Erotic, heart-wrenching, vivacious and wildly gushing images like the fountain of youth, this book of love poems is not for the faint-of-heart. These original poems by depth psychologist and soul guide Amy Beth Katz are seeped in the motif of Persephone and Hades. According to Greek Mythology, the young and beautiful Persephone is abducted by the King of the Underworld, and dragged down to his shadowy lair, where the horror and loneliness of death awaits, but so do the carnal, carnival delights that Hades has in store for his vulnerable bride. Meanwhile, her Mother Demeter’s grief is so overwhelming, the plants of the earth stop growing. Zeus, recognizing the fate of the world is at stake, ends Hermes the Messenger to negotiate with Hades, in the hope of retrieving the innocent from the Underworld. The archetypal patterns of this myth, which all lovers can relate to, is woven into each poem. The book as a whole is a coming of age story. Each poem touches deeply into the theme of the power of the pursuit of passion, and its many pitfalls, since people can be as cruel in their full humanity, even as they are compassionate in their Godliness. Alas, over time, Persephone accepts her fate, even as she goes kicking and screaming along the way, as all those who are true to their own hearts must do. This is essentially a book of Alchemy. Eventually, she claims her rightful position as Queen of the Underworld, spending half the year down below with her lord and husband, and the other half above as an Earth Goddess, tending to the gardens and planting seeds: metaphors, all, for the author’s own journey through the darkest recesses through the heart of the Underworld, and the greatest heights of joyful abandonment in the sunlight of erotic love. The Alchemical Marriage is achieved. This is a gift to anyone who has ever lost, and found a deeper version of themselves, in the throes of longing for a passionate union with a mythical soulmate, who may or may not exist mostly in the oceanic imagination.
