For The Love Of Poetry And Sacred Texts

Willis Barnstone is a poet, translator, biblical scholar, memoirist, anthologist, teacher, and painter. If we are to grasp his greatest contribution to culture over the course of his professional life, we can focus on his role first and foremost as a poet – a lover of words, both his own and those of others, and on what he believes are sacred words from our earliest written records down to present day mystics and poets. What he is carrying across borders is no less than what his fellow poet Robert Bly calls “News of the Universe.” To read his bibliography is like reading the card catalog from the Ancient Alexandrian Library. He describes one of the oldest poems from the Bible, “Let there be Light,” and says that reading is like having a conversation with men and women of other centuries. (hosted by Phil Cousineau)