Ten Poems to Change Your Life

This is a wonderful book that will cause you to take stock in your life. This selection of ten poems is terrific alone - but the authors commentary helps weave them together and provides thought provoking insight that will inspire you.

Roger Housden's collection delivers what its title promises, ten poems with the potential to change your life. Let the reader beware: reading poetry like this can be dangerous; dangerous, we're told, "because you may never be the same again" (p. 1). "Great poetry can alter the way we see ourselves," Housden explains in the Introduction to this ten-poem collection. "It can change the way we see the world . . . Poetry at its best calls forth our deep Being, bids us live by its promptings; it dares us to break free from the safe strategies of the cautious mind; it calls to us, like the wild geese, from an open sky" (p. 2).Housden (TEN POEMS TO OPEN YOUR HEART; RISKING EVERYTHING: 110 POEMS OF LOVE AND REVELATION) knows great poetry, the kind of poetry that "has the power to start a fire in your life" (p. 1). He has drawn the ten poems collected here from around the world and from different centuries, including accessible selections from Mary Oliver, Antonio Machado, Walt Whitman, Rumi, Kabir, Pablo Neruda, Galway Kinnell, W. S. Merwin, Derek Walcott, and St. John of the Cross. Each poem encourages us to "Wake up and Love," and to open our eyes "to the wonder of what is around us; to the wonder of what is deep inside the human heart; and above all, to be awake to the presence, the sensation, of our own being, in the midst of all of it" (p. 116). Housden annotates each poem with insightful commentary based on his own personal experience.G. Merritt

This book is a lovely and thoughtful meditation on 10 poems with spiritual or metaphysical themes. The selection of poems is interesting and eclectic, but it's the commentary that really shines. Mr. Housden discusses the poetic themes with stunning insight is to their relevance to modern life...trust me, the first chapter alone is worth the price of admission. A book to be read, re-read and savored on the road of life. A big "thank you" to Mr. Housden for this wonderful book!

In her book BLUE PASTURES, poet Mary Oliver states: "The three ingredients of poetry: the mystery of the universe, spiritual curiosity, the energy of language." Roger Housden does a superb job of incorporating these three key ingredients in his marvelous book, TEN POEMS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE. I am on my second reading and just realized what a wonderful gift TEN POEMS would be for people who say they don't like or "get" poetry. Mr. Housden interprets poetry in his own poetic and deeply-felt style, illuminating the reader's own innate knowing of universal truths, longings and passions. I am reminded of a recent ad for Mercedes-Benz: "Live. A lot. Unleash yourself upon the world and go!" Mr. Housden can show you how to do just that by connecting with great poetry. What a pleasure this book is.

Roger Housden's "ten poems to change your life" is guaranteed to inspire, illuminate and educate. Having discovered Mr. Housden's analysis of Mary Oliver's "The Journey" in the July issue of O Magazine, I was moved to purchase this gem of a book. The author has a remarkable relationship with language. Each poem is an opportunity to discover the music of Housden's ability with words. "This is the self who slips through the cracks of the ordinary mind when the sentry is looking the other way. If there is one word that can describe its voice, it is the word authentic." His fluid and incredible visual style had this reader weeping. Without question, each poem is in, and of itself, special, but it is the author's lyrical interpretation that gives this book it's powerful voice. For anyone who is on the path of self-discovery, Roger Housden's work is a journey well worth the taking.