The Highwayman and the Plainswoman--The Collected Verses of Kevin Lettieri and Susan Lynn Gould
by
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Noise of a river, poise of a lake.
Both have lulled me to sleep as I make
A bed for the night-inviting, appealing,
'Neath the open sky-a Starlit Ceiling.
Nighttime in the city pardons my presence.
The daylight brings a different sentence.
The crowded streets, unwanting, unyielding,
As the dawn disrupts the Starlit Ceiling.
Atop tranquil summits, near saintly abodes,
Stars rise, then plummet. The dreams that they goad.
What's right becomes clearer, like prayer without kneeling.
This, the closest I've been to the Starlit Ceiling.
Since time everlasting, I've not been the only
One who's been cast, and cast out here lonely,
To rent this space from the past and see what it's revealing
To this present-day tenant of the Starlit Ceiling.
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About the Book
Under the gritty, volcanic surface of everyday life surge molten rivers of fiery questions whose answers lie somewhere between the infinity of the heavens and the most secret corners of the heart.
These answers may come alive through brushstrokes on a canvas, as a symphony of sound, or as strands of words woven together like a spoken tapestry.
The Collected Verses of Kevin Lettieri and Susan Lynn Gould can erupt with the force of a volcano, steal over you as gently as a shadow, and return to your lips as softly as a prayer, as they confront the ageless questions that stir in us all.
About the Author
On the surface, Kevin Lettieri was an ordinary man. He was born on New York City's Staten Island in 1953. He attended New Dorp High School and later Staten Island Community College. Although he managed the family-owned moving business when his father fell ill, he spent most of his working life behind the wheel of a truck. But his other, inner life was far more complex and enigmatic. After his sudden death in 1999, it was discovered that he had left behind a treasury of compelling verses that will linger for years in the hearts and on the lips of those who read them.
Kevin's grandmother, Susan Lynn Gould, was a daughter of the frontier. Born on the scalding plains of Texas in 1898, she struggled to raise a family through the desolation of the depression and the dreadful upheaval of two world wars. But neither poverty nor violence could dim her inner light. Her simple verses about nature, family, and faith renew our own appreciation of life's most basic treasures.