Water Voices

In Water Voices, author Sheldon Clark presents a moving series of spiritual reflections grouped together under three general themes: Calm, Storm, and Peace. Readers will find both insight and reassurance in these meditations and remembrances, spanning the lifespan from birth to final years. Evocative illustrations enhance the meaning of the poems and prayers included in the book.

A word from the author:

In the summer of 1958, my brother and I rode horseback into the hill ring surrounding a cattle ranch near Gunnison, Colorado. We followed a creek to its spring, dismounted, and we and our horses refreshed ourselves with cool clear water. We felt history flowing down our throats. We felt at one with the eternal source sending cleansing blood through our veins. We gave thanks for this natural baptism. I could only wish that people everywhere could give thanks for the unmerited gift of pure water.

Water voices are heard in varieties of music from classical, gospel, country and western, folk, easy listening, and rock. Water voices are seen in drawings, paintings, and photography, as representative, abstract, and mood inspiring. Water voices in literature appeal to the five senses and express inner thoughts. Words are the instruments used to articulate passionate love, reflect on grief, loss, danger, and death, and are intentionally chosen to provoke a response.

Water voices are as constant as sunrise and sunset. They possess character. They are as soothing as divine mercy. They are as gentle as the lion that lies down with the lamb, as violent as unbridled war and storms at sea, as miraculous as spiritual conversion, as nourishing as Mother Earth, and as mysterious as love. In listening to water voices, we hear the divine replenishing Creation, itself.

The narrative poems in Water Voices were inspired to acknowledge each person's experience as they bring their welcoming capabilities to our essential source of existence.

In these uncertain times of climate change, it is incumbent upon humanity to listen to water voices as friendly sounds ever so subtly appealing for human help to achieve the goals of balance, conservation, restorative justice, and mutually assured survival.

Sheldon H. Clark, D. Min., has lived and worked in the United States of America, India, and Canada. He graduated from Westtown School, '59, and holds a B.A. (English) from Hiram College, Ohio (1964) and two degrees from the University of Toronto (Drama, 1970, and a B.Ed. 1971). He settled on a career as an English and Drama teacher, and eventually became the Headmaster of Pickering College, Newmarket, Ontario (1972-1995). Subsequently, he earned an M. Div. from the Earlham School of Religion, Richmond, Indiana (1999) and a D. Min. from Anderson University School of Theology, Anderson, Indiana (2003). He became a second career pastor who served several congregations in Indiana, where also he served as a hospital and prison chaplain. He has a married daughter and one grandson. He is a widower, retired, and lives in Ancaster, Ontario.