Book excerpt: Charles Frode doesn't recall the moment when he first realized that words have power to injure and power to heal, but he recounted to me once the impact that that realization had and still has on him. An author from youth, Frode's poetry originates in his spiritual quest that eventually took him to a Trappist monastery where he met his Narcissus and discovered the archetype he was living out. He subsequently wrote and published his memoir, I Am Goldmund: My Spiritual Odyssey With Narcissus. He has written and published three collections of short stories, and The Garden: Perennial Reflections on Beginnings and Ends.The poems in this collection span 60 years of spiritual seeking; longing loss and love; and 40 years of teaching high school English Language Learners, creative writing students, and currently incarcerated juveniles.