Beautiful Spiritual Poems & Poets [Lists & Examples By Topic]

Here you will find beautiful spiritual poems, for example about letting go, gratitude, butterflies, connection, death, Yoga and beauty. Read on and immediately dive into the poems and see the poets …

The top 10 best books about spiritual poems

1.Poems of Earth and Spirit: 70 Poems and 40 Practices to Deepen Your Connection With Nature

These sonnets are entertaining and energetic, some are profoundly respectful and significant, and every one of them talks about a fact that you’ll very much want to hear. If you are looking for poetry that makes you think and practices that help you to apply those thoughts, this is the book for you.

2.African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (LOA #333): A Library of America Anthology (The Library of America)

Our pick for anyone looking to celebrate African American history through the power of the written word. This book is a compilation of poetry that will break your heart and then put it back together again. A powerful selection of poems that all should read.

3.The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country

The Hill We Climb was read at Joe Biden’s inauguration which goes some distance to show how incredible the poem is. This inspiring read is perfect for anyone looking to gift something for graduation or a special occasion, or just looking to inspire themselves.

4.LOVE: Sacred Poems and Self Images by Chara Rodriguera

You will end up submerged in an affection that is so required during this time. It is truly satisfying to read from start to finish and serves as a constant reminder of love in this world, including the love of one’s self. A refreshing and unique take on the genre of love poetry.

5.Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West (Compass)

This is a pearl of a book. It incorporates works composed of 12 distinct individuals who lived between 1100 to the last part of the 1200s. A must-read for any lovers of poetry and religion. From start to finish, these words really speak to you and it gives such a unique insight into the thoughts of those who came before us.

6.Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver 

This book is beautiful. The verse is excellent. It has sonnets from 1963 to 2015, chosen by the artist herself for incorporation in this anthology. For any lovers of Mary Oliver or for anyone who just appreciates incredible poetry, this is the book for you!

7.Susceptible to Light: Poetry by Chelan Harkin

There is some magnificently refined work here in this book yet also unmistakably expressed. Chelan Harkin has a way with words like no other, something that has to be experienced rather than simply read. Definitely a must-read for any poetry connoisseur.

8.Earth Prayers: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations from Around the World

The book is pleasantly isolated into eleven sections and the determinations make for simple perusing of one poem per day for an entire year. More than anything, it feels as though this book takes you on a journey as you are able to read along as your own life progresses.

9.101 Poo Poems by Dr. Deuce 

Our pick for any parents looking to get their children into reading or poetry, as well as those looking to have a fun time. Poo Poems will make you laugh from start to finish, turning the classic bed time story into a pre-sleep laugh-fest!

10.A Year Of Love: 52 Short Poems by Rumi

The writer picks profoundly significant and compact English interpretations of Rumi’s sonnets, intended to be perused once per week across an entire year. There is something so rewarding about taking the time to read one poem per week and reflecting on its message for the next seven days.

Spiritual poem about vulnerability: The Dance by Jeff Foster

We never rehearsed this. We are a mess.

We shake and sweat. We step on each other’s toes.

Sometimes we cheat. And we forget our text.

But at least this is real. At least we’re not half alive.

Buried under the weight of a statue. Which we didn’t believe in anyway.

I will always prefer this imperfect dance. No dance at all upstairs.

– Jeff Foster, ‘The Dance’ from ‘The Free Fall in Life’.

Jeff Foster’s words come to me. They are written in such a simple language and at the same time very deep.

Spiritual Poem on Consciousness: Birdle Burble by Alan Watts

I went out of mind and then came to my senses
By meeting a magpie who mixed up his tenses,
Who muddled distinctions of nouns and of verbs,
And insisted that logic is bad for the birds.
With a poo-wee cluck and a chit, chit-chit;
The grammar and meaning don’t matter a bit.

The stars in their courses have no destination;
The train of events will arrive at no station;
The inmost and utmost self of us all
Is dancing on nothing and having a ball.
So with chat for chit and with tat for tit,
This will be that, and that will be IT!

– Alan Watts, ‘Birdle Burble’ (for his friend James Broughton)

Alan Watts has written few poems, but he speaks so eloquently – in the most special words – that it seems as if you are listening to poems.

Spiritual Poem about Gratitude:  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  by Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.

Spiritual Poem about Connection: Solitude  by Ella Wheeler Scott

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all,
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

Spiritual Poem on Life:  All the World’s a Stage  by William Shakespeare

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Spiritual poem about death:  A Dream within a Dream  by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow–
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand–
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep–while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Poem about letting go:  If  by Rudyard Kipling

(Kipling is best known for Jungle Book.)

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Zen poems

Sufi poets

• Hafiz
• Rumi
• Kabir
• Omar Khayyam
• Attar
• Rabia al Basri
• Bulleh Shah |
• Al – Hallaj

Indian / Hindu Poets

• Sri Aurobindo
• Ramprasad
• Sri Chinmoy |
• Swami Vivekananda
• Kalidasa
• Paramahansa Yogananda
• Mirabai
• Sarojini Naidu
• Rabindranath Tagore
• Tulsidas

Christian poets

• Hildegard of Bingen
• St Teresa of Avila
• St John of the Cross
• St. Francis of Assisi
• Master Eckhart
• St Therese of Lisieux
• St Catherine of Siena

Buddhist poets

• Lord Buddha
• Dogen
• Hanshan
• Ryokan
• Thich Nhat Hahn

Chinese / Daoist poets

• Lao Tzu
• Tu Fu
• Li Po/ Li Bai
• Chuang Tzu
• Confucius
• Wu Men

American poets

• Walt Whitman
• Emily Dickinson
• Ralph Emerson
• Henry Longfellow
• Henry Thoreau

The top 10 best books on Spiritual Poems And Poets of all time

Let’s finish with giving you our top picks on this subject. We will present you our top 10 best books about Spiritual Poems and Poets of all time. We have updated this ultimate list of our recommendations this year, including all the recent titles.

BOOKS	AUTHOR
Poems of Earth and Spirit: 70 Poems and 40 Practices to Deepen Your Connection With Nature	Kai Siedenburg
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (LOA #333): A Library of America Anthology (The Library of America)	Kevin Young
The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country	Amanda Gorman
LOVE: Sacred Poems and Self Images by Chara Rodriguera	Chara Rodriguera
Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West (Compass)	Daniel James Ladinsky
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver	Mary Oliver
Susceptible to Light: Poetry by Chelan Harkin	Chelan Harkin
Earth Prayers: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations from Around the World	Elizabeth Roberts Elias Amidon
101 Poo Poems by Dr. Deuce	Duke Jarboe
A Year Of Love: 52 Short Poems by Rumi	Rumi

Enjoy reading!