This
may contain spoilers
Author:
Martin Willitts Jr.
Title:
How To Be Silent.
Genre:
Literature and Fiction, Poetry, Contemporary, American, Regional and
Cultural, United States, Contemporary Fiction,.
This
book I got as part as a goodreads giveaway and firstreads. I have
never won anything before. I want to say a big thank you to goodreads
for having a great site and I want to say a big thank you to the
person who hosted the giveaway and picking me as a winner.
I
would tell people that you should step outside your comfort zone with
books because it is good to add more authors and genres to your
reading portfolio even if you do not read books like this.
I
normally read books of this genre but I also stepped outside my
comfort zone. I am so glad l did because l have read so many great
books and come across some great authors.
I
highly recommend this book.
This
book has 90 pages in it.
Quotes
From This Book:
This
ecstatic poets wrote lovingly about the search for god and when they
found god, they were overwhelmed with god's presence. They reached
out with praise, or psalms, or anguish, or tribulations, or struggled
with the unspeakable, of found they could not give words to what they
had seen or heard, but many of the mystics saw god as love.
You
can hear the footsteps of god when silence reigns in the mind. - Sri
Sathya Sai Baba.
We
need to find god, and he can not be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers,
grass – grows in silence, see the stars, the moon and the sun, how
they move in silence... we need silence to be able to touch souls. -
Mother Teresa.
In
the beginning was the conversation. - Erasmus' translation of John
1:1.
Whoever
discovers what these sayings mean will not taste death. – Jesus,
according Thomas, dead sea scrolls, saying #1.
Know
what is in front of your face and what is hidden from you will be
disclosed. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. -
Jesus, according to Thomas, dead sea scrolls, saying #5.
Even
though you are not equipped, keep searching: equipment is not
necessary on the way to the lord. - Rumi, the journey.
And
then alone in cold, light, open space, yet still deep within the
mature erected form, a gasping for the clear air of the first one,
the old one. - Rilke, imaginary life journey.
A
“daemon” according to socrates, was a spirit who would speak up
when it was about to something not in accord with its true nature.
Kabir
says this: when the guest is being search for, it is the intensity of
the longing for the guest that does all the work. Look at me, and you
will see a slave of that intensity. - Kabir, ecstatic poems (2004),
version by Robert Bly.
We
should highly rejoice that god dwells in our soul and still more
highly should we rejoice that our soul dwells in god. - Saint Julian
of Norwich, infinite love.
No
sound of the mid-day bell enters this fastness where blue mist rises
from bamboo graves: down from a high peak hangs a waterfall; none
knows where he has gone, so sadly l rest, with my back leaning
against a pine. - Li Po, visiting a taoist on tiatien mountain.
One
night as l sat in quiet, I seemed on the verge of entering a world
inside so vast I know it is the source of all of us. - Mirabai.
Be
willing to be a beginner every single morning. - Meister Eckhart.
How
shall the heart be reconciled/ to it is feast of losses?. - Mary
Karr, facing altars poetry and prayer.
For
god is not the author of confusion, but of peace. - I Corinthians,
14:33.
Synopsis:
This is a collection of meditative spiritual poems Martin Willitts,
Jr lives simple quaker principle of god is everywhere, in everyone”,
seeing both the good and bad, but also the awe of waking every day.
He turns inwards with silent meditation and outward with his own
version of psalms. He knows the small objects are just as important
as the large for our own survival. This book will be appreciated by
people who like poets such as Rumi, Hafez, Thomas Merlon, Emily
Dickinson, Lalla, Rilke, Dogen, Yeats, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry,
Gerard Manley, Hopkins, Blake, Kabir, Mirabai, St Augustine, William
Stafford, George Herbert, Meister Eckhart, Li Po, St Teresa of Avila,
Simone Weil, St Francis of Assisi, Kahlil Gibran, St Catherine of
Siena, St Thoams Aquinas, Julian of Norwich, and D.H. Lawrence.
Review
By Other People:
Like
“finding secrets in an acorn” this book can “shush the stars”
in its intense, yet humble description of a spiritual journey in to
silence of listening, the silence of unexpected encounters with the
frail, omniscient love. A mystic poet, a passionate and patient
gardener, and an expert weaver of words, Martin Willitts Jr takes us
on the way through a world “that folds into a pocket” to ecstatic
visions “in the presence of absence” these poems, inspired by
Rumi, Gnostic Gospels, Kabir, Li Po, Blake, mother Teresa, and other
mystics, resound with birdsongs notes “building a ladder of light”
and teach us to “ accept the emptiness of our hearts” - since at
the end, only the “tender rain” of love remains. This book of
psalms, reflections, and meditations is a manual for seekers of truth
beyond religions and rituals, the truth that we breathe in, while
“free-falling” into endlessness, into trust. - Maja Trochimczyk, PhD, poet, music historian, and editor of meditations on divine
names ( moonrise press, 2012).
This
exquisite poetry collection explores silence as a spiritual pathway,
journey, search, and discovery. Each poem is a tiny gem at once
delicate and deep, dark and luminous. Studded with surprising imagery
– nightjars “belonging more to darkness than to the known” , A
nightingale who “sings a peach blossom frominvisible stillness” -
these poems rouse and delight, opening the reader's eyes to the many
unexpected facets of silence, Willitts is a virtuoso at balance and
harmony while his poems are tinged in dark hues of imperfection,
unworthiness, and loss - “ a flight of rain has departed without
you” - they never fail to bring us back to brightness at just the
right moment reminding us that “loss never empties light
completely” as Willitts delves into the myriad ways silence plays
out in our lives, he calls on the reader to listen, closely and
deeply, for the messages we will find there. - Jill Jepson, author of
writing as a sacred path: a practical guide to writing with passion
and purpose.
These
poems are a window into a darkness that is filled with light... A
meditative space filled with dusky wings that carry us aloft with
those things that are greater than ourselves, shimmering with the
clarity of a moonlit mountain lake. - Jared Smith, author of to the
dark angels.
Review:
I found this book really easy to get in to and hard to put down once
l started reading it. I can not put in to words how great this book
is I would tell people to read this book for themselves to know how
great it really is. I was hooked on this book after reading the first
page. It did not take me long to read this book. There is some great
poems and quotes in this book. When l was reading this book I would
put some essential oils in my humidifier and put the lights on my
humidifier on and chill on my bed and listen to magic or spotify. I
also put on my christmas lights that are on my christmas tree. I
sometimes light a candle when l am reading this book.
About
The Author: Martin Willitts Jr is a retired librarian. He was a field
medic for american friends service committee (Quaker),a former jazz
musician, and has built over 100 houses for habitat for humanity. He
won the 2014 broad sided award, the 2014 Dylan Thomas international
poetry contest, and editor's choice in rattle's ekphrastic challenge
(June 2015) he has more than 20 chapbooks to his credit plus 11 full
– length volumes, including the national ecological award winner
searching for what you cannot see (hiraeth press, 2013) . Dylan
Thomas and the writer's shed is due out from futurecycle press in
2017.
About
The Book: I love the picture on this book cover. I like the colours
used on this bookcover and the colour used for the font makes the
writing stand out more.
Star
Rating: Five Out Of Five Stars.
I
wish l could rate this book more than the five stars because it is
worth more than the five stars l rated it.
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