Switching Gods

From the Foreword Waking up is a tricky business. It isn't a self-help project. It isn't about getting better at anything. It doesn't guarantee happiness. Ultimately, it's about seeing the true nature of things more clearly. Paul Chubbuck's new collection of poems: Switching Gods: Poems and Tales for Waking Up is aptly titled. It doesn't dangle happy platitudes about the joys of waking up, but, rather, manages to celebrate both the pain and the bliss that comes from seeing things more clearly. No one switches gods lightly or playfully. It's always a profound and painful business to recognize, as Chubbuck notes in the poem his book is named for, "The prayers we thought unanswered really were, but by the wrong God." This collection of poems and brief stories contains quiet meditations on the coming of winter alongside angry laments for the burdens of generations that we unwittingly carry with us and pass along unconsciously. His poems are observational, allowing the natural world to reflect back his inner state, and mytho-poetic dialogues with his own demons. Something that many who have crossed the territory that Chubbuck explores have described is the fine line between divine awakening and madness. Chubbuck, the poet, dances on that razor's edge as well, somehow managing to weave Native American folk tales with the passion of a Sufi mystic. When writing about love and loss, there are hints of Rumi as in Tossing the Practice, "Is the nakedness of the beloved not here to enjoy? Does she not tantalize only until the veil drops? After that, there is just delight." Switching Gods is not a guide to waking up, but rather the fascinating journal of one who is noticing what it really means to live from that wakeful perspective of clarity. - Tom Crockett, author of One Drop Awareness: Picturing Enlightenment and Nonduality, Stone Age Wisdom: The Healing Principles of Shamanism, and The Artist Inside: A Spiritual Guide to Cultivating Your Creative Self "Paul Chubbuck's poetry seeps unannounced into all my senses. Then it somehow explodes with this subtle force splattering delight, insight and pure joy all over me. This man is a poet." - Tej Steiner, author of Heart Circles: How Sitting in Circle Can Transform your World "Wow, very powerful. Thank you, Paul. You definitely get it." - James Warda, author of Where Are We Going So Fast?: Finding the Sacred in Everyday Moments commenting on "Maybe it's Not Your Pain" "Paul, I can read your poem over and over and over. It speaks SO much to me " - Katrina Plato commenting on "The Price of Tears" "Paul, I've now read your poem over hundreds of times. It's beautiful and it speaks to me personally on many levels. I'm not a poet or scholar of any sort but somehow I feel your poem is perfectly spaced and timed....maybe because it entered my life in perfect space and time....like it was meant for me at exactly this moment. I hope it gets published somewhere. I feel it could go 'viral'. Thanks " - Online commenter on "The Blind Dancer" "Paul, You are so amazing. The poem is so beautiful and really made me think. I have never ever thought about an animal being inside me. I am going to have fun today listening to my inner self and see what kind of creature(s) emerges." - Suzy Riding commenting on "You Have an Animal Inside" "Paul, all I can say is WOW This poem is great. Definitely something that I need to do. Great insight. Thanks for sharing." - Online commenter on "You Have an Animal Inside"