Rating: 
Summary: Wow, it stirred my soul!
Review: All my life I've thought to myself, "I don't DO poetry!" This book caught my eye just because of it's beautifully simple cover, so I picked it up and began to read. From his opening line in the Introduction, "Good poetry has the power to start a fire in your life," I was as mesmerized by his writing and explanation of the selected poems as I was by the poetry itself. This little book has taught me to NOT take a poem, chew it up and spit it out, but to take little bites, small morsels at a time, savor them, roll them around on the tongue a bit enjoying each little piece, then move onto the next bit, which has left me wanting for more! Thank you for this introduction to poetry in my life! I loved this book!
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Summary: Read More and Be Inspired By these Great Books!!!
Review: Can't get enough of visionary fiction? Neither can I! These are just a few titles that will inspire you: The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) ; The Butterfly (Jay Singh); The Monk who sold his Ferrari (Robin Sharma) ; The Alchemist (Paulo Coehlo); Chasing Rumi (Roger Housden). My favorite is by far and away THE ALCHEMIST! Go ahead...be inspired. Happy reading. Donald S. Buckland.
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Summary: A spiritual journey
Review: Each of us is on a different pathway in our own spiritual journey. By just picking up a book with a title that promises to change your life, you are admitting that your mind is open to that possibility. I found this book sitting on a shelf in a quaint store in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and as I skimmed the pages, I stopped and read one of the ten poems presented in this book. Immediately I knew that this was a book that I would read over and over again in my own search for spiritual truth. This book is to the soul what chocolate is to the taste buds.
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Summary: An enchanting book that I will read over & over
Review: I love poetry, and so does Roger Housden. He does not tell you what you should read in a poem, but he does offer some insights all the same. And hopefully, he will introduce you to some wonderful voices, and to poetry beyond the old English you were taught in Middle School. His essays are to be savored like good brandy, and to meditate, maybe journal, and reflect upon. Thank you, Roger.
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Summary: Moving and Inspirational!
Review: I love this book, "10 Poems to Change Your Life"! I came across the poem "The Journey" while reading an issue of "O" magazine along with an article about the author, Roger Housden. Whether you're a poetry lover or not, this book will, without a doubt, stir some things around in you. I am at somewhat of a turning point in my life and "10 Poems" (along with my Master) are my inspiration. Mr. Housden has a wonderful gift of interpreting these poems. I appreciate him for putting this together. Everyone should own this book!
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Summary: Ten Times a Momentary Trembling
Review: I need no convincing to read poetry. It is second nature to me... if not first in line. There is this quick, pointed injection of life that poetry offers that lengthier prose cannot. An image. A snap of sound. A gut punch. A sudden miracle. A flash of light. A surprise. Housden has recognized this and, with this book, presents his own miracle of found poetry to the general reader. He has chosen ten poems by ten very different authors out of ten different planes of existence (time, space, culture) and presented them here to - more than not, I think - the mostly uninitiated. Certainly these are not complex poems. No argument on their quality. They are definitely not the ten that I would choose (although one or two of them might indeed make it onto my list also)... but they don't have to be! Poetry is, after all, as personal and intimate as making love. Indeed, it is making love... the mind in the most intimate relationship with life in all its juices and flavors. Housden's choices range from Whitman's enthused "Song of Myself" (this one would make it onto my list also)... to the simple pleasures of "Ode to My Socks" by Pablo Neruda... to the inspirational "The Journey" by Mary Oliver... to the old age reborn to new age "Zero Circle" by Rumi... to the deliciously sensual "Last Gods" by Galway Kinnell... to the always impressive "For the Anniversary of My Death" by W.S. Merwin... and more. Each poem is followed by Housden's essay elaborating his choice, the poem's effect on him, it's life-changing (at least for him) message. He kindles the poetry flame, and that is a wonderful thing. For those who are reasonably well acquainted with poetry, there is little new here. The authors should all be familiar ones, several by now considered classics. There are Pulitzer Prize winners along with those appearing in smaller literary presses. None of that, I suspect, was part of Housden's criteria in his choices. He appears to have chosen poems for their ability to stop time, for just a moment, and cause some kind of metamorphosis, an epiphany, a momentary trembling of the earth beneath his reading feet. While a few of these choices left me unmoved, as a whole, I enjoyed the book and sharing in his perspective while keeping my own. Revisiting Whitman was a nostalgia of youthful enthusiasm, for instance. Whitman showed us that poetry need not be stodgy or stiff with rhyme and iambic pentameter. While both Neruda and Rumi left me cool, and Machado had only a mild effect... the encounter of "Last Gods" by Galway Kinnell... mm, left me purring. Never underestimate the power of the written word, indeed. Not only is it more powerful than the sword, but nothing can compete... no trash magazine, no cheap celluloid... with the eroticism of such well chosen words. Kinnell's poem evokes ripples of sensation, sweet sweet, savory, leaving all the senses tingling... but also stimulates the most erogenous zone of all: the mind. It is not shy. It is not embarrassed to be precise in its description. Yet here is a most wonderful example of the difference between erotic art... and pornography. One being of beauty, uplifting, lasting... while the other is ugly and base. One enriches while the other degrades. In his essay following the poem, Housden writes: "...pornography divorces body from soul and turns body into a thing, which can be used like any other thing for profit in the marketplace. Pornography is a caricature of the erotic; it can only exist by demanding anonymity, and substituting fantasy for relationship. Without relationship, there is no soul. There is only sensation, for its own sake; and sensation is no more than skin deep. Sensation on its own - however orgasmic - fails to deliver the goods. To skim the surface of life ultimately leaves us on our own, and predictably, lonely. One reason we seem to be such a pleasure-hungry society is that we are habitually looking for it in all the wrong places." As Housden says of Kinnell (and oh yes, I am looking up this poet on my next trip to the library), this slim volume of applause to poetry, its word-play and its word-ecstasy and its word-power, is one of immersion into the experience. "Great poetry," Housden says, "can alter the way we see ourselves. It can change the way we see the world... suddenly you see your own original face there; suddenly find yourself blown into a world full of awe, dread, wonder, marvel, deep sorrow, and joy.... poetry bids us... to break free from the safe strategies of the cautious mind; it calls to us, like the wild geese, from an open sky." Whether these ten poems call to us, some of these ten, or another ten of our own choosing... poetry is an experience worthy of immersion. Housden's enthusiasm for the literary form is contagious. That enthusiasm, taken to be one's own, that understanding of the power of the word, is what can change lives.
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Summary: Nowhere near ordinary
Review: I picked up this book in a bookstore in Las Vegas last May, read one poem, and got hooked. I was only able to get my hands on it today, because this book is practically non-existent in my country. Anyway, what I like about this book is that the author not only explains to us all the poems in relation to life and the soul, but it is quite obvious that this guy is just as affected by these poems. This book seems to also be the story of his life in direct relation to the poems. As it seems to say throughout the book, you can't really describe the feeling, it's just...indescribable. Buy this book. It's really great.
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Summary: This Is Not Fusty Criticism !
Review: I used this book in one of my freshmen composition classes, with good success. Mr. Housden's genius lies in his ability to make poetry alive and "useful" for his readers. In fact, he uses poetry not as a vehicle for literary criticism but as a tool for self-actualization. His keen essays caused me to take second looks at poems that I might have glossed over, otherwise. Now, I have my students searching for their own poems, poems that can change their lives. Housden's approach is refreshing. My list of ten life-changing poems would have been rather different. Nevertheless, I congratulate him on this success: a revolution of outlook, attitude, and overall perception.
Rating:
Summary: This Is Not Fusty Criticism !
Review: I used this book in one of my freshmen composition classes, with good success. Mr. Housden's genius lies in his ability to make poetry alive and "useful" for his readers. In fact, he uses poetry not as a vehicle for literary criticism but as a tool for self-actualization. His keen essays caused me to take second looks at poems that I might have glossed over, otherwise. Now, I have my students searching for their own poems, poems that can change their lives. Housden's approach is refreshing. My list of ten life-changing poems would have been rather different. Nevertheless, I congratulate him on this success: a revolution of outlook, attitude, and overall perception.
Rating:
Summary: This Is Not Fusty Criticism !
Review: I used this book in one of my freshmen composition classes, with good success. Mr. Housden's genius lies in his ability to make poetry alive and "useful" for his readers. In fact, he uses poetry not as a vehicle for literary criticism but as a tool for self-actualization. His keen essays caused me to take second looks at poems that I might have glossed over, otherwise. Now, I have my students searching for their own poems, poems that can change their lives. Housden's approach is refreshing. My list of ten life-changing poems would have been rather different. Nevertheless, I congratulate him on this success: a revolution of outlook, attitude, and overall perception.
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