By Mark Nepo
Conari Press, 2007, $17.95

“I confess that I began writing this book looking to uncover and sustain my own courage. . . . I have come to believe that we can only discover the capacity and meaning of our courage in the context of our struggles, in how we face and inhabit the challenges life presents to us,” writes Mark Nepo, poet, philosopher, speaker, and teacher. Nepo, who was nominated for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and has taught in the fields of poetry and philosophy for more than 30 years, currently serves as program officer for the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is a cancer survivor who has found that facing pain with courage and compassion not only heals the suffering heart but keeps further harm from being visited upon the world.
    If your heart inclines to the poetic, you will find comfort, companionship, and grace in this book. To “face the lion,” says Nepo, is to find our way to our own heart, or core; to “be the lion” is to stand by what we find there and live out that truth in our lives. Our small choices to act courageously from the wisdom of the heart have the power to change and shape the world.