Eric Ashford is a poet and mystic who believes that poetry is an authentic spiritual path in its own right. Writing poetry is contemplative, healing, and a way of self-realization. He would also say that poetic self-expression is how we choose to view and become the art of our own life. “When we give up everything but love / do you think we shall want to / write poems or be poems? //. . . A poem wants you to live for it / and hold onto nothing else.” – From Speaking Through the Opening, Allowing Your Life to be Your Poem, by Eric Ashford, Palabras Press, 2005.
Though Eric is a secular as well as spiritual writer and is involved in many literary works, his abiding love is poetry. In addition to his abundant poetic output, he wrote a book of daily meditations, which encapsulate his insights of the spiritual and creative life. He has interpreted the Christian Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. In addition, he has a deep love and connection to the Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, a thirteenth century Sufi mystic and poet. He has authored a work called "Conversations with Rumi" which reflects Rumi's teaching in a very personal and contemporary way for today's readership. Eric has traveled extensively and has immersed himself in the world's major religions and spiritual traditions, seeking the unity of the one perennial philosophy within them all and clarifying that inner truth of all spiritual thought.
In addition to his other artistic avocations, Eric is an accomplished photographer. He is retired now from his profession and devotes his time to art, writing, public engagements, and to his family.
Link to Eric's Poetry
Llink to Eric's Blogspot