Robert Bly: A Thousand Years of Joy – Film (2015)

Robert Bly: A Thousand Years of Joy – Official Trailer (2014) from Haydn Reiss on Vimeo. Robert Bly: A Thousand Year of Joy A Film by haydn Reiss Robert Bly is one of America’s most celebrated poets, easily the most controversial, who has for over a half century crisscrossed the cultural landscape through poetry, translation, […]

Read more

Inside this Clay Jug

Inside this Clay Jug A poem by Kabir, Translation by Robert Bly Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains, and the maker of canyons and pine mountains! All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars. The acid that tests gold is here, and the one who judges jewels. And […]

Read more

Stealing Sugar from the Castle

Stealing Sugar from the Castle A poem by Robert Bly We are poor students who stay after school to study joy. We are like those birds in the India mountains. I am a widow whose child is her only joy. The only thing I hold in my ant-like head Is the builder’s plan of the […]

Read more

How This Wealth Came to Be

How This Wealth Came to Be A Poem by Robert Bly It’s hard to know how all this wealth came to be. Ishmael was not created from a fight with a whale. The ocean is not wild enough to have created Melville’s soul. The hungry one in us did not come from seed. Our old […]

Read more

Growing Wings

Growing Wings A Poem by Robert Bly It’s all right if Cezanne goes on painting the same picture. It’s all right if juice tastes bitter in our mouths. It’s all right if the old man drags one useless foot. The apple on the Tree of Paradise hangs there for months. We wait for years and […]

Read more

Video: Friend Hope for the Guest While You Are Alive

Robert Bly Reads Kabir in 2011 Accompanied by Marcus Wise on tabla and David Whetstone on sitar. Friend, Hope for the Guest While You Are Alive Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive. Jump into experience while you are alive! Think… and think… while you are alive. What you call ‘salvation’ belongs to […]

Read more

Video: Call and Answer

Call and Answer A poem by Robert Bly Tell me why it is we don’t lift our voices these days And cry over what is happening. Have you noticed The plans are made for Iraq and the ice cap is melting? I say to myself: “Go on, cry. What’s the sense Of being an adult […]

Read more

The Greek Ships

The Greek Ships A poem by Robert Bly When the water holes go, and the fish flop about In the mud, they can moisten each other faintly, But it’s best if they lose themselves in the river. You know how many Greek ships went down With their cargoes of wine. If we can’t get To […]

Read more

The Emperor Has No Clothes

The Emperor Has No Clothes An Article 

By Robert Bly In reality, the horrible event called the Bush presidency is over now. It remains only to start the sort of planning that enabled MacArthur to retrieve what he could from the fall of Manila. Elaborate failures in high places have happened before. It’s a repeating […]

Read more