A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry, edited by Czeslaw Milosz, Harvest Books, 1998. This is my favorite anthology of poetry, the anthology I would have on my shelf if I could only have one. It is a wonderfully diverse and inspiring collection of poems chosen by the Nobel poet Czeslaw Milosz with brief, insightful introductions to each poem.
The Gift of Tongues: Twenty-five Years of Poetry from Copper Canyon Press, edited by Sam Hamill, Copper Canyon Press, 1996. Sam Hamill’s Copper Canyon Press is simply the best publishing house for poetry in the United States. This anthology provides a rich sampling of the more than one hundred poets they have published over the years. It is a great place for finding poets you would like to explore further.
This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems From Around the World, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye, Alladin Paperbacks, 1996. This is another beautiful collection of poems from many cultures around the world, celebrating our diversity and our common humanity, selected by a much-traveled poet with a keen eye for poems of the heart.
Teaching with Fire: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Teach, edited by Sam M. Intrator and Megan Scribner, Jossey-Bass, 2003. This is an inspiring collection of poems for anyone, but especially for teachers (and parents and anyone who works with young people). Each poem has been selected by classroom teachers or educators with a short introduction on why the poem has meant so much to them in their work as educators.
The Poetry of Peace, edited by David Krieger, Capra Press, 2003. This is another inspiring and ever-timely collection of poems on the subject of peace from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
Cries of the Spirit: A Celebration of Women’s Spirituality, edited by Marilyn Sewell, Beacon Press, 1991. The reader will find here a wide range of rich and profound poems by women from around the world on the broad subject of the spiritual life and journey. The women in this collection do much to broaden our sense of what and how much is, in fact, spiritual and sacred.
The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, edited by Stephen Mitchell, HarperCollins, 1993. This is a truly wonderful and diverse collection of poems on spirituality and the sacred from the fifth century BC to the present. The book not only inspires but also reminds us that truth is timeless and present everywhere, repeating its messages to those who are ready to hear.
Intimate Kisses: The Poetry of Sexual Pleasure, edited by Wendy Maltz, New World Library, 2001. I admit I love this book; its poems are a happy reminder that awareness starts in the body and often in pleasure, that the permissions we give ourselves are the gateway to authentic writing, that we are to feel more alive, not less, and that we are to have joy (in all things) and to have it more abundantly.
Poetry in Motion: 100 Poems from the Subways and Buses, edited by Molly Peacock, Elise Paschen, and Neil Neches, W. W. Norton & Company, 1996. This is a delightful collection of short poems on a wide variety of subjects, perfect for one’s bedside nightstand or “bathroom library”—poems that remind us that poetry can be found anywhere, anytime, and need not be long to quicken our thoughts and touch our hearts.
One Hundred Poems from the Chinese, translated by Kenneth Rexroth, New Directions, 1981. The Chinese poets were masters of the poem of observation, of elegant understatement, of allowing the wellchosen detail to stand for both inner and outer realities. Poets all around the world continue to learn from their example.
Soft Hay Will Catch You: Poems by Young People, compiled by Sandford Lyne, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004. This collection of poems by young people in grades 3–12 covers a wide range of childhood experiences and emotions; the poems are remarkable for their uncanny depth and insight. Many of the poets are from the almost-forgotten world of rural and small-town America. As with my first collection, Ten-Second Rainshowers (showcased twice on National Public Radio, now out of print but available in library collections and sometimes on the Internet), all were students of mine in poetry writing workshops in classrooms around the country.
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman (in many editions). How fortunate to have one of the great mystical poets in the history of the world as one of our own American poets. This book should be in everyone’s library—an always rich source of inspiration and wisdom. I also recommend that you look for the collected essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, so often quoted in this book (available in many editions). Look especially for his essays: “The Poet,” “The Divinity School Address,” “Nature,” “Self-Reliance,” and “Circles.”
New and Selected Poems, Volumes 1 and 2, Mary Oliver, Beacon Press, 2004. These books are a marvelous introduction to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who many consider our best observer of the natural world. This collection will just be a starting place for exploring this very prolific poet. Except for the poet Pablo Neruda, on a trip to any good bookstore you are likely to find more editions of Mary Oliver’s work than any other modern or contemporary poet.
The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems and Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved, Gregory Orr, Copper Canyon Press, 2002, 2005. Gregory Orr’s work is a must-read for anyone needing to turn their childhood losses and traumas into poems of transcendent awakening and transformation. To do so takes a lifetime of courage, and Orr’s poems span a journey of almost four decades of truthful reflection and earned awareness. Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved, his latest book, which poet Mary Oliver rightfully calls “a gorgeous book,” achieves an astonishing widening of the circles of awareness acquired in the earlier poems, completely rethinking—re-experiencing—everything that has gone before. Certainly one of our most remarkable “image poets,” I cannot recommend this work too highly.
The Blessing: New and Selected Poems, Richard Jones, Copper Canyon Press, 2000. This poet, like the great Chinese poets, has the gift for making poems out of the most common things of everyday experience. He teaches us how to keep our eyes open through tenderness and lightness.
Words Under the Words, Naomi Shihab Nye, Eighth Mountain Press, 1994. Palestinian American by birth, this world traveler, poet, anthologist, and teacher writes about the experiences of everyday people, about travel and places, about the events of our times, and most beautifully about the lives and roles of women and the secret life of children. Having started with this book, I hope you will move on to her other collections.
Otherwise: New and Selected Poems, Jane Kenyon, Hushion House, 1997. This poet, who coped with depression and died of leukemia in 1995, left us with some of the most courageous and beautiful poems of observation of the last half of the 20th century.
Flying at Night: Poems 1965–1985, Ted Kooser, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. The 13th Poet Laureate of the United States, Kooser is a master of the short poem and the poem of observation and will remind readers of previous poets of the distinctive American scene—Edgar Lee Masters, Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost. A retired life insurance executive, he is one of the few poets to write poems that evoke the world of office work and life. I also highly recommend his book Delights and Shadows, Copper Canyon Press, 2004.
The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems, William Stafford, Hushion House, 1999. Stafford was a gentle but commanding presence in American poetry in the last half of the 20th century, a poet with a keen eye not only for nature, but also for the social and political landscape of America. He reminds us that the poet on the spiritual journey does not disengage from the world.
Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon, Pablo Neruda, translated by Stephen Mitchell, HarperCollins, 1998. A rich selection of poems by the Nobel Poet whom many consider the greatest poet of the 20th century. Widely translated in many languages, he is the poet I pick up often to get my own poetic juices flowing (one or two sentences is usually enough).
The Essential Rumi, selected and translated by Coleman Barks, HarperCollins, 1995. This 13th century Sufi poet and mystic is simply one of the greatest poets in the history of the world. His poems knock us back on our heels.
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, Arkana, 1999. Along with Rumi, one of the greatest mystical poets in the history of the world. You cannot read either poet without cracking open the containers of everything you know.
Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, Penguin Compass, 2002. This is another rich and global treasury of poems for those who see life as a spiritual journey.
The Owl in the Mask of the Dreamer, John Haines, Hushion House, 1996. This master poet of Alaska is the most “quiet” poet I know, with an incredible range of subjects and interests, from wilderness landscapes to modernist painting. His poems remind us of the importance of starting our poems in the landscapes we are most drawn to, in the places that haunt us, in the place (if we can find it) we call home.
Talking to My Body, Anna Swir, translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan, Copper Canyon Press, 1996. This most humble Polish poet and survivor writes beautifully of the light that is always present within us, that cannot be extinguished whatever the outer circumstances of life. A wonderful poet to help us recognize the power of the permissions only we can give ourselves.
Without End: New and Selected Poems, Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare Cavanagh, Renata Gorczynski, Benjamin Ivry, and C. K. Williams; Douglas & McIntyre, 2003. I first discovered this remarkable Polish poet in 1996, and ever since, his individual collections of poems have been my favorite books to carry with me when traveling. Much traveled himself, and in recent years living for part of each year in the United States, his poems—flavored with a blend of worldly and European sensibilities—teach us much about how to make the most of our worldly journeys in poems of our own.
Narrow Road to the Interior, Matsuo Basho, translated by Sam Hamill, Shambhala, 2000. Hamill’s richly informed and illuminating introduction to this greatest of Japanese masters underscores the truth that the poet’s life and journey is one of penetrating the layers of the self for ever greater awareness and authenticity.
Native Joy: Poems, Songs Visions Dreams, Geoffrey Trafford 2004. Available from www.trafford.com (click on bookstore, then type in either the author’s name or the title). Poets who have completed wonderful books of poems now far outnumber the availability of publishers. Self-publishing (Walt Whitman was self-published, after all) and on-demand publishing are probably the wave of the future. This is one of my favorite books of poems; Oelsner has collected almost forty years of poems from a richly lived and realized life.
If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence, and Spirit, Brenda Ueland, Hushion House, 1997. First printed in 1938 and reissued by Gray Wolf Press, this may be the most inspirational book on writing ever written. Back in the early 90s, I bought over a hundred copies to give out to participants in my adult poetry workshops. This book is pure nourishment for the writer’s (and poet’s) soul.
The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets, Ted Kooser, University of Nebraska Press, 2005. As you begin to discover the poet inside you, it won’t take long for the question to arise, “Yeah, but how do I make my poems better?” Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s perfectly titled book is just what the doctor ordered. Kooser, a retired insurance executive and a populist poet in the line of poets like Carl Sandburg, asks and answers the practical questions anyone might ask, the questions of ordinary people drawn to poetry writing from all walks of life.
What’s It Like Being You?: Living Life as Your True Self, John-Roger with Paul Kaye, Mandeville Press, 2004. This is a practical book aimed at guiding readers into the experience of living in the True Self as both a spiritual practice and as an antidote to the stresses of modern life. Important distinctions are drawn between the True Self (soul) and the False Self (the ego and personality). The reader is also introduced to the ancient spiritual laws of acceptance, cooperation, understanding, and enthusiasm. It is the book I carry with me to help keep myself on track in my own spiritual journey.
Momentum: Letting Love Lead, John-Roger with Paul Kaye, Mandeville Press, 2002. The extraordinary message of this book is this: Life is actually designed to throw us off balance, and this imbalance gives us the momentum necessary for our growth and spiritual awakening. It’s time to stop judging our experiences and to start using them to our advantage.
The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus, Neil Douglas-Klotz, Quest Books, 1999. Written by a Sufi, this is my favorite book on the subject of language and spirituality, a brilliant and informed exploration of the poetic vocabulary of Jesus. The book makes the case that Jesus’s time and place of birth were chosen in part because of the Aramaic language into which he was born, perhaps the most richly layered and nuanced language in the world, calling us to interpret his life and words by first awakening the poet within ourselves.
Writing and the Spiritual Life: Finding Your Voice by Looking Within, Patrice Vecchione, Contemporary Books, McGraw-Hill, 2001. Finding one’s voice and knowing one’s soul both depend on the same thing: authenticity. A rich and thoughtful book filled with the wisdom gained from personal experience.
The Wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn, Florence Scovel Shinn, Fireside, 1989. Shinn is the great master of the creative and imaginative power of affirmations. Here, her four amazing books are collected into a single comprehensive edition. Her perspectives on the design of life and our own design within the greater spiritual fabric of existence are simply inspiring, uplifting, astonishing, and profound.
Writing as a Road to Self-Discovery, Barry Lane, Discover Writing Press, 1998. The lessons of life are to be found in the stories we have lived and also those of our family. This book contains wonderful exercises for exploring one’s personal history for meaning and understanding.
Writing from the Body, John Lee, St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994. According to the author, the way to our truth and authenticity is through the body and its memories. The spiritual life, the awakened life, is not a life of denial of our physical experiences, but a courageous embrace.
The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, David Whyte, Currency, 1996. For many, the journey of awakening and fulfillment takes place in great measure within the walls and passageways of the corporate world. Poetry has much to offer by way of wisdom and guidance to those who have chosen this world as their career path. Seasonings: A Poet’s Year, David Young, Ohio State University Press, 2005. This is one of the most unusual and wonderful books on the life of writing, reading, and enjoying poetry that I know. It is a book very hard to categorize. David Young is a poet, editor, translator, and retired professor of English at Oberlin College, and this book is part memoir, part essay, part anthology, and part actual recipe book, all blended together into a life of poems and poetry. I think it is a book that will inspire, and likely a book that readers will want to give as a gift to family, colleagues, and friends (it has something for everyone).
The Everyday Work of Art: Awakening the Extraordinary in Your Daily Life, Eric Booth, iUniverse, 2001. This remarkably accomplished actor, director, teacher, consultant, and facilitator reminds us that the great poem we are writing is the poem of life itself, the poem we are writing with every breath we take, with every choice we make. The arts teach us how to make this ordinary life an extraordinary life of beauty and meaning.