Dangerous Poetry for Dangerous Times!
(Also available in the author's audiobook narration)
Hailed as "an exemplar of epic poetry" (San Francisco Review of Books), Abdiel LeRoy conjures otherworldly scenes where angels battle, the Almighty thunders, and prophets call down fire. That he does so in verse — and with the inspirations of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and John Milton's Paradise Lost — brings Heaven to Earth on imagined wing...
1. Elijah
Israel. 9th-century BC. Jezebel has killed the true prophets of the Lord, and Elijah must flee her wrath...
Beneath the Juniper of fragrant breath,
Its scant shade bringing comfort nonetheless,
A long-locked man collapses, prays for death,
A fugitive, alone, voicing distress,
All hope abandoned in the wilderness.
"It is enough now, Lord, I can no more!"
And lays his head upon the desert floor...
But he is not alone. Embraced by a shapeshifting goddess, counseled by a great angel, he is empowered to call down fire from Heaven.
Occasionally raunchy, but always reverent, this book is a revelation in poetic and prophetic fire.
“Fun, interesting, and entertaining, with elements of a heroic quest, pure fantasy, and sexy romance.”
Karen Siddall
“The telling was riveting, and you don’t need to know the story ahead of time to be moved by it.”
Kit Donner
2. Jezebel's Lament
Jezebel. Yes, that Jezebel. The queen whose name for millennia has stood for female wickedness. Killer of innocents. Seducer of priests. And the Old Testament's greatest supervillain!
Not so fast, says Jezebel herself…
That I might rise from infamy to fame,
I've told the teller of Elijah's tale —
That vile prophet, how I hate the name —
My own story to balance the portrayal!...
Not "harlot queen", she insists, but "virgin bride", not murderer but moderate, and certainly not the bad guy in her struggle with the prophet Elijah, that "unkempt fire-and-brimstone hairy hermit", and his successor Elisha.
This royal rant will transport you to one of the Bible's greatest showdowns, and into the mind of a fearsome antagonist.
“An epic tale, Biblically based, but with considerable writer’s freedom that makes the book wholly entertaining.”
San Francisco Review of Books
3. Obama's Dream
Speaking Truth to Power. Rebuking Power. A Poet's Calling.
Like another Elijah, LeRoy tears down the facade of empire in this epic poem sent to the White House in 2015. Without fear or favor for Democrat or Republican, he takes the president on a Scrooge-like journey through time and space and otherworldly encounter, even to the throne of God, to show him the errors of his ways.
Yet this verse novel is woven with comedic scenes throughout, testifying to the wit of a master storyteller. The result is transformational, both for a man and for all humanity.
"A new realm of reading."
#1 Author, Top-20 of 2018, Amy's Bookshelf Reviews.
"This is the fourth book by LeRoy that I’ve reviewed, and hands down, uncontested, it is far and away the most hilarious… immensely entertaining, well researched, creative, thought-out, and delivered."
William Mortensen Vaughan