THE SOUL

About the Book

THE SOUL celebrates religion and art as noble expressions of human nature. William Brendan McPhillips views religion and art as human invention, but knows that the mystery behind invention, the impulse to invent originates beyond our knowledge.

The who, the what, the where and the when, are all within our grasp. But the why is where the poet as well as the scientist and theologian wrestles to find meaning. Between the known and the unknown, the here and the there, William Brendan McPhillips makes his way through the mist and cloud in search of truth and beauty.

Born in the Great Depression, McPhillips moved from the security of the Bronx to the edge of a cataclysm in Europe. There he came into intimate contact with the magical heritage of the past, and the mystical memories of ancient ancestors. Ways of doing, and of thinking, often set him to question the habits and the dialogues imposed on him, and truly alien to him in nature, and in inheritance. The weight of an alien religion smothered his soul, but he waited the moment of truth.

In THE SOUL, the language of the soul, the imagery, the metaphor, the rhythm and order of words and meanings, the harmonies of reason and emotion, all merge to create, to invent, beauty. Poetry rescues the soul from the abyss, from the hankering for Eden and Shangri La, the escape of solitude and the cacophonous crowd. Poetry is the language of the soul, and in THE SOUL poetry proves a good companion, the sort that can turn time to treasure.

THE SOUL is one man’s magical journey, but he never travels alone. Always there are the echoes of ancestors, the music of angels, the song of the stars, and the howl of those for whom poetry and wonder call for more. The howl is not for piety and prayer, but for the stuff of human invention, the genius of human creation. THE SOUL neither whines, nor grovels, but engages the conscience in conscious commitment to the living.

In THE SOUL poetry is not a solitary flaunt of talent and skill, but a critical communal voice conscious of the sensual pleasures of being, and delighting in the rich and complex array of human nature, of all of nature.

In THE SOUL the Earth is home, a magical and mysterious home to us all. And in THE SOUL William Brendan McPhillips calls for the binding of each and every one of us to the whole of the human family, to defend and care for us all.

In art and in religion, in his own art, and his own religion, William Brendan McPhillips finds and proves intention here and now in the soul, in time.

Religion was not always a good guide to the young poet. Indeed, as it did in the world, religion often proved a cruel and brutal abuser of the weak. And in art the doors were often closed to those not fitting the fashion of the time. But William Brendan McPhillips does indeed hear another beat, and moves at his own speed against the bullies and fashions to engage and touch the soul and the mind of others. Beneath the seriousness of purpose - No! - within the seriousness of purpose there is also, always, a love for fun. The glum and the gloom are transformed by the innate joy in the poet’s own soul.

THE SOUL demonstrates the artistry and covenance of one voice, a voice that delights in remembering the old Quaker hymn. “How can I keep from singing?”

About the Author

“..born on the edge of the New World,” grown up “ .. on the edge of the old.” William Brendan McPhillips discovered poetry “..on a ship going the wrong way in a world collapsing in war.” He was changed utterly. Born in the Bronx, April 4th, 1937, he discovered in the mystical world of his ancestors in Ballaghaderreen, and the West of Ireland, that poetry was a language to bind the two worlds together, the seen and the unseen, the known and the, maybe, remembered. His poetry is a memorial art, the language of the soul in time and place. On A Magical Journey Home continues the movement from that long ago moment on the Atlantic ocean, across continents and cultures, time and place, and always arriving back into the eternal here and now. Following a “miraculous recovery” from near death, McPhillips continues his magical journey in his unique and magical verse.