This is a stunning book of ghazals largely centered around a counterpoint between joy and ruin. Make no mistake: this is exceptionally challenging poetry to which the reader must return again and again in order to extract the fullness of its flavor. Those who enjoy only simple, straightforward verse will be lost at sea. Bly's historical and literary allusions run the gamut from Gogol to St. Francis to Newton to Chekhov, so put your thinking cap on before you delve into this collection. Have I sacred you off yet? No? Good! This compilation is richly rewarding; it jars the soul from complacency and invites us to celebration in the midst of lives that are mostly ... a ruin.

anyone who enjoys challenging poety or poetry with a mystical bent. Some writing.com members like to write ghazals, and this book is perfect for anyone who wants to start experimenting in that vein. Bly's ghazals usually do not follow the traditional ghazal form, and this is a good thing, because traditional ghazals can be very stilted in English.

Bly's unforgettable imagery. "The steps we take resemble those Natchez inns/Where each pillow covers an open knife": how could one better express the capriciousness of life? Or what could be more powerful that "Raccoons waching God in the streams at dawn"? Bly's poetry is sad because it's honest. Much of our life IS a ruin. Yet, it is not a poetry of despair. He unequivocally invites us to a "[love] affair with the world," and world in which joy is always bursting forth from beneath the surface of misery.

an ache in my chest and a glorious tingling and expansion in my fingers and toes as if they were filling up with nectar. It made me feel union with God.

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Created Apr 04, 2006 at 11:25am • Submit your own review...