William Blake, the wonderful poet-mystic-genius that blessed London and the world, was the closest thing I have seen to a western Sufi. With his ecstatic poetry,his complete dismissal of ecclesiastical authority and boundaries, his celebration of life as a gift of his Creator,his defense of the downtrodden and women and children,Blake acted for all intents and purposes as a Sufi.Of course, none of this would be remembered if he didn't write some of the most beautifully moving and
STRANGE poetry in the Western canon.His apocalyptic visions were frightful and strangely beautiful, and his artwork , which is an entire other subject[and post] only adds to the haunting, hallucinatory quality of Blake's work. From apparently simple children's poems of Innocence to mystical treatises ,Blake 's vision talent and courage continues to fill me with wonder and awe.Perhaps he simply [or not so simply]saw things in another dimension,from an angle that most of us don't bother looking . Either way, his gift to the world is as valuable and soul filling as Hafez or Rumi or G.M Hopkins. And I am so very grateful for it...
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