The Bukhara Trilogy · Volume II
The second volume turns the journey inside out. Where Volume I traced the traveler's encounter with Bukhara through sensation, devotion, and longing, here the voice is not the arriving pilgrim but the city, the tradition, and the stones themselves. 360 poems that move through aphorism toward oracle — the voice compressed to its most durable form.
Where Volume I moved through sensation toward transcendence, Wisdom Stones of Bukhara moves through aphorism toward oracle. Each poem is a stone in the classical sense: a compressed insight intended to outlast the moment of its making, shaped to be turned over in the mind. The formal register is closer to the wisdom literature of Rumi's Masnavi and the lapidary compression of Omar Khayyam's rubai than to the lyric expansion of the first volume.
It is the structural counterpart to Volume I — the same 360-poem, twelve-movement architecture, but spoken in the city's own oracular voice. Readers familiar with aphoristic poetry will find this volume operating in that mode of durable brevity: it is meant to be returned to rather than finished.
Twelve sequences of stones:
Like its companion volume, Wisdom Stones is designed to be experienced on the page and in sound — the oracular mirror of Love Songs' lyric.
Companion Sound
Volume II's twelve sequences map to the same six classical maqams of Shashmaqam as Volume I — Bukhara's UNESCO-protected musical tradition — but voiced from the inside. Where the first volume's sound moves and longs, the second settles into stillness, knowing, and paradox: the compressed, oracular register of the stones themselves.
The ney remains the central instrument, its breath the wound of separation. Sufi dhikr and sama textures meet contemporary trance production, the maqam returning always to its home pitch.
The grand mode — awakening and first knowing.
The true and direct — truth turned to stone.
Melody and longing — desire seen from the far side.
Mystery and the sacred — paradox held still.
Memory and echo — what the stones remember.
Transformation and forever — the durable insight.
Coming June 13, 2026. The companion album streams on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and more. Visit the album page for links as they go live.
Retailer links for paperback, eBook, and audiobook — and the companion sound — will appear here at launch. Join our reader list to hear when it goes live, or contact us about review copies and interviews. Start with Volume I, Love Songs from Bukhara.