SunZero Earth

Your poem, how wonderful! Our thinking seems to move in the same patterns. It is surely [an] honor to be related to such a superb achievement. Thomas Berry, geologian and poet; author of Dream of the Earth and Sacred Universe.

Schenck imbues this collection of poems with all the insults and injuries and exaltations peculiar to any archdruid suffering these times. And yet through the unmatched ferocity and honesty of his poetic vision he transcends them and the mossy limitations of naturalist poetry. In the crucible of his experience an exceptional intelligence continues to glow: a penetrating insight into myth, nature, philosophy, political intrigues, personal sacrifice, psychic torment and the triumphant soul. His mercurial illumination of all things under the sun and among the stars dances between a dark radiance to a blinding arc and back again. His brilliant wordplay and striking imagery reflect the contrary and fractious urges of a heart too big to fail, and his voice—at times lyrical and tumultuous, sweet and sibilant—consistently evokes the poignant song of a single tree who has never stopped dreaming aloud of being an unconquerable forest. — Brian Lee Knopp, Author of Mayhem in Mayberry: Misadventures of a P.I. in Southern Appalachia.

David Schenck is a Research Assistant Professor with the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Following a twenty-year career as a professor of philosophy and religion, Schenck served as the executive director of a free medical clinic, a counselor and advocate for the homeless, and a consultant to nonprofits in the Southeast. He has volunteered with, and worked for, a variety of hospices over the last twenty years. He is currently doing research on ethics and medicine as complementary sets of healing skills. Schenck completed his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and earned his master’s and doctorate in religious studies at Duke University. He grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. His works published by est et non books include: Zchenk Among Demons, At the Impasse, and SunZero Earth. Schenck is also the author, with Larry Churchill, of the recently published Healers: Extraordinary Clinicians at Work (Oxford University Press, 2011).