Tavius

The above picture is just hours after I was released having served
nearly 12 months in Santa Clara County Jail fighting 2 strikes due to
bar related violence. Thankfully, I was able to spend most of my time
in a program dorm learning about the disease of addiction, and
treatment. Much of the life I lead in the Disease of Addiction was in
denial until being found "Passed Out Under a Car Bleeding to Death",
(while out on bail for assault with a deadly weapon).

This book outlines my introspective reflection of my life in light of the
program I attended while incarcerated learning about the Disease of
Addiction. Some of the events throughout the year I was locked up
are accounted for as writing became my survival, sanity, and savior.

This picture depicts a changed man, 6 months Sober about to enter a
half way house and continue recovery on the streets and a new life.
Everything in this book had been written already, between the time of
the mug shot at the top of the page, and the image above this text
upon release.

Much of this book is creative verse, or lyrical imagistic poetry. None of
the writing alone is worthy of publication, in my opinion, but together,
as an account of the time and having been written to help survive
serves some greater purpose than literary merit alone.

I hope to convey, ultimately, that no matter how bad it gets, it can
always get better or worse depending on the choices we make. I hope
some read this book and realize where they might end up and not
make the same mistakes. I hope that those who read this and can find
comfort in my creative expression of relating to our similar experiences
and the realities involved. I hope some, whether a victim of
themselves in this way, or not, are able to better understand some of
the dynamics involved with this great issue which plagues our society.

The more global reality I learned is that most everyone incarcerated is
there because of acting under the influence, untreated for mental
illness and the disease of addiction. Most people locked up could
have a much better life if given the resources. However, we as a
country would rather ignore, lock up, and keep secret our problems
rather than offer the real solutions. Meantime, crime continues,
addicts go untreated, prisons over populate, and our society has bred
some of the worst criminals and criminality in History.

Tavius Dyer, March 1st, 2007

"Philosopher Stoned – Incarcerated by Tavius Dyer is an amazing
collection of fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and essay—a moving
and lively celebration of life, a testament of survival and recovery. The
clipped blunt poetry captures the sense and insensibility of this
philosopher in his world, attempting, as he says, to “speak pain into
love.” There is a keen imagination at work here. We are given an inside
view of life incarcerated, but more than that an inside view of someone
struggling with the prison of addiction, struggling to transcend the
limiting dichotomy of a “still silent prayer/ or/ an empty playground.” In
both the fiction and his poems, Tavius uses startling and vibrant images,
employing all the senses, to let us see his world. We see it in “Must
Everything,” among other poems, as he explores the “puzzle/ [he has]
not yet/ picked up the pieces/ and put back together.” The tale told here
is a compelling one, both frightening and uplifting, and we are grateful
for being shown the extremes, for Tavius's generous spirit as he guides
us through darkness and into the light."

Suzanne Helfman
De Anza College, English Instructor
Author, Night Driving

April 16th, 2007

Tavius Dyer—

"philosopher, poet, survivor—both confronts and reinvents
himself in this honest first book of cross-genre reflection,
startling recollection, and recurring epiphany. You’ll be
surprised by the intensity of both the prose and the poetry here.
Dyer offers rhythmic and vividly imagined views of multiple
isolations. But he is also deeply fed by his immersions into
language, and he surfaces with compelling artifacts of both
incarceration and inspiration. While incarcerated, Dyer writes of
his own scars, “burrowed beneath/ the thin dark hairs of my
arm… stories of white light & marigolds/ I have not yet seen.” As
William Carlos Williams wrote, “it is difficult to get the news from
poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found
there.” Tavius Dyer has been discovering “what is found there”
and is bringing us the news."

Ken Weisner, author of The Sacred Geometry of Pedestrians

Please send checks for $20 to Resonant Frequency Records 5205 Prospect Rd. #135-104 San Jose, CA 95129 along with your shipping address for a
pre-order copy to help fund the project. This will allow entry into the release party July 28th 4pm at Mission City 2221 The Alameda Santa Clara Ca,
95050 for the book reading and signing along with guest musical performances from local band Reflektiv and local singer/song writer Gerald Lee. If you
are unable to attend the event, a signed copy with be mailed to you. Thank you for your support! --Tavius