Comments on: Books

By: Bryanna

Bryanna — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:39:11 +0000

Can I just say what a reduction to seek out somebody who truly knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You undoubtedly know tips on how to convey a difficulty to light and make it important. Extra people have to read this and perceive this facet of the story. I cant believe youre not more fashionable because you definitely have the gift.

By: Klara Swann

Klara Swann — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:49:58 +0000

What a wonderful source of poetry, I love receiving your daily poems, so often it lifts my heart and resonates with my own story x Bless you x

By: Vinod

Vinod — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:13:42 +0000

I have been looking for such information so long… A million thanks!

By: Medusa by Ivan! « thou-art-thy-creator

Medusa by Ivan! « thou-art-thy-creator — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:27:56 +0000

By: Warwick, Paul

Warwick, Paul — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:06:35 +0000

Ivan,
Many thanks for this exhaustive list of books of mysticism and mystical poetry. The only book on the subject of mystical poetry that I am familiar with, is Alan jacob’s extensive compilation published in the UK as “Poetry of the Spirit”. This sizeable work tends to focus on the mysical poets of the Western tradition although there is also a small amount on the Eastern poets.
I have become increasingly facinated by the works dealing with the mystical tradition within Christianity, a subject the official Church studiously avoids mentioning. A short list of works I would recommend to your (and others) attention would be Evelyn Underhill’s monumental “Mysticism”; the very readable “Mystics of the Christian Tradition” by the religious historian Steven Fanning; and “The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism”, an authoritative anthology by the Theologian and scholar, Bernard McGinn. Merton’s “New Seeds of Contemplation” is also recommended although it is well over twenty years since I read it and have largely forgotten its’ contents!
warm regards, Ivan and keep up the good work.

Warwick

By: marrob

marrob — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:18:37 +0000

Hi Ivan,

I was given a beautiful book on “Hafez – Teachings on the Philosopher of Love ”
by Haleh Pourafzal & Roger Montgomery published by Inner Traditions.
Hafez poetry & delightful in depth commentary. Very good Sufi company.
Just thought I’d mention it.

Grateful for your inspiring work.

By: aparna

aparna — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:02:10 +0000

Thank you Leila for the beautiful share. Beautiful, beautiful!!! (psst. are you the same Leila- my friend from fb??)

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:58:16 +0000

If you want to include sources found on the web, and prose poetry, I recommend on the Christian side, Thomas Traherne’s _Centuries of Mediation_. Traherne was a contempory of John Donne, but these short meditations were found long after his death around the turn of the 20th Century.

http://www.spiritofprayer.com/01century.php

By: leila

leila — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:44:53 +0000

Hi Ivan,
I was looking for Herman Hesse’s poems on chaikhana page,but nothing from him,i wonder if there is an empty place for him or not….i don’t know is he fit in scared poerty or not,maybe coz he wrote more novels rather than poems,but i just love him so much….

“The Poet” by Hermann Hesse

Only on me, the lonely one,
The unending stars of the night shine,
The stone fountain whispers its magic song,
To me alone, to me the lonely one
The colorful shadows of the wandering clouds
Move like dreams over the open countryside.
Neither house nor farmland,
Neither forest nor hunting privilege is given to me,
What is mine belongs to no one,
The plunging brook behind the veil of the woods,
The frightening sea,
The bird whir of children at play,
The weeping and singing, lonely in the evening, of a man secretly in love.
The temples of the gods are mine also, and mine
the aristocratic groves of the past.
And no less, the luminous
Vault of heaven in the future is my home:
Often in full flight of longing my soul storms upward,
To gaze on the future of blessed men,
Love, overcoming the law, love from people to people.
I find them all again, nobly transformed:
Farmer, king, tradesman, busy sailors,
Shepherd and gardener, all of them
Gratefully celebrate the festival of the future world.
Only the poet is missing,
The lonely one who looks on,
The bearer of human longing, the pale image
Of whom the future, the fulfillment of the world
Has no further need. Many garlands
Wilt on his grave,
But no one remembers him.

By: Beth

Beth — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:02:54 +0000

You are not only gifted in your ability to perceive life’s flow, but in your ability to communicate it. You knock me out with your gentleness. Then I view the mass of work you invested to share all that. All I can say right now is “Wow”!