Liminal Verses

In Liminal Verses, Bruce Alderman invites readers into an intimate, 30-year dialogue with the sacred and the self, set in the rich theater of the natural world. The poems span four significant periods of Bruce's life, capturing moments of transformation and transition. From the struggles and mystical awakenings at a private Christian university, through years of immersion in the wilderness of the Southwest, travels across Asia, to more recent times of family life and teaching, these poems serve as waypoints on a journey of self-discovery and spiritual exploration. They mark occasions where the mundane meets the mystical, where life and death intertwine, and where joy and sorrow coexist.

Liminal Verses is a celebration of the poetic process as 'threshold play,' where poetry becomes an act of in-dwelling and intimacy with the world. The collection reflects a progression from grappling with the limitations of the self in the face of the sacred, to opening to awe and wonder, and finally to finding comfort in the liminal spaces where boundaries blur and dualities dissolve. It is an invitation to readers to join in this celebration of being, to meet at the crossroads of the visible and invisible, and to partake in the ongoing conversation at the edges of our shared human experience.