Ten Poems to Open Your Heart - Softcover

Housden, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 034082980X ISBN 13: 9780340829806

Publisher: Mobius, 2004

Synopsis

Devoted to the experience of love, this book presents ten poems that can stir in each of us one of the deepest, most powerful sensations known to mankind. Guiding us through the beautifully expressed thoughts of ten individual poets, Housden invites us to explore the full range of love, from the intimately personal, to love for fellow man, for the world and for God. Taking each poem in turn, we follow Housden's personal exploration of its themes as he unlocks the poem's meaning in the context of his own life. From his commentary we are offered an insight into the author's spiritual journey through love, as well as the chance to appreciate the poems themselves.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Ten Poems to Open Your Heart is a book devoted to love: to the intimacy of personal love and lovemaking, to a loving compassion for others, and to the love that embraces both this world and the next. This new volume from Roger Housden features a few of the same poets as his extraordinarily moving Ten Poems to Change Your Life, such as Mary Oliver and Pablo Neruda, along with contributions from Sharon Olds, Wislawa Szymborska, Czeslaw Milosz, Denise Levertov, and others. Any one of the ten poems and, indeed, any one of Housden’s reflections on them, can open, gladden, or pierce your heart.

Through the voices of these ten inspiring poets, and through illustrations from his own life, Housden expresses the tenderness, beauty, joys, and sorrows of love, the presence of which, more than anything else, gives human existence its meaning.

As Housden says in his eloquent introduction, “Great poetry happens when the mind is looking the other way and words fall from the sky to shape a moment that would normally be untranslatable. . . . When the heart opens, we forget ourselves and the world pours in: this world, and also the invisible world of meaning that sustains everything that was and ever shall be.”

About the Author

Roger Housden gives public recitals of poetry from the world's great literary and spiritual traditions. He is the author of nine books, including Sacred America: The emerging spirit of the people, and Travels Through Sacred India. He lives in Northern California with his wife.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mobius
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 034082980X
• ISBN 13: 9780340829806
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144