Tender Traces

"Tender Traces "is nothing less than a love song to love itself-in all its forms.

Poet, songwriter, philosopher, and former pastor John W. Heird offers over 200 tender, passionate, and poignant poems to love as both a valued part of human relations and an Absolute almost on par with Divinity.

These poems return us to a time of high emotional romanticism before love was devalued and debased. Heird's structured, metered odes also easily convert to song lyrics, bringing to mind the great love songs of the 1950s and 1960s-when love was king and held to a higher standard than today.

Many of his poems are Elizabethan in structure, with over two dozen written in Italian, French, German, Spanish, and Irish to evoke the international need for love and romance. To Heird, love is fidelity. Love is romance and divine. Love, in short, is Absolute.

Supporting his view is an engaging addendum presenting philosophical arguments on both love and music, complete with an extensive glossary. Heird's poems, however, ultimately speak for themselves-offering the tenderness and romance of a more innocent time.