Brenda Asterino’s Pathways is a meditation in verse. The cadence in her verses is the heartbeat of the soul. Her striking similes remind me of passages from the Puranas, the Bhagavad-Gita or Buddha’s wisdom. Brenda’s words resonate through the fibers and molecules within the body. Her approach to observation goes beyond the translucid, fragile wings of the bees, the blueness beyond the horizon, the light behind closed doors and the soul within the heart. Life’s fragility is exposed, manifested like a teeter-totter as the poet questions the beliefs created by the cultures we’ve built around us, never sinking but leveling off on the face of this Earth. I am delighted by the element of surprise, the twirls of the humankind as the author beacons us to continue to dance the rhythm of life. —Raúl Sánchez, City of Redmond Poet Laureate.