Between the Thinning Differences of Changing Light
"As a river knows 'the joy / of carrying a swimmer's body, ' this poet knows the joy-and the power-of carrying a prayer, in each moment, in his mouth."
-Francesca Bell, author of What Small Sound
At once contemplative and accessible, Between the Thinning Differences of Changing Light offers readers fresh insight, creative invitation, and genuine delight. It is a book for those drawn to poetry that honors mystery without obscurity, spirituality without dogma, and language that opens rather than explains. This collection celebrates life's teachings as they are discovered through patience, intimacy, and the subtle illumination of changing light.
Moving fluidly through themes of nature, memory, love, and the sacred, Richard Flout's poems invite readers into what poet and reviewer Kim Stafford calls, "a landscape of secrets revealed, connections cherished, moments made sacred by close attention, and little spells of intuitive knowing." These are poems "spoken soul to soul," rooted in meditative observation and a deep trust in what emerges when we slow down and listen.
Spanning fifty years of the poet's journey from the present day to the beginning, this collection reveals the poet's deepest truths laid bare in humble and striking simplicity. The struggle to find one's own deepest light and stay true to it, evident in early poems ("Who knows how to breathe with the birds, / pray like the squirrels, / die like the worms?") finds poignant contrast to the quiet surrender of later poems, ("I bathe my body with silence...") offering a lyrical vision of what it means to be free and alive.
"Poetry that works casts a magic spell upon the writer and the reader. Don't kid yourself; these poems when read (I suggest out loud as well), will entice and invite, simultaneously, your own creativity, in addition to providing you with fresh insights and good old-fashioned delight."
-Dale Biron, Associate Professor of Poetry, The Fromm Institute
About the Author
Richard Flout's poetry has appeared in the Blue Unicorn and the Suisun Valley Review. A practicing psychotherapist, his writing is informed by a wide range of life experiences as a landscape gardener, an Aikido practitioner, an improv theater actor, and a singer. He has had a lifelong interest in the arts as they relate to personal growth, as well as integrating one's spirituality with the healing process, and has facilitated contemplative prayer and meditation groups for many years. He and his wife, Jane Ferguson Flout, writer and former journalist, live in San Rafael, California.
Review :
"This book offers a landscape of secrets revealed, connections cherished, moments made sacred by close attention, and little spells of intuitive knowing. These poems are spoken soul to soul."
-Kim Stafford, author of As the Sky Begins to Change
"To enter Richard Flout's collection Between the Thinning Differences of Changing Light is to step into a dappled forest or a quiet and cloistered room after staggering a long time through the noise and tumult of modern life. These poems move through the reader like breath through the body of a person learning to rest in the now. As a river knows "the joy / of carrying a swimmer's body," this poet knows the joy - and the power - of carrying a prayer, in each moment, in his mouth."
-Francesca Bell, author of What Small Sound
"A chronological collection of poems that invites us to accompany Richard Flout's meditative journey through life's struggles while discovering the hidden beauty in the stillness of every memory. The poetic imagery of spirituality, nature, and relationship celebrates life's teachings through the mysteries just beneath the surface, discovered through meditative observation and connection."
-Elbina Batala Rafizadeh, author of Keepers of the Malicgong Rice Terraces
"Poetry that works casts a magic spell upon both the writer and the reader. Don't kid yourself; these poems by Richard Flout, when read (I suggest out loud as well), will entice and invite, simultaneously, your own creativity, in addition to providing you with fresh insights and good old-fashioned delight. So, walk inside these poems, make them yours. Get wonderfully lost in them, the spell they cast, the magic they mean."
-Dale Biron, Associate Professor of Poetry, The Fromm Institute
