The Fire of Darkness: What Burned Me Away Completely, I Became, Lamotte Alfred K., Rea Rashani

Alfred K. LaMotte is truly the rarest kind of alchemist. With each poem in this exquisite collection, he weaves ordinary words into pure gold, inducting the reader into a direct experience of the sublime ineffability of life itself. Sourced from the depths of his own awakened heart, his words will pierce straight through to your own tender heart, igniting and awakening you. LaMotte stands with Rilke, Rumi, and Hafiz in beckoning our souls to awaken. Let each poem be a mystery that you discover and savor as you would a lover.

TINA M. BENSON, international bestselling author of A Women Unto Herself: A Different Kind of Love Story

The poetry of Alfred K. LaMotte speaks to my soul of long lost love, and redeems my heart from a fall that I cannot even remember. Somehow he makes the total mystery of existence feel all right.

Susanne Marie, meditation guide and founder of Transformation Through Presence TM

Inside this poetry is the deep perfume of God, a vast pool of light and pure generosity. Here are bees, honey, and simplicity of Being. That is why every time we read his poetry, we are nourished, uplifted, and we never tire of reading them again and again.

Guthema Roba, poet, author of Please Come Home and Wake Up and Roar

Alfred K. LaMotte's writing simply and actively opens the heart, inspiring and enlightening without ever a heavy-handed word of preaching or lecture. In pure authenticity and elegant vulnerability, he writes with the clear heart of a true meditation teacher, and shows us the way

Dian Lang, Author of Opening to Meditation, Huffington Post columnist, and director of LifeWorks Center for Growth in Los Angeles TM.

This is a stunning and prophetic book, courageous in its commitment to the living milk of the Mother, disturbing our complacency and our stagnant idealization of who She is or how She must appear. These poems joyously report that here, and right here, is where we taste the cardinal fulfillment of our essential nature. The Feminine, as a psychic force, reaches far beyond biological sex, and thus cannot be wholly claimed by the female voice (tempting as this might be after centuries of inequality and abuse). In his new book, Alfred K. LaMotte speaks from a breadth and wholeness that is the undeniable sign of Her presence. These poems help us see that the creaturely and the divine are not eternally set apart: they can be recognized as a single gesture of invitation to a much finer, more generous participation in the real.

Britt Posmer, painter, performance artist and poet, author of The Angel and the Heretic