Holy Fire: Nine Visionary Poets and the Quest for Enlightenment

by Daniel Halpern

A collection of inspirational poems centers on a common theme of spiritual discovery and includes the works of William Blake, Ranier Maria Rilke, Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, and fifteenth-century Hindu mystic Mirabai. Original. National ad/promo.

Genres: Poetry

328 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

Reviews

[Margaret Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Rumi and Mirabai selections are very well organized, and there is a lot of value in the work this book does arranging many Mirabai translators.
There is not very much else to admire. The introduction could be benefitted by some basic attention to the nature of mysticism, which is fundamentally misunderstood here. The Rilke section is not exceptional and the translator is Stephen Mitchell exclusively (why not include others?)
I'm also perpetually confused about the association of William Blake with these other writers, as interesting as his work is it feels extremely odd to place it in communication with ecstatic poetry. Ginsburg too seemed to be a potential miscalculation (although again I can understand the reasoning).
It was difficult to give this book a fair shot because of the inaccuracies in the introduction

[Mejix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brilliant selection of Rumi, Lalla, and Mirabai. The selections for the other poets are so so.