Love Poems and Other Terrible Problems

Charles Zeiders has given us a great gift; a poet, healer, and lover, he shares with fearless eloquence his heart, his mordant wit, and his empathic depth. Most of all, however, he inspires hope, hope in the human soul. I am captivated by his words and reading him I can feel my soul's enthusiastic approbation. You must give your soul the same pleasure. -Dr. Stephen Martin, Jungian Analyst and President Emeritus of the Philemon Foundation Love Poems and Other Terrible Problems teems with psychic and spiritual energy. It's like a Hieronymus Bosch painting that includes the Marx Brothers and splotches of transcendent gold. - Peter Devlin, from the Introduction Zeiders' love poems depict the paradoxes of a Christ-redeemed eros . . . But the volume explores the insane side of love…Like Dante's Virgil, Zeiders navigates us through an earthly Inferno of malignant narcissists, charlatans, and pedophiles…Thankfully, the poet brings us safely to the other side . . . Just as the Christian vision of the universe begins and ends with Love, so Love Poems and Other Terrible Problems provides hope. -Joseph Walls, from Kiss Epiphany: A Spiritual Critique of Love Poems and Other Terrible Problems From the exploration of the transfigured state found in the "Love Poems" we turn to the "Other Terrible Problems" . . . Nietzschean nihilism presses upon us. So does war and gore…Psychopaths head our institutions . . . we cannot find a way to offer our eros in the mad contexts they create . . . yet, the lesson is that within the container of love . . . one's entire humanity can be accepted. -Margaret Connolly, from the Editor's Afterword