Glimpsing Benevolence
Poems that Reverence the Ordinary
by Gloria Jean Viglione
Cover Image and Interior Images
by Jennifer Thompson
40 Poems ~ 82 pages
Price: $17.00
Publisher: The Instruments of Peace Press
ISBN #: 979-8-245-445243
To Order: Amazon.com
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Gloria Jean Viglione’s debut collection guides readers on a rich journey–where ordinary moments become doorways, and goodness is revealed if you wait for it. The collection includes original artwork by artist Jennifer Thomson.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
“As I read the poems of Gloria Viglione, a moment comes, and a spirit-being inwardly speaks: ‘That is all for now. Your heart is filled with the sacred love these words speak, and you must wait for your filled heart to release the love into the world.’ I wait and feel love spreading into the world, then go back and read more … and more. These poems are a rare feast of love!”
–Robert Sardello, Dir. of The School of Spiritual Psychology; author of Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness and Love and the Soul
“Viglione writes with astonishing clarity of love and the natural world; of the beauty of aging; of dying with grace; and of the spiritual refinement of grieving. This will be a collection of poems to read aloud and to savor.”
–Cheryl Miller, author of The Spirit of Trees”
“Ms. Viglione’s debut book is indeed poetry for our time. The language, the imagery, and the tender piercing tone of her mystic’s voice reveals a spirit akin to that of Jane Kenyon, Mary Oliver, Louise Gluck, and so many other sister poets.”
–Marcel Aimé Duclos, Author of The Wind Knows
“This poetry collection is about mortality. Gloria Viglione’s style is one of deft lyricism with a cadence that strikes me like the slow light of October, how it envelops us in its darkened light.”
–Kika Dorsey, author of Good Ash
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Gloria Jean Viglione grew up with three sisters in the heart of Denver in a fist-generation Italian/German household. She graduated from CSU with a BS in Occupational Therapy, and in 1994 as a Certified Music-Thanatologist through the Chalice of Repose Project in Missoula, as one of the early pioneers in that field. For decades, Gloria’s professional work has been in intimate patient care, primarily in neurologic rehab settings and on hospice teams attending the dying with prescriptive music vigils using harp and voice to support existential pain and ease of transition. Ms. Viglione’s debute collection, Glimpsing Benevolence, has been distilling and refining over the past twenty years.
Contact: theinstrumentsofpeace@gmail.com
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Jennifer Thompson studied in traditional art schools and colleges in the USA and Switzerland with master artist, Beppe Assenza. In the mid 80’s she directed a painting school in New York. For many years I have taught painting in workshops, conferences and college programs in America, in England and Switzerland. In 1997, she moved to Denver and taught art to a variety of people: homeless, emotionally handicapped, seniors, artists, teachers, and searchers. She has published a booklet for artists, An Artist’s Workbook. Her work is in private collections in the USA, Europe, Mexico and Canada. Presently, each August, she gives a give day Art Retreat in Crestone, Colorado.
Contact: CrestoneArtists.com
FROM THE BOOK:
At the Plum Tree
by Gloria Jean Viglione
how shy the mourning dove!
hidden amongst purpled leaves
wings enfolded
how she, ever so gently
pierces the soul
like yesterday
while perched in shadow
she toned the unnamed losses
of the widow sweeping her porch
the skinny boy on his skateboard
a UPS driver idling at 5th and Pearl
if only we could
empty ourselves like the dove
pour out our grief as beauty
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