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The poems in this anthology embody what it's like to live in the astonishing weave of cities and towns, landscape and language, climate and history that make up the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Selected by the members of Sixteen Rivers Press, a regional poetry collective named after the web of rivers that flow into San Francisco Bay, the poems in The Place That Inhabits Us are drawn from both a physical and a metaphoric watershed. From the granite slopes of the Sierra to the Delta, through the Coastal Range to the bay and shores of the Pacific, one hundred poems by poets well known and not well known, living and dead, map this improbable region. There are egrets and grievous losses here; prayers, panhandlers, Delta mornings and sunsets in the 'hood; the fog, certainly, and the bridges, but there are shades of Dante on a Miwok trail, and Wang-wei haunts the slopes of Grizzly Peak. These poems are internal maps, the mental maps "that for humans," writes Robert Hass in the foreword, "make a place a place." Gathered together, they evoke the San Francisco Bay watershed, the place that inhabits us. ... Read more

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Winner of many prestigious awards, including the Bonner Award for Poetry, Germany's Petrarch Prize, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Tomas Transtromer captures the mood of an era which is at once lonely and threatening. Few poets are capable of relating basic truths about the human condition in troubled times with such quiet grace and figurative skill. This volume vitally represents the immense talent and insight of one of the world's finest poets.

Customer Reviews (1)

There is a great sensuous and religious tone in this poetry.
I'm gradually overcome with the realization that Tomas Transtromer's body and the world's body are one pulsing, glimmering conversation. He says, "I'm not empty, I'm open."It's through his vulnerable, participatory wandering that Transtromer finds lucidity.Transtromer is always looking for the hub, the center, the reference point in life.He tells us that we live as people of multiplicity, anonymous and uncertain.As Protean men and women, we find no solid identities."Proteus...can't write his own name.He draws back from that terrified, as the wolf from the silver bullet."The Protean human, attempting to establish meaning without being tied down, experiences at once an invasive reality and a distressing invisibility. Transtromer expresses this bittersweetly: "I who love to stray off and vanish in the crowd, a capital T in the mass of endless text."In these essentially lonely poems, Transtromer tells the story of a crowd of people sitting in a stalled train, staring out the windows pointlessly,until a train-man strikes just the right wheel with his hammer.Immediately, "the ringing swells incomprehensibly: a thunderclap,/ a cathedral-bells-sound, a world-circumnavigating sound,/ that lifts the whole train...Everyone is singing!"All it takes is stopping long enough to listen with reverence in order to "Proceed!" like the liberated train.Transtromer is not always suffering from invisibility or assaulted by the "murmuring masses." One day, walking, he finds that "The street's massive life whirls around me;/ it remembers and desires nothing...It seems to me that the street can see me...for a second I am lit.It sees me."Transtromer's life, and the readers' lives, may be "impregnated with four times joy and three times sorrow", but "By stealth we milked the cosmos and survived."There is, ultimately, a great sensuous and religious music to Transtromer's poetry that seeps into the reader's soul like a deep and long cello note, lifted on a light wind ... Read more

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Bolts of wisdom from the world's greatest spiritual masters, philosophers, and writers. Mitchell is one of the leading voices in the contemporary spiritual landscape. 2 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Too often confuses enlightenment with dissociation
In fairness, some of the chapters in the book explore deep wisdom.But so many others are fluff passing itself off as solid truth.The reason:Stephen Mitchell, who picked what would get in and what didn't (and did a fair amount of the translating), doesn't know the difference between enlightenment and dissociation.Sometimes he really does touch on truth and wisdom (at least insofar as I see it as such), but all too often he gets hooked on yet another "great mind" who's out to "rise above life's sorrows," "conquer the Self," and be "at one with Nature" without having done the hard work to get there...Nary a mention of resolving traumas, opening up the deep channel to the self by resolving the very things that block our connection with it.

He doesn't realize that dissociation mimics enlightenment.If you split off from your traumas and bury them deep you really can seem to be at peace, and have that ever-present Buddha smile on your face.One wonders if the Buddha's smile was borne of dissociation.Certainly no lack of his followers have taken that path---yet just below the surface are cannonballs waiting to explode.

At times Stephen Mitchell, with his knack for writing annoying, all-too-clever little chapter intros that thankfully are italicized so they're easy to root out and skip over, also gravitates toward "enlightened minds" who just write nonsensical mishmash.Take his chapter by Franz Kafka.Half the stuff in it is unintelligible---yet its cleverness clearly has Mitchell hooked.

Three last gripes:

1. Although I liked the chapters by the two American Indians, especially the Seneca chief, I didn't find them so enlightened.Also, I resented the ever-politically correct Mitchell telling me in the intro to Chief Seattle's chapter that as a white American I should feel deep shame for what happened to the Indians in the generation of my grandparents' great-grandparents.Should I also feel deep shame as a male human being for the fact that other male members of my species exploded an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico?Anger, yes, but not shame.

2. I'm tired of the idea (that Mitchell just loves) that all religions at their core are the same, and are seeking deepest truth.I don't buy it.In fact, I'm much more comfortable buying the argument that all of them are the same in that none of them are really seeking deepest truth.

3. Mitchell often writes as if he is the arbiter of who is enlightened and who isn't, and sometimes strays into a territory of implying that he himself is enlightened.That doesn't fly.(For example, I "love" when he comments how he knows for certain that Jesus would have approved of the religious sentiment expressed by the Seneca Chief.) Granted, Mitchell's a gifted linguist (though I'm not a big fan of his translations), but he's out of his league on the deeper stuff.

Of course, you might say the same about me.You decide.

truly worthy to be a book
This is one of my favorite books.
I have given it as a gift many times.
In my humble opinion, it is a compilation of some of the most wonderful spiritual teachings that have ever been recorded.
Only downside--no OSHO in it.I guess there's always the next edition...

The Enlightened Mind
A MUST HAVE for any spiritual seeker.Packed with insight, mystical and practical, on every page.I will never be without it.

So many stars, one sky.
In my opinion this is an excellent anthology of sacred prose. Stephen Mitchell has been very ecumenical in his selection process. Such a lack of bias is clear evidence of his own enlightened understanding where the universality of truth is concerned. I am reminded of the parable of the blind men and the elephant. No one, no cult, no philosophy, no religion, has a patent on the ultimate source of being, on God for lack of a better word. Or to paraphrase Lao Tzu, "The god that can be named is not the eternal God." It is hubris to think otherwise. All anyone can say where the ineffable Source of existence is concerned is what it is like, not what it is. Though arguably the greatest Advaita sage of the 20th Century Ramana Marharshi's persoal favorite way of expressing the existential nature of the ineffable was "I AM THAT I AM", the self-existent one. Exodus 3:14. Many stars, one sky.

The bits and pieces of the Whole that are contained in this book are a tasty feast for the hungry mind. A veritable smorgasbord of heavenly and earthly delights. A little Heraclitus, Plato, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Rumi, Eckhart, Dame Julian, Blake, Chief Seattle, Emerson, Einstein, and others. A portion of the Upanishads, the Judeo-Christian Bible, the Hermetic Writings, the Diamond Sutra, and what we have here is truth, truth, and more truth. If you want an excellent sampling of universal truth as expressed by some of our world's greatest heart-minds then this is a good book for you. And for me.

Sampler:

Ramana Maharshi:

"If the mind is happy, not only the body but the whole world will be happy. So one must find out how to become happy oneself. Wanting to reform the world without discovering one's true self is like trying to cover the whole world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes".

Dogen:

"Gaining enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon doesn't get wet; the water isn't broken... The whole moon and the sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass".

Einstein:

"A human being is a part of the whole that we call the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. This illusion is a prison to us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for only the few people nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings and all of nature".

Rumi:

"The Love-Religion has no code or doctrine. Only Love".

Remove the log from thine own eye first.......
I found this book on accident several years into my journey, and found it to be a most intriguing work. If you already claim to know the truth, the whole truth, and everyone else falls short, this book will no doubt offend your sensibilities. However if every day is a learning experience for you, and you listen to the " still, small voice within", you will no doubt recognize the transparent thread which connects all the passages in Gods love. No matter how many times I read and reread it, as my perspective grows, so do I find new teachings to inspire and motivate me. ... Read more

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A story that follows Max the mouse in all his adventures. ... Read more

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This collection of Neruda's most essential poems will prove indispensable. Selected by a team of poets and prominent Neruda scholars in both Chile and the U.S., this is a definitive selection that draws from the entire breadth and width of Neruda's various styles and themes. An impressive group of translators that includes Alistair Reid, Stephen Mitchell, Robert Haas, Jim Harrison, Stephen Kessler and Jack Hirschman, have come together to revisit or completely retranslate the poems; and a handful of previously untranslated works are included as well. This selection sets the standard for a general, high--quality introduction to Neruda's complete oeuvre.

Pablo Neruda was born in Chile in 1904. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

Customer Reviews (26)

The Essential Neruda
Being a fan of Pablo Neruda's poetry, I wanted to get my hands on The Essential Neruda to take a look at more of his work. After reading Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, I fell in love with the poet.

The Essential Neruda contains 50 of Neruda's poems, not all of them about love.
I enjoyed this collection, a few of my favorites are in here, such as I Can Write the Saddest Lines, Leaning into the Afternoons and I Like For You To Be Still.
I did find the translation to be slightly different from the poems in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, due to the different translators. I love reading Neruda's work in Spanish, it is painfully beautiful.
There is definitely something lost in translation, the feel of the work is a bit different when read in English. The words flow better in it's original Spanish text. I'm a sucker for sad poetry about love and heartache.

Though Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair remains my favorite collection of Neruda's poetry, I'm glad I read The Essential Neruda. I got to experience more of the poets work.
How can you not love Neruda's way with words?

Body of my woman, I will persist in your grace.
My thirst, my infinite anguish, my indecisive path!
Dark riverbeds where eternal thirst follows,
and fatigue follows, and infinite sorrow.
-excerpt from Body of woman


There is also a poem in this collection called Ode With A Lament, that he wrote while his daughter was gravely ill. This one brought a tear to my eye.

Only with kisses and red poppies can I love you,
with rain-soaked wreaths
contemplating ashen horses and yellow dogs.
Only with waves at my back can I love you...


There's so much beautiful and moving poetry in this collection, highly recommended.

Essential!
Yes, this is the Essential Neruda.It's not complete, but it covers all of his topics and contains some wonderful gems and insight.If you only buy one Neruda volume, make it this one.

Pablo Neruda Book 1
I gave this product as a gift...the person that received it enjoyed it very much..a unique publishing of Neruda's works.

Excellent Translations, Great Aid For Learning A Different Side Of Spanish Outside The Confines Of A Boring Textbook
I highly recommend this edition! It's wonderful to go back and forth, line to line, reading the English translations first, then the original Spanish.Translations are fluid!A fantastic way to introduce yourself to one of the greatest poets of all time!

Splendid poetry!!

This book is an awesome work with splendid poems that have something to say to everyone.

Side-by-side texts with their translations are great in making the reader evaluate the meanings and nuances in both languages.

I love these verses:

"And the air came in with orange-blossom fingers
over all those asleep:
a thousand years of air, months, weeks of air,
of blue wind, of iron cordillera,
that were like soft hurricanes of footsteps
polishing the lonely boundary of the stone."

The imagery is vivid and thrilling, like in these verses:

"Full woman, carnal apple, hot moon,
thick smell of seaweed, crushed mud and light,
what obscure clarity opens between your columns?
What ancient night does man touch with his senses?"

I can recommend this poetry to anyone.

Joyce Akesson, author of Love's Thrilling Dimensions and The Invitation ... Read more