Meher Baba's Life & Travels
Irma Sheppard
Irma Sheppard immigrated to the USA in 1962 via Canada and Germany. She has lived on the edges of this country, and for the past 30-some years in Tucson, AZ with her husband and a succession of cats. She is a psychotherapist in private practice. Her short story "The Human Touch: A Triptych" won the Martindale Literary Award in 2000, and was published in Kaleidoscope. Her short story, "A Real Piece of India" was published in SandScript and in Portrait. She edited and co-authored Beads on One String Tour 2010 and Beads-on-One-String Heartland Pilgrimage 2013. Her books of poems and creative non-fiction include Inheritance and Where Love Could Take Me. She is preparing her next book, The Well of Longing, for publication in 2015.
Courtesy of Amazon.com
True account of a woman's adventures from refugee childhood in Germany at the end of WW II to emigration to Canada and to the United States. Her travels led her back to Germany, to Greece and to India in search of everlasting love and Meher Baba. Written in prose and poetry.
Paperback
2014
Self Published
288 pp.
The Well of Longing is a book of poems which trace from the author's childhood through adulthood and into senior years, a time span of seventy years, the stepping stones leading toward increased awareness, love and longing for the Presence of God. The opening poem consists of an unconventional view of the long scapegoated Judas, showing him in a true light as the loving and well-loved disciple of Jesus. Part Two presents the impact of growing spiritual awareness on the author's every day life situations. It describes the author's personal experience of the Presence of Avatar Meher Baba, and the continuing fragrance of His Love in her life. Many of the poems in Part Three of the book are meditative in nature, comprised of thoughts and intuitions which arose in the author 's daily life, as relationships and nature reflected some knitting together of spiritual value and sensory or emotional experience. Some poems touch on God's role as Trickster-the One Who makes happen what needs to happen, contrary to conventional reason and logic. A prevailing use of strong imagery brings the reader immediately into the author's personal experience. The poems are written in various styles: free form, pantoum, ghazal, haiku.
2015
Self Published
92 pp.
"The poems in Inheritance explore all that is said (and left unsaid) within families. The lingering bruises of abuse and broken relationships, the universal heartbreak of lost children, and the understanding age brings, all lie in the spaces between the lines. The language resonates like "a fine-toothed wind, bellwether of dark desires." And in the end I was left with the image of a father's favorite spoon, discovered in an attic, whose previous owners had been forced by the Nazis to "relocate." - Susan Cummins Miller, author of Fracture
2015
Self Published
68 pp.
101 Tales of Finding Love : Volume 1
101 Tales of Finding Love : Volume 2
101 Tales of Finding Love :
Volume 3
2019 - July
Published by : Karl Moeller & Irmhild Sheppard
448 pages
Paperback
Meher Baba's Samadhi -
Tales from the Beloved's Tomb
2020 - September
Published by : Anne Barker
244 pages
Paperback
The Thread of His Love: Mandalas and Haiku
Authors : Irma Sheppard & Karl Moeller
2020 - August
Published by : Irma Sheppard
90 pages
Paperback
Raindreams
2021 - August
Published by : Irma Sheppard
30 pages
Paperback
Irma wrote Raindreams in 1982 in Norfolk, revised it in Tucson and waited until she found the exact right illustrator to publish it in Asheville in 2021.
Cat Tales
2024
Published by : Irma Sheppard
52 pages
Paperback
Where are you from ?
2024
Published by : Irma Sheppard
262 pages
Paperback
Summary :
Where Are You From? explores a number of "first time" experiences of the author, leading her to further emotional and/or spiritual understanding and awareness. From age 2 in wartime Germany to age 5 in the process of emigrating from postwar Germany and settling in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, she details the moments of expansion in her life. Since her parents are absorbed in the challenges of surviving in Germany and then Canada, the author has only her older sister and Who she eventually determines to be God to guide her through innumerable challenging moments. She traces her places of residence in the United States: Long Island NY, Michigan, Venice Beach CA, Norfolk VA, Tucson AZ,
Asheville NC. At age 36, she experiences the presence of Avatar Meher Baba, which dramatically turns her life in a new direction. Summers in Europe and months in India afford her the excitement and growth of new friendships. Several "last time" experiences trace her process of overcoming grief and regret. From ages 2 to 80, she details significant memories, presenting them as a series of colorful snapshots. Yet the depth of her perceptions ever deepens. Haiku and other pithy poems intersperse these stories. Numerous photographs illustrate the unfolding of her life events.
Unveiling the Burleson House
by irma sheppard
We enter, examine the house room by room,
hall, closet and cellar, upstairs
and down, as if it were a newborn--
in wonder and delight we discover
the grace in each fingernail and toe.
Baba is our constant Companion
in the eye of each smile,
in the sweetness of our greetings,
in the rose on the teacup,
in the heart of every song.
His all-seeing eyes follow us
from His photographs on the walls.
He blesses our pilgrimage,
our tea and cookies, songs and stories,
our quiet sitting, the humming in our veins.
Under His gracious gaze we meet long lost kin.
All my relatives, we say.
All my children, He says.
How happy I am you are here, He says.
How happy we are that You are here, we say.
Here, we are the American Dream Family
gathered whole again, indivisible
in the American Dream Home--
Meher Baba dreaming us
into the Reality of His Love.
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You Alone Are Kissed On the lips on the nose fingertips between the toes You alone are kissed. On the forehead between the eyes on cheek or neck between the sighs You alone are kissed. On the hair on a shoulder over the heart growing bolder You alone are kissed. On the elbows on the knees anywhere I darn well please You alone are kissed. Under the palms on the street in the doorway how discreet You alone are kissed. Under an umbrella in the rain under an elm in the lane You alone are kissed. In the morning at high noon in dusky evening under crescent moon Baba, You alone are kissed! --Irma Sheppard |
