Selected and Arranged by Eve Olive
Paperback, 5.5"x 8.5", 200 pages
ISBN 9780980119039

“Trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.”

Where do we come from when we enter this life through the great portal of birth? From what star do we hail? What have we seen and heard on this great journey, which we forget all too soon?

Here is a book of poems and little stories that all have to do with a sense of awareness before birth - a new genre?

Eurythmist, poet, and teacher Eve Olive offers us this remarkable treasury of verse and story that gives a view of life reaching beyond the usual boundaries. Collected over 33 years, starting with poems written when her first grandchild was on the way, the collection moves and sings under her guidng hand. The writings stretch across the centuries, from Rumi and Wordsworth to contemporary poets both well known and less known, each with a unique view of this mysterious event that brings us into being. Here are voices - the voice of the mother, the voice of the father, the voice of the child herself - originally spoken in English and nine other languages, all translated and woven into a fascinating tapestry.

The perfect gift for an expectant couple or a new grandparent, this reflective and inspiring anthology is truly a gift for all of us, who have shared the great experience of birth.

PRAISE FOR "COSMIC CHILD"

“The secret of this book lies in the way the writings have gathered over many years into the heart of Eve Olive, who hears the voice of the heavens. Handed gently over to us, the power of these poems awakens radical hope. They inspire courage for life, awe in the face of human presence, and bring us close, perhaps after years of forgetfulness, to eternal Mystery, seen in the gestures of every newborn.”

—Robert Sardello, author of Love and the World and Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness

“For those who have a love of children and of the spiritual aspects of life, this book is a gem. It focuses on the question raised by Scottish author George MacDonald, who asks, "Where do you come from baby dear?" Has anyone ever held a newborn without wondering what lies on the other side of the great gateway of birth? Or, for that matter of death? The voices of poets and others give us rich insights which Eve Olive has brought together in this fine book.”

—Joan Almon, co-founder of the Alliance for Childhood

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prelude
AROUND THE WORLD AND ACROSS THE AGES
THE THINGS CHILDREN SAY
     Consciousness Before Birth
     Sibling Awareness
     Other Lives
GLIMPSES ACROSS THE THRESHOLD
SPEAKING OF ANGELS
MEDITATIONS AND PRAYERS
Postlude
Coda

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND EDITOR

Eve Olive was born in Tennessee but grew up in South Africa from the age of three. She has a Degree in Architecture from the University of Natal in Durban. Her second profession is eurythmy, which she studied in Switzerland and New York. Eurythmy is an art of movement that makes visible the gesture inherent in the sounds of language and music. Poems can be performed! Eve taught for many years at the Emerson Waldorf School in Chapel Hill, NC, which she helped to found and design. Her adult eurythmy classes have been ongoing since 1975 and have given rise to several performances, notably “Prayers from the Ark,” “The Creation Myth of the Cherokee Indian,” and “The Creation Myth of the Yoruba.” Eve lives in a one-hundred-year-old farmhouse in Orange County, North Carolina.