On the back pack page of Where Seas and Fables Meet: …, we read that B.W. Powe is first and foremost a philosopher; followed by poet, novelist, and essayist. The ordering is fitting because here, in his latest contribution to world literature, Powe forges in the smithy of his soul a remarkable assembly of shorts – Parables, Aphorisms, Fragments, Thought – that differs significantly from most other philosophers of the not too distant past. Indeed, his writing is highly accessible (it is neither abstruse, nor is it laced with terroristic obscurantism).

…Seas and Fables… exudes profound, at times humorous, thought provoking insights into the human soul. The principal universal of interest for Powe is Light. Concomitant with his consuming passion with Light, and all of its manifestations, is the Structure (at one time the System, and its equivalents) which encompasses all forms of mind and soul crushing (political, technological, emotional, spiritual, economic, and so on). As a countermeasure to its onslaughts Powe identifies possible psychological strategies for liberation, or attempts to escape through self-expression; his own and those employed by others (Blake, Nietzsche, Whitman, Kafka, Kubrick, Bellow, Yuri in Zhivago, Grace in … Seas and Fables … ).

Physicists tell us that if we were to travel at the speed of light, a universal constant of nature, time would stop entirely. At the still point, where past and future are gathered, viz. Eliot’s Four Quartets (an acknowledged favorite of Powe’s), we might consider the possibility of encountering God, who always was and always will be.

It is there, at that singular point, where time stands still, that the laws of Space-Time breakdown, and we may experience what the theologians call the beatific vision (universal-absolute Light). This is why Powe’s fascination with Light and accompanying images (waves, ripples, vibration-beings, Tsunamis of the global soul, shadows, cosmos … ) or transcendent realms – metamorphosis, theos (by extension theoria, theosis), sacred, noosphere, fantasy, signs, words, creation, angels, Mystery, Word, Spirit, grace, metamorphosis, infinity – in this and his other works (Outage; A Tremendous Canada of Light; ed. Light Onwords, Light Onwards; Mystic Trudeau; The Unsaid Passing; These Shadows Remain; … Apocalypse and Alchemy, and others) is of such crucial significance – by following his inner voices and not the orders of others, he creates a path towards the blessing of peace: to breakthrough the Structure, and embrace the Divine.

Andrew Paskauskas
Toronto
April 7, 2015