A Gate Enables passage between what is inside and what is outside, and the connection poetry forges between inner and outer lives is the fundamental theme of these nine essays. Nine Gates begins with a close examination of the roots of poetic craft in "the mind of concentration" and concludes by exploring the writer's role in creating a sense of community that is open, inclusive and able to bind the individual and the whole in a way that allows each full self-expression. in between, Nine Gates illumines the nature of originality, translation, the various strategies by which meaning unfolds itself in language, poetry's roots in oral memory and the importance of the shadow to good art. A person who enters completely into the experience of a poem is initiated into a deeper intimacy with life. Delving into the nature of poetry, Jane Hirshfield also writes on the nature of the human mind, perception and experience. Nine Gates is about the underpinnings of poetic craft, but it is also about a way of being alive in the world -- alertly, musically, intelligently, passionately, permeably. In part a primer for the general reader, Nine Gates is also a manual for the working writer, with each "gate" exploring particular strategies of language and thought that allow a poem to convey meaning and emotion with clarity and force. Above all, Nine Gates is an insightful guide to the way the mind of poetry awakens our fundamental consciousness of what can be known when a person is most fully alive.

As evocative and moving as Charles de Lint's Newford books, with the three-dimensional protagonists and enthralling action of Mercedes Lackey's fantasies, Nine Gates makes our world today as excitingly strange and unfamiliar as any fantasy realm . . .and transports readers to a wondrous magical world drawn from Chinese lore and legend. Brenda Morris has barely had time to become accustomed to the idea that she has some of the powers of the Rat, a member of the Chinese Zodiac; that her elderly, former child-star "aunt," Pearl, is the Dragon; and that the young African-American former soldier she trains beside is the Dog. Brenda has learned that our world is not the only world and that her not-quite-Chinese ancestors came from a magical place, the Lands of Smoke and Sacrifice, created thousands of years ago by the destruction of China's books and scholars during the time of the first Emperor. Now, generations later, the Lands are once again at war, and the magics of the Thirteen Orphans are desperately needed. A mission to capture those powers went disastrously wrong and now the Lands' Dragon, Tiger, Snake, and Monkey are trapped on Earth unless the Orphans can build the Nine Gates. To do that, they must first save the Four Guardians of the Land Between, who are under magical attack. Complicating things is the fact that Brenda has fallen hard for the handsome man who is the Tiger, much to the distress of the sensual young woman who is the Snake. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This is a Martial Arts manual for learning basic to advanced self defense moves. It is a reference book full of techniques to enhance any combat martial artist skills. Nine Gates Boxing is the secret fighting art of bone manipulation and dislocation. Like many martial arts, this type of practice can be traced back historically thousands of years, and for the first time, these ancient techniques are revealed publically in this basic training book. Nine Gates Boxing techniques can be used to enhance any self defense program, martial art style, or MMA combat martial arts practitioner. The theories, concepts and techniques are easily incorporated into any martial arts system.

Guided by a mystic force, King Manyu of Navapura goes through a journey of self-discovery as he opens the gates of his city one by one – a city that has been for long confined within its walls and unexposed to the world. Manyu is driven by a strong passion, a longing for adventure, an admiration for the beauty of the world and a will to surmount all challenges that he and his city face. A gripping tale, narrated in lucid words, contemporary language and interspersed with poetry, the book makes the reader relate to his own experiences and experiments in life.

Lucas Corso, a rare book hunter, is called in to authenticate a fragment of the original manuscript of Alexandre Dumas's "The Three Musketeers," found in the possession of a murdered bibliophile, and soon finds himself involved in an adventure in which life imitates literature.

In 1913, just before the outbreak of the First World War, a 19-year-old Czech Jew named Jiri Langer left his assimilated family to live in the remote village of Belz, Galicia (now Ukraine). He had gone to live under the Chassidic (or Hasidic) Rokeach dynasty, a line of Rabbis that survives to this day. Nine Gates is the autobiographical tale of Langer's time amongst these isolated Chassidic mystics of Eastern Galicia. He tells of their enthusiasm, their simple faith, their ecstasies, their austerities, their feasts, their wonder-working Holy Rabbis and their esoteric wisdom. Alongside this narrative sits a collection of shrewd and earthy folk tales told by the holy men who ruled these little spiritual kingdoms for generation after generation. Over 80 years since its original publication in Czech, this translation by Stephen Jolly remains the definitive English version of this towering work of Jewish introspection. Nine Gates is a document from another time and place, and yet it captures the same spirit of religious longing and exploration that attracts a growing number of seekers today.

An eye-opening exploration of blood, the lifegiving substance with the power of taboo, the value of diamonds and the promise of breakthrough science Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections. Each one of us has roughly nine pints of it, yet many don’t even know their own blood type. And for all its ubiquitousness, the few tablespoons of blood discharged by 800 million women are still regarded as taboo: menstruation is perhaps the single most demonized biological event. Rose George, author of The Big Necessity, is renowned for her intrepid work on topics that are invisible but vitally important. In Nine Pints, she takes us from ancient practices of bloodletting to the breakthough of the "liquid biopsy," which promises to diagnose cancer and other diseases with a simple blood test. She introduces Janet Vaughan, who set up the world’s first system of mass blood donation during the Blitz, and Arunachalam Muruganantham, known as “Menstrual Man” for his work on sanitary pads for developing countries. She probes the lucrative business of plasma transfusions, in which the US is known as the “OPEC of plasma.” And she looks to the future, as researchers seek to bring synthetic blood to a hospital near you. Spanning science and politics, stories and global epidemics, Nine Pints reveals our life's blood in an entirely new light. Nine Pints was named one of Bill Gates recommended summer reading titles for 2019.