Lal Ded, Habba Khatun, Rupa Bhavani, Arnimal: these four women poets, dating from different periods in the history of Kashmir, are household names in the valley and are claimed by all, no matter what religious, ethnic or other group they belong to. In this beautiful volume, Neerja Mattoo brings their work together for the first time, placing it in two traditions, the mystic and the lyric. Fine and nuanced translations of their poems are accompanied by brief introductions to their work that place the women in a historical context and deal with both the facts and the beliefs about their work.

This is my second attempt to take a test as a poet from my august readers. My first 50 poems were published in 2014 with the title Emotional Savings. Like the first one, this book of poems also contains another 50 poems. In this, the reflection of poetic contents is different and full of varieties- may be the outcome of a sensible human being, especially as a common man. The delicate observations and emotional feelings have been associated with different moods and modalities of the cross-currents of human life. Some poems like ’God and Government’, ’If God Meets Each of Us’ have moral and spiritual flavour whereas some others like ’The Mystic Minstrel’, ’Village Drama’, ’Dance of Odissi’ have typical cultural backdrop. Some other poems such as ’Pet Dog’ and ’The Princess and the Cowherd Boy’ are bit ironical, philosophical and based on the instances of typical themes aiming at dragging the attention of the readers towards some of the nostalgic reminiscences as well as the realities of life. However, let alone the response of the readers to be relied on.

This edition, which offers a bilingual selection of poetry and selected prose translated into English by the nun-author Cecilia del Nacimiento (1570-1646), increases contemporary scholars' access to, and therefore understanding of, the Spanish early modern religious and intellectual milieu. A significant, rarely-studied mystic and poet, and member of the Discalced Carmelite Order in the years after St. Teresa of Avila's death, Cecilia del Nacimiento exemplifies the range of possibilities used by women writers who worked within the conventions of hegemonic discourses, while creating a unique literary voice. --Stacey Schlau Professor, Department of Languages and Culture and the Women's Studies Program West Chester University, Pennsylvania

The Griffin and Other Poems is the author's latest and fourth poetic endeavor, written to shed light on current events from a feminist's perspective, using symbolism as well as empathy in traditional as well as modern ways. The author tries to evaluate precisely what is happening in the world scene, from crime to terrorism, and gives voice to what often goes voiceless: the misery, anxiety, and tumultuous of the human condition. For the first time, the poet has included a comic play, Since Cocks Don't lay Eggs, in verse at the end of her compilation which is over seventy pages long, and plans to write more plays in the near future - God willing, she would like to add.

First published in hardcover as Love’s Immensity, this powerful book of selections from the mystics East and West, rendered into poetry, is now available in paperback for the first time.

The mystic's moment of illumination shares with great poetry the liberating power of the deepest levels of consciousness. In the words of William Blake, "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to a man as it is, infinite." Poetry, Wilson argues, is a contradiction of the habitual prison of daily life and shows the way to transcend the ordinary world through an act of intense attention-and intention. The poet, like the mystic, is subject to sudden ""peak experiences"" when ""everything we look upon is blessed."" W.B. Yeats, Dostoevsky, Gautama Buddha, Kazantzakis, Van Gogh, Rupert Brooke, Arunja, Nietzsche, A.L. Rouse, Jacob Boehme, Suzuki, Edgar Allan Poe: their visionary understanding can generate an awareness in each of us of our potential to open the floodgates of inner energy that creates mystic experience. Colin Wilson first received international acclaim in 1956 for The Outsider. ""Ever since I was thirteen, I have been obsessed by the question of the nature of mystical experience,"" he writes, and from that time he has been on a quest of the mystical in poetry, religion, and psychology.