Religious Poetry

In the gentle world of one of England’s beautiful old cathedral towns, crisis looms: Funds are short, and the cathedral is in need of major repair. One faction of the community argues that the obvious solution is to abolish the expensive, and nowadays rather irrelevant, boys’ choir. But of course, there are those who disagree: the choir school’s headmaster, a conscientious scholar somewhat out of his depth with his elusive, poetical wife; the cathedral organist and choirmaster, brilliant, wayward, and in love with the lead chorister’s married mother; the former lead chorister, now twenty-three and directionless....

The Pilgrim's Progress is written as a dream by author John Bunyan, a strict religious man with Puritan beliefs who began writing the book while imprisoned for his religious convictions. The dream is of a man named Christian who is tormented by spiritual anguish. A spirit guide appears to him and explains to him the path he must take to salvation.

In the same way, to reach one's khudi or rooh, one needs to go through multiple stages which Iqbal himself went through, a spiritual path which he encourages others to travel. He notes that not all seeds reach the level of fragrance. Many die along the way, incomplete. In the same way, few people could climb this Mount Everest of spirituality—most get consumed along the way by materialism.

En las circunstancias más inesperadas, Heather vive un encuentro que cambiará el rumbo de su vida. Aunque ella no lo sepa, a otras mujeres ya les ha pasado lo mismo. Un hombre muy singular le descubrirá todas las cosas que se ha empeñado en mantener a oscuras en un rincón de su memoria, arrojando sobre ella la luz de la ternura.

Author of Sutter's Cross, a Booklist Top Pick, W. Dale Cramer evokes the ambiance of a small Southern town in this inspiring novel. Jeremy's mother has passed away, leaving him with an odd request. He is to find his Uncle Aiden, a hardrock miner, and stay with him, regardless of Aiden's wishes. Jeremy's faith in God gives him the courage to find the humanity behind this tough-as-steel man.

Com base em questionamentos como esses, os autores criaram um dos mais populares cursos da Universidade Yale, em que discutem o sentido da existência humana e como podemos alinhar nossa vida prática com nossos princípios essenciais. O objetivo deste audiolivro é expandir essa discussão, apresentando argumentos e pontos de vista distintos – às vezes até opostos – para refletirmos sobre assuntos como vida e morte, bem e mal, sucesso e fracasso, ética e virtude, justiça e propósito.

Renowned poet Kate Baer returns with a bold and compassionate collection that confronts the march of time in a shifting world. How About Now is a striking declaration of ongoing transformation and self-discovery. From the poet who has captured the heartbeat of the modern woman, this collection reaffirms Kate Baer’s place among the most vital voices of our era.

Meet Paro. A girl with a strong will, a full heart, and much to learn. Born into a family reeling from the ruptures of Partition in India, we follow her as she crosses the precarious lines between childhood, teenage discovery, and realizing her adult self. In the process, Paro must confront fear, desire and the darkest parts of herself in the search for meaning and, ultimately, empowerment.

Know the enemy. Anticipate his attack. Expert linguist Dr. Andrew Farley encounters a device containing thousands of archived files revealing a worldwide spiritual conspiracy. Operation Screwtape is the largest of these files and details the intelligent scheme to steal, kill, and destroy.

The 97 free-verse poems in No Way are incredibly funny, but for seekers they may also seem paradoxical, heretical, penetrating, and insightful. If you’re lucky, you’ll recognize yourself in its words–it’s good to see when you’ve been taking yourself a little too seriously. One minute you’ll howl with laughter at people's pretenses, and the next you’ll squirm self-consciously as Ram Tzu gleefully points out that you, like the fabled emperor, also wear no clothes.

Originally published in 1954 to honor Stevens’ 57th birthday, the book was rushed into print for the occasion and contained scores of errors. These have now been corrected in one place for the first time by Stevens scholars John N. Serio and Christopher Beyers, based on original editions and manuscripts. The Collected Poems is the one volume that Stevens intended to contain all the poems he wished to preserve, presented in the way he wanted. It is an enduring monument to his dazzling achievement.

Her great-great-grandma came to California in a covered wagon more than a hundred years ago, and her family has farmed in the Sacramento Valley ever since, but a life of farming was the last thing she wanted...until the day fate brings her back to the farm.

Hafiz's Little Book of Life is a lush collection of more than 250 selections from his lifework (his divan). Alongside a Quran, a copy of his divan can be found in average homes in Iran—where stars can be heard singing his poetry on the radio, and lines from his poems are quoted on the street. His poetry is sure to strike a chord in the hearts of readers everywhere. This vital collection of mystical poetry focuses on the issues we encounter in everyday life. Each brief poem may be savored as an oasis of clarity in the hurried literacy of our time, or the entire book enjoyed in one sitting.

Aquinas at Prayer draws attention to important aspects of Aquinas's life and work which have been all too often overlooked or forgotten. Today Aquinas is almost exclusively regarded as an outstanding scholastic philosopher and theologian. But what is little known is that Aquinas was, first and last, a teacher of the Bible - a Master of the Sacred Page. Moreover there is a distinctly mystical character to his theology. And, as a writer, he was not only a poet but, arguably, the greatest Latin poet of the Middle Ages.

Christian Wiman explores the relationships between art and faith, death and fame, heaven and oblivion. Above all, He Held Radical Light is a love letter to poetry, filled with moving, surprising, and sometimes funny encounters with the poets Wiman has known.

Following her father's death and her own attempted suicide, pampered socialite Karen Butler reluctantly seeks refuge at the home of Sophia Taylor, the grandmother she has never known. Determined to escape Sophia's broken-down ranch as soon as she can, Karen resists connecting with its inhabitants - especially Dusty Stoddard, the driven director of the Golden T's summer camp for at-risk youth. Karen is not the only one who has been wounded; Sophia, Dusty, and the boys have all suffered tremendous pain and loss. But by the time Karen discovers this, it is too late to escape.

Kahlil Gibran’s reflections on the wistful beauty, lofty majesty, and abiding peace of Eastern wisdom revolutionized Arab literature. This collection of dramatic poems uses the dialogue between age and youth as a platform to discuss deep subjects such as freedom, death, and the eternal soul. From “Of Life and Sorrow” to “Of Science and Knowledge”, Gibran’s vision transcends boundaries of religion and culture, finding beauty and wisdom in the universal struggles of everyday life.

It has been twenty-eight years since Sandra Cisneros published a book of poetry. With dozens of never-before-seen poems, Woman Without Shame is a moving collection of songs, elegies, and declarations that chronicle her pilgrimage toward rebirth and the recognition of her prerogative as a woman artist. These bluntly honest and often humorous meditations on memory, desire, and the essential nature of love blaze a path toward self-awareness. For Cisneros, Woman Without Shame is the culmination of her search for home—in the Mexico of her ancestors and in her own heart.

Tackling issues of transitioning into a new environment, rocky relationships, discovering your identity, and the challenges of growing up in an ever-changing society, this memoir takes listeners on an emotional inside look of a high-schooler navigating the waters of fading childhood and into the sunrise of adulthood. A cathartic recollection of the past four years of the author's experiences told entirely through poems.

Following the success of several recent inspirational and practical books for would-be writers, Poemcrazy is a perfect guide for everyone who ever wanted to write a poem but was afraid to try. Writing workshop leader Susan Wooldridge shows how to think, use one's senses, and practice exercises that will make poems more likely to happen.