Charles Upton (poet)

Charles Upton (born 13 December 1948) is an American poet and metaphysician.^[1]

Life

Born in San Francisco, Charles Upton grew up in Marin County, California. He attended Catholic schools through high school. He attended UC Davis for only four days.

Career

In San Francisco, he met the poet Lew Welch, who became his mentor. Although much younger than most of the Beat poets, Upton's first two volumes of poetry were also published by City Lights. It was associated with many of the earlier Beat poets.

After his first two volumes of poems were published, Upton became involved with the Sanctuary Movement for Central American refugees. He produced and distributed a video, Through the Needle’s Eye, containing testimonies of refugees.

In the late 1980s he was briefly involved with the "magical populism" of the New Age peace movement. He studied group dreamwork and dream networking.

In 1988 he joined a traditional Sufi order. Under his wife's influence, Upton became interested in the metaphysics of the Traditionalist or Perennialist School (the followers of Rene Guenon, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Frithjof Schuon). He continues to be partly identified with this school.

His papers are held at University of Connecticut.^[2]

Marriage and family

He married Jennifer Doane.^[3] After living in in Marin County, California, they currently live in Lexington, Kentucky.^[4]

Works

• Panic Grass (epic poem) City Lights Books, 1968; ASIN B001FSYIPE
• Time Raid, (poems) Four Seasons Foundation, 1968; ASIN B0006BVUOS
• Doorkeeper of the Heart, Versions of Rabi’a (poems), Threshold Books, 1988; Pir Press, 2004; ISBN 1879708205
• Hammering Hot Iron: A Spiritual Critique of Bly’s Iron John (metaphysics and social criticism), Quest Books, 1993; Sophia Perennis 2005; ISBN 1597310433
• The System of Antichrist: Truth and Falsehood in Postmodernism and the New Age (metaphysics and social criticism), Sophia Perennis, 2001; ISBN 0900588306
• Legends of the End: Prophesies of the End Times, Antichrist, Apocalypse, and Messiah from Eight Religious Traditions, Sophia Perennis, 2005; ISBN 1597310255
• Cracks in the Great Wall: UFOs and Traditional Metaphysics, Sophia Perennis, 2005; ISBN 1597310247
• The Virtues of the Prophet: A Young Muslim's Guide to the Greater Jihad, the War Against the Passions, Sophia Perennis, 2006; ISBN 1597310514
• Knowings, in the Arts of Metaphysics, Cosmology and the Spiritual Path, Sophia Perennis, 2008; ISBN 9781597310741
• Reflections of Tasawwuf: Essays, Poems and Narrative on Sufi Themes, Sophia Perennis, 2008; ISBN 9781597310789
• Who Is the Earth? How to See God in the Natural World, Sophia Perennis, 2008; ISBN 9781597310796
• Folk Metaphysics: Mystical Meanings in Traditional Folk Songs and Spirituals, Sophia Perennis, 2008 ISBN 9781597310772
• Shadow of the Rose: The Esoterism of the Romantic Tradition (with his wife Jennifer Doane Upton), Sophia Perennis, 2008; ISBN 9781597310796
• Findings in Metaphysic, Path and Lore, With a Response to the Traditionalist/Perennialist School, Sophia Perennis, 2010; ISBN 9781597310963
• The Science of the Greater Jihad: Essays in Principial Psychology, Sophia Perennis, 2011; ISBN 9781597311281
• The Wars of Love and Other Poems, with "A Reader's Guide to The Wars of Love" and "Lew Welch as Teacher", Sophia Perennis, 2011; ISBN 9781597311250

Editor

• Dark Way to Paradise: Dante's Inferno in Light of the Spiritual Path,Jennifer Doane Upton; Sophia Perennis, 2005; ISBN 9781597310093
• False Dawn: The United Religions Initiative, Globalism and the Quest for a One-World Religion, Lee Penn, Sophia Perennis, 2005; ISBN 159731000X

Anthologies

• Mark in Time, Glide Publications, 1971; ISBN 0912078162
• Excerpt from Panic Grass in City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology, Lawrence Ferlinghetti (ed.), City Lights Books, 1995; ISBN 9780872863118

References

1. ^ http://www.bookrags.com/biography/charles-upton-dlb/
2. ^ http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/findaids/Upton/MSS20030017.html
3. ^ http://www.seriousseekers.com/Teachers%20and%20Contributors/teachers_priority_1_traditionalandfriends/teachers_contributors_Upton_c.htm
4. ^ http://www.sophiaperennis.com/shop/perennis/21.html

External links

• "The Wars of Love by Charles Upton", Red Room, Hammond Guthrie, May 21, 2008

Persondata
Name	Upton, Charles
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Date of birth	1948
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