R0BERT BLY, renowned poet and author of the ground-breaking bestseller Iron John, mingles essay and verse to explore the Shadow -- the dark side of the human personality -- and the importance of confronting it. Bly has taken one of the most useful concepts for self-knowledge -- Jung's idea of 'the shadow' -- and made it more clear, more poignant, and more usable than anyone I've read.  There are many books that bare the writer's soul, but few like this which gently bare the reader's." -- MICHAEL VENTURA, L.A. Weekly With a poet's zest, Bly explains why we can't be light without honoring the dark within us, why we can't have peace without honoring the appeal of war. This little book is packed with the energy of liberation. It could change your life." -- GEORGE LEONARD, author of The Silent Pulse and The Transformation Penetrating and brilliant... Only the experience of a ripened poet could have revealed a fresh and intense language and logos for describing the unrevealed." -- JOAN HALIFAX author of Shamanic Voices Our private lives, and the life of the nation, are being driven by compulsions we do not understand. A Little Book tells us why, and what we can do to make ourselves whole... The overall effect of Bly's analysis is exhilarating; so much human potential is waiting to be retrieved -- so many possibilities for happiness." -- LOUIS SIMPSON, author of People Live Here, Selected Poems 1948-1983 Bly cuts with a sharp scalpel into 'the long bag that we drag behind us,' exposing the repressed world that is meowing, snarling, rattling, clanging, wheezing, and rotting within us.  His imagery reaches our hidden wounds with a sharpness that releases locked away pain." -- MARION WOODMAN, author of Addiction to Perfection All that a person has tried to Forget, has put away in shame from awareness, all that one hides intentionally or out of blind fear -- all this Robert Bly exhumes and thrusts before our startled eyes." -- JUNE SINGER, author of Boundaries of the Soul and Seeing Through the Visible World R 0 B E R T   B L Y is the author of many books, including The Man in the Black Coat Turns, Loving a Woman in Two Worlds, The Light Around the Body, and Iron John: A Book About Men. He frequently leads workshops for and about men.