BREATH
By #Kabir, tr. #RobertBly
Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
THE HOLY LONGING
By #Goethe, tr #RobertBly & #DavidWhyte
Tell a wise person or else keep silent
for those who do not understand
will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive
what longs to be burned to death.
#RobertBly and #DanielEllsberg of the #PentagonPapers were friends in college
' #WilliamStafford and #RobertBly: A Literary Friendship'– a wonderful documentary on the two #poets and their #poetry by #HaydnReiss
youtu.be/9_P_aza4qVM?...
A Month of Happiness po-re-li.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-mo...
#RobertBly #AMonthOfHappiness #PoetryCommunity #PoemOfTheDay #poemsrethabilelikes
Bly was an American poet and essayist with deep image poetry and inwardness. His collection 'The Light Around the Body' won the National Book Award
THE HALF-FINISHED HEAVEN
By #TomasTranströmer, tr. #RobertBly
Cowardice breaks off on its path.
Anguish breaks off on its path.
The vulture breaks off in its flight.
The eager light runs into the open,
Even the ghosts take a drink.
And our paintings see the air,
red beasts of the ice-age studios.
"I am proud only of those days that pass in
undivided tenderness."
Poems: www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert...
✒️ #RobertBly, American poet and essayist, was #BOTD 23 December 1926. #Poetry #Literature
As adults it is our job to name the power we couldn’t name that worked on us when we were children.
- #RobertBly
Moon rise 05/12/2025
and changes us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it,
we already are; a gesture waves us on,
answering our own wave...
but what we feel is the wind in our faces.
- #Rilke, tr. #RobertBly
04/12/2025
MY EYES
By #Rilke, tr. #RobertBly
My eyes already touch the sunny hill,
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has its inner light, even from a distance--
Robert Bly (1926-2021), American poet
Died #otd Robert Bly (1926-2021), American poet, 4 years ago today #RobertBly life story...
If any help was going to arrive to lift me out of my misery, it would come from the dark side of my personality.
- #RobertBly
If any help was going to arrive to lift me out of my misery, it would come from the dark side of my personality.
- #RobertBly
From 'Times Alone: Selected Poems of #AntonioMachado,' Translated by #RobertBly www.goodreads.com/en/book/show...
PROVERBS AND SONGS
By #AntonioMachado, tr. #RobertBly
𝑫𝙚𝒅𝙞𝒄𝙖𝒕𝙚𝒅 𝒕𝙤 𝙅𝒐𝙨𝒆 𝑶𝙧𝒕𝙚𝒈𝙖 𝙮 𝙂𝒂𝙨𝒔𝙚𝒕
I
The eye you see is not
an eye because you see it;
it is an eye because it sees you.
A WALK
By #Rillke, tr. #RobertBly
My eyes already touch the sunny hill.
going far beyond the road I have begun,
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has an inner light, even from a distance–
Moon
YOU DARKNESS, THAT I COME FROM
By #Rilke, tr. #RobertBly
You darkness, that I come from,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes
a circle of light for everyone,
and then no one outside learns of you.
#YESquote: A Little Book on the Human #Shadow / #RobertBly - “Every part of our personality that we do not love will become hostile to us.” #ShadowWork #MentalHealth #TraumaHealing #InnerWork
We exile what we fear...and it returns with teeth.
bit.ly/44TjfSd
As adults it is our job to name the power we couldn’t name that worked on us when we were children.
- #RobertBly
News of the Universe: A Collection of Poetry from Around the World, Edited by Robert Bly
#poetry #robertbly
What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?
youtu.be/XS-6q4cvv1k?... #RobertBly #Rilke #poetrycommunity #poetry
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 'A Shipweck in a Stormy Sea' c.1823–6 https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-a-shipweck-in-a-stormy-sea-d25339
OCEANS
by #JuanRamonJimenez, tr. #RobertBly
I have a feeling that my boat
has struck, down there in the depths,
against a great thing.
And nothing
happens! Nothing...Silence...Waves...
--Nothing happens? Or has everything happened,
and are we standing now, quietly, in the new life?
Robert Bly’s signature on a white piece of paper.
A postcard of a duck on top of handwritten letters from Bly.
Calling all #swifties! In Gracie Abrams's song “us.” w Taylor Swift, line “Robert Bly on my nightstand, gifts from you, how ironic” refers to Robert Bly Book, _Iron John_. Bly was popular #Midwest #poet in latter half of #20thcentury. bit.ly/aspace-james... #RobertBly #Poetry #NationalPoetryMonth
“A Twice-Born person pays attention when the soul pokes its head through a half-lived life. Whether through choice or calamity, this person makes mistakes, suffers loss and confronts what needs to change in order to live a more genuine and radiant life.”
- #RobertBly
THE HOLY LONGING
Vy #Goethe, tr. #RobertBly & #DavidWhyte
Tell a wise person or else keep silent
for those who do not understand
will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive
what longs to be burned to death.
“It was not my intention to collapse; no, I would die standing.”
Knut Hamsun
Hunger
1890
#modernnovel #psychologicalnovel #norwegianliterature #philosophy #booksky #poverty #housingsecurity #homelessness #foodsecurity #writing #novel #books #reading #resistance #translation #robertbly #19thC
