A stunning anthology of poetry to create calm and peacefulness. The poems are arranged around themes of meditation, friendship, gratitude, prayers and blessings, stillness and consolation. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features a preface by Ana Sampson. There are poems by Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, W. B. Yeats, Katherine Mansfield, George Herbert, William Wordsworth, Anne Brontë, Khalil Gibran, Rumi, Walt Whitman and many more. There are also uplifting prayers and blessings from around the world. Each inspiring verse flows effortlessly into the next in this anthology of classic poetry, Poems for Stillness.
Arguments for Stillness is a debut book of extraordinary accomplishment, a vivid examination of daily life filtered through a Buddhist consciousness. Campbell's concerns are wide ranging--from political injustice to the solace of nature and the comfort of love. In essence he is searching for balance in the center of quietness. These are clear, direct poems readily accessible, although they resonate with psychological and philosophical depth. Arguments for Stillness, in short, is just that: a case for stillness and a lyrical exploration of contemplation in our world of frenetic motion; an examination and series of "arguments" for the quality and possibilities of stillness and reflection in spite and because of what Neil Postman referred to as our current "peek-a-boo world." The theme of the collection is perhaps best expressed in the last two lines from Campbell's poem, "Considering Metal Man (as a Template for World Peace)" "Look how he sits and stares, they say. Observe how // Nobody dies because of this." Reminiscent of the work of Billy Collins, these are finely wrought poems--thoughtful, witty, precise--reflecting upon small farmers, the homeless, business, movies, books, and art. With an introduction by Nebraska State Poet William Kloefkorn.
These poems reflect an ongoing awareness journey. The search began via personal psychotherapy and encounter groups in a secular perspective in the seventies, predictably morphing into spiritual concerns. An intense involvement as a Christian later transcended into a more all-embracing vision. The poems, few though they are, are a natural expression of that journey.
Praise "Beautiful and very accomplished. There's a spareness about the language and a quietness which makes these poems excellent vehicles for reflection and prayer. We need God's stillness in the world. These poems really contain His silence." - Sally Read, poet and author of Night's Bright Darkness "In this collection of beautiful and soul stirring poems by the new poet, Tim Bete, the reader-or perhaps more appropriately, the contemplative listener-will discover a means of transport into the center of the human encounter with God. Drawing on everything from the earliest and sometimes painful childhood memories, as in 'Hangar Shirts', to the inevitable lifetime journey of the prodigal's return in 'The Longest Road,' Bete's poems have the impact of encouraging the reader to both enter in, and later be drawn back out from our often all too raw human experience. Along the way, and as part of this spiritual exercise of entering in and going forth, Bete uses the powerful imagery of night, nature, snow and silence to paint this picture of encounter, as when in the 'Silent Winter Prayer' he writes, "At that moment, You pierced my heart, fracturing the tabernacle of the woods." These poems are a powerful and quite enjoyable read in and of themselves, but perhaps the most compelling aspect of this collection is its ability to help us, in a prayerful way, identify and wrestle with our own fragile faith in the midst of a quite unpredictable existence. This is well demonstrated in the poem, "Invocation for a Dying Man." Here Bete invites us to experience the apparent futility of the act of prayer in the midst of pain, "God took the man and we sobbed because God hadn't listened." But then he offers his readers, in the later poem, 'Love's Call,' the hopeful note of victory, transition, encounter and even the vision of an eternal embrace, "Yet death He nimbly smashed, like a fragile earthen vase and called out to His souls, come through this death to Me." For those who appreciate good poetry, this will be a very enjoyable read. But even more so, for those who seek in poetry an encounter between the interior and the eternal, this collection will serve as fair passage to that rendezvous." - Mark Danis, OCDS, co-host of the Carmelite Conversations radio program Description Through poems about prayer, conversion and faith, Tim Bete shares his search for God--a search that is common to each of us. Somewhere in the intersection of holy silence and the struggles of daily life, God appears: in a winter evening walk, in the smell of incense at church, in a blue patio chair, in the Sacrament of Confession. More than a collection of poems, this book is a prayer journal--a glimpse into the faith journey of the poet. To read samples of the poetry from the book, visit www.GrayRising.com.
Lars Gustafsson, one of Sweden's leading men of letters, is known in the English-speaking world primarily for his novels and short stories, but he is also a distinguished poet with ten discrete volumes published to date in addition to the collective edition of his work for the years 1950-1980. In The Stillness of the World Before Bach: New Selected Poems, readers will recognize in Gustafsson's verse the playful erudition and imaginative philosophizing that give his fiction its unique appeal. Gustafsson, writes editor Christopher Middleton, "has remained distinctively a poet, insofar as his novels and essays usually combine exploratory and fabulous features with keen observation, a fascination with character in conflict as the subjective (or existential) axis of history, and a delight in story for its own complex or simple sake." The selections for The Stillness of the World Before Bach were made by Christopher Middleton of the University of Texas at Austin in close association with the author, with whom he also collaborated for his own versions of many of the poems. Other translations were contributed by Robin Fulton, Philip Martin Yvonne L. Sandstroem, and Harriett Watts.
The author describes the time he lived deliberately alone as a caretaker of a ranch and the effect of this solitude has had on his life, arguing that spending time alone reduces stress and leads to a simpler existence.
With his master strokes, Sengupta offers an all-pervasive analysis of the microcosm, his seemingly nonchalant style being the most powerful weapon to demolish our long-cherished views about human life: the claustrophobic existence in the City of Joy as depicted in “The Bengali Phenomenon”; the suffering of Christ in the time of crucifixion as written in “Expressions”; and the appalling lightlessness when shadows grow longer as portrayed in “Illumination.” Sengupta extends the metaphor of the book’s title in some of the poems, emphasizing the essential loneliness of our existence when we speak to ourselves in prose or verse...we are compelled to realize how lonely we are yet how rich in poetry, and [Solitary Stillness] is a preparation of the voyage to meet the “infinite” with a poetic brush. —World Literature Today
A delightful collection of soul-inspiring poems from the world's great religious and spiritual traditions, accompanied by Ivan M. Granger's meditative thoughts and commentary. Rumi, Whitman, Issa, Teresa of Avila, Dickinson, Blake, Lalla, and many others. These are poems of seeking and awakening... and the longing in between. ------------ Praise for The Longing in Between "The Longing in Between is a work of sheer beauty. Many of the selected poems are not widely known, and Ivan M. Granger has done a great service, not only by bringing them to public attention, but by opening their deeper meaning with his own rare poetic and mystic sensibility." ROGER HOUSDEN author of the best-selling Ten Poems to Change Your Life series "Ivan M. Granger's new anthology, The Longing in Between, gives us a unique collection of profoundly moving poetry. It presents some of the choicest fruit from the flowering of mystics across time, across traditions and from around the world. After each of the poems in this anthology Ivan M. Granger shares his reflections and contemplations, inviting the reader to new and deeper views of the Divine Presence. This is a grace-filled collection which the reader will gladly return to over and over again." LAWRENCE EDWARDS, Ph.D. author of Awakening Kundalini: The Path to Radical Freedom and Kali's Bazaar
