Overview

"The Tatanka Oyate (Buffalo People) believe we all have a place in The Circle, and the entireties of our perceptions will be formed by our vantage point within this circle. By way of sculpture, short stories, prose, and poetry, I attempt to share what I see. I hope the reader will find this book to be at times raw, other times loving or humorous, and always honest. It's an honesty that on occasions has kept my work from being shown: A sculpture of a wolf was commissioned for a veterinarian's office. When it was installed, the doctor was pleased, but many of his dog patients cowered or growled. It was soon removed. Within the Native American community, my sculpture of Tatanka Iyotake (Sitting Bull) has received favor, while the director of a European-American-produced Western art show wrote, ""The main comments from the jurors were that they liked the bear and cowboy pieces you submitted, but found the Native American bust to be dark and somewhat frightening."" From the Circle is an accounting of how I become reflective and see my connection to everything."

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9780990310280

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Reviews

This book is dangerous. Do you remember what it was like to be frail, vulnerable, and innocently invincible? Can you recall looking straight into the eyes of the dazzling earth into which you were roughly thrown at your birth? Are willing to recover the world you delighted in before the four walls constricted your fl uid body and your unfettered vision? The present collection of mixed media pleadingly calls the reader back to who you were in the fi rst decade of life. Perhaps the greatest praise for Richard's work comes from the dogs who growled at his wolf sculpture. It is impossible to have a neutral response to the stories, poetry, and photographs whose wildness is barely held together by the binding. In consuming these pages I found myself alternately growling like the dogs and wanting to nudge my head into the author's chest like the horse, Du y. Allow the author to stoke his forge and set your heart on fi re. -- Scott Whittaker, Benectine Monk From the Circle is Richard Heller's highly original, fascinating collection of stories, poems and images. Authentic and inspiring, the book resonates with Heller's devotion to creating meaning from his life experiences. Readers are fortunate to have such an insightful, honest, wonderfully entertaining guide through those experiences. From the Circle is a book to return to again and again. -- Holly Prado, Poet, Oh, Salt / Oh Desiring Hand, Cahuenga Press, 2013 Hephaestus, the spirit of fire, of sculptors, of artisans and blacksmiths, informs Richard Heller's From the Circle. Like Hephaestus, Richard is a magical maker. He loosens the light in his writing and his sculptures, He pours the light into his home and all the things he makes for it: gates, a fi re screen, towel racks, even hinges. Along with pen and computer, his tools are forges and welders, anvils and fi re. He fashions the light into a raven, into Sitting Bull, a wolf. He turns it into poems, stories, a novel. For forty years he hammered the light into shoes for horses in his long career as a farrier. All these are parts of the circle that is Richard's life. This book is also a love story, chronicling his love for horses and dogs, his wife, Lyra, and their son, Daniel. His son grabbed his fi nger after he was born, and Richard was lost, forever . . . Love had swallowed (his) heart. Like Hephaestus, Richard is married to love. This is a book of that charts his relationship with people and animals, and his relationship with craft. It is a story of hooves, of fi re, of travel, of an extraordinary life lived with honesty, passion and humility. -- Phoebe MacAdams, Poet, The Large Economy of the Beautiful: New and Selected Poems, Cahuenga Press, 2016

"""This book is dangerous. Do you remember what it was like to be frail, vulnerable, and innocently invincible? Can you recall looking straight into the eyes of the dazzling earth into which you were roughly thrown at your birth? Are willing to recover the world you delighted in before the four walls constricted your fl uid body and your unfettered vision? The present collection of mixed media pleadingly calls the reader back to who you were in the fi rst decade of life. Perhaps the greatest praise for Richard's work comes from the dogs who growled at his wolf sculpture. It is impossible to have a neutral response to the stories, poetry, and photographs whose wildness is barely held together by the binding. In consuming these pages I found myself alternately growling like the dogs and wanting to nudge my head into the author's chest like the horse, Du y. Allow the author to stoke his forge and set your heart on fi re."" -- Scott Whittaker, Benectine Monk ""From the Circle is Richard Heller's highly original, fascinating collection of stories, poems and images. Authentic and inspiring, the book resonates with Heller's devotion to creating meaning from his life experiences. Readers are fortunate to have such an insightful, honest, wonderfully entertaining guide through those experiences. From the Circle is a book to return to again and again."" -- Holly Prado, Poet, Oh, Salt / Oh Desiring Hand, Cahuenga Press, 2013 ""Hephaestus, the spirit of fire, of sculptors, of artisans and blacksmiths, informs Richard Heller's From the Circle. Like Hephaestus, Richard is a magical maker. He ""loosens the light"" in his writing and his sculptures, He pours the light into his home and all the things he makes for it: gates, a fi re screen, towel racks, even hinges. Along with pen and computer, his tools are forges and welders, anvils and fi re. He fashions the light into a raven, into Sitting Bull, a wolf. He turns it into poems, stories, a novel. For forty years he hammered the light into shoes for horses in his long career as a farrier. All these are parts of the circle that is Richard's life. This book is also a love story, chronicling his love for horses and dogs, his wife, Lyra, and their son, Daniel. His son grabbed his fi nger after he was born, and Richard ""was lost, forever . . . Love had swallowed (his) heart."" Like Hephaestus, Richard is married to love. This is a book of that charts his relationship with people and animals, and his relationship with craft. It is a story of hooves, of fi re, of travel, of an extraordinary life lived with honesty, passion and humility."" -- Phoebe MacAdams, Poet, The Large Economy of the Beautiful: New and Selected Poems, Cahuenga Press, 2016"

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