The Soul Is Here For Its Own Joy: Sacred Poems from Many Cultures

by Robert Bly (Editor)

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.

Genres: Poetry, Spirituality, Anthologies, Nonfiction, Cultural

268 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1995

About the author

Robert Bly was an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.
Robert Bly was born in western Minnesota in 1926 to parents of Norwegian stock. He enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and spent two years there. After one year at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, he transferred to Harvard and thereby joined the famous group of writers who were undergraduates at that time, which included Donald Hall, Adrienne Rich, Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Harold Brodky, George Plimpton, and John Hawkes. He graduated in 1950 and spent the next few years in New York living, as they say, hand to mouth.
Beginning in 1954, he took two years at the University of Iowa at the Writers Workshop along with W. D. Snodgrass, Donald Justice, and others. In 1956 he received a Fulbright grant to travel to Norway and translate Norwegian poetry into English. While there he found not only his relatives but the work of a number of major poets whose force was not present in the United States, among them Pablo Neruda, Cesar Vallejo, Gunnar Ekelof, Georg Trakl and Harry Martinson. He determined then to start a literary magazine for poetry translation in the United States and so begin The Fifties and The Sixties and The Seventies, which introduced many of these poets to the writers of his generation, and published as well essays on American poets and insults to those deserving. During this time he lived on a farm in Minnesota with his wife and children.
In 1966 he co-founded American Writers Against the Vietnam War and led much of the opposition among writers to that war. When he won the National Book Award for The Light Around the Body, he contributed the prize money to the Resistance. During the 70s he published eleven books of poetry, essays, and translations, celebrating the power of myth, Indian ecstatic poetry, meditation, and storytelling. During the 80s he published Loving a Woman in Two Worlds, The Wingéd Life: Selected Poems and Prose of Thoreau,The Man in the Black Coat Turns, and A Little Book on the Human Shadow.
His work Iron John: A Book About Men is an international bestseller which has been translated into many languages. He frequently does workshops for men with James Hillman and others, and workshops for men and women with Marion Woodman. He and his wife Ruth, along with the storyteller Gioia Timpanelli, frequently conduct seminars on European fairy tales. In the early 90s, with James Hillman and Michael Meade, he edited The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, an anthology of poems from the men's work. Since then he has edited The Darkness Around Us Is Deep: Selected Poems of William Stafford, and The Soul Is Here for Its Own Joy, a collection of sacred poetry from many cultures.

Reviews

[Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book you can ever say you "Read" as if you actually finished it and then put it on the shelf. This book is a bible, a companion, a map to the soul, to life and all the Universe. You will carry it with you around the house, keep it on your desk, in your bathroom, in your backpack - wherever it is you may need quick access to enlightened poetry and guidance. If you are up, this book will provide confirmation. If you are down, this book will give you answers and reasons to keep searching, keep trying to know love. If you are in love, this book will make you realize what it is you have gotten yourself into.

What can you say about Bly? He was truly one of the most enlightened minds of our era. His abilities to translate the inner-workings of the soul into written words us sub-humans can understand were a gift from the heavens. We would be lost without his work.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

READINGS THAT MIRROR THE SPIRITUAL JOURNE

Beautiful book, arranged like the spiritual journey: At first, you feel the call, have a big experience, make a commitment, then forget it all, do your thing in the world until you get in trouble, then commit to spirit again, forget it, go back to the world, mess up, back to spirit, etc. Until you finally really commit. Takes the reader through poetry demonstrating a deeper and deeper commitment to and knowledge of the sacred. Many traditions. Great introduction to the Indian and Middle eastern poets: Poems by Rumi, Kabir, Mirabai, Lalli, all in one volume.

[Margaret Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bly is perhaps the greatest translator of poetry in our time. He also has an amazing eye. Here he links poets like Emily Dickinson with Rumi and Machado. Spiritual truths connect in the most amazing places.

[Danielle Palmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the amount of effort I needed to put into reading this, there were not enough gems in it for me. I may not be insightful enough to understand these, many of the poems left me confused or went right over my head.

[Gineen · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a beautful book- found women sufi mystic poets i'd never heard of !
very deep soul drink here...

[Karen deVries · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have kept this book of poems near my bed for the last several years. They've helped light my path on some of the darkest days. They're not all "hits" for me, but the majority of them come close.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I returned to this collection, having probably read most of it about 20 years ago when it was published. Robert Bly magnificently collects, organizes, translates a few of the amazing poems, and provides his incisive comments for each of the ten sections. The flow perhaps reached its peak for me in this reading in the final section in the middle of a poem by Attar (version by Coleman Barks), titled “The Newborn” with these lines: “Let loving lead your soul./Make it a place to retire to,/ a kind of monastery cave, a retreat/ for the deepest core of being.// Then build a road/ from there to God.”

[Ivan Granger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good, wide-ranging selection of sacred poetry gathered by Robert Bly. From Hafiz to Freidrich Holderlin, Mirabai to Mirza Ghalib, Rumi to Rilke. A very good book to pick up, open to a random page, and then disappear…

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I feel like I will turn to again and again. I haven't read every poem in it yet so know there are wonderful discoveries still to be made. What I have discovered are poems I love by people I had never heard of before, like "Last Night as I Lay Sleeping" by Antonio Machado, translated by Robert Bly--an interesting translation that is quite different from other translations that may be easier but without the same depth. Used this in Lectio Divina this week and it seemed to touch others the way it did me.

[Marta E C R · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 3-star review simply reflects my average sense about this book. There were definitely some poems in this collection which stood out far above that 3-star rating. I read every poem out loud, which I have found to be the only way I can gather meaning from poetry. I’m glad to have read this whole book which I’ve owned since 2012, when it was the subject of a Literature and Medicine class I was taking.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

i was hoping to find more poems i would like as i like many of these poets. many were too deep for me and i had to struggle to find the meaning in them, if i found it at all. I did realize that for my own personal self it is not a sign of failure if I just don't get a poem that someone else might. It's more a matter of personal taste. I do like Robert Bly's translations especially of Hafiz and Rumi, that i have read in the past.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok read with a good number of poems from various writers. It seems to focus pretty heavily on various monotheisms and clearly has 70s new age vibes. There are better poetry collections out there though.

[Emily Magnus · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was honestly a doozy for me. Found it in a used book store and needed some morning poetry. Definitely some diamonds in there (Rilke) but also just felt like a lot of these were way over my head.

[Margaret Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the translations in here a lot. There are times when the curation confuses me. The structure is essentially important. Amazing and necessary book

[Spencer Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good poems — weed through the mostly bad commentary

[Amy Paget · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Soul is Here for its Own Joy is a great collection edited by Robert Bly. Subtitled "Sacred poems from Many Cultures" it provided superb reflection opportunities at a recent "Quiet Day" that I attended. It lends itself to 'straight through' reading. There's minimal information on the various poets...only copyright permissions at the back of the book. Hear the power in this first stanza In "The Scattered Congregation" by Tomas Transtromer:

'We got ready and showed our home.
The visitor thought: you live well.
The slum must be inside you.

[Darice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the organization of the poems into the stages of spiritual journey, beginning with the difficulties of starting the path, going into struggles with greed, including love personal and divine. Also, the large collections of two poets, Rumi and Hafiz, explored the details of a spiritual structure that was altogether not inhibiting but rather inclusive. However, it got a little dry and felt a little safe, but altogether good for a solid, unbiased foundation of spiritual poetry.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book which is almost beyond description, it is so good. Robert bly's translations of Rumi are amazing. To hear the words of Rumi, from all those years ago and to be transported by his words is an experience that is with me each day. His words speak directly to the heart. I have read others of rumi's poems and also Kabir and Hafez, but these are truly awe-inspiring.

[Patti K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 1995 anthology edited by Robert Bly is a thoughtful and nourishing
book. It includes a rich variety of poets showcasing their relationships
with the spiritual element of lives. Rumi and Kabir as well as Rilke,
Machado, Hafez and Hopkins are featured.Many ecstatic poems and queries
into the deeper concerns of consciousness from around the world. Very good.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gift from my wife Kendel on our 28th anniversary.

[Glen Gersmehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best, most readable, most inspiring anthologies of poetry in print

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title alone wins it a good rating.

[Marcus Devin]

$15.00