– Shubhangi Swarup (Latitudes of Longing)

    . . . According to tradition and the testimony of Sufi mystics, The Prayer--or Salat--was first taught by the angels, who themselves practiced it in celestial adoration. The Prayer is God's gift to all humankind, and in this gorgeously illustrated volume, its simple, archetypal practice unfolds like a fragrant, many-petaled flower, joining words and movements into a single luminous event that engages our entire being. These ancient rituals are presented here as a gift for anyone with a heartfelt desire to set aside for a moment the concerns of every day and enter a sacred time and space in which to explore the beckonings of the spirit. The authors take us through the words, movements, and hidden meanings of the Call to Prayer, the Ablutions, The Prayer itself, and the Peaceful Embrace afterwards. Faithful practice lends a sacred rhythm to each day and creates a psychological force that helps us nurture and express a profound inner harmony. This first, marvelously accessible interpretation of The Prayer also offers a compelling introductin to the wisdom and teachings of the beloved contemporary Sufi master Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, who brought new life to this mystical tradition by opening a passage to its deepest, universal realities. It is the loving handiwork of two of Bawa's best-known students, Coleman Barks and Michael Green, who also created The Illuminated Rumi. Like a jewel given extra brilliance by its setting, The Prayer is surrounded by the wisdom and understanding of the thirteenth-century Sufi master Rumi, whose generous poetry has become an essential canon for modern-day seekers in the West. The final gift is the Primeval Kalima, the core practice and most profound teaching of the Sufi, the "open secret" that leads to Divine Luminous Wisdom.

    Heralded as "one of our most vital, unclassifiable writers" by the Voice Literary Supplement, Fanny Howe has published more than twenty books and is the recipient of the Gold Medal for Poetry from the Commonwealth Club of California. In addition, her Selected Poems received the 2001 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for the Most Outstanding Book of Poetry Published in 2000 from the Academy of American Poets.The poems in Gone describe the transit of a psyche, driven by uncertainty and by love, through various stations and experiences. This volume of short poems and one lyrical essay, all written in the last five years, is broken into five parts; and the longest of these, "The Passion," consecrates the contradictions between these two emotions. The New York Times Book Review said, "Howe has made a long-term project of trying to determine how we fit into God's world, and her aim is both true and marvelously free of sentimental piety." With Gone, readers will have the opportunity to experience firsthand Howe’s continuation of that elusive and fascinating endeavor.

    It's about her childhood in the north-west of England with her beautiful, careworn mother Marcia, Linford (the man formerly known as Dad, 'half-fun, half-frightening') and her little brother Roo, who sees things written in the stars. It's about growing up and discovering the power and fear of her own sexuality, of pitch grey days of pills and powder and encounters. It's about damage and pain, but also joy. Told with raw intensity, shocking honesty and the poetry of the darkest of fairy tales, The Terrible is a memoir of going under, losing yourself, and finding your voice.

    In Europe, the Enlightenment is dawning after a century of wars. On the seas and in coastal villages, pirates and corsairs are the scourge of the waves. And in Morocco, Sultan Moulay Ismail is concentrating his power, building an elaborate palace complex with captive labor. Alys Swann is also a captive, but hers is a different lot: convert to Islam, marry the sultan and give him sons. Or die. Nus-Nus, the sultan’s scribe and keeper of the royal couching book, is charged with convincing Alys to accept her fate. Or they both die. Two powerless prisoners in a world of brutal intrigue, each discovers that they can take strength in the other, to endure that which must be endured in the hope of a better tomorrow. Rich in detail with compelling characters and an ambitious scope, The Sultan’s Wife is a remarkable tale of adventure, romance, history, and friendship.

    This book explores topics such as love, spirituality, womanhood, suicide, addiction, ancestral trauma and the unwavering power of healing from the inside out. WITCHDOCTORPOET is an offering to those in need of a sensual and empowering stance on the realities and legacies of the African Diaspora.

    Are we considered strong if we do not fall when life pushes us to the ground? Do our faith and belief tell us that we cannot let our misery affect us because as the saying goes, “we must bear patience”?In this book, author Liyana Musfirah takes readers on a reflective journey of discovering the strength that emerges from each of our painful and scarring episodes. This is the book that celebrates what God has given women — the resilience to withstand emotional, spiritual, or even physical hardships.

    His poetry in Persian appealed equally to the Delhi sultans and to his Sufi sheikh, Nizamuddin Auliya. It was appreciated not only in India, where his Hindavi poetry has survived through a lively oral tradition, but also across a cosmopolitan Persianate world that stretched from Turkey to Bengal. Khusrau's poetry has thrived for centuries and continues to be read and recited to this day. But despite his vast literary output, there is a dearth of translations of his work. In the Bazaar of Love offers new translations of Khusrau's poems in Persian and Hindavi, many of which are being translated into English for the first time. Paul Losensky's translations of Khusrau's ghazals, including his mystical and romantic poems, comprise fresh renditions of old favourites while also bringing to light several little- known works. Sunil Sharma brings us many of Khusrau's short poems, including those belonging to the qawwali repertoire, as well as a mixed prose-and-verse narration 'The Romance of Duval Rani and Khizr Khan'.The first comprehensive selection of Amir Khusrau’s poetry, In the Bazaar of Love covers a wide range of genre and forms, evoking the magic of one of the best-loved poets of the Indian subcontinent.About the AuthorPaul Losensky is associate professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he teaches translation studies, and Persian language and literature.Sunil Sharma teaches Persian and Indian literatures at Boston University. He is the author of two books on Indo-Persian poetry.

    The space-age sounding title was suggested over 800 years ago by "The Blind Ones and the Elephant," a story immortalized in Rumi's Mathnavi.

    A potpourri of musings assembled with a hint of practical spirituality, to be savoured passably as an oracle of hearts to the many answers, whose questions our minds are yet to comprehend. Ivory Gleam is split into three chapters of learning, longing and loving. Each chapter is a journey traversing a different road to the ultimate destination of self-reflection.

    Taking The One Thousand and One Nights as her central theme, Mikhail personifies the role of Scheherazade the storyteller, saving herself through her tales. The nights are endless, seemingly as dark as war in this haunting collection, seemingly as endless as war. Yet the poet cannot stop dreaming of a future beyond the violence of a place where “every moment / something ordinary / will happen under the sun.” Unlike Scheherazade, however, Mikhail is writing, not to escape death, but to summon the strength to endure. Inhabiting the emotive spaces between Iraq and the U.S., Mikhail infuses those harsh realms with a deep poetic intimacy. The author’s vivid illustrations — inspired by Sumerian tablets — are threaded throughout this powerful book.

    The content of the poetry is wide-ranging, including war songs, political protests and poems about human love, African nature and the surprises that life offers.

    Documentary poems explore which human lives are valued, how editorial decisions are weighed, what role the aid industrial complex plays in crises, and how medical myths and rumor can travel faster than microbes.These poems also give voice to the virus. Eight percent of the human genome is inherited from viruses and the human placenta would not exist without a gene descended from a virus. If God Is A Virus reimagines viruses as givers of life and even authors of a viral-human self-help book.

    Since 1959 she has lived and worked in Ethiopia, helping the victims of fistulas -- devastating injuries caused by obstructed labour in childbirth, which condemn women to a lifetime of incapacity and degradation.The surgery she pioneered has helped tens of thousands of sufferers return to normal life after being shunned by their families and communities. The hospitals she has set up in her adopted country now act as teaching centres for obstetricians and surgeons from many developing nations. Catherine's Gift takes us inside her extraordinary world, following the fate of some of the women who have travelled to Dr Hamlin's hospitals in the hope of a cure for their fistula injuries. It shows us the day-to-day experiences of her incredible staff, and the tireless work of Catherine Hamlin herself.There are few more inspirational stories than that of Dr Catherine Hamlin, and this book brings her and her work vividly to life.

    In the first half of the 20th century, George Gurdjieff was an influential spiritual teacher in the West. With a striking manner and appearance, Gurdjieff attracted many fashionable and influential pupils, while the sources of his teachings remained mysterious. In addition to recounting thrilling adventures in the souks of Baghdad and Aleppo, this book provides striking and timeless advice to those interested in finding spirituality. Its appeal is far beyond that of one seeker in one era, but offers us information for today on how to evaluate different forms of teaching, how to study, and even some tantalizing information on the role of Jesus. "You are scrabbling about in the sand, attracted by pieces of mica to knit together and make a window, not realizing that the sand itself is capable of being transformed into the purest glass." --from The Teachers of Gurdjieff