Wandering Wounds is a journey through some of the pains of life that we all encounter.
Wandering Wounds is an expression of feelings and / or experiences of life’s turbulent journey. Pain, anger, and grief mixed with hope are forefront through childhood to adulthood. The poems’ presentations differ in styles and formats and many use allegories and / or metaphor to deliver their message. Opening pieces, universal in nature, relate to effects on life, moving through depression, the battle against evil and life's frustrations. The focus then turns to specific causal areas of life's trials and sorrows, such as illness and recovery, physical and sexual abuse of children and adults, and drug and alcohol addiction. Poems will traverse the wondrous mountain peaks and the deepest and darkest gullies of love. Much of the writing contains a morphing quality, as life’s circumstances change you will find poems revealing new meaning. James L. Finley's first book Wandering Wounds shines a light upon the hope that resides on the outskirts of “Happiness Falls”.
Excerpt
“Life’s Reward”
That which makes a life comes and goes.
Joy, sorrow, and the in-between,
good times and bad, which we all have-
Is it better to seek and find,
or better to find and then seek?
Searching life perhaps is the prize;
but is finding nothing fruitless?
And what if found fruit is poison,
and the tasting of it brings death?
Is Death consequently reward?
If so, then losing means winning.
So that which we eagerly seek,
brings the death that we chase after.
The in-between is the looking.
The sorrow is in the finding.
The happiness is the dying.
It seems better to seek than find.
I sought happiness all my life.
Sorrow is the fruit that I found.
The poison’s reward works slowly.
Now I await my happiness.
Early Works is an exhaustive compilation of the first decade of the poems and stories of Z.B.McClure. Included are family photos, rare personal photos, photos of 1st draft manuscripts of many of his early poems. Also some biography and memoir materia
