Mother Poems and A Crack in Time (Paperback or Softback)

From the Introduction
I began writing Mother Poems during a turbulent time in my spiritual life. Composers of spiritual poetry from India, such as Ramprasad Sen and Lal Ded, give us permission to express anger, sadness, and frustration alongside more conventional devotional feelings. They show us that our highly personal relationships with God and Guru do not demand we exile any variety of human expression.

On October 7, 2023, a larger turbulence erupted. My poetry and other writings took a sharp turn toward documenting my responses to the first live-streamed genocide in human history. A Crack in Time is an outpouring of tenderness and admiration, of horror and grief. It enumerates crimes and speaks innumerable pleas.

These two groups of poems contain much of what could be called prayer. While always devotional, they each attempt to bring disruption, doubt, cruelty, clarity, and chaos onto our paths of awakening. I gathered them together in one book as a modest demonstration that all aspects of life are connected, and so are we.

Gaza Mo(u)rning

I wake up.
The neighborhood is full of sunlight and birds.
I make my tea and start scrolling the
buildings and bodies
bombed while I was sleeping.
Then some mornings I just have to bow down.
On the kitchen table
I rest my forehead in my hands
and begin to pray.

Shambhavi Sarasvati is the spiritual director of Jaya Kula, a nonprofit community offering opportunities to learn and practice in the direct realization traditions of Trika Shaivism and Dzogchen. Jaya Kula is located in Portland, Oregon. Find out more about Jaya Kula and Shambhavi's teaching schedule at jayakula.org.Shambhavi holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Mills College and a Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University. Before founding Jaya Kula, Shambhavi taught comparative literature and new media studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of an academic book about posthumanism and seven books about spiritual life and practice. These days, much of her creative output can be found at kindred108.love.