Customer Reviews

Poetry as Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions

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Reading "poetry as Spiritual Practice" was like quenching a deep thirst I didn't know I had. Robert McDowell explains with simple clarity how important prayer is to our lives, and how to create our own prayers -- as poetry. He explores the great poems of literature not as museum pieces, but as the brilliant soulful voices of our fellow human beings. He invites us to share their company, and to open our hearts as they have. There are lots of poems in the book, lots of technical explanations and lots of exercises. But McDowell seems to have that rare gift of being quite detailed and yet simple at the same time. A warm and welcoming book from a great teacher.

For those of us without academic training in the writing or understand of poetry, poets and their writing process seem unique and incomprehensible. And yet, we all long to put into words, to set down on paper, the moments of pure grace and serenity that we experience in our spiritual process, whether that process is rigorous or casual, structured or independently woven. Poetry as Spiritual Practice removes the mystique from the writing process and offers it to us in a development of method that is not only successful, but fun! McDowell leads us through the building blocks of traditional poetic forms in such a way as to make writing these forms effective. Applying the practice of writing poetry to our spiritual process is icing on the cake. If you've ever longed to write poetry but were intimidated by the mystery of the forms, or even wondered just how to get started, this little book is a course in exactly that. With a friend, with your book group, or on your own...pick up Poetry as Spiritual Practice and experience the joy of the poem, your poem. McDowell's manner is unpretentious, the poetry is accessible, the poetic forms demystified with simple clarity. You feel as if you are sitting with him over coffee playing around with words, and every so often you will sing out with joy as you hit upon your muse.

I'm delighted that others have had a good experience with this book. Mine was not as positive. As an experienced poet, writing teacher and facilitator, I felt the text's exercises were not as engaging or as varied as I would have hoped. Many of them simply provided end words for each line and asked readers to "fill in the blank." This repeated technique certainly will short-change readers of different learning styles, and it struck me as sheer laziness on the part of the author. Likewise, I felt he could have found better and more varied poems from which to draw the book's many citations. I had hoped the book would give more guidance about (or at least examples of) how the author and others have created a spiritual practice around poetry. Instead, it seemed like an introduction to poetry writing with a misleading title. For those who share my interests and point of view, I would suggest they consider Wooldridge's "Poemcrazy" or Koch's "Making Your Own Days" instead.

This is the book I've been waiting for! It offers clear, inspiring instruction on writing classical forms of poetry, forms that provide a welcome wardrobe in which I can dress my wild muse and display her secret beauty at last. And it makes the connection my friends and I have been trying to make for years: all poetry is sacred poetry. The written word, carefully crafted and lovingly shared, has the potential to transform consciousness and lift us to the realms of the sacred, which, as it turnds out, dwells within the ordinary. Robert McDowell reminds me that poetry is the language of love, love for the divine, love for one another, love for our truest selves.

I've been a journal writer and spiritual practitioner for years. Many of my spiritual teachers read poetry at retreats and workshops, but I've always felt too intimidated to write poems myself. Recently a friend urged me to turn one of my journal entries into a poem. I wanted some help and found this book. It was exactly what I was looking for. It's not just a "how to," but an interesting read. The author gives plenty of stories and exercises that make poetry fun and less intimidating. My husband and I tried a few of the exercises together and it got him interested too. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wanted to write their own poetry and wake up their spiritual practice.

I was gravitating towards the practices of reading and writing poetry before I picked up this book. However even though I have a masters degree, I haven't taken any literature or writing classes since my freshman year of college. I felt devoid of some of the techniques and terms that would have found helpful in appreciating poetry even more and allowing my own writing to take shape. I found this book to be immensely helpful in understanding the soulful nature of poetry, and the variety of forms. I constantly refer back to this book because its good at discussing a variety of poems and their patterns. However, I felt like since it was an introduction, that it could have been immensely better if there were other lists of books and resources to continue in this study of poetry.

I found Mary Oliver's Rules for the Dance to be helpful in further discussion of metrical verse. I found Susan Goldsmith Woolridge's Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life With Words and Julia Cameron's work helpful in prompting the creative process more. I liked the writing prompts in Robin Behn's The Practice of Poetry Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach. I recently ordered for Lewis Turco's The New Book of Forms Handbook of Poetics to continue in the study of forms of poetry. I found it useful to discover classic and award winning poets and look for them at my library and on amazon.com. But I still refer back to this book constantly because I found it a very useful in growing in my own journey as a poet. This is because it stresses the more spiritual aspects of poetry, which is what the essence of poetry is about. But more resources are needed to develop the craft of poetry.

If you've always wanted to write poetry, but haven't been sure how to start, this book will rock your world. Robert McDowell removes the intimidation factor from reading and writing verse, he invites you to the party! Not only will you get comfortable writing poems, but you'll learn how to use the tools, from metaphor to rhyme to iambic pentameter, so that you can write actually good poems--as long as you bring your true spirit into the process, of course, which McDowell will coach and coax you to do! You'll also learn how to choose, according to your mood, when to pen a sestina or a sonnet, a haiku or a prose poem. Homer and Shakespeare both created for the common folk, but somehow in our modern age, poetry got put on a pedestal that seems intellectually out of reach for many people. Rather than tearing it down, McDowell lifts us all up in his joyful and loving embrace, so that everyone can enjoy the spiritual practice of poetry. Bravo!