My life experience continues to be a personal healing journey of self knowledge, gained by participating in and or observing all facets of my own life story. I seek the meaning of life by giving my own life meaning. Originally a liberal arts student in the 1980's, I gravitated toward science (i.e., the genetics of small captive societies) during my years of academic study and increasingly became aware, and an advocate, of the interconnectedness of all living things.
This understanding was refined through the years with the help of a holistic medical doctor who introduced me to his world of alternative, nontraditional medicine, beginning with ortho molecular medicine and vitamin therapy, and culminating, among other things, with acupuncture, homeopathy, intuitive healing, radionics, psychic healing, shamanistic healing, herbs, essences, and Chi Gong.
Like Diogenes searching the world for an honest man, I searched traditional and nontraditional medicine for healing. My journey made me increasingly aware that all human societies, throughout the Ages, in each era or geographic location, recognize healers, regardless of the nature of the treatments offered, who communicate with life force energy, external to the individual but at the same time resident within the self.
My realization that balance between these forms of life force energies is key to well-being led me to study and gain experience in radionics, homeopathy, iridology, and meditation; as a Reiki Master Teacher, a certified Jin Shin Jyutsu® practitioner and self-help instructor, and as a student of Tibetan Yoga teacher training; and in Chi Gong, the healing properties of herbs, flower and gem essences, healing crystals and gems, and quantum healing.
After a 20 year hiatus from writing poetry, I started writing poetry again in 2001 on a trip to England and Scotland. To date, I have composed 20 volumes of spiritual or vision quest poetry. Into the Hearth-Poems Volume 14 and Of the Flame-Poems Volume 15 have been published. Abundance-Volume 16 is scheduled to be published in late Spring 2016.
Wendy E. Slater’s poetry collection, Of the Flame, is an in-depth exploration of one’s own mind and a separation of the ego and the self. Many of these poems revolve around the feeling of desire, while others leave you reeling on the edge of something that you just can’t quite put your finger on. Like Emily Dickinson, Slater’s individual poems are untitled, but numbered. Doing so allows for easy transition between poems, thus enabling readers to easily flow from one into the other.
The poems are dynamic on the page, slowly inching across lines and creating a sense of movement that is reflected within the text itself. While many of the poems are short and condensed, there are some poems that are more lengthy. Slater demonstrates an ability to successfully write both, and the combination of the two creates a strong collection. In addition, some of these poems feel timeless, as though they echo through history with thoughts and feelings that have lasted lifetimes, while others add a time stamp through the use of pop culture or historical events. One of my favorite poems is 1528, which combines references to The Last Supper with the feeling of AstroTurf, thus reminding readers that the past and present are perhaps not as far apart as we think.
As a huge fan of poetry, I enjoyed reading Of the Flame and allowing Slater to take me on a journey. Some of Slater’s works are sculpted like powerful slam poetry, made even more so when they are read aloud and delivered with an auditory punch.