Poet Michael Hedley Burton has written a series of poems that attempt to grasp that illusive experience of selfhood. In the book's foreword he writes that there are two different kinds of self accessible to us, one built up from our earthly experience and the other overshadowing this as a kind of "higher self". The drama of who we are is founded very much on the kind of relationship existing within us between these two selves. The "Thirty-three Meditations" is a deeply Christian study - but not Christian in the sense of allegiance to any fixed form of religion. Here the emphasis is on one's own personal relationship to the divine within. In the final section we are taken into images that Burton received from a study of "The Fifth Gospel" - lectures given in 1913 by Rudolf Steiner. In looking for the essence of selfhood he found himself confronting the one known as Jesus of Nazareth whose destiny it was to sacrifice his earthly ego to become the bearer of the Christ. These are poems that will appeal to anyone who thinks deeply about life and who wants a book that can be kept by the bedside and studied over a period of time, always giving further thoughts. One reader, a psychologist, called it "33 forms of healing medicine for the human ego".
About the Author: Michael Hedley Burton is a speech & drama teacher, actor, therapist and writer from New Zealand. He is presently working with special needs individuals in Sydney, Australia, and active as a speech therapist in a medical practice. His first book of poetry, "In Celebration of Being Human", was published by Adonis Books in 1988. "In the Light of a Child" (also published by Adonis Press but now handled by Anthroposophic Press, NY) is still in print and a steady seller. He has also done a translation of "Fliessend Sprechen" by Austrian speech therapist Alfred Baur and co-wrote with Adrian Locher the translation used by Portal Productions for their world tour of the Mystery Play "The Soul's Probation" by Rudolf Steiner. He has written and performed one-man-plays about Beethoven, Rembrandt, Dag Hammarskjold and a New Zealand soldier, wounded in the Second World War, Jim Henderson. His play about Charles Darwin, "Collapsing Creation, (or The Sex Life of Barnacles)" was performed by the Hurstpierpoint Players at the 2009 Hurst Festival, celebrating the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species". Michael has more than 30 years experience in working in various ways with the creative power of the Word. He has a Diploma in Speech from the Pacific Speech School (Hawaii), a Degree in English Literature from Waikato University (Hamilton, New Zealand) and a Diploma in Drama from Auckland University (New Zealand).