Journey Home c.2013, Olan L. Smith Journey Home is a collection of poems that is a personal search for my spiritual home. I go about this search with the tools of poetry using the English language as my map. Love, peace and freedom, Olan L. Smith

Annaliese Rose was the heir of the Orelinde Kingdom, daughter of King Fastolph and the deceased Queen Mareline. At the time of her mother’s death she was fourteen years of age, four years away from being crowned the new Queen of Orelinde. The death devastated the family and brought her father into a depressed and raging state of mind, which in turn lead to the clash of the Orelinde and Gamwich kingdoms. A war broke out between the two, a war that would last until a brave sacrifice. On the day of Annaliese’s seventeenth birthday, three years since the Elvish-Mage war had started, her father announed his engagement to Solstice Primula, the Queen of Gamwich. Three days after the announcement the two would be married and a war ended. The sacrifice would go unnoticed by Annaliese, until the day of his death, which would occur exactly one month from her eighteenth birthday. His death was a sudden one that would allow Solstice to become the primary ruler of both kingdoms, an event that would change the course of Annaliese’s life. For on the day before eighteenth birthday, during her crowning rehearsal, and attempted assassination of Annaliese would take place by one hired by someone within the royal family. Fingers were pointed and Queen Solstice was the main suspect. The crowning was to be put on hold until the day the Queen, herself, tried to kill her step-daughter, the day that Annaliese made a run for her life.

Daniel Sheppard's life as a priest was continually filled with controversy. His thirst for knowledge and his desire to question everything ruffled feathers within the church, but his passion and inspiration moved and stimulated his parishioners. Going against the will of the Archbishop, Father Daniel joined Osiris, a group of scholars from various religions. Using their combined knowledge, and that of a leading quantum physicist, they sought answers to the deepest of questions. But even together, the forces of religious segregation sought to undermine all that they stood for. Daniel was no stranger to this sort of intrigue, but he did not expect this path would lead him toward one of the most amazing and wondrous spiritual revelations of the modern era.