Spirituality

Erratic Facts, Kay Ryan's first collection since the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Best of It, offers sixty-plus new examples of her swift, lucid style. Ryan examines enormous subjects with compact poems in which sly rhymes and syncopation lend an off-foot musicality to unnerving wisdom. These poems demonstrate the same quick-fire brain-work that has animated her verse for the last thirty years, in ways more daring than ever.

This edition adds "Have You Ever Seen a Miracle?" and "Children of the Light." In addition, an introduction by Howard Macy and an index of all three of Kelly's works make this edition especially valuable. Sequel to A Testament to Devotion.

In this richly illustrated portrait, a prize-winning biographer surveys the entire sweep of William Blake's creative work while telling the story of his life

William Blake, overlooked in his time, remains an enigmatic figure to contemporary readers despite his near canonical status. Out of a wounding sense of alienation and dividedness he created a profoundly original symbolic language, in which words and images unite in a unique interpretation of self and society. He was a counterculture prophet whose art still challenges us to think afresh about almost every aspect of experience--social, political, philosophical, religious, erotic, and aesthetic. He believed that we live in the midst of Eternity here and now, and that if we could open our consciousness to the fullness of being, it would be like experiencing a sunrise that never ends.

Following Blake's life from beginning to end, acclaimed biographer Leo Damrosch draws extensively on Blake's poems, his paintings, and his etchings and engravings to offer this generously illustrated account of Blake the man and his vision of our world. The author's goal is to inspire the reader with the passion he has for his subject, achieving the imaginative response that Blake himself sought to excite. The book is an invitation to understanding and enjoyment, an invitation to appreciate Blake's imaginative world and, in so doing, to open the doors of our perception.

"Imagine a spirituality rooted in doing what Jesus did," writes the author, "one that adds a sacramental dimension to our everyday lives." Miriam Therese Winter opens our eyes to a new way of following Christ. eucharist with a small "e," like the Sacrament itself, was modeled by Jesus and manifests what Jesus is about. It empowers us to continue what Jesus began, to identify with those who are hungry and thirsty, are sick or in prison, and to fill their needs because, in truth, we are all one.

On a crowded bus at midday, Raymond Queneau observes one man accusing another of jostling him deliberately. When a seat is vacated, the first man appropriates it. Later, in another part of town, Queneau sees the man being advised by a friend to sew a new button on his overcoat.

Exercises in Style -- Queneau's experimental masterpiece and a hallmark book of the Oulipo literary group -- retells this unexceptional tale ninety-nine times, employing the sonnet and the alexandrine, onomatopoeia and Cockney. An "Abusive" chapter heartily deplores the events; "Opera English" lends them grandeur. Queneau once said that of all his books, this was the one he most wished to see translated. He offered Barbara Wright his "heartiest congratulations," adding: "I have always thought that nothing is untranslatable.Here is new proof."

To celebrate the 65th anniversary of the 1947 French publication of Exercises de Style, New Directions has asked several writers to contribute new exercises as a tribute. Tantalizing examples include Jonathan Lethem's "Cyberpunk," Harry Mathew's "Phonetic Eros," and Frederic Tuten's "Beatnik" exercises. This edition also retains Barbara Wright's original introduction and reminiscence of working on this book -- a translation that in 2008 was ranked first on the Author's Society's list of "The 50 Outstanding Translations of the Last 50 Years."

From rough folk-verse to high-flown poesy, from a nine-line rhyme to a six-hundred-line epic, both the style and genre of the poetry in this volume cover a broad range of poetic possibility. This is the first volume of John Julian's poetry ever published, revealing an important new American poetic voice.

A treasury of insight from one of the most creative spiritual thinkers in America.
Whether you are new to Kushner or a devoted fan, this is the place to begin.

At once deeply human and profoundly spiritual, Lawrence Kushner's books are a treat for the soul. For nourishment and inspiration-- Eyes Remade for Wonder opens wide the gates of Jewish mysticism and spirituality, helping us peel back the layers of meaning that animate our lives.

Few writers are more closely identified with the boom of spirituality in America in the past twenty-five years than Lawrence Kushner. With his first book--the now-classic introduction to Jewish mysticism, The Book of Letters--Kushner established himself as one of the most creative religious thinkers in America. He is now read worldwide by people searching to understand the connection between the sacred and the ordinary.

With an inspiring Introduction by Thomas Moore, author of the best-selling books Care of the Soul and The Soul of Sex, Eyes Remade for Wonder offers something unique to both the spiritual seeker and the committed person of faith, and is a collection to be treasured and shared.

Description: ""If I could only have been there . . ."" Did you ever wish you could have been among those who actually encountered Jesus in person; mingled, perhaps, with those throngs beside the lake; feasted among the five thousand in a Galilean meadow; crowded along the village street as the carpenter from Nazareth passed by? This month of daily meditations seeks to accomplish just that; to place readers in the ways that Jesus walked; to assist those who pray or meditate their way across this thirty-day selection to experience the many moments of Jesus's ministry as narrated in the gospels, through the eyes and minds, the hearts and emotions of folk-ordinary folk for the most part- whose lives were touched and transformed as Jesus walked their way. For Lent, or Advent, or for any season of spiritual renewal, Faces by the Wayside can set you once again in the presence of the Master. Endorsements: ""Insightful and eloquent writer J. Barrie Shepherd has engaged us for years with poignant meditations and poetry. Faces by the Wayside, written from the perspective of ancient pilgrims, speaks to all of us who are seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ, and joins Shepherd's other works, Faces at the Manger and Faces at the Cross, to form a trilogy of imaginative meditations."" --John Buchanan Editor/Publisher, The Christian Century ""Faces by the Wayside by Barrie Shepherd is a winsomely crafted insightful look into the souls of people who actually encountered Jesus. Shepherd seamlessly weaves the opportunity for the reader to experience a like encounter. We are enabled to ""see and hear and hope for the Life Abundant that Jesus offers."" We must, of course, confess . . . how we reacted when we saw these Faces . . . a very challenging experience!"" --Ann Weems Author, From Advent's Alleluia to Easter's Morning Light ""Barrie Shepherd is our most poetic of preachers. It is a joy to walk alongside Barrie and Jesus for these roadside encounters. A fresh, beautiful presentation of the gospels awaits us here."" --William H. Willimon Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church Author, Sighing for Eden and What's Right with the Church ""J. Barrie Shepherd's depth of insight have encouraged people and his wisdom has helped them to grow in their own faith. The four hundred people that I teach find his books spiritually helpful as well as enjoyable."" --Jane Howington Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church (USA) About the Contributor(s): J. Barrie Shepherd has written extensively in the area of religious studies, is the author of fourteen books and over six hundred published poems. Shepherd has preached and lectured at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, and other universities and colleges and many of the major seminaries, as well as in distinguished pulpits across the USA and Canada, the UK, Europe and Africa.

To boldly go where no Christian book has gone before.... Faith Odyssey is a Bible study like none ever written. Richard Burridge invites readers to explore the journey of faith through fifty short devotional readings that combine Scripture with stories from science fiction and popular culture. For each day, passages from the Bible are placed alongside stories drawn from literature, television, and film -- from Homer's Odyssey to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, from Star Trek to Star Wars, from Dune to The Matrix, from the charms of Narnia to the spells of Harry Potter. Imaginative yet deep, Burridge's reflections trace with flair and great relevance the Christian pilgrimage against the background of today's world.

This book engages readers in personal reflection and group discussion of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Today. Beginning with the promises of God to be present in everyday life and ending with the Christian commitment to act in private and public ways for peace and justice, Bishop Hanson focuses on essential practices of the faithful Christian life.

Harold Bloom, our preeminent literary critic, essays to explain the meaning of angels in world literature

In this lovely gift book published for the holiday season, Harold Bloom again combines his lifelong interests in religion and literature. He begins by observing our present-day obsession with angels, which reached its greatest intensity as the current millennium approached. For the most part, these popular angels are banal, even insipid. Bloom is especially concerned with a particular subspecies of angels: fallen angels. He proceeds to examine representations of fallen angels from Zoroastrian texts and the Bible to Milton's Paradise Lost to Tony Kushner's Angels in America, arguing that familiarity with this rich literary tradition improves our reading and spiritual lives. Bloom's text is accompanied by more than a dozen original watercolors, line drawings, and illuminated letters by award-winning artist Mark Podwal.

Every angel is terrifying, Rilke wrote. For Bloom, too, this is true in one sense, since he maintains that all angels are fallen angels. The image of Satan, the greatest of fallen angels, retains the ability to fascinate and frighten us, he argues, because we share a close kinship with him. Indeed, from a human perspective, we must agree that we are fallen angels. Fallenness is ultimately a human condition: the recognition of our own mortality. Throughout world literature angels have always served as metaphors for death. We may take consolation, however, in our double awareness that angels also represent love and the celebration of human possibilities.

Poetry. LGBT Studies. Edited by David Trinidad. A FAST LIFE establishes Tim Dlugos--the witty and innovative poet at the heart of the New York literary scene in the late 1970s and 1980s and seminal poet of the AIDS epidemic--as one of the most distinctive and energetic poets of our time. This definitive volume contains all of the poems Dlugos published in his lifetime, a wealth of previously unpublished poems, and an informative introduction, chronology, and notes assembled by the volume's editor, poet David Trinidad. "The Frank O'Hara of his generation"--Ted Berrigan.