Roger Housden is the author of some twenty books, including the best-selling Ten Poems Series. He is also a writing coach and an editor. He is available for hourly writing sessions, for the preparation of book proposals and for work on manuscripts. Send him an email on this site for more details. He also runs periodic classes on Spiritual Memoir in the Bay Area.
All his books, whatever the subject - poetry, art, a journey through Iran or India - share a common aim: to inspire himself and others to value life and each other with depth, and to ask courageous questions about the way we live – to encourage us, before we die, to live into the best that we are. His book on Iran, SAVED BY BEAUTY: ADVENTURES OF AN AMERICAN ROMANTIC IN IRAN, will be published in June 2011 by Crown Books.
the silence
holds with its gloved hand
the wild hawk of the mind.
R.S.Thomas.
From: For Lovers of God Everywhere, by Roger Housden
Photo by Roger Housden
Ten Poems to Change Your Life - mp3 Download
Listen to Roger read his poetry and essays from the book of the same title. Purchase and download the full album or the individual mp3s.
Click here to schedule an event with Roger.
As well as providing personal inspiration, poetry can also change lives in a concrete, material way. Our Poetry For Water page shows how one evening of poetry can generate enough funds to bring water to a village in Africa.
Implicit throughout this website is our culture’s need for fresh ideas – ideas that light the fire of our passion for life; that challenge us to see the world with new eyes. “Philosophy,” Socrates said, “is a bite in the heart to any young and gifted soul.” At its best, poetry is a direct transmission of truth; a universal language that conveys the depths of human experience without dogma or sermons. Through his books and talks, Roger Housden is an advocate and mediator for this language, both in the public worlds of work and family, and in the personal world of self reflection.
“Housden’s book provides the key to life’s best kept secret garden, a place the reader can receive refuge and sustenance for the rest of her life.”
on Ten Poems to Open Your Heart