Poetry that soars — from Rumi to Australia

Poetry is one of the world's most enduring artforms. It predates writing, and we’re still compelled to express our deepest thoughts through verse. What does poetry have to do with spirituality and the sacred — whether its big, mystical experiences, or the small moments that nonetheless ring with truth?

Dr Toby Davidson is a poet and Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University. He is the author of Christian Mysticism and Australian Poetry, and editor of the Collected Poems of Francis Webb. His third collection of poems is called The Grand Reopening.

• Hear Francis Webb read from his Collected Poems
• The 2026 Francis Webb poetry reading Tickets, Saturday 29 August  •  2 PM - 4 PM | Eventbrite
• Toby Davidson in The Conversation: Australian poetry classics: Francis Webb, the 20th century’s ‘most unjustly neglected poet’, is our best kept literary secret

Dr Milad Milani is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Western Sydney University and co-founder of the Sufi Studies Network at Monash University. 

More from Soul Search 

• Rumi, Hafez and Sufi poetry in surprising places – ABC Listen
• Spiritual Classics: Rumi – ABC Listen
• The joy and anguish of the Psalms – ABC Listen
• Zeus' Law — Hospitality in Homer's Odyssey – ABC Listen

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Submit your own poem to the Middle of the Air poetry competition, partnering with Red Room Poetry.