Banks’s recounting of her outer journey in a physical body is seamlessly woven into the inner journey of her soul in this collection of breathtaking verse where a mastery of words and a spellbinding sense of presence become the vehicles for revelation. Her past, present, and future are anchored in the eternal rather than the linear. Mystical moments of suspended belief and forays into other dimensions are as real as encounters with the natural world. No matter how small the moment or object, it becomes a beacon in a universe far larger than we think. Yet, despite their tender beauty, there is nothing glorified about Banks’s observations. She doesn’t shy away from hardship or writing about her rare, incurable illness. Her gracious words encourage us to embrace life and death as part of a continuum shared by all the living. Here, in Into the Ether, is a world of hope that readers will want to return to again and again.

Praise for Into the Ether

“Kate Bank’s poetry revels in the exquisite essence of everyday things and the spirituality of the undiscovered. Into the Ether is a journey into the elusive and the incarnate, into self, and into the margins. Each poem builds a history, layered like sediment, of a life of observations, of tragedy, of connection, with one inevitable conclusion. Kate’s calm tone and vivid imagery remind us that we all have time to grow, to appreciate, to see, and ultimately, chart our own course into the ether. These are works you’ll surely return to again and again.”

—JW McAteer, Publisher, Etched Onyx Magazine

“How tempting it is to describe the poetry of Into the Ether as breathtaking. Tempting…but completely off the mark. The usual descriptors simply don’t capture the beautiful and brutal vitalities of Bank’s opusI where shes holds the purity of paradox in a resolute embrace. She finds home in the thin places, the forests where the thin veil between the familiar world and the ‘other’ world offers us a glimpse of the sacred seam where ‘silence is distilled from a hundred sounds’ and life and death collide. It is from these locations that pinecones swim upstream and become fish; where wounds, trauma, and broken souls are an alchemy that produces ‘the gold of human existence.’ Similarly, Bank’s intimacy with the natural world is expressed through reverence. Never does her poetry devolve into prettification. The gorgeous pink blossoms of ‘Oleanders’ standing guard on the sacred seam of road and turf with their long, tapered leaves might just as surely be poisoned pistols. She mourns the shredded remains of a bird, the mountain boulders that fell trees and demolish the perfect world of sandcastles and mudpies. Yet she senses that all is holy and ephemeral, from the grand sanctuaries of ancient Rome to the mounds of dog shit on the sidewalk. Throughout Banks offers us a glimpse into the world where she is a part of all, but attached to nothing; where many become one, and one becomes many. She invites the reader to savor the scanty moments of stillness and to befriend death, knowing that death is another beginning. Into the Ether is a summons to journey with her Soul Body and an invitation to embrace our own, if only we dare.”

—Dr. Maureen Walker

“Kate Banks brings beauty to life in moments of simple remembance. She invites the reader to walk with her as she finds joy and is touched by pain. Her images are blessings.....stunning. Her love goes straight to the heart. The words are gentle, clear, breath-giving, breath-taking, heart-warming and heart-breaking. My tears speak my gratitude. Thank you, Kate.”

—Judith V. Jordan PhD. Associate professor Harvard Medical School, Founding Scholar Relational-Cultural Theory

“CS Lewis suggested we read to know we are not alone. In poetry, I would add, we read to feel that even in our aloneness, we belong. Kate Bank’s poetry gently dares us to stare into the sun of our shared humanity—bravely refusing to blink whether we’re seeing into the ‘cracks of eternity,’ ‘beguiled by the beauty’ of ancient timber, or refusing to ‘burn the roots’ of our beloveds. Kate embraces the burden of being poetically sourced by the Muses with diligent grace, recanting stories of the mystical landscapes of her youth and her lived mysteries thereafter as only a ‘scribe of the Celestial Soup’ could master. Her poems are a literary Cirque du Soleil—words and metaphors trapeze artists on the page. So aptly titled, Into the Ether is as gripping and grounding as it is transcendent. Read it to be reminded you are not alone and you belong.”

—Beth Hartman McGilley, PhD, FAED, CEDS-S Licensed Clinical Psychologist Fellow, Academy for Eating Disorders Certified Eating Disorders Specialist/Supervisor

“Kate Banks’s poetry infuses me with the sense that literally everything is alive! Plants twist and climb, insects protest, clouds nourish, branches make wishes, the wind turns over in its sleep, the seasons know where to find us, stones weather the drub of footsteps and in soup support our bones, chairs are waiting with arms spread wide, mountains buck boulders, olive trees rouse the pines and sycamores and know thing we don’t, the equator tightens its belt, when the moon speaks ‘wolf’ you can hear the voice of God, emptiness gives birth, stillness grieves, what has not yet happened is vibrant, the gold of humanity is found on the margins of society, death is another beginning, even a bullet leads to seeing God everywhere. In her poem saints and mystics, Banks writes: ‘I have become accustomed to their vapors lingering in my space... They move through my life like others, infusing me with hope and strength.’ In Kate I found a companion. I could not stop moving with her from poem to poem taking in the vapors, feeling myself lifted and then noticing the world around me become more vivid and alive!”

—William Larkin, Faith Lead, the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign.