The Soul is Here for Its Own Joy: Sacred Poems from Many Cultures - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 088001475X ISBN 13: 9780880014755

Publisher: Ecco, 1999

Synopsis

Robert Bly's ground-breaking anthology of spiritual poems, the result of over a decade of personal research, celebrates the ongoing role of the divine in literature. For as long as people have lived together in communities and built enduring cultures, they have sung and written about their relationship with the God or gods they believed in. In the words of the Irish writer Sean O'Faolain, "all good writing in the end is the writer's argument with God."

The Soul Is Here For Its Own Joy gathers poems from a wide range of cultures and traditions and divides them into ten parts, each forming a resonant exploration of a specific and timeless spiritual question. Selections include the work of Dante, Dogen, Goethe, Hafez, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Kabir, Lalla, Li Po, Mirabai, Mary Oliver, Owl Woman, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Rumi, in addition to Blake, Dickinson, Donne, Hopkins, Stevens, Yeats, and other important English and American poets. Together these poems form both a celebration and a quest--a kind of pilgrim's progress that embraces all the rich wisdom of East and West, ancient and modern, male and female, spirit and flesh.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Bly's books of poetry include The Night Abraham Called to the Stars and My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy. His awards include the National Book Award for poetry and two Guggenheims. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Review:

Prayer To The Mother by Lucius Apuleius
The Newborn by Farid-uddin Attar
A Hole In The Basket by Bhartrihari
Introduction by William Blake
The New [or, Building Of] Jerusalem [or, To The Christians] by William Blake
The Dweller by Robert Bly
To The Tree-brother With A Few Days Left by Rene Char
The Stricken Deer by William Cowper
Voyages: 2 by Harold Hart Crane
Amor And The Courteous Heart by Dante Alighieri
The Woman I Adore by Dante Alighieri
The Hemlock by Emily Dickinson
I'm Ceded - I've Stopped Being Theirs by Emily Dickinson
Immortality by Emily Dickinson
The Journey by Emily Dickinson
We Thirst At First by Emily Dickinson
Wild Nights! Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson
Coming Or Going by Dogen
This Cloud by Dogen
From Divine Meditations: Sonnet I by John Donne
The Mysteries Remain by Hilda Doolittle
The Holy Longing by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The Second Poem The Night-walker Wrote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
To Juan At The Winter Solstice by Robert Ranke Graves
A Flower No More Than Itself by Linda Gregg
Raise Me Up, Lord by Miguel De Guevara
In The Great Sweetness Of The Spring by Guillaume De Poitiers
Knowing Love In Herself by Hadewijch
Love's Maturity by Hadewijch
The Garden by Hafiz Of Shiraz
The Grace Of The Teacher by Hafiz Of Shiraz
Joseph The Lost Will Return by Hafiz Of Shiraz
The Lost Daughter by Hafiz Of Shiraz
The Pearl On The Ocean Floor by Hafiz Of Shiraz
When The One I Love by Hafiz Of Shiraz
Praise For Death by Donald Hall
Ghazal 96 by Bibi Hayati
A Dialogue Between God And The Soul by George Herbert
The Pulley by George Herbert
All The Fruit by Johann Christian Friedrich Holderlin
Bread And Wine: Part 7 by Johann Christian Friedrich Holderlin
God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The Habit Of Perfection by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Heaven-haven; A Nun Takes The Veil by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The Immanent by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The Starlight Night by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Chastity by Ibn Faraj
Separation By Death by Ibn Hazm
The Visit Of The Beloved by Ibn Hazm
Sssh by Rolf Jacobsen
The Animal Soul by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Bread by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Breaking The Dragon by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
A Chickpea Leaps by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Come To The Orchard In Spring by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
The Drunkards by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Eating Poetry by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
The Edge Of The Roof by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
The Force Of Friendship by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
The Hawk by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
I Have Such A Teacher by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Idle Questions by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
The Instruments by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
The Jar With The Dry Rim by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Jesus On The Lean Donkey by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Longing For The Birds Of Solomon by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Love Dogs by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
The Mill, The Stone, And The Water by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Names by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Night And Sleep by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
On Resurrection Day by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Praising Manners by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Say Yes Quickly by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
A Small Green Island by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
The Snake-catcher And The Frozen Snake by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Someone Digging In The Ground by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Sometimes I Forget Completely by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
That Journeys Are Good by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
These Spiritual Windowshoppers by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Two Poems By Rumi by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Who Makes These Changes by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Who Says Words With My Mouth by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Dawn Outside The City Walls by Juan Ramon Jimenez
I Am Not I by Juan Ramon Jimenez
Oceans by Juan Ramon Jimenez
A Remembrance Is Moving by Juan Ramon Jimenez
Remorse by Juan Ramon Jimenez
The Boat by Kabir
Breath by Kabir
The Caller by Kabir
The Clay Jug by Kabir
The Cloth by Kabir
The Failure by Kabir
The Flute by Kabir
Friend, Please Tell Me What I Can Do About This World by Kabir
The Hearse by Kabir
Music by Kabir
The Pitcher by Kabir
A Place To Sit by Kabir
Rice by Kabir
The Sound by Kabir
Sound Of Seashells by Kabir
The Spinning Wheel by Kabir
The Swan by Kabir
The Swing by Kabir
The Time Before Death by Kabir
The Unknown Flute by Kabir
What I Said To The Wanting-creature by Kabir
Why Should We Part by Kabir
Evening Hymn [or Prayer] by Thomas Ken
Briefly It Enters, And Briefly Speaks by Jane Kenyon
The Footprint by Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan
Daybreak by Galway Kinnell
Four Questions by Lalla
Men And Women Now, Even The Best by Lalla
The Soul, Like The Moon by Lalla
There Is A Lake by Lalla
You Were Once A Swan by Lalla
Your Way Of Knowing by Lalla
The Shulamite by Else Lasker-schuler
Conversation In The Mountains by Li Po
Written On A Monastery Wall by Li Shang-yin
Is My Soul Asleep by Antonio Machado Ruiz
Last Night by Antonio Machado Ruiz
Proverbs And Tiny Songs: 11 by Antonio Machado Ruiz
Proverbs And Tiny Songs: 12 by Antonio Machado Ruiz
Proverbs And Tiny Songs: 2 by Antonio Machado Ruiz
Proverbs And Tiny Songs: 6 by Antonio Machado Ruiz
Proverbs And Tiny Songs: 7 by Antonio Machado Ruiz
Rainbow At Night by Antonio Machado Ruiz
Sorrow, It Is Not True That I Know You by Antonio Machado Ruiz
The Wind, One Brilliant Day by Antonio Machado Ruiz
When Do I Join You by Mahadevi
How Shall I Begin My Song by Juana Manwell
A Dialogue Between The Soul And Body by Andrew Marvell
What Wondrous Life Is This I Lead! by Andrew Marvell
Sonnet 12 by Edna St. Vincent Millay
All I Was Doing Was Breathing by Mirabai
Ankle Bells by Mirabai
The Clouds by Mirabai
The Coffer With The Poisonous Snake by Mirabai
Don't Go, Don't Go by Mirabai
Faithfulness by Mirabai
The Heat Of Midnight Tears by Mirabai
His Hair by Mirabai
I Was Going To The River For Water by Mirabai
It's True I Went To The Market by Mirabai
The Music by Mirabai
O My Friends by Mirabai
Why Mira Can't Go Back To Her Old House by Mirabai
White Buffalo Woman by John Gneisenau Neihardt
Maybe by Mary Oliver
From Like To The Arctic Needle by Francis Quarles
Loss Of Memory by Kathleen Jessie Raine
And Where Is He? by Rainer Maria Rilke
I Find You In All These Things Of The World by Rainer Maria Rilke
I Have Many Brothers In The South by Rainer Maria Rilke
In This Town by Rainer Maria Rilke
Sometimes A Man by Rainer Maria Rilke
Sunset by Rainer Maria Rilke
Whoever Grasps by Rainer Maria Rilke
You Are The Future by Rainer Maria Rilke
When The Days Grow Long In May by Jaufre Rudel
To Aphrodite Of The Flowers, At Knossos by Sappho
Leave Me, O Love by Philip Sidney
For The Flowers Are Great Blessings by Christopher Smart
There Is No One by Edith Sodergran
Roll Call by William Edgar Stafford
The Old Lutheran Bells At Home by Wallace Stevens
Dusk by Rabindranath Tagore
For The Goddess Of Love by Rabindranath Tagore
The Meeting Missed by Rabindranath Tagore
The Message by Rabindranath Tagore
Merlin's Riddle by Alfred Tennyson
The Name by Tomas Transtromer
The Scattered Congregation by Tomas Transtromer
I Sing Of A Maiden by Anonymous
In Praise Of Sophia (from Proverbs 3: 11-20) by Anonymous
Lord Help Me (french Medieval Prayer) by Anonymous
Lord, You Called by Anonymous
The Red Goddess (laksmi) From Hymn To Tirumal by Anonymous
To Nature. Orphic Hymn by Anonymous
Man Frail And God Eternal by Isaac Watts
A Voice by William Butler Yeats
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 088001475X
• ISBN 13: 9780880014755
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 268
• Editor: Robert Bly