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Butterfly Voyage
Foreword On 30 May, 2016, at 1.52 am, I woke from a dream and scribbled... Seventy three lines later I had penned (or rather channelled) a cryptic poem that seemed to contain an urgent message. At that stage I had no idea what it meant, but my intuition told me that all would be revealed if I paid attention to the signs. In the days that followed, lines from the poem started to materialise and more cryptic poems (or spirit messages as I now call them) were channelled. Two weeks later, after a series of serendipitous events, I travelled out of state to attend a shamanic retreat where I took Ayahuasca for the first time. Ayahuasca is an entheogenic brew and spiritual medicine used by Shamans from the Amazon basin. It is said to clear spiritual baggage from current and previous lives. The experience was both confronting and liberating, and ultimately sent me on a two year journey of deep self-reflection and healing. Butterfly Voyage is a poetic account of that two year journey.
194 pages, Paperback
Published November 20, 2018
About the author
Bianca Bowers
11 books19 followersBianca Bowers is an award-winning fiction author and best-selling poetry author. Now based in Australia, she holds a BA with double majors in English and Film/TV/Media Studies, and has authored eight books through her imprints Paperfields Press and Auteur Books: six poetry collections and 2 novels.
Find her at www.biancabowers.com
Find her at www.biancabowers.com
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 22, 2021
Profound and wild at the same time, Butterfly Voyage reads equal parts stream of thought and DEEP introspection. It goes beyond being a normal poetry collection and definitely strikes deep chords for Bowers as well as for the reader. Imagine going on a shamanistic voyage, sitting down with the universe within and beyond for a chat and then putting it down on paper. That's what this collection feels like. Some sections border on prose and feel a bit like an adult version of the Little Prince, the Grown Up Queen if you will and I was impressed by how many powerful passages I found in this collection, not for any doubt on Bowers's talents, but because it does hit that hard and some things are that universal.
It is a beautiful book that speaks of life lessons, easy, hard, far reaching, evolving, and permanent. It's a book about life and living it, no matter the gender, age, or baggage you may have, for you are human, you are beautiful, and you can fly.
It is a beautiful book that speaks of life lessons, easy, hard, far reaching, evolving, and permanent. It's a book about life and living it, no matter the gender, age, or baggage you may have, for you are human, you are beautiful, and you can fly.
December 16, 2018
Working against atrophy
This collection sits among a body of work that is more conventional. Bowers' Butterfly Voyage, through its poet's voice, encourages us to work against daily chaos and decay and to take each day at a time with a positive mindset. The more surreal poetry features dragons and talking birds. However, most of it, whether grounded in reality or not, has encouraging and didactic elements that uplift and inspire.
This collection sits among a body of work that is more conventional. Bowers' Butterfly Voyage, through its poet's voice, encourages us to work against daily chaos and decay and to take each day at a time with a positive mindset. The more surreal poetry features dragons and talking birds. However, most of it, whether grounded in reality or not, has encouraging and didactic elements that uplift and inspire.
June 1, 2020
Poetry book “Butterfly Voyage” by Bianca Bowers is a long and arduous search for self-love.
Structured as a classical quest master plot, the book relies much on the protagonist – the lyrical persona, who sets on a voyage in the realm of dreams and the intrapsychical, aiming to attain better self-knowledge and wisdom.
The poems in the collection are organized into 8 parts, preceded by a Prelude, disclosing the motivating incident (a series of cryptic messages received in dreams) that sets off the lyrical persona on this quest.
In her 5th poetry book, Bianca Bowers invites the reader to suspend disbelief and enter the magical world of “Butterfly Voyage” where a world of cryptic messages, poetry, parables, fables, sketches, and wise quotes is revealed.
Although I do agree with the statement Ms Bowers makes in the foreword of “Butterfly Voyage” that in this book her voice is different from her previous books, the unexpected and vivid imagery characteristic of her poetic narrative are still present here. The original rhythmic and rhyming patterns give her poetry the sound of a fairy tale.
The quest narrative is enacted with the lyrical persona going to different places and meeting different magical creatures along the way. Each meeting as well as each creature has a symbolic meaning. There are many tests that the lyrical persona has to go through along the road and encounter her own fears. The result of the whole voyage is learning and the reader learns together with the lyrical persona who has substantially changed by the end of the poetic narrative.
It is very difficult for me to select a single poem as a favourite, because I do like the book in its entirety. I strongly recommend “Butterfly Voyage” not only to poetry lovers, but to everyone who is not afraid to set on a voyage into their own soul, looking for answers to difficult questions, learning things through self-exploration, finding their true self. What the lyrical persona learns while travelling in this magical world will inspire you to heal old emotional wounds, rewrite disempowering narratives, and rediscover the magic that is your authentic self.
Structured as a classical quest master plot, the book relies much on the protagonist – the lyrical persona, who sets on a voyage in the realm of dreams and the intrapsychical, aiming to attain better self-knowledge and wisdom.
The poems in the collection are organized into 8 parts, preceded by a Prelude, disclosing the motivating incident (a series of cryptic messages received in dreams) that sets off the lyrical persona on this quest.
In her 5th poetry book, Bianca Bowers invites the reader to suspend disbelief and enter the magical world of “Butterfly Voyage” where a world of cryptic messages, poetry, parables, fables, sketches, and wise quotes is revealed.
Although I do agree with the statement Ms Bowers makes in the foreword of “Butterfly Voyage” that in this book her voice is different from her previous books, the unexpected and vivid imagery characteristic of her poetic narrative are still present here. The original rhythmic and rhyming patterns give her poetry the sound of a fairy tale.
The quest narrative is enacted with the lyrical persona going to different places and meeting different magical creatures along the way. Each meeting as well as each creature has a symbolic meaning. There are many tests that the lyrical persona has to go through along the road and encounter her own fears. The result of the whole voyage is learning and the reader learns together with the lyrical persona who has substantially changed by the end of the poetic narrative.
It is very difficult for me to select a single poem as a favourite, because I do like the book in its entirety. I strongly recommend “Butterfly Voyage” not only to poetry lovers, but to everyone who is not afraid to set on a voyage into their own soul, looking for answers to difficult questions, learning things through self-exploration, finding their true self. What the lyrical persona learns while travelling in this magical world will inspire you to heal old emotional wounds, rewrite disempowering narratives, and rediscover the magic that is your authentic self.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews