What are some respected works by Sufis that I could read?

Go to the website in my source (shown below) and you will be able to read examples from these great Sufi authors:

Attar

Hafiz

Jami

Rumi

Saadi

Sanai

Yunus Emry

Shabistari

Ansari

Rabi'a

Abil Kheir

Sultan Bahu

Ibn 'Arabi

Baba Kuhi

Mansur al-Hallaj

Amir Khusrau

Moinuddin Hasan Chishti

Hazret-i Uftade

From there you can pick out your favorites and find their translated works online.

Hope that is a help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubaiyat_of_Omar_Khay...

Some for the pleasures here below

Others yearn for The Prophet's Paradise to come;

Ah, take the cash and let the credit go,

Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum

And much as Wine has played the Infidel

And robbed me of my robe of Honour, well ...

I often wonder what the vintners buy

One half so precious as the stuff they sell

For some we loved, the loveliest and best

That from His rolling vintage Time has pressed,

Have drunk their glass a round or two before,

And one by one crept silently to rest

But helpless pieces in the game He plays

Upon this chequer-board of Nights and Days

He hither and thither moves, and checks ... and slays

Then one by one, back in the Closet lays

"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

Hazrat Inayat Khan brought Sufism to the West with a unique perspective that saw both cultures as part of the Divine. There are books, but this free newsletter comes out every day with several quotes. It gives one time to digest and assimilate the ideas until they become roses in your garden.

http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/index.htm