Customer Reviews

Letters to a Young Poet (Shambhala Pocket Classics)

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Not long ago, my boyfriend (who is now my ex) gave this book to me. He suggested I read it. "It will improve the way you look at life," he said. Being that he was a poetry teacher; I said yes, opened my mind and began to read.

With that said, I found the book to be the most inspiring I have ever read. The most inspiring letter was the fourth one. This letter touches me most. It opened inside of me thoughts and feelings I did not know I had. This letter alone explores everything from sex to Life to being a poet. His fourth letter, written from Worpswede, just shocked my system to the core. In it was everything I had questions about and nothing in the world was left out of it.

This whole book inspired me to begin writing poetry. I had never even thought of the idea before, but now I know it makes sense.

I knew as I read the book that this man was one of few greats that we have in our history. He is not widely known outside of the poetic circle, but should be. His works, especially Letters to a Young Poet, should be read by everyone.

This book forced me to look at Life as I never had before. This new outlook gave my Life a direction. Now I am soon to publish my own poems and I never would have started such a thing had it not been for this book.

When you live your Life as you think the world would like, you tend to become close-minded. Not on purpose and perhaps you still believe yourself to be an open-minded person. I did. This book showed me that I was wrong, but that there was someone and something (Rilke and Letters to a Young Poet) that had answers my soul sought, but I knew nothing about.

I read this book again and again and find things hidden within it I had not seen before. Each of these things opens my mind to an even brighter and more vast universe.