Poetry From the Spiritual Masters

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Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr (967 – 1049) was a famous Persian Sufi and poet who contributed extensively to the evolution of the Sufi tradition.

George William Russell (1867 – 1935) was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a writer on mysticism, and a central figure in the group of devotees of theosophy which met in Dublin for many years.

Akka Mahadevi (1130 – 1160) was one of the early female poets of the Kannada literature and a prominent person in the Lingayatism sect of Hinduism in the 12th century.

 Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809 – 1892) was a British poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets.

Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz (1875 – 1939), known as Antonio Machado, was a Spanish poet whose poetic style balanced an engagement with humanity with an almost Taoist contemplation of existence.

 Âşık Ali İzzet Özkan (1902-1981) was a Turkish ashik (bard), poet, Sufi and activist.

 Abū Ḥamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm (1145 – 1221), better known by his pen-names Farīd ud-Dīn and ʿAṭṭār of Nishapur was a Persian poet, theoretician of Sufism, and hagiographer from Nishapur who had an immense and lasting influence on Persian poetry and Sufism.

Mawlānā Abul-Ma'ānī Mīrzā Abdul-Qādir Bēdil (1642–1720), also known as Bedil, was an Indian Sufi and poet. He is considered the foremost representative of the "Indian style" of Persian poetry, and the most difficult and challenging poet of that school.

Francis of Assisi (1181 – 1226) venerated as Saint Francis of Assisi, was an Italian Catholic friar, deacon, mystic, and preacher. He is one of the most venerated religious figures in Christianity.

George Herbert (1593 – 1633) was a Welsh-born poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as "one of the foremost British devotional lyricists."

 Xāwje Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī (1315 – 1390), known by his pen name Hafiz, was a Persian poet, whose collected works are regarded by many as a pinnacle of Persian literature.  

Ibn ʿArabi (1165 – 1240) was an Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influential within Islamic thought.

Jay Ramsay (1958 – 2018) was a British poet, psychotherapist and healer. He was the author of nearly 40 books and was an influential figure in the alternative poetry scene, writing frequently about raising one's spiritual, political and psychological awareness.  

John of the Cross (born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez) (1542 – 1591) was a Spanish Catholic priest and mystic. Both his poetry and his studies on the development of the soul are considered the summit of mystical Spanish literature.

Kabir (1440 — 1518) was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, whose writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib. 

Lal Ded (1320–1392), also known as Laleshwari and Lalla, was a Kashmiri mystic and poet. She was the creator of the style of mystic poetry called vatsun or Vakhs, literally "speech." Her verses are considered an important part in the history of modern Kashmiri literature. 

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) was a Bengali poet, writer, philosopher, and social reformer. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial, and he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Rābiʿa (717 — 801) was an Arab Sunni Muslim saint and Sufi mystic. Often noted as having been the single most famous and influential renunciant women of Islamic history, Rābiʻa was renowned for her extreme virtue and piety.

 Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī  (1207 – 1273), more popularly known simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, and Sufi mystic. His poems have been widely translated into many languages and transposed into various formats. Rumi has been described as the "most popular poet" and the "best selling poet" in the United States.

Ryōkan Taigu (1758–1831), simply known as Ryōkan, was a quiet and unconventional Sōtō Zen Buddhist monk who lived much of his life as a hermit. Ryōkan is remembered for his poetry and calligraphy, which present the essence of Zen life.

Saadi Shīrāzī (1210 - 1291), better known by his pen name Saadi, was a major Persian poet and prose writer of the medieval period. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition, earning him the nickname "The Master of Speech" or "The Wordsmith" among Persian scholars.

 Sachal Sarmast (1739–1827) was a prominent Sufi poet from Sindh in modern-day Pakistan. Rather than blindly following tradition, Sachal urged people to seek the truth directly. He composed sacred poetry in seven different languages.

Hakim Abul-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam Sanā'ī Ghaznavi (1080 – 1141), more commonly known as Sanai, was a Persian poet from Ghazni who lived his life in the Ghaznavid Empire at the time of its golden age, in medieval Khorasan, which is now located in Afghanistan.

  Sarmad Kashani, or simply Sarmad (1590 –1661), was a Persian speaking Armenian mystic and poet who travelled to and made the Indian subcontinent his permanent home during the 17th century.

 Symeon the New Theologian (949 – 1022) was a Byzantine Christian monk and poet. Symeon wrote and spoke frequently about the importance of experiencing directly the grace of God, often talking about his own experiences of God as divine light. 

Sant Tukaram Maharaj, known as Tukaram, was a 17th-century Marathi poet and Hindu sant (saint). He is best known for his devotional poetry called Abhanga and community-oriented worship with spiritual songs known as kirtans.

Tulsi Sahib (1763 - 1843) was a mystic and poet. Very few details about his life are known, but it is understood that he took up the life of a sadhu, or spiritual mendicant, wandering through the forests, going from town to town, engaged in meditation.

Vladimir Solovyov (1853 – 1900) was a Russian philosopher and poet, who played a significant role in the development of Russian poetry at the end of the 19th century and in the spiritual renaissance of the early-20th century. 

William Blake (1757 – 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age.

William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850) was an English Romantic poet whose poetry often discovers meditative insights and transcendence within the natural world. 

Yunus Emre (1238–1328) was a Turkish folk poet and Sufi mystic who greatly influenced Turkish culture.