Contemplative thoughts accompany one poem for each month of the year as a help in personal meditations. This volume was compiled in 2000 and updated 21 years later as an e-book. Teachers, inspirational speakers and preachers will find this helpful in preparing to speak on certain seasons, scriptures, and spiritual insights. Mark Turner sent a poem-a-month to his email list from Summer 1997 to Spring 2009. After the first two years he did a limited printing of selections before e-readers we...

An old crook by the name of Ananiah gives a bunch of street kids a secret hide-out home in some reasonable shacks high on the roof of a skyscraper. In exchange the kids run his "collection agency" as pick-pockets and shoplifters (thank you, Charles Dickens). They are very good at it. The cop on their beat has been after them for years without solving the case. But, now she has a rooky for a partner who is eager to make a good impression and things begin to pop. On the rooftop Ananiah keeps...

These eleven short stories help you contemplate wisdom of the ages in modern language and settings. Some are published here for the first time and others are compiled from books already offered individually. Originally presented as stage plays, Mark has adapted them for reading in the way he would direct them on stage. This lends them easily to reading aloud and links are provided to some of the scripts for groups to read aloud together. Some are full of funny characters and witty dialogue...

Humorous and dramatic scenes happen in the holidays with these stories adapted from stage plays, poems from decades of contemplation, essays from blog posts, and artwork from many seasonal productions. Making holiday art and programs has been author Mark R. Turner's occupation since childhood and this collection taps into his finely honed skills of celebration. Guaranteed to be thought provoking, these offerings will give pause to discover new insights into the ancient wisdom of the holida...

Images in a variety of art forms, including photography, collage, digital painting and hand work, expand the poems with which they are paired. Mark R. Turner's 16 poems are drawn from a decade full of struggle, losses and hard-won victories. In his poetry and imagery he contemplates life's journey full of mystery, challenge and the call forward. Containing faith and doubt, with hope supporting onward growth, this volume will facilitate the reader's contemplative practice.

A helpful, healing resident of a retirement facility in her mid-nineties calls herself Grace. The staff welcomes a new 96-year-old resident, the well-known African American film score composer Dr. Allen DeMark. Grace initiates a conversation with him about the shared memories of their youth. He shows no recognition of her but they both know stories from the past of RayAnne Damping, a young woman made famous for her extraordinary preaching and miraculous healing ministry in the 1930's. The ...

This is a short story about the people of the small, mountain town of Arborview under the pressure of isolation and threats when the metropolis down the hill is attacked by terrorists. Martial law and news reports of bio-terrorist events in the city frighten the population normally used to a quiet, rural atmosphere. Some are inclined to take the law into their own hands instead of leaving it to the local sheriff. Others see an opportunity to cash in on selling supplies. Most are just worri...

In three volumes Mark R. Turner offers selected essays which he posted with illustrations in his blog throughout the years 2016-2026. Responses to conditions and actions perpetrated by the Trump/MAGA regime, these present Mark's thoughts on resisting evil and maintaining the Good. The principles are timeless making the essays helpful for renewal in both the reader's personal life and the world at large. While Mark views his writing as contributions to the wider conversation, he hopes that ...

Twenty poems and six essays are paired with thirty-two works of art and photography in this contemplative volume by artist Mark R. Turner. The poems and essays are drawn from the past decade, 2013 to 2023, of Mark's 57-year career as a playwright, visual artist, filmmaker and teacher.This, his fifth volume of poetry, imparts new insights into the significance of our role as a conscious member of the earth, where we came from and where we are going. The essays come from his monthly b...

In the year 2449 Dr. Aurenne Bahn is about to become an historic superstar when her research culminates in reviving a person dead for 300 years. But in her day every experiment must be approved by some committee, in her case that of Cultural Antiquities. Agent Anton Epps is the key reviewer and, because he has his own plans for world power, he confiscates Aurenne's project for his own uses. There is no way to avoid this disaster until James, an odd old man, finds his way into her lab and o...

A strange tale about off beat people living on the edge in the middle of normal society. It is not clear when or where the story takes place, except that it seems rural. Poetry seems to be a normal mode of conversation for these people. Yet, their circumstances are very concrete in the life-and-death, work-a-day, here and now. A desperate family in a life and death struggle needs their mysterious leader to come from a distance and help them, but he is too late. Now what can he do?Th...

A collection of sweet, tender, poetic, beautiful, heart-wrenching, sensual love stories.These stories share a common theme of love, set in a time period before cell phones and social media."Second Best" by B. L. Aldrich, performed by Hillary Huber. 1944. The South. Can a heartbroken young woman learn to love again?"Didn't It Rain" by Kathryn Burns, performed by Becca Balanger. 1964. Manchester. A teenager realizes her love for music...and for a girl."The Pai...