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Posts from the ‘Poetry’ Category

Apr 12

Like a Jewel

“Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us we find poems.”― Naomi Shihab Nye, Red Suitcase

We don’t realize the weight that we carry until we lay it down and walk a few steps without it.
Whatever is heavy on your mind, in your heart, on your shoulders, put it down for a bit.
We are more than what we do, what others think, what we think, the past or the future.
Spirit and soul.
Current and waves.
Wind and stillness.
Embedded in the doing, in the striving, in the chasing, enough, whole and imperfect beauty and light lingers, resides, invites.
Go there, sit awhile, warmed by the glistening beams.

“The person you have known a long time is embedded in you like a jewel. The person you have just met casts out a few glistening beams & you are fascinated to see more of them. How many more are there? With someone you’ve barely met the curiosity is intoxicating.”― Naomi Shihab Nye

Apr 1

Infuse

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” – Mary Oliver

“Poetry isn’t a profession, it’s a way of life. It’s an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that.” – Mary Oliver

Beauty abound.
Infuse yourself with nature, fresh air, poetry.
Be made new, spark your imagination, write your story.
Gaze at the sky, allow awe in, be made new.
A blessing that you be awake, aware and paying attention to each moment.

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?”

A rare interview with the late Mary Oliver was re-released again from On Being with Krista Tippett – a treat to savor and enjoy.

Mar 29

Expanse

“When the vastness of God meets the restriction of our own humanity, words can’t hold it. The best we can do is find the moments that rhyme with this expansive heart of God.” – Greg Boyle

“Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” – Carl Sandburg

Some poetry is written.
Some seen in the sky, a flower, a smile.
Some not able to be held by words, in a soul alone.
Drawing us both out and in.
Wide and deep.
A deep breath, a heavy sigh, a sense of awe.
Words, thoughts, actions, a way of being.
Past, present and future, woven into story, prose, narrative.
In the expanse, in corners, in crevices, hiding in plain sight.
Come play awhile in the beauty, wonder and mystery.

“Every single soul is a poem.” – Michael Franti

Mar 23

Whispers to Wings

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.”
― Mary Oliver

May you always hear your own voice above the noise.
From whispers to wings.
Take flight.
Complete your journey.

The Journey by Mary Oliver

“One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice —
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do —
determined to save
the only life you could save.”

Oct 30

Flight or Foot

Sometimes in flight, sometimes slowly crossing the road to merely get to the other side.
Be where you are today, in flight or on foot.
Announcing your place in this moment, allowing it to be.

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

Oct 12

Into the Wild

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

Open and receive the grace woven in stillness, quiet and rest.
Without effort or forethought of grief.
A holy sacred place, inviting all in.
Enter the peace of the wild things to awaken to the breath, depth and presence of life.

Oct 1

Equilibrium

“May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.” — John O’Donohue

“For Equilibrium, a Blessing:
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity by lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough
to hear in the depths the laughter of God.”

― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

May wisdom enter so we can see and open the gifts woven in each day.
Centered and awake in this sacred place of ordinary.
On holy ground of joy detached from circumstances.
A return to self and rapt awareness of how we are connected to all living beings.
Grace, reverence, respect, freedom, perspective, clarity, the laughter of God.
Seek equilibrium and reside in the balance and ease.

Jun 26

State of Mind

“Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.” – David Hume

My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is
by Sir Edward Dyer

“MY mind to me a kingdom is;
Such present joys therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss
That earth affords or grows by kind:
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

No princely pomp, no wealthy store,
No force to win the victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to feed a loving eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall;
For why? my mind doth serve for all.

I see how plenty surfeits oft,
And hasty climbers soon do fall;
I see that those which are aloft
Mishap doth threaten most of all:
They get with toil, they keep with fear:
Such cares my mind could never bear.

Content I live, this is my stay;
I seek no more than may suffice;
I press to bear no haughty sway;
Look, what I lack my mind supplies.
Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my mind doth bring.

Some have too much, yet still do crave;
I little have, and seek no more.
They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store;
They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lack, I leave; they pine, I live.

I laugh not at another’s loss,
I grudge not at another’s gain;
No worldly waves my mind can toss;
My state at one doth still remain:
I fear no foe, I fawn no friend;
I loathe not life, nor dread my end.

Some weigh their pleasure by their lust,
Their wisdom by their rage of will;
Their treasure is their only trust,
A cloakèd craft their store of skill;
But all the pleasure that I find
Is to maintain a quiet mind.

My wealth is health and perfect ease,
My conscience clear my chief defence;
I neither seek by bribes to please,
Nor by deceit to breed offence:
Thus do I live; thus will I die;
Would all did so as well as I!”

May you create your state of mind to seek and find beauty in all circumstances and seasons.

Jun 17

2 Comments

Summer Prose

Warm Summer Sun by Mark Twain
Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.

June by John Updike

“The sun is rich
And gladly pays
In golden hours,
Silver days,

And long green weeks
That never end.
School’s out.
The time Is ours to spend.

There’s Little League,
Hopscotch, the creek,
And, after supper,
Hide-and-seek.

The live-long light
Is like a dream,
and freckles come
Like flies to cream.”

Enter the poetry of summer. The ease. The rest. The sun that lingers long. Write your day. Restore your soul.

May 22

Behold

“My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are changed!” – Anne Sullivan

“We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” – Marshall McLuhan

Notice the details in a single flower
Hear the birds composing a new song
Expand your soul where you stand in this moment
Less doing, more being present
Behold, embrace, be held.

“Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught our people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
I seek the strength, not to be greater than my brother/sister but to fight my greatest enemy- myself.
Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.
So that all that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
ShneppeTEWI (Blessings)” – Miguel Quimichipilli Bravo

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