News of the Universe: Poems of Twofold Consciousness [Paperback]

Acclaimed poet and translator Robert Bly here assembles a unique cross-cultural anthology that illuminates the idea of a larger-than-human consciousness operating in the universe. The book’s 150 poems come from around the world and many eras: from the ecstatic Sufi poet Rumi to contemporary voices like Kenneth Rexroth, Denise Levertov, Charles Simic, and Mary Oliver. Brilliant introductory essays trace our shifting attitudes toward the natural world, from the “old position” of dominating or denigrating nature, to the growing sympathy expressed by the Romantics and American poets like Whitman and Dickinson. Bly’s translations of Neruda, Rilke, and others, along with superb examples of non-Western verse such as Eskimo and Zuni songs, complete this important, provocative anthology.

Robert Blyis the author of more than thirty books of poetry, includingStealing Sugar from the Castle: Selected Poems(W. W. Norton, 2013);Talking into the Ear of a Donkey: Poems(2011);Reaching Out to the World: New and Selected Prose Poems(White Pine Press, 2009);My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy(2006);The Night Abraham Called to the Stars(2001);Snowbanks North of the House(1999);Loving a Woman in Two Worlds(1987);This Body is Made of Camphor and Gopherwood(1977); andThe Light Around the Body(1967), which won the National Book Award.

As the editor of the magazineThe Sixties(begun as The Fifties), Bly introduced many unknown European and South American poets to an American audience. He is also the editor of numerous collections including (Beacon Press, 2007);Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems(2004);The Soul Is Here for Its Own Joy: Sacred Poems from Many Cultures(1995);Leaping Poetry(1975);The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: Poems for Men(1992);News of the Universe(1980); andA Poetry Reading Against the Vietnam War(1967). Among his many lă!