Biography of a Soul: book lyric poems

At a crossroad, street corner I met him - we shook hands, touched roots and something like a moral imperative was conceived.Like a seed of light this kiss of warm knowledge came on the lips of my blessed muse.And how do I know these words to be true? Her eyes were closed when she leaned in close.(Past Life Meeting with a Poet) Perhaps it's true that lyrical expressions suggest, however obliquely, something about a biography before one's birth. Biography of a Soul is a chronological collection of poems filtered through this premise, weaving together a kinship between present and past, the living and the dead, with nature as the timeless background.Included in this collection are twelve translated poems by Pavel Davydovich Kogan (1918 - 1942), a Russian poet who died in the war, and someone whom the author may have met. Pavel Kogan's granddaughter, Lyubov Summ, a writer and translator, says, "I really like the translations, how it sounds as if a young man were writing them right now, and not as tired, long ago written classics...Yes, you (Randy) and Pavel are soul mates."