Robert Bly's Reading List
The poet and critic, whose correspondence with the poet Tomas Transtromer, “Airmail,” has just been published, was influenced by Kierkegaard: “He predicts the rise of savagery.”
Open in WellRead Daily app →By the Book: Robert Bly (2013)
NYT By the Book column (2013-05-02).
Source: www.nytimes.com
Coleman Barks · Buy on Amazon
"Coleman Barks’s translations of Rumi are always wonderful, especially “A Year With Rumi: Daily Readings.”"
W. B. Yeats · Buy on Amazon
"I’ve read all of Yeats 1,400 times. “The Winding Stair” confronts the desire to destroy the noble or excellent, and it tells us to “cast out remorse,” tells us how necessary that is."
Leonard Lewisohn · Buy on Amazon
"Leonard Lewisohn’s “Beyond Faith and Infidelity: The Sufi Poetry and Teachings of Mahmud Shabistari”"
Haki Madhubuti · Buy on Amazon
"Haki Madhubuti’s “HeartLove: Wedding and Love Poems.”"
Peter Hessler · Buy on Amazon
"I’m liking to read Peter Hessler’s “River Town” in small bits."
Louis Begley · Buy on Amazon
"And I very much enjoyed Louis Begley’s “About Schmidt.”"
Søren Kierkegaard · Buy on Amazon
"One was “The Present Age,” by Kierkegaard. He predicts the rise of savagery. It is all around us now as we’re becoming more and more a sibling society."
Rabindranath Tagore · Buy on Amazon
"“Gitanjali,” by Rabindranath Tagore. Those God poems are so fresh, different from John Donne’s, who is a favorite too."
William Blake · Buy on Amazon
"And of course I love William Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” the stormy, excessive, tiger-like energy."
Robert Bly · Buy on Amazon
"“News of the Universe,” a collection I edited in 1980. The poems, written by poets from around the world, try to reopen the channels between human beings and nature, to see her without fear, hatred or distance."
Frederick Manfred · Buy on Amazon
"Fred Manfred’s “Lord Grizzly” is a good one too. He actually crawled over a large stretch of southern Minnesota landscape to give authenticity to the ordeal it describes."
Robert Louis Stevenson · Buy on Amazon
"“Treasure Island,” by Robert Louis Stevenson, was one. I loved Howard Pyle’s Arthurian books, Shakespeare and translations of “Beowulf.”"
Unknown · Buy on Amazon
"I loved Howard Pyle’s Arthurian books, Shakespeare and translations of “Beowulf.” Favorite characters: Grendel from “Beowulf,” Charlemagne and everything around him. King Lear."
John Lee · Buy on Amazon
"“The Flying Boy,” by John Lee, about the so-called “ungrounded” young man, of which we have so many."
Alexander Mitscherlich · Buy on Amazon
"“Society Without the Father,” by Alexander Mitscherlich. He wrote that the son used to see the father both by day and night, but now when the father is working away from home, as so many do, the son might imagine that the remote father is the evil father."
Homer · -700 · Buy on Amazon
"And then there is the “Odyssey,” the son, Telemachus, waiting for his father to return and to deal with the suitors courting his mother."
Homer · Buy on Amazon
"And then there is the “Odyssey,” the son, Telemachus, waiting for his father to return and to deal with the suitors courting his mother."