The Ghostland Ritual

The Ghostland Ritual is a poem sequence, a tapestry of sorts, that is part confession, part memoir, part lament, part prayer, part meditation, part exorcism. It veers into hidden territories not always given light. Replete with contradictions, repetitions, exultations, degradations, omissions, despair, hope, clichés; the Ghostland Ritual is an invitation into an experience. These cantos belong to a process, a personal ritual of expression intended to touch the sacred precincts of the heart, mind and soul, and to strip away the powers that the corrupting, caustic experience of evil, in the form of war, continuously unleashes.

Robert is a practicing poet who served as a Catholic chaplain in Operation Iraqi Freedom 3. He has been nurtured, almost all of his life, by the beautiful downstate precincts of the Hudson Valley. While pastoring a wonderful congregation in scenic Dutchess County, Robert still loves to dabble in poetry and short stories.