PART 1 Asleep in Fantasy He was not who I dreamed he was and I was unconscious in my fantasy. Past lives ignited the fi re of our connection. Without our past history and my family, my inner child would not have created this fantasy. But these past lives and my childhood were real. I needed to be asleep in fantasy, in order to fall in-between sleep and awake-and awaken to reality. "Wendy Kochenthal's poems shower us with insight, passion, and the wisdom of the heart. Her imagery is superb and her honesty is courageous as she leads the reader forward, deeper and deeper into self-realization. Wendy's talent for crafting and painting with words is mirrored in her creative pottery. This collection represents the best of a truly artistic life!" - Laura Lee Perkins, MS, musician, writer, spiritual intuitive "Wendy Kochenthal's intimate and powerful poems take the reader on a lyric journey into the darkness of childhood as experienced through the present lens of a poet and potter. Each image is a unique container of color of the poet's vivid imagination. This collection demonstrates the surprise of one art being told through another-one stage of life literally re-visioned through later wisdom. Passion, death and birth-interwoven, create a tapestry to treasure." - Katherine Soniat, author of Th e Swing Girl and A Raft, A Boat, A Bridge "In her latest collection of poems, Between Sleep and Awake, Wendy Kochenthal leads us on a journey through one of life's most sublime points of transition. She paints a remarkably rich landscape of the inner world of thought, hope, dreams, longing and inspiration; all brilliantly woven into a tapestry of prose, allegory, and playful wordsmithing. This collection is inspiring, provocative and a true joy to read-it is a 'do not miss' for all of us who love to dance in the spaces between." - Dr. Brad Rachman, author, lecturer, healer