Regular Common Ground readers will be familiar with the striking art of Michael Green from previous editions. One of his more delicate illustrations, taken from the January pages of The Poetry of Rumi calendar (top), published by Brush Dance (www.brushdance.com), features on this month’s cover. Each month of the calendar includes a few lines of the spiritually nourishing poems of Jelaluddin Rumi, the celebrated 13th Century Sufi poet, here translated by Coleman Barks.

Moving from the meditative to something more rambunctious: the 2003 Peace Calendar (2nd top), published by Syracuse Cultural Workers (www.syrculturalworkers.org), opens in January with a mock-up of the spoof front page of The New York Times, Toward Peaceful Times, featuring under-reported news items on the theme of peace. Other months, in this the 32nd calendar to date, address themes such as over-consumption, water privatization and Women’s history month. Each is accompanied by an eclectic mix of images and collages.

Women of the African Ark calendar 2003 (3rd from top), published by Pomegranate (www.pomegranate.com), brings together 24 images of African women in traditional dress by roaming photographers Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith. Accompanying these vibrantly coloured photographs, which span the northern kingdom of Morocco to the southern peoples of Namibia and South Africa, are brief explanations of tribal customs and ceremonies.

Baron Baptiste Pure Flow: The Power of Yoga (2nd from bottom), published by Universe, is aimed squarely at yoga enthusiasts. Each month the agile Baron Baptiste (www.baronbaptiste.com), creator of Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga , strikes a different yoga position. The images, which were shot in Mexico with the blue haze of sea and sky in the background, are simple to the point of sparseness, which is thoroughly appropriate here - they allow the calm energy of the positions to show through. Each month also includes a second smaller image of Baptiste, and a short aphorism, such as February’s “Concentrate and you will radiate”.

Inspirational wisdom also flows in the 2003 engagement calendar from the Self-Realization Fellowship (www.yogananda-srf.org). Each week of this publication (bottom), designed for the desktop, offers a nature photograph, often bursting with colour, and selected quotations from SRF guru Parmahansa Yogananda. The book is wire-bound, which means that at the end of the year the weekly calendar grids can be removed leaving a glossy booklet.