Cynthia West says, "As a poet, I travel a different map, one with sand traps and tunnels that lead to clouds mirrored in mountain pools. Writing with pen and paper is my way of heeding the wordless ones who have much to teach us. When morning light sighs in the leaves, green veins gather water beyond ideas of line and form. My hand is a nameless bird, dropping feathers that point to distances and depths. The lake which disappears at the touch, emerges, reflects. Sometimes the stanzas breach like whales, huge upheavals that leap, swallow the sun, then plunge, full of light, to the depths." Known for her visionary paintings, Cynthia is also a poet, photographer, digital imager, potter and book artist. Her home with many gardens, in the Santa Fe River Valley, where she has lived with her husband and family for more than forty years, is a healing center as well as her studio and gallery. West is the author of five previous collections of poetry, For Beauty Way, 1000 Stone Buddhas, Rainbringer, The New Sun, and In the Center of the Field, the last three from Sunstone Press. Visit her website, www.westvision.us.