Now is the Hour of Her Return

Poems in Praise of the Divine Mother Kali

Clark Strand

Illustrated by Will Lytle

Paperback
978-1-948626-74-3
US $17.00 Indiepubs Bookshop Amazon
eBook available
September 2022

Strand’s mystical poems to Ma Kali, the Dark Goddess of India, as occasioned by his encounters with the material dealt in depth in both Waking Up to the Dark and the Way of the Rose.

“A treasure of mystical poetry, these poems pulsate with truth.” —Carolyn Myss, author of Intimate Conversations with the Divine and Anatomy of the Spirit

In the early hours of June 16, 2011, Clark Strand witnessed a startling apparition of the Divine Feminine in the form of a young woman with an X of black electrical tape over Her mouth. Strand removed the tape, and She began to speak of a coming age of chaos and collapse in which the world of humankind would be severely chastened so that Her world—the world of Nature—could be renewed. Overwhelmed by the presence of One so fully Other, Strand found that love was the only language that would suffice. Drawing inspiration from Song of Songs and the Bengali mystics Ramprasad and Sri Ramakrishna, he began a series of poems to Ma Kali, the Dark Goddess of India, the words to which often came from the Great Mother Herself.

Clark Strand is the former senior editor at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. He is the current editor of the Haiku Challenge, which is a monthly Haiku context sponsored by Tricycle. He is the author of many books on spirituality and religion, including Seeds from a Birch Tree, Meditation Without Gurus, How to Believe in God, Waking the Buddha, and Waking Up to the Dark.  His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. With his wife, Perdita Finn, Strand is also the author of The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary, and the co-founder of an international, non-sectarian rosary fellowship.

Illustrator Will Lytle grew up in the Catskill Mountains, where, after years as a hitchhiking, train-hopping vagabond, he returned to build a small house with wood from his family's lumber mill. An accomplished illustrator, mural artist, and the creator of the guerilla-style Thorneater Comics series, Lytle also illustrated Strand's Waking Up to the Dark and Strand and Finn's The Way of the Rose.

"Clark Strand's revelatory poems peer into the divide between order and disorder, separation and union, life and death. Not a word is wasted. In these pages we are pulled into relationship with a sensuous, even bemused Kali whose 'children fly apart' at the sight of her; a powerful Kali who lures and leads. Truths loom large here. Fling open Now Is The Hour Of Her Return and let yourself be consumed." —Laura Grace Weldon, 2019 Ohio Poet of the Year

"A provocative book of poetry with stunning illustrations. You will have a new understanding of Ma Kali after reading Clark Strand's enchanting collection. Kali broke my heart open and kept me thoroughly entertained." —Trista Hendren, Creator of The Girl God series 

“A treasure of mystical poetry, these poems pulsate with truth.” —Carolyn Myss