Insurgent, Poet, Mystic, Sectarian

Insurgent, Poet, Mystic, Sectarian
Author: Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2015-05-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438456123

The insurgent, the poet, the mystic, the sectarian: these are four modes of subjectivity that have emerged amid Middle Eastern thought's attempt to reverse, dethrone, or supersede modernity. Providing a theoretical overview of each of these existential stances, Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh engages the views of thinkers and artists of the last several decades, primarily from Iran, but also from Arab, Turkish, North African, Armenian, Afghani, Chechen, and Kurdish backgrounds. He explores various dimensions of the Middle Eastern experience at the threshold of the postmodern moment, including revolutionary ideology, avant-garde literature, new-wave cinema, and radical-extremist thought. The profound reinvention of concepts characteristic of such work—fatalism, insurrection, disappearance, siege—provide unique interpretations and confrontations with the modern period and its relationship to those who presumably fall outside its boundaries of self-consciousness. Expanding the conversation, Mohaghegh contrasts the impressions of the Middle Eastern figures considered with those of the most incisive Western thinkers of modernity, such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Baudrillard, to offer an original global vision that crosses the East-West divide.

Susceptible to Light

Susceptible to Light
Author: Chelan Harkin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2020-12
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9780578807270

Susceptible to Light, by Chelan Harkin, is a collection of inspired poetry that is mystical and ecstatic in nature--mystical defined as anything having to do with opening the heart to light and ecstatic having to do with anything expressed from this place. Susceptible to Light is here to remind you of your joy, to assist you in reconsidering ways of relating to your life that better serve to open your heart, to deconstruct anything about God that doesn't feel close, intimate, authentic, and warm, and to remind your soul to break the surface and take a breath. Rumi says, "What was said to the rose that made it open was said to me here in my chest." May this collection help you feel a taste of that sweet openness. Hafiz says, "God and I have become like two giant fat people living in a tiny boat. We keep bumping into each other and laughing." May this collection help you feel the possibility of that kind of laughter. Eric Weiner, NY Times Bestselling Author of "The Geography of Bliss" says of Chelan's work: "These pages bear witness to a beautifully reckless and vulnerable love. Susceptible to Light shares the ineffable, all-consuming love of a Rumi or Hafiz, but situated in the here-and-now, amidst our dirty dishes and carpools. Do yourself a favor and savor these poems. Make yourself susceptible to their light." Alfred K. LaMotte, author of 'Wounded Bud' says of Chelan's work: "So much of today's 'spiritual poetry' is not poetry at all, but pedagogy, full of do's and don'ts. Chelan is a true spiritual poet because hers is not the voice of instruction but the voice of holy bewilderment. If she teaches us, she teaches us to dance. She teaches us the taste of what comes out of the grape when it gets crushed. All your tears will find sisters in her poems, and all your laughter will find a home in her belly. Her poems take us to the deepest, darkest loam, where lightning goes."

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan
Author: Seth Rogovoy
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2009-11-24
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1416559833

Bob Dylan and his artistic accomplishments have been explored, examined, and dissected year in and year out for decades, and through almost every lens. Yet rarely has anyone delved extensively into Dylan's Jewish heritage and the influence of Judaism in his work. In Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet, Seth Rogovoy, an award-winning critic and expert on Jewish music, rectifies that oversight, presenting a fascinating new look at one of the most celebrated musicians of all time. Rogovoy unearths the various strands of Judaism that appear throughout Bob Dylan's songs, revealing the ways in which Dylan walks in the footsteps of the Jewish Prophets. Rogovoy explains the profound depth of Jewish content—drawn from the Bible, the Talmud, and the Kabbalah—at the heart of Dylan's music, and demonstrates how his songs can only be fully appreciated in light of Dylan's relationship to Judaism and the Jewish themes that inform them. From his childhood growing up the son of Abe and Beatty Zimmerman, who were at the center of the small Jewish community in his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, to his frequent visits to Israel and involvement with the Orthodox Jewish outreach movement Chabad, Judaism has permeated Dylan's everyday life and work. Early songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" derive central imagery from passages in the books of Ezekiel and Isaiah; mid-career numbers like "Forever Young" are infused with themes from the Bible, Jewish liturgy, and Kabbalah; while late-period efforts have revealed a mind shaped by Jewish concepts of Creation and redemption. In this context, even Dylan's so-called born-again period is seen as a logical, almost inevitable development in his growth as a man and artist wrestling with the burden and inheritance of the Jewish prophetic tradition. Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet is a fresh and illuminating look at one of America's most renowned—and one of its most enigmatic—talents.

Journeys of a Mystic Soul in Poetry and Prose

Journeys of a Mystic Soul in Poetry and Prose
Author: Cecilia del Nacimiento (Madre)
Publisher: Acmrs Publications
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2012
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 9780772721181

This edition, which offers a bilingual selection of poetry and selected prose translated into English by the nun-author Cecilia del Nacimiento (1570-1646), increases contemporary scholars' access to, and therefore understanding of, the Spanish early modern religious and intellectual milieu. A significant, rarely-studied mystic and poet, and member of the Discalced Carmelite Order in the years after St. Teresa of Avila's death, Cecilia del Nacimiento exemplifies the range of possibilities used by women writers who worked within the conventions of hegemonic discourses, while creating a unique literary voice. --Stacey Schlau Professor, Department of Languages and Culture and the Women's Studies Program West Chester University, Pennsylvania

Let Us Dance! The Stumble And Whirl With The Beloved

Let Us Dance! The Stumble And Whirl With The Beloved
Author: Chelan Harkin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2021-07-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9780578942810

Let Us Dance! The Stumble And Whirl With The Beloved is here to inspire you to harness your beautiful, dynamic power and look the world directly in the eye. It emboldens the reader to let go of shames and shoulds with The Beloved and entices you to step up to the dance floor of your life and ask The Divine for a whirl. It has within it a potency that cracks open old ways that no longer serve us and brings us to life. Let Us Dance! is more than just poetry. It catalyzes and transfers to its reader living, inspired energy that is made to propagate light.

The Rumi Prescription

The Rumi Prescription
Author: Melody Moezzi
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2020-03-03
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0525537775

A powerful personal journey to find meaning and life lessons in the words of a wildly popular 13th century poet. Rumi's inspiring and deceptively simple poems have been called ecstatic, mystical, and devotional. To writer and activist Melody Moezzi, they became a lifeline. In The Rumi Prescription, we follow her path of discovery as she translates Rumi's works for herself - to gain wisdom and insight in the face of a creative and spiritual roadblock. With the help of her father, who is a lifelong fan of Rumi's poetry, she immerses herself in this rich body of work, and discovers a 13th-century prescription for modern life. Addressing isolation, distraction, depression, fear, and other everyday challenges we face, the book offers a roadmap for living with intention and ease, and embracing love at every turn--despite our deeply divided and chaotic times. Most of all, it presents a vivid reminder that we already have the answers we seek, if we can just slow down to honor them. You went out in search of gold far and wide, but all along you were gold on the inside. Become the sky and the clouds that create the rain, not the gutter that carries it to the drain. You already own all the sustenance you seek. If only you'd wake up and take a peek. Quit being a drop. Make yourself an ocean.

Hopkins

Hopkins
Author: Gerard Manley Hopkins
Publisher: SkyLight Paths Publishing
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2004
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1594730105

Britain's Gerard Manley Hopkins is beloved for his unusual images of both the physical world and the spiritual life. This is the ideal introduction to the spirituality of the great nineteenth-century Catholic mystic poet. With a preface by Rev. Thomas Ryan, C.S.P., this book is part of a new series, The Mystic Poets.Skylight Paths

Hafiz

Hafiz
Author:
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 122
Release: 2012-04-27
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1594734496

Discover How Hafiz’s Spiritual Life and Vision Can Enlighten Your Own Hafiz is known throughout the world as Persia’s greatest poet, with sales of his poems in Iran today only surpassed by those of the Qur’an itself. His probing and joyful verse speaks to people from all backgrounds who long to taste and feel divine love and experience harmony with all living things. This beautiful sampling of Hafiz’s works captures his deep spiritual understanding, offering a glimpse into the vision that has inspired people around the world for centuries. Considered by his contemporaries as an oracle and often referred to as "Tongue of the Hidden" and "Interpreter of Secrets," Hafiz followed Sufism’s inner path on a quest to discover the hidden meaning of the universe, and shares his experiences and desire for union with the Divine in symbolic language that borders on magical. Infused with the spirit of love and joy, this unique collection offers insight into Haiz’s spiritual philosophy and carefree mysticism that addresses the earthly beauty, pain, ecstasy, and longing that define human nature, and the divine adoration that promises to set the spirit free. "Ambiguity is a major characteristic of Persian poetry, and Hafiz was one of the greatest masters of this artistic quality: each reader tends to see his or her own experiences reflected in the poems. As a result, it is usually unclear whether in a given verse he means actual wine or spiritual wine, a male or a female beloved, a human beloved or God, and so forth.... But after reading the same images over and over in ever-changing contexts, one gradually leaves behind the ordinary material world and enters into a realm in which everything symbolizes the beautiful qualities of the beloved, who ultimately is God and the source of Love." —from the Preface by Ibrahim Gamard, annotator and translator, Rumi and Islam: Selections from His Stories, Poems, and Discourses—Annotated & Explained

School of Udhra

School of Udhra
Author: Nathaniel Mackey
Publisher: City Lights Books
Total Pages: 108
Release: 1993-08
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9780872862784

School of Udhra takes its title from the Bedouin poetic tradition associated with the seventh-century Arab poet Djamil, the Udhrite school of poets who, "when loving die." Bedouin tradition, however, is only one of the strands of world revery these poems have recourse to. They obey a "bedouin" impulse of their own-fugitive, moving on, nomadic. Ogo the fox, the Dogon avatar of singleness and unrest, runs throughout, crossing and recrossing divided ground, primal isolate, insistent within the book's cross-cultural weave. The poems track variances of union and disunion- social, sexual, mystic, mythic- both formally and in their content. They return rhapsody to its root sense: stitching together. Threads ranging through ancient Egypt, shamanic Siberia, Rastafarian Jamaica, and elsewhere figure in, inflected by conjunctive and disjunctive cadences inspired by jazz, Gnaoua trance-chant, cante jondo, and other musics.