Erotic Spirit [Hardcover]

Sam Hamill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 1995

From the passion of sexual desire to the intense longing for spiritual union, this extraordinary collection of poems celebrates the erotic spirit in all of its forms from Egyptian love songs of the 15th century to today's finest poets. This book draws on an extraordinary range of cultural and spiritual traditions.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Hamill, poet and translator, has created a ravishing anthology of poetry celebrating the spiritual aspect of eros, the longing not only to merge one's body with another, but to join souls. This sacred eroticism, expressed in such poems as the "Song of Songs," has been experienced through the ages and around the world as a path to a perfect love, to God no less. Hamill has chosen poems from various cultures expressing this soulful passion, but he hasn't neglected the wry side of eros, that is, the often disappointing conflict between idealized desire and the complex realities of corporal love. Hamill begins with Sappho and other early Greeks and moves on to the ever-teasing Catullus and, of course, Ovid. His selections of love poems by T'ang dynasty Chinese poets and Japanese poets are either gentle or piquant, balancing the rarefied view of Buddhists with the practiced physicality of the Taoists. Sufi love poems stand in interesting contrast to such teasing British bards as Robert Herrick and Andrew Marvell, who in turn, seem quite facile in comparison to such earthy romantics as Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda. Other poets include Charles Baudelaire, Anna Akhmatova, Denise Levertov, Robert Creeley, Lucille Clifton, and Adrienne Rich. Donna Seaman

Review

Beautiful Melite, In The Throes Of Middle Age by Agathias Scholasticus
Weaving A Garland Long Ago by Anacreon
More Beautiful Than Your Eyes by Sa'id Aql
Is That The Same Moon? by Ariwara No Narihira
Didyme Waved An Olive Branch At Me by Asclepiades Of Samos
Think How Unspeakably Sweet by Asclepiades Of Samos
Possessed by Charles Baudelaire
Brief Lessons In Eroticism I, Sels. by Giaconda Belli
The Song Of Songs, Sels. by Bible
All Day She Studies Her New by Bihari
As If To Lift My Babe-in-arms by Bihari
Loveliness Beyond Words by Bihari
When I Found Her In The Bathing Pool by Bihari
The Question Answer'd by William Blake
Visions, Sels. by William Blake
To My Dear And Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet
For Every Heart by Olga Broumas
Perpetua by Olga Broumas
Sonnet: 10 by Hayden Carruth
Sonnet: 9 by Hayden Carruth
He Is Like A God by Gaius (caius) Valerius Catullus
My Lovely, Sweet Ipsithilla by Gaius (caius) Valerius Catullus
My Woman Says She'd Rather Have Me by Gaius (caius) Valerius Catullus
Sweet Sparrow, My Lover's Pet by Gaius (caius) Valerius Catullus
Your Sins Have Brought My Mind So Low by Gaius (caius) Valerius Catullus
Song At Midnight by Lucille Clifton
The Women You Are Accustomed To by Lucille Clifton
Won't You Celebrate With Me by Lucille Clifton
Phyllis, Loving Demophoon by Cometas Chartularius
A Form Of Women by Robert Creeley
The Rain by Robert Creeley
Which Contains A Fantasy Satisfied With A Love Befitting It by Juana Ines De La Cruz
Wild Nights! Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson
Love Triumphant: Song For A Girl by John Dryden
Longing by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Passion And Love by Paul Laurence Dunbar
The Unfaithful Wife by Federico Garcia Lorca
The Guest by Anna Adreyevna Gorenko
Ten Thousand Sutras; After Hakuin's Meditation Sutra by Sam Hamill
Clothes Do But Cheat And Cozen Us by Robert Herrick
Delight In Disorder by Robert Herrick
To His Mistreeses by Robert Herrick
Upon The Nipples Of Julia's Breast by Robert Herrick
On Love by Hsu Tsai-ssu
Elegy by Ikkyu Sojun
Face-to-face With My Lover On Daito's Anniversary by Ikkyu Sojun
My Hand Is Lady Mori's Hand by Ikkyu Sojun
My Love's Dark Place Is Fragrant Like Narcissus by Ikkyu Sojun
Night Talk In A Dream Chamber by Ikkyu Sojun
Song Of The Dream Garden by Ikkyu Sojun
My Black Hair Tangled by Izumi Shikibu
When I Think Of You by Izumi Shikibu
Like This by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
What I Want Is To See Your Face by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
When I See Your Face, The Stones Start Spinning! by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
You That Love Lovers by Jalal Ad-din (jalaluddin) Ar-rumi
Give Up Erotic Games, Kabir by Kabir
Sometimes, Everywhere I Look by Kabir
Night Comes And Extinguishes The Numbers And The Year by Jaan Kaplinski
Poem For Easter by Robert Kelly
The Glass by Carolyn Kizer
The Lovers by Dorianne Laux
The Thief by Dorianne Laux
The Mutes by Denise Levertov
Our Bodies by Denise Levertov
Boat Of Stars by Li Ch'ing-chao
Butterflies Love Flowers by Li Ch'ing-chao
Plum Blossoms by Li Ch'ing-chao
Spring At Wu Ling by Li Ch'ing-chao
The Washing Stream by Li Ch'ing-chao
Melancholic by Li Ho
The Wine Spring by Li Hsun
The Wine Spring by Li Hsun
Blue Water by Li Po
Longing For Someone by Li Po
Resentment Near The Jade Steps by Li Po
Women Of Yueh by Li Po
Song by Liu Yung
If I Were A Poet by Antonio Machado Ruiz
On Her Decision To Stop Wearing Clothes by Mahadevi
Her Perfect Naked Breast by Marcus Argentarius
I Can't Bear To Watch Your Hips by Marcus Argentarius
To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
A Coal Fire In Winter by Thomas Mcgrath
Dark One by Mirabai
Don't Block My Way, Friend by Mirabai
A Glimpse Of Your Body by Mirabai
Having Wet Me With Love by Mirabai
I Long For Him Most by Ono No Komachi
Late Evening Finally Comes by Otomo No Yakamochi
When My Wife Left Home by Otomo No Yakamochi
Deep, Deep In The Shade Of The Court by Ou Yangxiu
Faint Thunder Drifts Beneath The Willow by Ou Yangxiu
The Pool Is Full Of Autumn Sky, Rippled By Gentle Breezes by Ou Yangxiu
And There Lay The Lovers, Lip-locked by Paulus Silentiarius
Come, Give Me Kissis, Rhodope by Paulus Silentiarius
Even Clothed In Wrinkles, Dear Philinna by Paulus Silentiarius
Take Off You Clothes, My Love! by Paulus Silentiarius
If Constancy In Love, If A Brave Heart by Petrarch
Love Delivers To Me Its Sweetest Thoughts by Petrarch
Xanthippe, Singing At Her Lyre by Philodemus Of Gadara
Peeking In Through by Praxilla
Elegy To His Mistress by Publius Ovidius Naso
Quietly by Kenneth Rexroth
Sottoportico San Zaccaria by Kenneth Rexroth
Body Of A Woman by Naftali Ricardo Reyes Basuato
Love Song by Naftali Ricardo Reyes Basuato
Twenty-one Love Poems: 2 by Adrienne Cecile Rich
Her Foot Sparkled Like Silver by Rufinus
How Could I Have Known by Rufinus
I'd Sell My Soul For That Fawn by Samuel Hanagid
That's It - I Love That Fawn by Samuel Hanagid
Eros Seizes And Shakes My Very Soul by Sappho
He Is Almost A God, A Man Beside You by Sappho
I Love by Sappho
Your Breasts Will Not Fall by Se Praj
Sonnet: 129 by William Shakespeare
Shiva's Prowess by Maurya Simon
The Most Ancient Names Of Fire by Roberto Sosa
Remembering My Wife by Su Shih
Oysters by Jonathan Swift
Keeping Endless Holiday by Titus Petronius Niger
Busy In The Spring by Tzu Yeh
A Smile by Tzu Yeh
Song by Tzu Yeh
As Night Follows Night by Anonymous
Early Morning Glows by Anonymous
Fires Run Through My Body - The Pain Of Loving You by Anonymous
He Is The Love-wolf by Anonymous
I Won't Care by Anonymous
Lament by Anonymous
The Little Sycamore She Planted by Anonymous
My Lover Is A Lotus Blossom by Anonymous
Oxaitoq's Song by Anonymous
Whether I See You Now by Anonymous
Woman's Love Song by Anonymous
First Love by Vidyapati
5. Female by Walt Whitman
6. Male by Walt Whitman
City Of Orgies by Walt Whitman
I Am He That Aches With Love by Walt Whitman
A Woman Waits For Me by Walt Whitman
Are You Still Longing by Yosano Akiko
Spring Quickly Passes by Yosano Akiko
A Thousand Strands by Yosano Akiko
Bamboo Mat by Yuan Chen
Elegy by Yuan Chen
Empty House by Yuan Chen
Remembering by Yuan Chen
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1st edition (November 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877739579
• ISBN-13: 978-0877739579
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Erotic Spirit brings passion to lovers of love and poetry., July 7, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Erotic Spirit (Paperback)

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.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sacred Sanctuary of Desires, February 24, 2005

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Erotic Spirit (Paperback)

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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guaranteed to Amaze and Inspire!, February 6, 2004

By 

Suzie C. (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Erotic Spirit: An Anthology of Poems of Sensuality, Love, and Longing (Shambhala Library) (Hardcover)

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.