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Michael Sowder

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.michaelsowder.org

Twitter

michael sowder

Genre

Poetry, Spirituality, Philosophy

Influences

Kabir, Rumi, Hafiz, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, ...more

Member Since

February 2008

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/michaelsowder

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“One of our finest spiritual poets,” Michael Sowder, poet and essayist, writes about wilderness, fatherhood, Buddhism, and spirituality. He is a professor of English and an adjunct professor of religious studies at Utah State University.

website: www.michaelsowder.org.

facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/mike.sowder2...

A long-time meditation teacher and student of the world’s contemplative traditions, Michael Sowder is the founder of the Amrita Sangha for Integral Spirituality, a nonprofit organization dedicated to exploring and teaching the contemplative practices of the world’s wisdom traditions, including teaching meditation and creative writing in jails and prisons.
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He is available for talks, poetry readings, workshops, and ...more

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Michael Sowder’s books

Average rating: 4.39 · 72 ratings · 15 reviews · 9 distinct works

	The Empty Boat 4.51 avg rating — 37 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	House Under the Moon 4.36 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2012 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Helicon West Anthology: A Ten-Year Celebration of Featured Readers by Star Coulbrooke (Editor), Timothy J. Keller (Editor), Chadd VanZanten (Editor) 4.13 avg rating — 8 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Calendar of Crows 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2001	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sugar House Review #3: Fall/Winter '10 by William Neumire (Contributor), Mario Chard (Contributor), Pimone Triplett (Contributor) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Empty Boat: Poems by Michael Sowder (T. S. Eliot Prize Book 2004) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Whitman's Ecstatic Union 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2005	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Whitman's Ecstatic Union 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2005 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Rainbow: A Portriat of John Constable 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Michael’s Recent Updates

Michael Sowder is now following Michael Sowder Author of The Empty Boat
Oct 09, 2026 05:45AM · like
Michael Sowder is accepting questions on their profile page.
Aug 04, 2025 12:09PM · Be the first to ask Michael Sowder a question
Michael Sowder is now following Michael David Sowder Author of Sacred Letters: Sanskrit, Yoga, and Awakening t...
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Michael’s Groups

Sufism — 391 members — last activity Nov 14, 2017 07:11AM
Why are you knocking at every other door ? go, knock at the door of your own heart. ~ Rumi For all Muslim on Good Reads to get together and talk abo ...more

e-Sangha — 427 members — last activity Apr 14, 2023 04:37AM
Sangha is a pali word meaning "assembly" or "gathering". It is the community established by Buddha. This group is here to serve as an online gathering ...more

yoga book club — 131 members — last activity Apr 03, 2016 05:22PM
a group for those interested in reading a broad range of books related to yoga--the ancient texts, yoga-related memoirs and fiction, asana guides, and ...more

Sacred Texts Book Club — 17 members — last activity Jul 10, 2012 01:46AM
Religion has been a driving force throughout the history of civilization. This is a book club for anybody who is interested in learning more about wor ...more

¡ POETRY ! — 22490 members — last activity Oct 07, 2026 06:07PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

Poetry Readers Challenge — 640 members — last activity Jan 08, 2026 06:18AM
Let's talk about poetry books. This group's members read poetry collections, with the goal of reviewing twenty in a year. C'mon. Do it. It's good for ...more

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