We Are All Poets Here

Book excerpt: This incredible part-memoir, part-biography work tells the story of a non-religious woman in search of an inner life and spiritual wholeness during a time of personal chaos and spiritual confusion and her unexpected, imaginary friendship with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Writing about Merton's little-known sojourn to Alaska in 1968, Tarr Witkowska describes what Merton might have seen, felt and experienced about wilderness Alaska and the people and dramatic landscapes he encountered a few short months before his tragic death. In her struggle for inner grounding, the author poignantly blends Alaskan history, Russian culture and her own thoughts with Merton's spiritual reflections.