Roger Housden and his ten poems

A few years back I had the chance to read Roger Housden's Ten Poems to Change Your Life. It was in this amazingly rich reading that I first met Rumi. And I fell in love. But the book offered more than just Rumi. It struck a profound chord somewhere dormant in my yearning soul. I had an experience quite similar to Georgiou in Housden's, Chasing Rumi, "A vision of beauty that poured through his veins the first time he saw Fra Angelico's Frecsco of the Sermon on the Mount" (Housden, Chasing Rumi, pp11). The poems in his book seemed like they were written for me. As though Housden was a somehow tuned into what reverberated in my depths. There is a sense of familiar and of comfort at finding a corner that called your name. Since then I have navigated several streams of life, but ultimately finding myself craving more, wanting  to plunge into what I trust to an vast expanse of love, gratification, satisfaction, that is just hidden from my view.

With this intention, I have picked up his other works hoping to find more, and to appease my restless and ever-growing desire. That was the point of this blog in the first place, to savor my thoughts; to listen to the deep and not to preserve the ceaseless voice within me. I am starting with Housden's Ten Poems to Open Your heart. I plan to read, digest, and process the poets and Housden, to find what I am listening to and what I am hearing.