Kathleen Wheeler

The Immaculate Chaos of Being: Selected Poems Kathleen Wheeler 1st edition

Wheeler's poems project a multidirectional sensuality that evokes celestial contact from the vantage point of a clever pragmatic observer of life. Sacred and profane passions are infused in the body, the lover, the forest, the city and the deadening work day. Selections such as "Anchor Me" build the tension between grounding and floating, that develop throughout the work as fear and action, repression and exposure. We sense everyday sounds, sights, and smells, the ecstasy of past lives and yet to be identified lovers in our midst. Rather than resolve these tensions, where "the point and counterpoint [are] seeking a tipping point," Wheeler allows her reader to revel in this "Immaculate Chaos," the final poem and the title of the work. She reminds us to love deeply through our suffering and to trust our intuitions and desires as a way to honor the inherent spirituality in human existence.