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Book Review
The Wayfarer Sonnets:
Companions to the Sixty-Four Hexagrams of the I Ching
Patrick D. Goldsmith's commentary in verse on each
of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching.
Print and online editions available at: http://www.lulu.com/content/265718
This book takes you on
a spiritual and creative journey, along the path of
the I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes. To the journeyer, the
author offers his Wayfarer Sonnets. This collection of poems is
a series of 64 sonnets, each corresponding to the one of the 64
hexagrams of the I Ching. Each sonnet is the author's creative
interpretation and response to that particular hexagram.
The realms of human history and nature are encapsulated
within the 64 hexagrams. Accordingly, the I Ching has been both
the subject of philosophical speculation and divination for over
3,000 years. As the I Ching stimulated the author's creative flow,
which resulted in this volume, so reading his interpretation and
refection on them could both lead the reader back to the I Ching,
as a source of wisdom and inspiration, and also stimulate the
reader's creative and imaginative faculty. The book is already
one of the best selling books in the category of the I Ching on
www.Lulu.com. Patrick's interpretations and poetic renderings
often help the reader to clarify and understand the original text.
This could help the reader's insight to emerge, and cultivate
their moral sense, too. Let me present two examples of this. His
final lines of the main paragraph for #5, Waiting, Nourishment
reads: "… making progress step by step problems are
resolved, While in the natural course of things, beings become
evolved."
On the development of a moral sense in people, we
are offered this account in #13, Fellowship with Men. "For
situations do transpire when the best come to the fore, Blessings
develop to unite us, compassion at our core."
I encourage people to read The Wayfarer Sonnets,
Companions to the Book of Changes ... by Patrick D. Goldsmith.
This book could provide you with hours of inspiration and insight,
into the workings of nature, and human nature. It provides a readable,
insightful commentary and creative interpretation of one of the
great Spiritual Classics of all time.
Reviewed by Paul Dolinsky
editor@thegoldenlantern.com
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