Review by Linda Sussman, PhD
This is a rare book that remains utterly faithful to the author’s lived experience while, at the
same time, demonstrating the extra step David Bryen made in artistically re-imagining his
experience. The book thus bestows two gifts. On the one hand, the writing bears the indelible
authority and impact of actual experience. The reader is reassured that this initiation in the
divine feminine (as Bryen terms it) is not a flight of fancy; it is a real possibility for human beings.
Secondly, the book as a whole shows how to so transform life experience—through art—that it
becomes not just information but inspiration for readers seeking to do likewise.
Both the poetry and prose pieces are authentic and nakedly honest, but never crudely so.
The tandem precision and delicacy of the writing lends a transparency to the feelings and ideas
expressed, thereby revealing several different levels of meaning simultaneously. This could be
said of all fine poetry. What is so unusual in the s book, however, is that, despite the depth of
the initiatory experience itself as well as Bryen’s skill with language, the overall mood—or
tone—that pervades the book is humility.
Bryen is not using this experience to inflate his self-importance. Instead, his writing exudes
a calm, grateful witnessing which invites the reader to join him. Such writing creates a
corresponding response in the readers, which is the intent of all true witnessing. The book
rouses the reader from mere passive appreciating to activity imagining his/her own experience.
The effect on this reader was a strong impulse to write an “echo”. What images and words
would express what a woman loves that the man serves through HIS body?
The book itself is an elegant “wine,” kindred to that in its title. It is beautiful to look at and to
touch as well as to read. Great care and attention have been given even the smallest details,
so that it is a pleasure just to pick it up and look through it before actually imbibing the poetic
content. No gulping, only a slow savoring can do it justice, and then one
definitely feels lifted, renewed, by its spirit.
Linda Sussman, Ph. D. Author The Speech of the Grail
|
