No Ordinary Journey

David Bryen's book, The Man Loves the Wine She Serves Through Her Body, reveals paths to self-enlightenment by way of poetry and philosophy. Bryen created this spiritual journey based on a series of dreams that he says delivered "twelve specific teachings" whose language he kept intact. Bryen believed in his work so deeply that he published it himself, in a skillfully designed, artistic format. No expense was spared-the cover is heavy book cover stock; the text stock is unique, sturdy and attractive.

As I wandered through this book, I realized that, though parts can be read as fragmented poems, the book connects as a whole, each section predicated upon the prior, and providing a foundation for the next. The springboard consists of a brief statement that is compression at its best:

Some One called
at the very edge
of my sleep,
used my name,
said no more.
I sleep differently now.

Bryen says the collection formed as an "integral part of an intense, 10 year, life-changing initiation,"-that it was "more than the thawing of the heart that men go through at mid-life." Rather, he says the transformation was a "complete immersion into the very essence of the Divine Feminine." Each section peels away a layer of thought, much of which can be extrapolated in various ways. One minute, it seems that the writer alludes to a human, the next, it seems that the Muse is being addressed, as in the poem, Subtle as a Moth.

She, disguised
in the rose,
or the dawn,
or the light dimming radiance
of a woman's beauty,
dances,
surrounding me,

subtle as a moth

fanning the flames.

It is not surprising that Bryen produced a spiritual work. He encountered adversity early on-his mother died when he was four; his father when he was fifteen. "I grew up," he says, "in Montana-the son of a Baptist minister. My religious background both prepared me for the finer nuances of the deeply spiritual reality I have entered, and also deeply damaged my sense of self. I am no stranger to grief and longing, but those very aspects have opened me to graces that few ever experience."

Besides writing, Bryen has practiced individual and marital psychotherapy for 25 years. He is also a carpenter, sculptor, and musician. The book is exactly what you'd expect from such a renaissance man who has been married for 24 years and has two "wonderful" children.