By Andy Fleming
Backing Down the Ladder offers original poetry by a former corporate climber who now helps to create organizational cultures where both humans and business flourish. It is a book of poetry for those who want to live and work more deeply from their own center, even if it means backing down the ladder. Fleming provides humorous, heartfelt, and profound poetry that draws from his own self-examination process as well as observations about the organizational world and beyond. “Consulting and poetry are linked,” he says, “because both require that you look down into the essence of something and find or create language to describe what you see. In both domains, I try to offer an insight, image, or framework, as well as companionship, for anyone looking for a pathway toward flourishing in this world.”
“Andy writes rich, heartfelt poetry on behalf of all of us who are wrestling with the profound challenges we encounter in the second half of life. When I feel disconnected from my heart and life, his poems bring me home again.”
“Fleming addresses timeless, universal themes in a clear, contemporary voice. It is a warm, wise, and welcome voice and one deserving a careful hearing.”
“These poems are laced with ironic humor yet never without compassion. Straight from the belly, the reader is led on a deepening trail of transformation. They are a story of a man growing down.”
