title: Letters From Home: Message to a Heartbroken World (Volume 1)
author: Sandy LeonVest
description: As Leonard Cohen wrote, "There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Sandy Leon Vest's work has a way of "letting in the light" with a poetic force that captures the mood of the 21st century, while simultaneously channeling her rich (mostly Irish) ancestral heritage. All of it delivered in a voice that constantly surprises and delights, and with a passion for the world of the human heart that spills onto the page in a richly graphic tapestry -- one that is both dreamlike and prophetic. At times carried in an undercurrent of dark humor, the poems of Sandy LeonVest encompass a stylistic range that crosses cultural boundaries and spans generations, lending her work a peerless quality. Yet, her powerful voice is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood, Laurence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bukowski and even the mystical musings of Rumi. Sandy Leon Vest's first poetry volume is preceded by her decades as a political journalist --radio and print -- beginning in the late 1980s at Radio Pacifica (KPFA) in Berkeley. She and her late husband, James Vest, worked for years as a songwriter-musician team in the San Francisco Bay Area under the name LeonVest. The two were recording their second album (Alive By Request) at the time of his sudden death. Sandy also spent seven years as editor/publisher of the groundbreaking energy publication SolarTimes. Today Sandy, a fifth generation native Californian, lives in Fairfax, California, where she continues to be a prolific poet and songwriter.
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  [![image](../images/9780063028593_Cover.jpg)](9780063028593_Contents.xhtml#rcover)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [![image](../images/Titlepage.jpg)](9780063028593_Contents.xhtml#title)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## [Dedication](9780063028593_Contents.xhtml#ded)
  
  
  _For_
  
  
  ELLEN _and_ JULIA
  
  
  _who live always in my heart_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ARNOLD RAMPERSAD
  
  
  WROTE THE NOTES FOR THIS VOLUME
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Contents
  
  
  [_Cover_](9780063028593_Cover.xhtml#cover)
  
  
  [_Title Page_](9780063028593_Titlepage.xhtml#rtitle)
  
  
  [_Dedication_](9780063028593_Dedication.xhtml#rded)
  
  
  [_Foreword by John Edgar Wideman_](9780063028593_Foreword.xhtml#for)
  
  
  [Part One: Southern Night](9780063028593_Part01.xhtml#rpt1)
  
  
  [Chapter 1](9780063028593_Chapter01.xhtml#rch1)
  
  
  [Chapter 2](9780063028593_Chapter02.xhtml#rch2)
  
  
  [Chapter 3](9780063028593_Chapter03.xhtml#rch3)
  
  
  [Chapter 4](9780063028593_Chapter04.xhtml#rch4)
  
  
  [Chapter 5](9780063028593_Chapter05.xhtml#rch5)
  
  
  [Chapter 6](9780063028593_Chapter06.xhtml#rch6)
  
  
  [Chapter 7](978006302859