“Last night, God offered me a kiss… Of course, I accepted.”-Lyric Benson Fergusson

That is the invitation that ushers the reader into this tempting tidbit of a book called French Kissing God A JOURNEY TO ENLIGHTENMENT . Filled to overflowing with delicious love poems to God in the spirit of Sufi poet Rumi, it plays the heartstrings and scintillates the soul. Like her inspiration whose words echo forward from 13th century Turkey, Fergussen’s poetry is multi-layered and are both prayer and seduction.

The fascinating back story is that the author is a child of Hollywood who chose to venture into the realm of celibate spirituality for eight years. Her parents are singer Karla DeVito and actor Robby Benson.

Fergussen sees God as form and formless, called by many names,  in all experiences; in the play of the light and shadow. The communion with the Divine that begins the book, was initiated, of all places, in the bathroom. Like many of us, for her, that was a locale in which to contemplate the trajectory of her life.

She recognized that hers was in danger of literally ‘going down the toilet’. She and her family had lost someone on 9/11, she had been facing her father’s open heart surgery and her own debilitating experiences with abdominal and spinal pain as well as fibromyalgia. Drugs were a means of self medicating that had her spiraling out of control. That revelatory moment was a turning point.

Transcendental Meditation  (TM) and service via Maharishi University of Management, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who became her beloved teacher, brought her relief from pain and into a river of peace. It was also where the 108 poems that comprise this collection found their birth. 108 is an auspicious number in many faith traditions.

The words themselves speak of love and longing, and an appreciation of the gifts of this incarnation.

Some luscious as chocolate samplings:

Equally Relentless
Sweet one…
God’s love is relentless.
How He will churn the ignorance out of you, by dragging you across star-fields by your pinky toe, howling, until you finally surrender.
The heat of the stars burning through pride. The rings of Saturn can be quite cutting, let me tell you.
I know, I have been there…
I throw specks of dust from my journey onto paper, in hopes that they will spark and catch fire in your heart, and light fire to this world too.
Until all of our love becomes equally relentless.

~

Your Heart
Censor your heart, love, and you’ll live as the dead live.
There is not a moment of your life that is unholy.

                                                      ~

Lucky
Delicate green shoots trampled by eager feet yearning for God,
quickly replaced by sprouting jungles,
leaves as large as elephants’ heads.
I lie on the ground where God dwells.
Lucky, God dwells everywhere.

                                                               ~

Human Am I
Human am I, afraid and overshadowed.
God am I, fearless and full of Being.
Two in one… One in two…
What a strange incarnation that I live.
Both God and self exist in Me.

This book of transcendent verse is designed to be savored and read to a lover. Start with yourself.

“French Kissing God is now available on Kickstarter, where you can learn more about Lyric’s life and sample more of her work. Signed copies, and other collectors items are also available for early adapters at discounted prices. Learn more here: http://kck.st/1NAdvPW

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/135567211/french-kissing-god-a-journey-to-enlightenment?ref=category