Explore, in depth, pages which are passages for a reader, from adolescent age, to beyond; Experience life, doubt, enchantment and longing. Journey to lands, charted and uncharted. Escape and belong within circles stone~ Susan Marie Ratcliffe's poetry is some of the richest, cleverest, most dramatic, emotional, seductive, incitefully insightful, imaginative and impactful, "spiritually cranial" and creative, beautiful verse I have read. She has an amazingly imagery-laden and nonconformist way of expressing multifaceted love the likes of which I have never seen, imagined, contemplated, conjured. Her work exemplifies her perceptions which are spiritually edifying in a fanciful and majestic way. She perceives, lives, exists, intuitively and spiritually, with a freedom devoid limits, seeing the "big picture" of life, love, and spirit more clearly and deeply, beyond the tendency many either dare to reach, reason, delve, see, ponder, even dream or even realize exists. Her etchings are a scented, flavored, exotic breath of fresh, refined, enchanted and enchanting, wholesomely nourishing, nutrient-saturated soul air which flows with a freedom emanating from within. In her work, the reader can feel, not just detect or see, what a passionate mother, lover, writer, artist, and soul being she is. She has eyes of wonder - physical, emotional, mental, spiritual third eyes - remarkably mature and deep-set, deep-seeing eyes which perceive, interpret, and attract wonder through the expression of her words of enlightenment, awareness, sentience, spirituality. The Spirit Within begins gently, immerses in love, then plunges into her depths, setting up a beautifully done collage of mixing themes whichgradually moves toward sensuality, then yet more depth of soul, world, and life, ending in peaceful resolutions and revelations of acceptance and tranquility in this unbalanced, menacing, painful, frightening, doubt-inducing, chaotic, warlike, disconcerting, peace-averting life and world we live IN but, as she so acutely, musically, and beautifully reminds us, are not OF. We are IN this world and life only for a limited time during which we explore, experience, remember, create, recognize, manifest, evolve, advance, learn, and become. This echoes as the main theme of Susan Marie Ratcliffe's book, that what begins at a glance becomes observation, meditation, beautification, personification, and love and ends with contemplation, summarization, conclusion, reflection, and peace. She shows and reminds us that all of the beautiful reflections we see in existence originate from the metaphysical metamorphosis of The Spirit Within. Read from the book at: www.innercirclepublishing.com