Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Poetry

Jalaluddin Rumi is unquestionably one of the greatest spiritual poets of the world. This audio features Robert Bly and Coleman Barks each reading his own versons of Rumi. Brilliant musical accompaniment provides playfulness and ground to great spiritual expression.

This story of Lord Rama — the 7th incarnation of Lord Vishnu— i s a wondrous tale of cosmic adventure that immerses the listener in a world of heroes, gods, and demons.

The sonnets of William Shakespeare are among the most famous love poems in the English language. This recording presents them in their entirety, allowing a new generation to discover Shakespeare's emotional power, mastery of language, and insight into the human condition. Acclaimed actors from the past fifty years perform the entire sequence of 154 sonnets—along with "A Lover's Complaint" and selected songs—delivering the full range and power of virtuosity, emotional power and bristling intelligence that made Shakespeare great.

Rainer Maria Rilke has been called the most significant and compelling poet of spiritual experience of the 20th century. His exploration of the struggle between life and art and the supremacy of divine love over personal love has touched the hearts of men and women everywhere. The poems in this reading are from the selected poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, edited and translated by Stephen Mitchell.

The period of English romantic poetry occurred roughly between 1800 and 1850 and was represented by poets such as William Blake, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Wordsworth. All of these poets are featured in this collection of more than 50 poems read by award-winning actors that include Joan Allen, Julie Christie, Stephen Fry, Glenda Jackson, and Jude Law.

Drawing upon everyday incidents, common situations, and rural imagery, Robert Frost fashioned poetry of great lyrical beauty and potent symbolism. His language is simple, clear, and colloquial, yet dense with meaning and wider significance. This brilliant collection features some of Frost's greatest works, including "The Road Not Taken," "Asking for Roses," "The Death of the Hired Man," "In the Home Stretch," "Into My Own," "Meeting and Passing," "Mending Wall," and more.

The poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke addresses the issues of God, death, and "destructive time." Rilke tries to transform these problems into an inner world, what he calls "a whole inner world as if an angel, comprehending all space, were blind and looking into himself." Eminent author and translator Stephen Mitchell brings these ideas vividly to life in this new translation of Rilke's most transcendent works.

In his writings, Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran weaves Christian, Moslem, and Buddhist ideals into a spiritual tapestry that transcends cultural barriers. This collection of his lesser-known writings reveals the author's insights on youth, love, marriage, and truth, and delves into nationalism, religion, and spiritual growth.

Daniel, a successful author-psychiatrist, awakens to discover he has survived his death. Two spiritual "greeters" introduce Daniel to the afterlife, guiding him in this new environment. He learns that each soul projects what it wishes to experience, and each must learn to let go of attachments through loving psychotherapy. Throughout his journey, Daniel moves from one stage of the afterlife to another, as his understanding of the spiritual realm gradually increases, and he strives to fulfill his destiny.

Originally meant to be heard rather than read, this great epic returns to the oral form for today's listeners.

Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon offers fresh interpretations of the most widely read and loved poet of the 20th century—translated and read by a master of poetic expressiveness. Out of the great profusion of Neruda's poetry, Stephen Mitchell has selected forty-nine poems and brought them to life for a new generation of listeners. These are poems of a happy man, deeply fulfilled in his sexuality, at home in the world, in love with life and its infinite particular forms, and overflowing with the joy of language.

Elliott Gould, Burt Reynolds, Meryl Streep, and a host of other celebrities read over 100 poems by four of America's greatest poets. Walt Whitman celebrates the brash and rugged individualism of his country in exuberant language. The spare, precise language of Emily Dickinson conveys her penetrating vision of the natural world and an acute understanding of the most profound human truths.

Ranier Maria Rilke challenges you, "...to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answers." Rilke's ability to combine the sensual and the spiritual into an inspired vision of the art of living is brought to vivid life in his letters. Through his eyes, the everyday difficulties of love, sex, solitude, sadness, and doubt are seen as the archetypal elements of the drama called life.

"One night I dreamed a dream. I was walking along the beach with my Lord." So begins "Footprints," a poem written in 1964 by a young woman named Margaret Fishback, who was searching for direction at the crossroads of her life.

Jalaluddin Rumi, a spiritual mystic of the Islamic world, is recognized as one of the most influential poets in history. His words are charged with an unequalled blend of literary genius and spiritual wisdom. No matter how often we listen to Rumi, each time is always the first time. Like This is a compilation of more than twenty of the beloved Persian poet's most beautiful verses. Narrator Coleman Barks' warm and sensitive reading combines with the world-renowned musicianship of Hamza El Din and Steve Coughlin to create an enthralling listening experience.

Emily Dickinson was born into a prominent New England family. Sociable as a child, she grew increasingly withdrawn. Only seven poems were published during her lifetime. Just after her death in 1886, her sister discovered 1,775 poems bound in small packets; 50 of the most penetrating and insightful of those poems are collected here. Listeners will find them perfect for meditation, relaxation, or simply for the sheer pleasure of listening to what has become known as some of the best English language poetry every written.

How have women poets approached the question of eros throughout history? This collection explores the poetry of both physical and spiritual longing and fulfillment from ancient Greece to New York's East Village. In 50 poems, more than a dozen women poets express all the facets of desire. Included in this collection are Sappho, Mirabai, Hilda Dolittle [H.D.], Emily Dickinson, Anne Waldman, Olga Broumas, Brenda Coultas, Julie Patton, Eleni Sikélianòs, and Marina Tsvetayeva, as well as Pulitzer Prize-winners Jorie Graham, Mary Oliver, and Anne Sexton.

William Butler Yeats's early poetry is suffused with the radiant lyricism of Irish folklore and myth; the yearning romance and distinctly Irish voice of these first works of the Nobel laureate have inspired scores of poets. This splendid selection offers a distinctive sampling of the Yeatsian voice.

In this treasury of passionate and humorous encounters with animals, Stephen Mitchell has collected animal poems from many ages and cultures. Included here are excerpts from ancient masterpieces like The Hymn to the Sun by Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, The Book of Job, as well as haikus by Basho and Issa.

Rediscover the voices of the original text of the Bible in this fresh retelling of its most powerful stories. The author introduces the listener to many new authors, reveals the imaginative power of the original verse, and heralds a new era in Biblical scholarship.