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Average Customer Rating: 
Ten Poems to Open Your Heart >
Customer Review #1:
"Wake up and Love!"
This collection delivers exactly what it promises in its title, ten poems to open your heart. In his more recent anthology, RISKING EVERYTHING (2003), editor Roger Housden observes that "suffering is part of how it is on earth; it is an inherent part of the fabric of existence. And if we are lucky, it will break our heart open" (p. xiii). The ten poems Housden has collected here reveal that, even in the midst of lifes difficulties, disappointments, and broken dreams, love can bloom. And, as Mary Oliver reflects in the books opening poem, while there is life without love, it "is not worth a bent penny, or a scuffed shoe" (p. 15).Housden knows his poetry. Great poetry, he says, "is a bridge between our heart and the heart of the world" that allows us to forget ourselves and the world pours in (p. 7). Each of the ten poems collected here approaches love from a different angle: compassionate, romantic, sexual, ecstatic, and transcendent. And each poem encourages us to follow our heart. whatever the consequences. Several poems brought tears to my eyes. As in his previous book in this series, TEN POEMS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE (2002), Housden calls upon his reader to "Wake up and Love!" (p. 12). He again insightfully illustrates each poem with experiences drawn from his own life.
The ten poets collected here include Oliver, Sharon Olds, Galway Kinnell, Wislawa Szymborska, Czeslaw Milosz, Naomi Shihab Nye, Denise Levertov, Pablo Neruda, Robert Bly, and Rumi. My only criticism of this book is that, for whatever reason, Housden chose to limit his collection to ten poems, followed "a brief list" of "other poets to open your heart," leaving me to wonder why those poets werent included here as well.
G. Merritt
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