You Are the Future is the recipient of a Silver Medal by the Nautilus Book Awards.
To order this book from goodreads.com, click here,
or from amazon.com, click here.
For a short video introduction to this book, click here.
"I love beginnings, despite the fear and uncertainty they bring. When I have won for myself a joy or reward, or when I wish that something had not happened, when I want to deny an experience the right to remain in my past--in such moments, I begin. And what do I do? I simply begin. I've already begun a thousand lives like this. I feel as though a whole generation must come to fulfill all these lives so that they won't remain unfinished."
Rainer Maria Rilke, cited in "To Be a Beginner"
from You Are the Future: Living the Questions with Rainer Maria Rilke
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*** "LOVE'S SOFT STILLNESS": MEISTER ECKHART AND HADEWIJCH AS MYSTICAL COMPANIONS. Saturday, April 18, from 10 am - 4 pm (GBT; 5 am - 11 am EDT).
Across the arc of the high Middle Ages, a powerful vernacular “school” of mysticism emerged. Associated with the brilliant 13th century Flemish Beguine Hadewijch and, half a century later, the German Dominican Meister Eckhart, these voices charted new mystical paths for those daring to venture on “a wayless way” (Eckhart). How might they “companion” us today? How could their vision of “love’s soft stillness” (Hadewijch) inspire us in these fraught times?
We’ll weave a conversation with these two luminaries, exploring selections from Hadewijch (poems, letters, and visions) and from Eckhart’s sermons and writings. On this journey we’ll explore the experience they shared of the “soft stillness” of love/God. How we need this now! Join us for the conversation. For information and to register, click here.
*** NEW ***** RETREAT ***** IN BELFAST, MAINE
HeartWork: RILKE & THE SOUL'S JOURNEY INTO WISDOM, Dec. 4 - 6, 2026 at Limina Renewal Center in Searsport/Belfast, Maine. This retreat is now fully booked; to add your name to the waiting list, contact me directly. THE RETREAT BEGINS ON WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN RILKE'S 151st BIRTHDAY (Dec. 4, 1875)...
Experience an inspiring in-person weekend retreat (Friday afternoon, Dec. 4 through lunch on Sunday, Dec. 6), exploring "heart-work" with the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke. We'll explore a selection of Rilke's poems that beckon us into life's depths and call forth our shared wisdom. Located in a gorgeous seaside retreat center, this is a gathering for all who love poetry, crave quiet conversation, and treasure soulful journeys. Join us for a unique chance to enjoy a spacious weekend in a gorgeous setting - in an intimate setting, with a circle of soulful seekers. For more information and to register, click here.
***** TWO AUTUMN RETREATS (2026) ON THE ISLE OF IONA*****
* HEART/WORK: Exploring Rilke's Poetic Vision in Fraught Times. A retreat held on the Isle of Iona (Scotland), 22 - 27 October 2026.
What is life for? How do we find the source of our creativity? Can darkness and suffering open us to discovery? What’s the role of solitude in our lives? Such crucial wonderings are central to Rilke’s writings, inviting us to “live the questions” as we practice “heart-work.” Join us in an intimate gathering as we probe Rilke’s wisdom for living in fraught times like ours. The setting is the lovely boutique St. Columba Hotel, next to the Iona Abbey. For more information, and to register, click here. FULLY BOOKED. If you would like to be added to the waiting list, click here.
* "THE FOUR ELEMENTS": An "Art and Poetry in Dialogue" retreat held on the Isle of Iona (Scotland), Oct. 29 - Nov. 3, 2026. Earth, Air, Fire, Water – these were long considered the four basic elements of our natural world, shaping the landscapes we inhabit as well as the dynamics of our outer and inner lives. They are at the root of the everyday – washing, cooking, growing a garden. Artists and poets invite us to see how they speak to the imagination, as symbols, as metaphorical processes, in life or in faith. On the Isle of Iona, the elements are especially vivid, from the surging sea and ancient rocks to the fiery sunrises and even the occasional aurora borealis. Join us as we explore the transformative role these elements (literally and as metaphors) play in our lives, guided by the work of poets and painters, sculptors and architects across the ages. I share the leadership of this retreat with Debbie Lewer, an art historian of the University of Glasgow. For more information and to register, click here.
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* TO LISTEN TO THE RECENT "READING RILKE TODAY" CONVERSATION (December 7, 2025), WITH PADRAIG O TUAMA & KAYLEEN ASBO, click here.
* TO LISTEN TO "READING RILKE TODAY" (2024) WITH PADRAIG O TUAMA & KRISTA TIPPETT, click here.
TO LISTEN TO MY RECENT CONVERSATION about my new books, The Wandering Radiance: Selected Poems of Hilde Domin and Meister Eckhart's Book of Darkness and Light, WITH LISA DELAY ("SPARK MY MUSE" PODCAST), click here.
* * TO LISTEN TO THE RECENT "POETS CORNER" CONVERSATION (April 2, 2023) ON The Wandering Radiance, with Marion Tauschwitz, Christopher Nelson, and Hilary Davies, click here.
*** TO LISTEN TO THE RECENT PODCAST ("OUT OF THE FOG" WITH KAREN HAGER) FEATURING JON SWEENEY AND ME ON OUR NEW ECKHART BOOK, click here.
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Recently distinguished as one of the "Best Spiritual Books of 2024" by Spirituality and Practice, and listed as a Finalist in Poetry by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
J. B. Leishman, who published the first translation of this collection in 1936, wrote that "I feel, in reading [these sonnets], that we have come round the spiral to another 'dawn of consciousness,' where language is in the making, and where myth and symbol must often supply the place of not yet thinkable thoughts. No other writer is so full of the future; no other gives us such thrilling intimations of that inheritance on whose threshold we are standing, and which our civilization may be about to enter, if it does not perish through its own destructive forces."
To order from goodreads.com, click here, or from amazon.com, click here.
To hear Mark's interview on the impossible, joyful journey of translating Rilke the "Emerging Form" podcast, with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Christie Asch, click here.
To preorder this forthcoming book, click here.
NOW AVAILABLE:
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Received a "Gold Medal" by the Nautilus Book Awards in 2024.
Published on March 1, 2023: the third of our Eckhart books, re-voicing the startling wisdom of Meister Eckhart in short, meditative poems. To preorder, click here.
What readers are saying about it:
"Sweeney and Burrows, in poems that are as elegant as they are scholarly, revoice Meister Eckhart’s grounding and expansive instructions to 'seek the light that shines / out of the darkness.'" —Pádraig Ó Tuama, poet and host of Poetry Unbound, from On Being Studios
"Meister Eckhart is one of the greatest of Christian mystics, but because of his depth he can be challenging to read. Jon M. Sweeney and Mark S. Burrows unlock the poetry in his words to allow his light to shine. What Coleman Barks has done for Rumi, they have done for Eckhart—making his insight accessible and his wisdom sing.” —Carl McColman, author of The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism and Eternal Heart
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Published in 2023:
"Burrows has succeeded in carrying the radiant power of Domin's poems over to the shoreline of his native tongue. This is an enrichment for all who long to be stirred by the courage and resilience she embodied as a Jewish writer who said of herself, upon returning to Germany following decades in exile: 'I stepped out into the air, and it carried me.'" --Vera-Sabine Winkler, author of Leise Bekenntnisse. Die Bedeutung der Poesie für die Sprache der Liturgie am Beispiel von Hilde Domin
"These shimmering poems by Hilde Domin lodge in the heart and blaze in the mind as they trace the journey of a deep soul through exile and self-realization. I would recommend these vivid poems to anyone who ares about the transformative power of great poetry." --Jay Parini, poet, biographer, screen-writer, and author of Why Poetry Matters
This new translation marks the first full collection of Hilde Domin's poems in English; to order this volume directly from Green Linden Press, click here. For a short endorsement by CAConrad, click here.
A SAMPLE OF RECENT BOOKS
Mark S. Burrows, The Chance of Home. Poems (2018); to order, click here (Paraclete) or here (amazon.com).
Meister Eckhart's Book of Secrets, with Jon M. Sweeney (2019); to order, click here.
Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart, with Jon M. Sweeney; poems revoicing the wisdom of Meister Eckhart; to order, click here.
Also available: revised paperback edition of Rainer Maria Rilke, Prayers of a Young Poet (Paraclete Press, 2016). Heralded by Bill Moyers as "a powerful alchemy of the heart." To order, click here.
SAID, 99 Psalms, translated by Mark S. Burrows (Paraclete Press, 2013); to order, click here.
The Paraclete Poetry Anthology. Selected and New Poems, 2015 - 2016, edited by Mark S. Burrows (2016). To oder, click here.