Thanks for Noticing – The Interpretation of Desire

Thanks for Noticing
224 Pages
ISBN 978-0692494370

How can we best understand desire? In 154 sonnets referencing world religions, extensive notes explaining the references, other introductory and appended materials, and free on-line videos and other aids, this book explores desires of the flesh and spirit.

Lovers of all kinds turn to Shakespeare’s 154 Sonnets for their depth of emotion and richness of thought. Most of the poems were written to a beautiful young man and some to a mysterious dark lady. These new sonnets, similarly, range through many moods from youthful folly to maturity, using insights from the world’s religions. Because the sonnets are arranged by parts of the Mass, and some of the sonnets identify the spiritual with the erotic, some may consider the book blasphemous.

Vern Barnet

About Vern Barnet (Kansas City, Missouri & Kansas Author)

Vern Barnet

The Rev. Vern Barnet studied with U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Karl Shapiro before completing his doctoral studies at the University of Chicago and the affiliated Unitarian Universalist seminary where he studied with historian of religion Mircea Eliade, philosopher-psychologist Eugene Gendlin, and psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

He wrote a weekly column on religion for The Kansas City Star, 1994-2012. His essays, reviews, and poems have appeared various religious magazines and literary journals. He and three others edited the 740-page reference book, The Essential Guide to Religious Traditions and Spirituality for Health Care Providers. In addition to serving three parishes over his career, he has taught at several seminaries.

He founded the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council in 1989 and has received awards from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and Jewish groups, and local and national civic recognitions. He is a member of Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Kansas City.