Ecstatic Poetry and Writings

Currently #22 under Amazon's Poetry section. Yep, pack that up that copy of "The Odyssey" that you haven't read and check out some other great works.

Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation ~ Rumi

From the premier interpreter of Rumi comes the first definitive one-volume collection of the enduringly popular spiritual poetry by the extraordinary thirteenth-century Sufi mystic.
~ Description via GoodReads

If your going to read or own one book of ecstatic poetry, this would be the one book I would recommend. It covers everyone from Rumi to St. John of the Cross. So, pretty much all my favorite poems in ONE book!

In this luminous collection, Daniel Ladinsky—best known for his gifted and bestselling interpretations of the great Sufi poet Hafiz—brings together the timeless work of twelve of the world's finest spiritual writers, six from the East and six from the West. Once again Ladinsky reveals his talent for creating profound and playful renditions of classic poems for a modern audience. Rumi's joyous, ecstatic love poems; St. Francis's loving observations of nature through the eyes of Catholicism; Kabir's wild, freeing humor that synthesizes Hindu, Muslim, and Christian beliefs; St. Teresa's sensual verse; and the mystical, healing words of Sufi poet Hafiz—these along with inspiring works by Rabia, Meister Eckhart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Mira, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Tukaram are all “love poems by God,” from writers considered to be "conduits of the divine." A spiritual treasure to cherish always.
~ Description via GoodReads

Currently Reading

A long, long time ago before the wonders of Amazon.com I tried getting a hold of Sufi poetry. I order five books, chosen blindly by pointing to them in a bookstore catalog and well... they were horrible translations. Ah, and fitting enough this was an actual gift someone sent me. Yay!

More than any other Persian poet—even Rumi—Hafiz expanded the mystical, healing dimensions of poetry. Because his poems were often ecstatic love songs from God to his beloved world, many have called Hafiz the "Invisible Tongue." Indeed, Daniel Ladinsky has said that his work with Hafiz is an attempt to do the impossible: to render Light into words—to make the Luminous Resonance of God tangible to our finite senses.
With this stunning collection of Hafiz's most intimate poems, Ladinsky has succeeded brilliantly in presenting the essence of one of Islam's greatest poetic and religious voices. Each line of The Gift imparts the wonderful qualities of this master Sufi poet and spiritual teacher: encouragement, an audacious love that touches lives, profound knowledge, generosity, and a sweet, playful genius unparalleled in world literature.
~ Description via GoodReads

I like that this covers more then the usual religious texts. However, if there was going to be any problem with the book... there simply is too much. I could easy see this as text book reading for a class. So, if your going to teach a class... get the book. If not you might want to start smaller ;)

The ecstatic poetic tradition connects many cultures and reaches across vast stretches of time. It represents a positive affirmation of the value of happiness, human connections, festivities, sexuality, and relatedness to the divine. Wild Poets of Ecstasy broadly captures this tradition in bringing together ancient and modern poetry from the world’s literary treasuries. Containing poems from over 100 secular and religious writers, this anthology is a sustained celebration of human beings in their best moments—“the soul at the white heat,” to use Emily Dickinson’s line. Wild Poets of Ecstasy bountifully offers a cornucopia of poems depicting peak states of being and positive, life-affirming emotions, such as serenity, awe, wonder, rapture, gratitude, and love. The selections praise the goodness of life, the abundance of nature, and the intimate interrelation of the whole cosmos. To read it is not only an exercise in holistic thinking but also something of an ecstatic experience.
~ Description via Amazon

The Sufi mystic and poet Jalaluddin Rumi is most beloved for his poems expressing the ecstasies and mysteries of love in all its forms—erotic, platonic, divine—and Coleman Barks presents the best of them in this delightful and inspiring collection. Rendered with freshness, intensity, and beauty as Barks alone can do, these startling and rich poems range from the "wholeness" one experiences with a true lover, to the grief of a lover's loss, and all the states in between: from the madness of sudden love to the shifting of a romance to deep friendship to the immersion in divine love. Rumi, the ultimate poet of love, explores all "the magnificent regions of the heart," and he opens you to the lover within. Coleman Barks has made this medieval, Persian-born (present-day Afghanistan) poetic and spiritual genius the most popular poet in America today. This seductive volume reveals Rumi's charms and depths more than any other.
~ Description via Amazon

St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avilla are my two favorite Catholic ecstatic poetry writers.