Reviews
"Beautiful.... The perfect combination of timeless wisdom, beautifully crafted language and practical, grounded exercises. A must-read for writers, spiritual seekers ... and all breathing human beings." - Rev. Susan Sparks , author, Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor ; senior pastor, Madison Avenue Baptist Church "There is much more in this book than directives about writing. There's a spirituality, philosophy, psychology, cosmology and an amazingly creative array of writing prompts both playful and profound. Remarkable." - Thomas Ryan, CSP , author, Soul Fire: Accessing Your Creativity and The Sacred Art of Fasting: Preparing to Practice "Invites you to plunge deeply into the excesses of life. [It] seduces you to write into 'the vivid, concrete details' of the stuff you experience, to see what Jane Kenyon called 'the luminous particular'-until it morphs into sacred art." - Kent Ira Groff , retreat leader and founding mentor of Oasis Ministries; author, Writing Tides: Finding Grace and Growth through Writing "Ingenious.... Just when it's starting to look like writing is going to be supplanted by tweeting, and the word spiritual is so overused that it almost has to be spelled with quotation marks, along comes [this book]. I'm surprised and delighted to say that with [its] guidance, it truly can be a spiritual practice." - D. Genpo Merzel , author, Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding Your Way "Comfortable with the stories that define your life? Want to stay that way? Then do not read this book! Prefer to meet up with the Holy only in the safety of familiar rites? Do not follow these writing prompts! With the Shapiros as your chaperones, you might just find yourself in passionate embrace with the wild and contradictory nature of human existence. This is writing as an act of liberation from the cages of our own making." - Margaret D. McGee , author, Sacred Attention: A Spiritual Practice for Finding God in the Moment and Haiku-The Sacred Art: A Spiritual Practice in Three Lines, "Beautiful.... The perfect combination of timeless wisdom, beautifully crafted language and practical, grounded exercises. A must-read for writers, spiritual seekers ... and all breathing human beings." -- Rev. Susan Sparks , author, Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor ; senior pastor, Madison Avenue Baptist Church "There is much more in this book than directives about writing. There's a spirituality, philosophy, psychology, cosmology and an amazingly creative array of writing prompts both playful and profound. Remarkable." -- Thomas Ryan, CSP , author, Soul Fire: Accessing Your Creativity and The Sacred Art of Fasting: Preparing to Practice "Invites you to plunge deeply into the excesses of life. [It] seduces you to write into 'the vivid, concrete details' of the stuff you experience, to see what Jane Kenyon called 'the luminous particular'--until it morphs into sacred art." -- Kent Ira Groff , retreat leader and founding mentor of Oasis Ministries; author, Writing Tides: Finding Grace and Growth through Writing "Ingenious.... Just when it's starting to look like writing is going to be supplanted by tweeting, and the word spiritual is so overused that it almost has to be spelled with quotation marks, along comes [this book]. I'm surprised and delighted to say that with [its] guidance, it truly can be a spiritual practice." -- D. Genpo Merzel , author, Big Mind, Big Heart: Finding Your Way "Comfortable with the stories that define your life? Want to stay that way? Then do not read this book! Prefer to meet up with the Holy only in the safety of familiar rites? Do not follow these writing prompts! With the Shapiros as your chaperones, you might just find yourself in passionate embrace with the wild and contradictory nature of human existence. This is writing as an act of liberation from the cages of our own making." -- Margaret D. McGee , author, Sacred Attention: A Spiritual Practice for Finding God in the Moment and Haiku--The Sacred Art: A Spiritual Practice in Three Lines
Table of Content
Rami's Preface ix Aaron's Preface xiii A Note on Collaboration xvii A Note on Structure: The Five Worlds and Writing as a Spiritual Practice xix Introduction 1 1. Writing to Open the Body 9 Projective Verse 12 Soundings 14 Dinggedicht 17 Haiku 18 Zang Tumb Tuuum 19 Where Are You? 21 Sing the Body Electric 22 Who's Your Deity? 23 Our Stories, Ourselves 26 Sauntering 27 Walking Around a Writer's Block 28 2. Writing to Open the Heart 31 Jekyll and Hyde, or Despicable Me 33 I'm Going to Kill You! 37 Automatic Writing 39 Dining with the Devil 44 Dear Hated One 45 Heart Lines 1 54 Heart Lines 2: Rumi-nations 58 3. Writing to Open the Mind 61 Who's In? Who's Out? 68 The Power of Influence 70 Bye-Bye Bias, Part 1 73 Bye-Bye Bias, Part 2 75 Definitions 78 Writing Against Language: The Vorpal Blade 83 I, Superhero 88 Alter Ego 88 Calling Dr. Freud, Calling Dr. Freud 89 Sticks and Stones 90 Who Am I? 95 My Destiny 97 The Name Game 98 Narrowing the Narrow Mind 101 The Three Garments of Self 103 4. Writing to Open the Soul 105 Lung 107 Amazing Gazing 109 Shoeless Moe, Part 1: Identifying Your Sandals 111 Shoeless Moe, Part 2: Lech Lecha 112 Against the Pathetic Fallacy 114 Blackout Poems 115 The Exquisite Corpse 116 The Giving Tree Revisited 118 Glimpsing the Bush 120 A Day in the Wilderness 121 5. Writing to Open the Spirit 123 Resting in Soul 124 Playing the Paradox, Part 1: Colorless Green Ideas 131 Playing the Paradox, Part 2: Cut-up 134 My Story, My Sage 136 6. Turning the Spiral from Body to Spirit: Returning--by Way of Conclusion 141 Homophonic "Translation" 143 Turn and Return 145 Acknowledgments 149 Notes 151 Suggestions for Further Reading 153
