Mala of Love: 108 Luminous Poems

This thoughtfully curated collection is lovely (pun intended!) Every page is a cool, refreshing sip of melody for the soul's refreshment. I suggest you get more than one. Keep one to savoir , and spread some love by sharing another.

truly waste of money; only a very few words on each page; the rest blank; my 10 year old daughter could just pick a one-liners from poetry books and put one line per page!!!! OMG

A book portraying many aspects of love. A very thoughtful collection from varied writers from multiple cultures.

Finding words to express our profound love for another person can be a challenge. Sometimes we turn to the greeting cards created for such occasions but only rarely are the words just right. Perhaps the greeting card verses thrive on attachment and romanticism as the editors of Mala of Love point out.In their book of poems, Ravi Nathwani and Kate Vogt hope to guide readers towards a realization of a more mystical love grounded in acceptance, joy, patience, compassion and gratitude. From my very first reading of the book, I felt they had achieved their intent.The number 108 honors the 108 beads in the traditional meditation mala used by spiritual practitioners throughout the East. Each poem can be read aloud in the way one might recite a mantra with a mala strand.Most of the poems are excerpts from the work of mystics across the centuries including Christian (St. John of the Cross, Mechthild of Magdeburg); Buddhist (Zenkei Shibayama, Izumi Shikibu); and Sufi (Attar, Hafiz, Rumi). Words of songs are included and the words of many modern day poets. The book is a rich diversity of genres, cultures and time periods."All you need is love, love / Love is all you need," wrote John Lennon and Paul McCartney in their well known song. Those few famous words are included in the book to remind us of love's sustaining power in times of joy and loss.I so enjoyed reading the "luminous" gems in the book and wanted to find the complete poems for further inspiration and contemplation. The titles of the poems and their sources are acknowledged in the back. I'm intrigued, for instance, by Zeynep Hatun (?-1474), on of the first female Sufi poets of the Ottoman empire.One wouldn't edit a book of love poetry without including the beloved Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda. One of his two poems excerpted is: "I love you without knowing how."Czeslaw Milosz's poem "Gift" exudes such a feeling of contentment and a love that goes beyond the love for one other person. It describes an all-encompassing joy that connects everyone to a "sweet, gentle ocean of love," as the sages and saints expressed it."A day so happy," Milosz writes. "Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden . . There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess."Derek Walcott in his famous poem, "Love After Love," writes of loving again "the stranger who was your self." This is a poem in which you are reminded to love and "greet yourself."When in love with another we can experience parts of ourselves that haven't been fully expressed before. Alice Walker describes that feeling beautifully in "New Face": " . . . the new face I turn up / to you / no one else on earth / has ever / seen."As a Zen Buddhist monk ordained in 1949, Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of "true love" as giving us "beauty, freshness, solidity, freedom, and peace."Many couples have included the words of Paul the Apostle at their Christian marriages ceremonies: "Love is patient and kind..."And bless that Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) whose exclamations of passion are uttered as if just yesterday: "Wild Nights—Wild Nights! / Were I with thee / Wild Nights should be / our luxury!"How fascinating to realize our alphabet of 26 letters can be arranged into so many configurations, variations and expressions of love.These poems, lyrics, and play excerpts are a delight and an inspiration. What a wondrous way to learn of poets' work across the ages and to realize inspiration for our own words of love.by Mary Ann Moorefor Story Circle Book Reviewsreviewing books by, for, and about women

I don't read a lot of poetry, which I should, and this book was offered to me to review so I accepted. This is a beautiful short book about love, not just romantic love, but all love.It's poems about love of life, spirit, nature, and self. One of my favorites is this one: True love gives us beauty, freshness, solidity, freedom, and peace. True love includes a feeling of deep joy that we are alive. Thich Nhat HanhIf you want a great gift for Valentine's Day or just love poetry this is the book for you. It has some familiar poets and some not so familiar. Discover love and a new poet or two.

Mala of Love by Ravi Nathwani & Kate Vogt is a collection of 108 poems about love. If you are looking for some inspiration in the form of love, this is the book for you to read (perhaps in a relaxing bath surrounded by candlelight and romantic music). ;)Mala of Love is a beautiful collection of 108 poems. The editors included 108 poems to honor the 108 beads in the traditional meditation mala which is used by spiritual practitioners throughout the East. It isn’t a traditional book of love poems, but rather one which can be woven together with love to bring about pure joy, compassion, and gratitude.The poems included are a joy to read, and I will cherish this book in my personal library forever. It is a timeless collection which anyone who buys either for themselves or for others will most definitely enjoy as well. I highly recommend it.* Thank you to the publisher of Mala of Love, New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was given this slim volume by a friend to read on my airplane trip. I am more a fan of prose, rather than poetry, but I became absorbed by the flow of the 108 poems from authors of all backgrounds. The unifying theme of how love is perceived was the strength of the collection of poems. I plan to go back and review the brief bios of the poems' authors at the end of the volume. A very enjoyable reading experience overall, highly recommended

There are so many ways of describing love in this book of poetry. I have not read a lot of poetry, but find myself really enjoying this book. I like that the poems are so short and you can savor them easily, without losing something in the process.