Did a tiny bird in Texas really communicate with a horse and convince him it was okay to load on a trailer he’d never been on? Did a horse, after a three-year absence, know that its previous owner was present by hearing a harmonica being played? Did a horse, who had never acted up, hurt its owner on purpose so she would go to the doctor, where she discovered cancer had returned? Richard D. Rowland seeks the answer to fascinating questions as he explores the connection between humans and animals. As someone who was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer and given three years to live (more than twelve years ago), the human-animal bond is a subject he knows well. Animals caused him to rethink life and showed him things he never thought possible—and they led him to write his previous book, Unspoken Messages: Spiritual Lessons I learned from Horses and Other Earthbound Souls. Based on his interviews with people throughout the world, this book expands on how animals are misunderstood—and how they’re much smarter than most people believe.

Robert Wrigley is a poet of America's northern Rocky Mountains. Over three decades his poetry's pervading concerns have been rural Western landscapes and humankind's place within the natural world. This selection covers his works from nine collections. Elegiac and lyrical, playful and angry, this book offers a vision that is fierce, unflinching and clear.

What if a book existed that gave answers to everything you've ever wondered about? What would you do to learn its secrets? Tales of such books have abounded for millennia and are legend in occult history. One of the most pervasive modern iterations is that of the Necronomicon, said to be a genuine occult text from the 8th century. The Necronomicon really is the creation of science fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft (1891-1937), in whose books the magic volume first appears in print. In The Necronomicon Files two occult authorities explore all aspects of The Necronomicon, from its first appearance in Lovecraft's fiction to its ongoing pervasive appearance in cult and occult circles. The Necronomicon Files, revised and expanded further, reveals the hoax of the Necronomicon. Harms and Gonce show that the apocryphal history of the Necronomicon was concocted by Lovecraft to lend it verisimilitude in his fiction. The magical text was transformed into an icon among Lovecraft's literary circle, who added to the book's legend by referring to it in their own writing. People became convinced that it was a real book and its references in literature and film continue to grow. The book also examines what people have undergone to find the Necronomicon and the cottage industry that has arisen over the past three decades to supply the continuing demand for a book that does not exist. Scholarly yet accessible, humorous and intriguing, The Necronomicon Files illuminates the depth of the creative process and the transformations of modern myth, while still managing to preserve much of the romance and fascination that surrounds the Necronomicon in our culture.

W. Joseph Lutz’s poetry has a great variety of styles and subject matter. One theme that is frequently found is that of boundaries and limitations. These are treated sometimes with laughter and sometimes with a great sense of loss and sorrow. It is, of course, a facet of the human condition that everyone can understand. The stories vary greatly, from a lapsed academic searching for the holy grail to a high school baseball pitcher who gets injured and has to give up his dream of a sports career to a small-town alcoholic who can only find solace from the stifling confines of his too organized life by indulging in a late night tipple. There is optimism and joy as well. His answer to the long wait for help is expressed in two words—“it comes.” It will come. It always does come, not always in the way we expect, but undeniably “it comes.”

A selection of the essays on contemporary poetry from the best poetics journal in the field.