Gerald a. Buss

This volume is dedicated by the author to two close friends, both deceased; one of its dominant themes is friendship and, related to it, remembrance and recognition. Simone Weil addresses elements of these criteria when, in her Attente de Dieu, she writes, S]i on revoit un tre tr s cher apr s une longue absence, les mots qu'on change avec lui n'impor-tent pas, mais seulement le son de sa voix qui nous assure de sa pr sence. 70] If after a long absence we see someone again - someone very dear - the words that are ex-changed with him do not matter. What matters is only the sound of his voice assuring us of his pre-sence. Perception, Remembrance, and Recognition. These provide Presence, the Presence, the healing Presence we so often need and so frequently lack. Friendship may be a "dying art," but it still remains a fundamental human need. If weak, may it be strengthened; if unknown, may it be experienced. If found, may it be deeply, deeply cherished and honored as one of the very greatest gifts we might ever receive.

These "Lines of Inquiry" mark the return of the author to verse after a lapse of 40+ years, during which time he served as a Greek Orthodox priest in four parishes across the U.S. His attempts to commit these inquiries to writing, and to frame them in something like a poetic form, are tentative utterances, meditations on life and death, expressions of a process begun at the age of 10 when his best friend died suddenly, also at the age of 10. Through the years, answers have varied. Questions have had a way of remaining the same.