(Part 3) Best poetry books according to redditors
We found 1,904 Reddit comments discussing the best poetry books. We ranked the 802 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
43. Loving Men, Respecting Women: The Future of Gender Politics
3 mentions
Used Book in Good Condition
https://www.amazon.com/Wrestling-God-Men-Homosexuality-Tradition/dp/0299190943
Here's the description of the book. It's a reflection on the jewish faith and same-sex love. I'm not jewish, but my best friend is, and she thought the passage was sweet so she sent me that image. Idk wether she has read the entire thing or if she found this bit online, though, so I can't really give you context for now
You could always read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, but honestly, it's a long poem that has little to do with the character in LOTR. There isn't much information about him; Tolkien himself was (purposely or not) extremely vague on the topic. There are any number of internet fora where you can find discussion and Wild Mass Guessing, but here's what the man himself had to say about the matter:
"Frodo has asked not 'what is Tom Bombadil' but 'Who is he'. We and he no doubt often laxly confuse the questions. Goldberry gives what I think is the correct answer. We need not go into the sublimities of 'I am that am' - which is quite different from he is. She adds as a concession a statement of part of the 'what'. He is master in a peculiar way: he has no fear, and no desire of possession or domination at all. He merely knows and understands about such things as concern him in his natural little realm. He hardly even judges, and as far as can be seen makes no effort to reform or remove even the Willow. I don't think Tom needs philosophizing about, and is not improved by it. But many have found him an odd or indeed discordant ingredient. In historical fact I put him in because I had already 'invented' him independently (he first appeared in the Oxford Magazine) and wanted an 'adventure' on the way. But I kept him in, and as he was, because he represents certain things otherwise left out. I do not mean him to be an allegory - or I should not have given him so particular, individual, and ridiculous a name - but 'allegory' is the only mode of exhibiting certain functions: he is then an 'allegory', or an exemplar, a particular embodying of pure (real) natural science: the spirit that desires knowledge of other things, their history and nature, because they are 'other' and wholly independent of the enquiring mind, a spirit coeval with the rational mind, and entirely unconcerned with 'doing' anything with the knowledge: Zoology and Botany not Cattle-breeding or Agriculture . Even the Elves hardly show this: they are primarily artists. Also T.B. exhibits another point in his attitude to the Ring, and its failure to affect him. You must concentrate on some part, probably relatively small, of the World (Universe), whether to tell a tale, however long, or to learn anything however fundamental - and therefore much will from that 'point of view' be left out, distorted on the circumference, or seem a discordant oddity. The power of the Ring over all concerned, even the Wizards or Emissaries, is not a delusion - but it is not the whole picture, even of the then state and content of that part of the Universe."
-- J. R. R. Tolkien, draft of a letter to Peter Hastings, from The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, ed. Humphrey Carpenter, 2000, Houghton Mifflin, pg 192.
That probably doesn't help much. It isn't supposed to. One is obviously not intended to inquire too deeply into exactly what Bombadil is -- and it doesn't matter anyway. The Silmarillion and most of the rest of the Middle-earth corpus is intended as a history of the Elves, and anything else that enters it is generally coincidental and of only passing interest to Tolkien himself. The fact that LOTR involves hobbits and men is only to show that the world of the Eldar is ending; it closes the history begun in The Silmarillion. In that history, Bombadil plays little part, and anything said of him must be regarded as speculation. Here's a 1986 essay on Tom by Gene Hargrove that may be interesting.
I think he's almost got it. Women do have more sexual market value but it's not because they're inherently more attractive. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and men whether gay or straight have a lot more beauty in their eyes:
> [...] the combined flesh lust toward men of all the women in America is sufficient to sustain only one magazine, directed at women, featuring erotic pictures of men. Despite its fame, Playgirl is a small-scale publication boasting fewer subscribers than such narrow-audience magazines as Mother Earth News and Workbench. What's more, fully half its subscribers are men.
> The heterosexuality of women could not possibly be as socially suppressed as is the homosexuality of men; yet gay men find enough beauty in the flesh of men to allow gay erotica to flourish. And the heterosexual desires of men have made erotic imagery of women into a multibillion-dollar industry. But the heterosexual desires of women would seem to be only half sufficient to keep one low-circulation magazine afloat.
Also men are randier than women. These perfectly natural phenomena conspire to give women massive leverage over men in the sexual realm. It's nothing to do with women's bodies being curvy.
Rainier Maria Rilke
I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone
enough
to truly consecrate the hour.
I am much too small in this world, yet not small
enough
to be to you just object and thing,
dark and smart.
I want my free will and want it accompanying
the path which leads to action;
and want during times that beg questions,
where something is up,
to be among those in the know,
or else be alone.
This book is heavy, so it doubles as a brick for smashing in the windows of capitalist bourgeois pigs. Reading it is like taking a shot of tabasco sauce and injecting it into your eye with a hypodermic needle.
I had to buy this one on ebay, but it's a damn fine collection. Makes me want to hand out LSD-laced lollypops to schoolkids, then piss on the grave of H.W. Longfellow.
These two have all the good ones of the 20th century, a clean layout, and a fine selection. Good for reading beneath a tree in the autumn, in a graveyard.
It's edited by Rita Dove, so you know this collection has good taste. The poems are from a wide spread of poetry movements, but personally, I find a lot of the pieces in it to be a little too 'delicate'. But very good for reading naked in bed, while softly stroking the hair of your sleeping lover.
Got all the biggies like Byron, Shelly and Keats. I fuckin love Keats. This book is a great introduction to 19th century poetry. This is good for reading on a bus while driving past a field of flowers on a humid summer evening with the windows open, reminiscing about your high school crush.
If you really have no idea where to start, anthologies can easily become your best friend. There are many, many out there, but the idea is that you will have a large selection of stories by different authors who can give you quick exposure to different styles, themes, techniques, etc. Then, when you find an author you enjoy / want to learn more from, you can go looking for them. This will also let you dive into different genres quickly and give you starting points. As for what genres: read everything. And I don't mean everything as in "Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, etc etc" - I mean read fiction (both short stories and novels), essays, and poetry. Even if you have no interest in writing poetry, for example, it can teach you more about how language sounds and how it can affect speed of reading than many pieces of fiction can ever hope to do.
As to how to read: read carefully and closely. Don't rush through it. You're not necessarily reading for pleasure any more (though you still can - consider reading stuff that really hits you twice or more). How does the story arc go? How does the author create a sense of each character? How does his sentences make you read faster or slower? What details doesn't he say? See how the story works as a whole, and on a sentence by sentence level. (This is assuming fiction - reading poetry means focusing on line breaks, imagery, the sound of language, how do the line breaks affect how fast the eye reads.) It takes a lot of work, but it gets easier the more you do it.
A few suggestions:
Fiction:
You could try the "Best American Short Stories" series that is put out every year. It will give you a good thirty or so stories that are considered exceptional from small print journals from the corresponding year. I've found a lot of amazing writers in them. I also suggest The Best American Short Stories of the Century. I also recommend listening to the New Yorker Fiction Podcast as a way to find new authors - when you find a story you enjoy, track down the written version and tear it apart, and certainly read other works by the same author.
Essays:
Again, a nice easy lead in that I've found is the "Best American Essays" series. Same as before: each year, some thirty or so essays from small journals from that year. Maybe not the most wide-ranging sample, as it focuses on American writing, but there is always a surprising breadth of voices and subject matter in them. There are also a ton of essay anthologies, but I haven't gone through any of them completely enough to make a suggestion.
Poetry:
If you have a decent amount of money to throw away, I'd recommend the Norton Anthology set on modern and contemporary poetry. Volume 1 focus on modernism, and Volume 2 focus on contemporary. They have such a huge collection of different poets that there is something in there for everyone, and can set you off chasing down other poets easily. If you are also rolling in money, you might like Strong Measures, which examines a wide swath of formal poetry, but probably doesn't have much use outside of poets wanting to learn about specific forms. Otherwise, there's The Poetry Foundation where you can listen to a monthly podcast that might turn you on to some different poets, as well as a huge resource of free poetry and essays about poetry.
THis may sound silly but try Roald Dahl's Adult short stories, they are absolutely brilliant, not too long and almost always have a delicious twist in the tale. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collected-Short-Stories-Roald-Dahl/dp/0140158073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250548085&sr=8-1
It isn't quite true to say that Hebrew and Greek had words for homosexuality, but they did have extensive vocabularies for discussing sexual relationships between men.
In the New Testament, the Greek vocabulary for sex between men is not used. There are a couple of resources that go into this.
I'm not as well-versed in the Hebrew side of things, but the book Wrestling with God and Men is a good place to start.
Lately I've been picking up poetry books by Bukowski. I couldn't resist this one:
Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit
http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Drunk-Percussion-Instrument-Fingers/dp/0876854374
That title is just so good. Also, the recent whiskey/scotch add that used "So you want to be a writer" from the collection entitled Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems. That poem really struck a chord, and I picked that up as well.
here's the commercial: http://bukowskiquotes.com/2013/09/charles-bukowski-poem-dewars-commercial/
post office is fantastic as well.
I too have only Wikipedia'd :)
A pair of great epics that I have read and can give my highest recommendation are the two Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. They read like mystical, lyrical action adventure books, complete with haughty gods, cruel demons, heroic humans, lots of sex, violence, flying saucers, and battles that span hundreds of pages.
Yeah, Tolkien's poetry is usually overlooked but there's a lot of great stuff he wrote. "Cat" was from a collection called "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" and it's definitely worth a look if you want to get into some of his easier poetry...
There's húsabœr or staðr. Both can mean "farmstead" or "farm" but húsabœr gives the connotation of the buildings that make up the farm or the dwellings for people/animals while staðr is closer to the English "-stead", meaning more of the land/location. Its also used widely to mean "place" or "spot."
There's also bú which means "farming" (like the action or business of farming) or "household" but is used for a lot of other things as well.
If you wanted to be a bit dramatic with the river bluff feature, you could use nes, which is "headland". So, for example, in Landnámabók, there's a "Herjólfsnes", which is the land taken by a man named Herjolf. I've seen a lot of personal names incorporated into geographical terms to make place names. So if your name was Aaron, say, you could then have "Aaronsnes" or "Aaron's Headland."
Edit: You could also do the same with staðr, so: "Aaronsstaðr".
You can look at Zoëga's dictionary to see more details on the terms.
In modern Icelandic, I found býli or kot (for a small cottage farm). See here and here.
Good luck and congrats on getting a farm!
My favorite collection of poems is Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit.
I came in here to see if "All of them" was a comment yet.
Definitely buy Ariel and read the whole thing. In one sitting if you can, then go back and read individual poems. It's actually pretty quick to read a poetry collection, maybe a couple hours. If you remind yourself you can go back and read them closer again and again and again. Some collections benefit from a straight reading Ariel is one of them. You can buy it on amazon for under $5 plus shipping
I would definitely recommend that version. Ted Hughes's version is, well, more of his vision of the collection than hers, or at least that's what seems to be the general consensus.
No worries!
> Most importantly, boys and girls alike need to be taught to view all of the above as emotional tools to be picked up and put down as the situation demands - not as permanent characteristics against which they define their identities.
Funnily enough, this is the moral of Inside Out :p (albeit with non gender stereotyped emotional responses)
Have you read Loving Men, Respecting Women? You, me and the author seem to be on the same wavelength :)
No, it's a strange new translation by Stephen Berg that is going for a whole 'Beat' aesthetic.
Ikkyu: Crow With No Mouth: 15th Century Zen Master
Oh, well if you are actually writing a dissertation than you have a lot more space to work with. When I first read your question I thought this was for an essay; I was trying to dissuade you from trying to write about a huge chunk of the canon in 2000 words.
I am not familiar with every author on your list, but I am with most of them. I'm wondering if you might have to be careful in the works that you choose if you are wanting to talk about modernism and post-modernism. Some of the works that have been suggested, while enormously fascinating, might be difficult to classify as post-modern, unless you are playing fast and loose with the definition of postmodernism or its identifying qualities. I'm thinking particularly of 'Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,' where the work is essentially a contemporary re-writing of the Victorian novel. On the other hand, the re-writing of history has certain postmodern qualities anyway.
It sounds like an ambitious project and I wish you the best of luck. I would advise caution on The Wasteland, though. Are you sure you can't just omit it? It's a work of poetry after all, and everything else sounds like prose. Do you have one of these? http://www.amazon.ca/The-Waste-Land-Transcript-Annotations/dp/0156948702
As I'm sure you're aware, the development of that poem is a nightmare. I really have no idea how you can reach a concrete explanation for the use of footnotes in it. I feel like that would be a book in itself. The relationship between Eliot, Faber & Faber and Pound is so complicated. Although I heard they published Eliot's letters from that time. I wonder if there are any easy answers in there... Sorry, I'm sort of thinking out loud here.
Also, haven't most of the readings of 'The Wasteland' almost always used the notes? (Fisher King references, etc...I guess it's possible I've read only the old school interpretations) Anyway, if you haven't seen the original manuscript I highly recommend you pick up that book from Amazon. Your project sounds super interesting btw. I'm interested in hearing more about it.
I just happened to end up at a university that had a professor of Old Norse. Modern Icelandic and Faroese are pretty close and there is an Old Norse dictionary (Zoega's concise dictionary - it's concise because he was going to make a larger one but died before he could). My old norse professor has two textbooks you can get on amazon (textbook 1 and textbook 2) but I don't know how good those are because he was writing them while I was taking his courses. There's also this textbook which I've never used but has good reviews.
You can also learn modern Icelandic and then study Old Norse because they very similar. It may be easier to do it that way. We also read the sagas in the original Old Norse which was very interesting.
For a new poet, I highly recommend the Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. It will not only give you a wide array of poets and poetry styles, but will help teach you how to analyze.
I think it's a beautiful to slip up and do stupid things.
No shame, no fear. Feels like you might enjoy Ikkyu around now.
Collected writings of Rilke. Maybe this one.
Funny story, I helped my high school English teacher type out and format his book on Slam Poetry. I met poets like George David Miller and Roger Bonair-Agard. The book is this one but it seems like he has a second edition out (called Redux).
His short stories are way out of this world. They are more adult oriented, different from the ones you have mentioned here. Get this if you can....or try reading a single story first to get an idea. I read Umbrella Man in high school and have been hooked since.
The Bhagavad Gita centers mainly around Krishna, one of Vishnu's most popular avatars. It takes place during a war. The family of Arjuna, who is a king, betrays him. Both sides ask Krishna for aid in the war. To remain neutral, Krishna gives his army to Arjuna's family and Krishna becomes the personal Charioteer of Arjuna. As they are about to enter the war, Arjuna becomes conflicted. Krishna reveals to Arjuna that he is an avatar of the god Vishnu. The entire text is the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna. Krishna gives Arjuna advice on how to live a spiritual life on all accounts. Devotees of Krishna place an extremely high value on the Bhagavad Gita.
Here is a link to an English translated version of the text: https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Easwarans-Classics-Indian-Spirituality/dp/1586380192/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494927615&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=bhagavad+gtia
And here are links to Krishna sites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna
http://www.krishna.com/info/about-krishna#
Kalki is said to be the last avatar of Krishna. He has yet to be born. At the end of the Kali-yuga (which is the time period we are in,) Kalki is said to be born ina hidden paradise called Shambhala. He will ride across the Earth on a white steed and cleanse the Earth of evil, returning us to a golden age of peace.
here are some links to pages about Kalki:
http://www.yoga-philosophy.com/eng/kalki/kalki.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki
Although this next one is more controversial, a lot of people believe Buddha to be an avatar of Vishnu. There isn't really a specific book or site to go to for this one, but there are several books on Buddhism and documentaries on the Buddha.
Another popular Vishnu avatar is Rama. Rama is said to be the perfect man. His story is told in an epic called the Ramayana, in which his wife is kidnapped and he must rescue her.
English version of Ramayana: https://www.amazon.com/Ramayana-Modern-Retelling-Great-Indian/dp/0865476950/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1494928047&sr=8-2
Sites for Rama: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama
There are a lot more avatars of Vishnu, but these ones are the main ones. For a bigger list, they are links to all of the major ones here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu
It's also good to keep in mind that beliefs on who the avatars of Vishnu are vary from region to region and from tradition to tradition.
You forgot the book of poems! The Adventures of Tom Bombadil were published during his lifetime and therefore are canon!
DOOOD, i just bought The Way of Chuang Tzu. Its all Taoist poetry, and its fucking awesome so far.
Ill share my favorite quote from a parable that was inside (most of it is poetry and not parables btw)
"look at this window: it is nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light. So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light. Being full of light it becomes an influence by which others are secretly transformed"
-Chuang Tzu
Thomas Merton's book The Way of Chuang Tzu has Chuang Tzu using Lao Tzu as a character to illustrate many ideas. There's "mythic" stories of his wake, or one of his disciples Keng Sang Chu coming to visit him for advice for example. Not sure if this is what you're after?
Hard to pick favorites, so I'll give out some of the standard issue ones from my times.
Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is one that students tend to love, especially if you're doing a good bit about Gothicism. Any Poe short story or poem. On the longer side, "Winter Dreams" by Fitzgerald, that's a very American story though, at least as I've always taught it. For straight poetry, most of Langston Hughes work has great imagery and does well explaining the mechanics of poetry. A book I picked up in college, which this seems to be the current version of has served me very well. Pretty much every poem in there can be given a one day or full week treatment. And, if it isn't in there, Ozymandius by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Rambly list complete!
It’s probably from this compilation of translated poems: The Gift.
Despite the good overall rating on Amazon I tend to agree with the 1-star reviews that at best the author was extremely liberal in his translation and at worst pulling shit out of his ass.
If you are interested in real Hafez poetry look at this website. The English translations on the site aren’t perfect, sometimes the author sacrifices direct translation for more lyricality, but they are authentic.
It's like a whole book, so not easily postable, but you can get it on the Amazon.
I agree. You might enjoy this particular MRA's book.
https://www.amazon.com/Loving-Men-Respecting-Women-Politics/dp/0982794800/
Item.
Thin crust pizza.
Thank you.
haha - I may just do it myself:
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Ways-Poems-Companions-Journey/dp/1893996654
http://www.amazon.com/Ikkyu-Crow-Mouth-Century-Master/dp/1556591527/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/07/the-story-of-ikkyu-founder-of-red-thread-zen-buddhism-daniel-scharpenburg/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikky%C5%AB
He's actually featured in The Spoken Word Revolution. But yes, he's at a level we all aspire to get to.
http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Hafiz/dp/0140195815
by the Dalai Lama because it is a very sincere book and I can almost visualize what he is saying.
"Play the piano drunk like a percussion instrument until the fingers begin to bleed a bit"
Unanswerable Questions contains a series of poems that dive into some of the most important and most neglected questions we can ask ourselves: What is compassion? How do we show it? Who am I? What is real? What is true? What does it mean to be present? You will find that these poems speak to your soul. They are the words that we all hear deep within, if only we should listen. This book is your chance to pay attention. Inviting you in to your existence, these poems are the siren of your Being. Answer her call. She awaits your opening.
eBook: $2.99 (or free with Kindle Unlimited)
Paperback: $9.99
link to Unanswerable Questions
https://www.amazon.com/Waste-Land-Facsimile-Transcript-Annotations/dp/0156948702/ref=sr_1_7?crid=2WGK69ZF8IY3L&keywords=the+wasteland+t.s.+eliot&qid=1563976937&s=gateway&sprefix=The+wasteland%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-7
I think you would really like this book:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Hybrid-Norton-Anthology-Poetry/dp/0393333752/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1301495281&sr=8-2-fkmr2
It traces the movement of what they call "Hybrid Poetry," (essentially, experimental poetry with formal characteristics) in the 20th Century. Good introductory essays by the authors as well. I'm less swayed by your type of poetry than more conventional forms... but that's something I'm working on.
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.com
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amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
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amazon.nl
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Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
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I know this was a month ago, but check out the Restored Edition of Ariel here: http://www.amazon.com/Ariel-Facsimile-Manuscript-Reinstating-Arrangement/dp/0060732601/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418412768&sr=1-1&keywords=ariel+plath
The original was published by Hughes, who reorganized the collection and left out a couple poems. It might have what you're looking for.
I'm not sure if this really adds a whole deal to the conversation but there's this amazing 300+ page epic by Frank Stanford--The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You--that's empty of any punctuation.
The Spoken Word Revolution. https://www.amazon.com/Spoken-Word-Revolution-Generation-Experience/dp/1402202466
It has a little bit of everything. Enjoy the adventure.
There's probably a few ways you could go about expanding your knowledge base. The two that seem most fruitful are
If (1), then I'd probably suggest one of two courses. Either, (a) read the stuff that influenced the existential thinkers that you've listed, or (b) read some literature dealing with issues related to the thinkers you've listed.
For (a) I'd suggest the following:
For (b) it's really a mixed bag. I'd suggest going through the SEP articles on the thinkers you've listed and looking into some good secondary literature on them. If you're super interested in Nietzsche, I'd definitely suggest reading Leiter's Nietzsche on Morality. I really couldn't tell you more unless you told me something more specific about your interests.
If (2), then I suppose I'd suggest one of the following:
Again, it's hard to give you better directions without more information on what you're actually interested in. I've just thrown a bunch of stuff at you, and you couldn't possibly be expected to read, say, Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation over break and be expected to really understand it.
http://www.amazon.ca/Battlefield-Where-Moon-Says-Love/dp/0918786509/ for ~$35 CDN.
I'd not call that exorbitant, considering it's over 500 pages.
Probably look for anthologies, such as 101 Great American Poems, or the Giant Book of Poetry.
[FREE] New FREE book LOVE, contains 100 poems dealing with Love, Lust, and everything in-between. Some are about heartache, some passionate. Available FREE 4/26 - 4/29
​
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QPB862Q
Steven Greenberg, who wrote Wrestling with God and Men, perhaps?
I love me some Roald Dahl. As I type this, I have this on my nightstand.
Going off the idea you like Poe, Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Plath my recommendations (and reasons):
Olives by AE Stallings (the best new book of American poetry since Plath)
Harlot by Jill Alexander Essbaum (a fantastic and sexy collection of work)
The Restored Ariel by Sylvia Plath (the best book of American poetry after Eliot)
The Standing Wave by Gabriel Spera (lovely stuff)
60 Sonnets by Ernest Hilbert (some funny, some sad, all sonnets)
Broetry by Brian McGackin (light but funny)
I Was There For Your Somniloquy by Kelli Anne Noftle (a good intro into avante garde)
Azores by David Yezzi (a travelogue of sorts)
Omeros by Derek Walcott (best new epic in a long time)
With Rough Gods by yours truly (monologuing Greek gods)
Love, an Index by Rebecca Lindenberg (a beautiful work of loss and love)
The Waste Land and other writings by T.S. Eliot (the undisputed master of modern poetry)
0-5: Campbell's Soup poster because it will look good in my kitchen and maybe in yours too
5-10:Fuji Superia X-TRA 400 (35mm film) because you need film to capture your favourite moments
10-20:The battlefield where the moon says I love you I can be an ispiration for you or get you started reading poetry
20-50:Lomo Fisheye 35mm CameraTo capture your favourite moments in the most unexpected-fun-memorable way
This is my first time commenting on this subreddit, nice to meet you all
Alright, so I'm not sure where to begin with this one. Personally, I'm Agnostic. I have all of the qualifications for Atheism except that I like the idea that there's something after life. So sue me. (Don't, please.) Anyway, I know Atheists, Pagans, Wiccans, Christians, and my mother calls herself a "Recovering Catholic". I've met a Buddhist turned Christian, and Christians turned Buddhist. It's a crazy world out there, and tolerance is a great place to start, because these are all great people in my life.
Now, I suggest letting her explore her beliefs, but all parents want to help, so if you're leaning that way, I suggest, when she's old enough to understand them, give her 3 things to read.
1.) Plato's Euthyphro
2.) The Way of Chuang Tzu
3.) The Gospel According to Thomas
Yes, in this order. You can sit down and talk with her after each.
1.) The Euthyphro argument is basically, if something is good because Gods says so, then there is no good, because can change it on a whim. Yet if something is inherently good, we don't need God to tell us, and he becomes an arbitrary figurehead.
2.) The Way of Chuang Tzu is mostly parables. There's a lot of verse, and was my first introduction to Buddhism and Taoism. I actually have an old version that belonged to my great grandmother. Some are really easy to understand. The general message is that you should be yourself, but be a good person, but they are each a different lesson in how one should act.
3.) The Gospel According to Thomas was one of the "Lost" versions of the gospel. If she's really researching, she'll probably have stumbled onto the bible. It's pretty hard not to. The point of this one is to say, "This was cut from the bible for not being close enough to its teachings." The way it's written is something much more closely resembling the Buddhist/Taoist writings from the Far East. It still conveys the bible's message, but with a different view. You use this one to show that everyone's beliefs are different, but sometimes they overlap. It's the message, and not the doctrines that are really important, and she should be free to believe whatever she chooses.
Alternatively, you could give her Plato last. Those are just some research suggestions.
That was the first and only thing that came to mind when I tried to think of one. I was thinking only of Geir T. Zoëga, the apparently quite well-known guy who compiled my Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic. (Spoiler alert: it's not very concise.)
For everyday little thoughts or things that my yoga teachers say around savasana I like
Or some "stylish" books like ...
There's also some documentaries like Enlighten Up which used to be streaming on Netflix for free. Not a GREAT documentary but good if you want to focus on the culture of yoga!