Mylo Schaaf - Blown Into Now – Poems For A Journey

Book: Blown Into Now – Poems for a Journey Website(s): www.Myloschaaf.com Welcome travelers, lovers, you who have lost, you who need wilderness or find passion in words. Some of my poems and writings are journeys, and others are moments that leap from memory into meaning. Wonder, loss, and truth are the forces that arrest my attention and compel me to write. Like you, I live with many lenses: mountain climber, doctor, child, wayfarer, mother, writer, weed-puller, teacher, wife. Like you, I have had many losses as well as days of pinch-arm marvel. I trained as a journalist and editor, and then as a physician, before taking a left turn into poetry. Before everything changed, I was a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco, teaching and mentoring students in international, low-resource settings. My belief in global health grew out of my work and connections with India, the Americas, Liberia, Haiti, and China. Then one day, a shocking phone call collapsed any pursuit of health engagement or action. My 24-year-old son, a mountaineer/peace-and-conflict scholar/veteran, had passed away. Poems demanded to be written. They brought relief and healing, as did hills warm with grass, tree spirits, and arms of sky. Years have wandered past. Poems continue to emerge, as the tangles of day slip into light. I hope my writing will kindle your spirit and reaffirm that we are not alone.