Singing the Way explores the relationship between poetry and true contemplation. Author Patrick Laude seeks first to disperse romantic notions of how the poetic process works, but goes on to suggest that it is inherently more profound than modern practitioners imagine. Laude tells us that in itself true poetry is "transformative" since it brings the soul and all its faculties under the catalytic “spell” of the sacred through the mediation of rhythm and the “lure” of imaginal and verbal beauty. Singing the Way illustrates its points through examples drawn from five rich spiritual and poetic traditions (viz. Hinduism, Sufism, China, Japan, and the European Neo-Platonic and Romantic current).