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Tag: ritual

Padraig O Tuama
Book Bits

In the Name of the Stranger – Pádraig Ó Tuama on the Language of The Troubles

April 22, 2022April 22, 2022 Vanessa Able

Poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama reflects on the use of the word 'trouble' in Irish language, and its relationship to grief and mourning.

Tagged fasting, Islam, Practice, Ramadan, ritual1 Comment
Kazim Ali
Uncategorized

Kazim Ali – Ramadan

April 22, 2022April 22, 2022 Vanessa Able

Kazim Ali's 'Ramadan' touches on the mysterious dimension of spiritual practice and reflects on what is known and what can never be known.

Tagged fasting, Islam, Poetry, Practice, Ramadan, ritual1 Comment
All About Love

To Walk the Stones

March 4, 2022March 24, 2022 Vanessa Able

BY MATTHEW WILLIS - What the stones at Kyoto's Jishu Jinja shrine can teach us and warn us about love in our lives

Tagged eros, games, Japan, Kyoto, love, philia, ritual, romance, shrine, stones, theaterLeave a comment
M. Christine Benner Dixon
Featured Poetry

M. Christine Benner Dixon – Portrait of Dad at the Cutting Board

May 30, 2021May 24, 2021 Vanessa Able

M. Christine Benner Dixon's poem is an intimate portrait of her father, remembered from childhood.

Tagged childhood, father, memory, portrait, ritual, tribute2 Comments
Adam Mansbach
Book Bits, Book of the Month

I Had a Brother Once: A Poetic Ritual for a Sibling’s Grief

April 29, 2021April 29, 2021 Vanessa Able

I Had a Brother Once is an elegiac and honest account of the devastation of suicide, the senselessness of grief, and the imperatives and difficulties of narrative when a loved one's life is on the page.

Tagged Death, grief, loss, mourning, Poetry, ritual, suicideLeave a comment
Adam Mansbach
Interview

‘Telling Stories is the Single Thing That Makes Us Human’ – A Conversation with Adam Mansbach

April 29, 2021June 15, 2021 Vanessa Able

A conversation with Adam Mansbach about loss, grief, and the process of writing his new book, I Had a Brother Once, in the form of an epic poem.

Tagged conversation, Death, grief, interview, loss, masks, Poetry, ritual, stories, suicide1 Comment
Agha Shahid Ali
Poetry

Agha Shahid Ali – Prayer Rug

April 28, 2021April 28, 2021 Vanessa Able

Themes of cultural and religious identity loomed large in Agha Shahid Ali's work, as written in his poem Prayer Rug.

Tagged Islam, Mecca, pilgrimage, prayer, ritual, Structure1 Comment
Margaret Bleichman
Featured Poetry

Margaret Bleichman – upon waking

December 13, 2020December 4, 2020 Vanessa Able

'upon waking' describes a hand-washing ritual performed after waking up in the morning, accompanied by a traditional Jewish blessing, al netilat yadayim.

Tagged blessing, cleansing, hands, Hebrew, pandemic, ritual, tradition3 Comments
Helen Macdonald
Book Bits

The Magic Lives of Swifts

October 9, 2020December 29, 2020 Vanessa Able

The twilight excursions of swifts echo the solemnity of certain spiritual rituals, when the earth is quiet enough that we can relocate our own bearings in relation to the world.

Tagged birds, flight, nature, recalibration, resetting, ritual, Spiritual Practice, vespers1 Comment
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- BOOK BITS -

  • Orhan Pamuk
    Orhan Pamuk on Writing By Hand
    Orhan Pamuk's hand-writing habit hasn't budged, despite the conventions of our time.
  • Pema Chodron
    How We Live Is How We Die: Pema Chödrön on Preparing for Death Here and Now
    Pema Chödrön on what the Tibetan approach to living and dying can teach us about liberation in the present moment.
  • Barbara Brown Taylor
    The Path that Goes Nowhere – Barbara Brown Taylor on the Practice of Labyrinth Walking
    Barbara Brown Taylor reflects on her own experience of Labyrinth-walking and the significance of the path without a destination.
  • David Hinton
    What Can the Earth’s Crisis Teach Us About Ourselves? David Hinton’s Tao of Ecology
    David Hinton on what Taoism can teach us about Deep Ecology and how we can reconnect with our own ancient Paleolithic roots.
  • Virginia Woolf
    ‘When the Lights of Health Go Down’- Virginia Woolf on Being Ill
    Virginia Woolf on our relationship to illness, its potential spiritual value, and the mysterious intelligence of the body.


- POETRY-

  • Ronán P. Berry – On The Mountain of Forth
    "On The Mountain of Forth" is Irish poet Ronán P. Berry's anthem of the natural and wild world and what could even be considered enlightenment.
  • Regina Dilgen – Meditation on Thomas Merton’s Hermitage
    Regina Dilgen's exquisite "Meditation on Thomas Merton's Hermitage" imagines American monastic Thomas Merton worn by grief and inspired to write.
  • Orhan Pamuk
    Orhan Pamuk on Writing By Hand
    Orhan Pamuk's hand-writing habit hasn't budged, despite the conventions of our time.
  • Mike Christie – Knock Knock Knock
    A narrative of a woodpecker at work on a tree expands to the oneness of all things in Mike Christie's "Knock Knock Knock".
  • Quincy Gray McMichael – After Portugal
    In the vivid "After Portugal", the simple act of doing a load of laundry after returning home from time abroad brings back moonlit memories
 

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