The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul

I love poetry and hate corporate America . . . or at least I thought I did. David Whyte transformed my view, bringing insight, spirituality and compassion to my heart and mind. I can't think of any place that needs spiritual transformation than corporate America. And because the corporate doors have opened to me, Whyte's book is a godsend guide to my journey.

Great book, it is reach of positive reflections on the way we should think about work and personal life balance

i love it, sended to me on time

I enjoyed this book. I listened to the audio version which may well be more fun than reading it.Superb journey into the world of work. exposes how we sell our soul to the devil of work. We need the money and status... or so we think.Meanwhile deep underground lurks not only what we are afraid of, but worse still the mother of the thing of which we are afraid. Somewhere in all of us lurks that small voice, that wants to give the chief exec "ZERO" for all his or her idiotic plans. How many of us have the courage to do this at our workplace? How many of our workplaces need this?This is a superb book about self discovery, and it can be done as well at work as anywhere else.

This is a great book to read and I bought this to replace one I lent to someone.The book was bought as used but I don't recall it advertised as a former library book, so the book has been very well used and is OK with all pages present but the spine is coming away from the main body. I chose a UK supplier to avoid long shipping delays but it turns out the book was sent from the US and took nearly 30 days to arrive.....I'll be more careful next time!

A little disappointing.. not in as good condition as stated, couldn’t give as a gift as I intended.

I went on a training course and was given this to inspire me. It inspired me to dump it. Leave poetry to describe beauty, love, passion and the emotions. Business is about analysis and clarity, it's about honesty and fair dealing and, as Groucho Marx said, if you can fake those you've got it made. It is certainly not about having your head in the clouds and dreaming of a better tomorrow. This combination of subjects I enjoy apart just didn't work for me, like anchovies and ice cream, both wonderful alone but they don't go together.

Copy looks like it has been bound by hand and in sections so quite uneven and 'bodged' looking. None the less ok.

Very good

a surprise wow in this one. Whyte famous poetry and stories to make points that are valuable to any Executive or team leader.

David Whyte is a poet. This book is prose but everything Whyte does is poetical. You can see/hear him on You Tube. What a treat! The gift of his books is that you can pick them up for a moment any time for his combination of lyrical language and deep wisdom. He reluctantly began speaking to groups in the corporate world, but what he says to that world as summarized in this book and in Crossing the Unknown Sea is appropriate to us all - how to preserve your soul. His spins (I think that word best defines his chapters) go from story to myth to poetry and back to story, leaving you in awe, his personal revelations initiating your own. His topics include exploring your ancestry, discovering your vocation, knowing your fear, and finding your way to leadership, all of which involve being "faithful to our own eccentric nature and bringing it out in conversation with the world." His criticism of the corporate world is that it "has too little poetry, too little humanity, and too little good business sense for the world that lies before us." He see us replacing the word "manager" with "artist." Manager "conjures images of domination, command, and ultimate control, and the taming of a potentially wild energy." Whereas the artist's sensibility "understands that our place in this world can never be measured by the Dow Jones, that our ultimate arrival on our deathbed entitles us to other perspectives than mere fiscal success or the size of our retirement account." Well, I can't do him justice here. Just read and listen for yourself.

David Whyte, poet and philosopher, is a brilliant and likeable soul. This is one of his earliest works and a good representation of David as a young man. His escapades and how he grew:) He'll teach you without your realizing it because, as a storyteller, he's one of the best.

This is a profound book. The author is deeply versed in narratives that are the common treasures of the human race and are, to us, the received wisdom of our forebears (forebearers is not considered the correct term, by the way, and that is why I am not using it). He applies psychological insights he has gleaned from these archetypal stories to the life cycle of each human person. He is very helpful in encouraging business leaders to mine these stories to lead in ways that make it more likely the other co-creators in their workplace will engage all of themselves and not check their dispirited hearts at the door when they go to work. This results in a tremendous cost in profit, efficiency and human happiness.