of a black hole humming at the core of a distant sun, from this breath. Distill the tears of your enemies, the wild scent of your first love from this breath, the healing elixir in rain-forest herbs, dew from the eyes of your unborn children, the bittersweet atoms that Jesus breathed. Now hold and cherish this breath, sweeping up the stories, the grievances, the blame and forgiveness. Transmute it all into sparkling awareness.

      This is a breath book. Let it lie by your bed or meditation seat, poems that explore the liminal space between verse and guided meditation. A poem should be a useful tool, like a hoe. The handle need not be fancy, but well-worn, easy to grasp. Use these poems to awaken the angel in each inhalation, and remember that we all share one divine breath, who dances through billions of bodies. Savor one poem at a sitting. Let it lead you to the So'ham meditation taught by ancient yogis: breathing in So, the Divine, breathing out Aham, I am. Dip into the well of this moment and draw up the gift of silence, the gift of tears, the gift of laughter.

      Laughter? Yes, spirituality is a debate between reverence and irreverence, to quote one poem. Hearty irreverence liberates the Spirit. Along with contemplative poems here are robust incantations to be shouted or chanted aloud, my homage to Whitman and the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1