Customer Reviews

The Erotic Spirit: An Anthology of Poems of Sensuality, Love, and Longing (Shambhala Library)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Contained in this book are the most passionate, grippings poems I have ever encountered. Each night before bed, I pick one poem from the book at random and read it. It is the perfect way to end my day. The poets' words are amazing, stirring, honest and alive.

Erotic love is one of the highest forms of contemplation. ~Kenneth Rexroth

The Erotic Spirit is a collection of beautiful poems mingling together in a land of sensual nirvana. The minute you enter the pages of this stunning anthology, you will find you have entered a sacred sanctuary of desire. You may find yourself startled by the mirroring of emotions. When Sappho (6th century BCE) wrote: "Eros seizes and shakes my very soul like the wind on the mountain shaking ancient oaks," did she imagine women in the future knowing exactly what she was talking about?

Sam Hamill has included moments of beauty to blur the distinction between spirituality and sensuality. The two become one in a swirling of seductive soul expressions.

When I think of you,
fireflies in the marsh rise
like the soul's jewels,
lost to eternal longing,
abandoning my body

~Izumi Shikibu (970-1030)

Rarely have I read a "Preface" so profound in content and so enlightening in regards to poetry. The "Notes on the Poets" section is also essential to your enjoyment and I was so pleased Sam Hamill included information on each poet. Suddenly a poem becomes all the more significant when you read about Sappho jumping from a cliff because her love was not returned.

Sam Hamill is a poet and the author of over thirty books of poetry, translations and essays. He shows a deep understanding of erotic love and has included poems of longing, passion, compassion, sexual love, adoration, devotion and ecstasy.

There are poems from Egypt, Greece, China, Japan, Turkey, India, America, England, Thailand, Mexico, Spain, France, Lebanon, Pakistan, Estonia and Costa Rica.

Featured Poets: Sappho, Anakreon, Asklepiados, Praxilla, Rufinus, Marcus Argentarius, Catullus, Philodemos, Ovid, Petronius Arbiter, Tzu Yeh, Agathias Scholoasticus, Cometas Chartularius, Paulus Silentiarius, Li Po, Otomo No Yakamochi, Yuan Chen, Li Ho, Ariwara No Narihira, Li Hsun, Ono No Komachi, Izumi Shikibu, Liu Yung, Samuel Ha-Nagid, Ou-Yang Hsiu, Mahadeviyakka, Jelaluddin Rumi, Francesco Petrarch, Ikkyu Sojun, Kabir, Vidyapati, Mirabai, William Shakespeare, Bihari, Robert Herrick, Anne Bradstreet, Se Praj, Andrew Marvell, John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, William Blake, John Keats, Walt Whitman, Charles Baudelaire, Emily Dickinson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Antonnio Machado, Yosano Akiko, Anna Akhmatova, Pablo Neruda, Kenneth Rexroth, Hayden Carruth, Denise Levertov, Carolyn Kizer, Robert Creeley, Adrienne Rich, Roberto Sosa, Robert Kelly, Lucille Clifton, Jaan Kaplinski, Sam Hamill, Gioconda Belli, Olga Broumas, Maurya Simon and Dorianne Laux.

Within these pages there are poems by an Indian Princess who became a saint, poems by one of the most influential poets in history and even poems from a woman who is considered to be the first poet in America.

Poems to Adore:

Plum Blossoms - A poem describing longing while lovers are apart. The clouds become love notes as a poet drifts in an orchid boat.

Yuan Chen's Remembering - Passion, daydreams and mountains keeping lovers apart.

Fires Run Through My Body - An anonymous Kwakiutl poem describing love as pain. There is a similar theme in Yuan Chen's Remembering where pain is embraced.

The Erotic Spirit will make you breathless! Some of these poems stir up such deep emotions it is as if the poems burst from the pen in order to experience a union with the page on which they were being written.

100 Stars!

~The Rebecca Review

I purchased this book as a bon voyage gift for my new love who had to leave the country for a few months during the throes of our blossoming romance, and it has done a tremendous job of helping keep the home fires blazin'! He says it's the best poetry book he's ever read. The poems perfectly capture all aspects of the longing, lust and yearning of lovers throughout the ages. If you're looking for the perfect romantic Valentine's gift for your partner, this is definitely it. A must-read for die-hard romantics everywhere.

This is a great bite sized sampler of some of the world's best erotic and romantic poetry, bridging the ages from the earliest known writings to poetic mind of the twentieth century.

Poetry is at its best when it's most impassioned, so there's no better subject for verse than romantic and erotic love. From the Song of Songs to Robert Herrick, to William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, these poems speak to the heart, the mind, and the soul, as well as the more southerly regions.

It's an inspirational and arousing collection packed with enough vivid images to make a poetry lover out of even the most visually oriented male.

I can't say that I have been a fan of Sam Hamill's poetry, but his editorial selection is impeccable. This ties with Bly's "The Soul is Here for its own Joy" as the best collection of ecstatic poetry I've ever seen.

Poems from Walt Whitman, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Shakespeare, William Blake and Pablo Neruda are just some of the poets listed in this anthology. Out of my 25+ poetry books, it is the one I reach for first if I am looking for something romantic or erotic. Included is a little notation about each poet listed. It's a wonderful little paperback that has gotten re-read often at my house.

In the busy and harried world in which we live, the art of courting seems to be dying. We move far too quickly. We act much too rationally.

The opportunity for two lovers...whether newly met or long time together...to spend moments wooing one another should never become a lost art. The works in this book will go a long way toward kindling the passions of romance.

Get a bottle of wine. Light a couple of scented candles. Draw a nice warm bath. Select two or three poems from this book. Invite your lover to join you. You'll not be disappointed.

This anthology is good but one thing that bothers me deeply is that it is "homophobic"--it includes work by Whitman, Dickinson, Sappho, Shakespeare, Adrienne Rich, Olga Broumas, Lorca but all selections of gay and lesbian poets, known and not so, even the notes on the authors, have been "neutered". This I find very strange today for an anthology that claims to be about "the erotic spirit in all its forms". Sam Hamill, you have really disappointed me--I thought you were more open-minded than that!

Every morning I text or e mail a poem from this book to my girlfriend...

I was in the bookstore yesterday and saw this book reprinted with new cover---a sign that it's been doing great in the market! that says a lot about it's content. I got this book over two years ago; from time to time I took it out from the shelf and it always entertains and brings great romantic feelings! I really hope the editor could do more of this kind of book! I have compared this book with other books of love poems---the unique collection of poems from all around the world, modern and ancient, make this book so much more special. The poems seem to use very effective language and words and put together the most sensual pictures with very little words. Very entertaining and enjoyable! BUY THIS BOOK AND CITE ONE A DAY TO YOUR LOVER LIKE I DO! DO IIIIIITTTTTTT!!!!!!!