y Alfred K. LaMotte The poet Shelley wrote: "Every original language near to its source is the chaos of a cyclic poem... A poet participates in the eternal, the infinite, and the one." Ancient cultures recognized that the mystery of creation is the mystery of "original language." So John's Gospel declares, "In the beginning was the Word." And India's Mandukya Upanishad says, "All that ever was, is, or will be is created through the syllable Om." The poems in this volume reflect this ancient science of mantra. "Man" is the Sanskrit root of the English "mind" and "tra" of our suffix "tron," meaning vehicle. A mantra is a vehicle to carry the mind back to the source of creation, divine silence. Here in the heart, love awakens. Fred LaMotte conceives language in this ancient tradition, where poetry is a means of taking us home, taking us Om. Many of these poems also reflect the tradition of the mystical marriage. Poets of Eastern and Western religions understood the intimate play of soul and spirit as the whisperings of Lover and Beloved. They created a common poetic iconography, a love-language both sensuous and mystical, which we find in Sufi poets like Hafiz, Hindu poets like Mirabai, the Biblical Song of Songs, the Medieval troubadours, and the parables of Jesus. Mystical poetry can dis- solve religious conflict. Fred LaMotte offers us a revival of atavistic poetics: poetry as meditation, poetry as devotion, or Bhakti, poetry as love-song in the Bridal Chamber of the heart. "In the lover's heart is a lute which plays the melody of longing." Rumi