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Posts tagged ‘poetry’

Feb 27

Borrowed Light, Shared Color

“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”― Pema Chödrön

“If you can’t find hope
Borrow mine tonight
I’ve been lost too, just trying to get it right
The sun still rises even when you’re tired of the fight
If you can’t see the road, walk by borrowed light
We’re all just healing in real time
If you can’t find hope, borrow mine…

We’re just passing it down the line
‘Til the dark runs out of time” – Able Heart, lyrics – song

Hope, joy, kindness, enthusiasm
Resistance to succumb to chaos, noise, comparison, counting
Daily work, discipline, commitment
Often found in rest, reflection, deep breath, long gaze, communion
To stay soft, to care, to listen
Gratitude, grace, delight
The dark always runs out of time.
How we spend our time in the waiting defines our life.
Given or borrowed
Cast Light! Some brilliant color too.

Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
By William Shakespeare

“When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.”

Feb 13

Shaken Awake

Gratitude by Mary Oliver

“What did you notice?

The dew-snail;
the low-flying sparrow;
the bat, on the wind, in the dark;
big-chested geese, in the V of sleekest performance;
the soft toad, patient in the hot sand;
the sweet-hungry ants;
the uproar of mice in the empty house;
the tin music of the cricket’s body;
the blouse of the goldenrod.

What did you hear?

The thrush greeting the morning;
the little bluebirds in their hot box;
the salty talk of the wren,
then the deep cup of the hour of silence.

When did you admire?

The oaks, letting down their dark and hairy fruit;
the carrot, rising in its elongated waist;
the onion, sheet after sheet, curved inward to the pale green wand;
at the end of summer the brassy dust, the almost liquid beauty of the flowers;
then the ferns, scrawned black by the frost.

What astonished you?

The swallows making their dip and turn over the water.

What would you like to see again?

My dog: her energy and exuberance, her willingness,
her language beyond all nimbleness of tongue,
her recklessness, her loyalty, her sweetness,
her strong legs, her curled black lip, her snap.

What was most tender?

Queen Anne’s lace, with its parsnip root;
the everlasting in its bonnets of wool;
the kinks and turns of the tupelo’s body;
the tall, blank banks of sand;
the clam, clamped down.

What was most wonderful?

The sea, and its wide shoulders;
the sea and its triangles;
the sea lying back on its long athlete’s spine.

What did you think was happening?

The green beast of the hummingbird;
the eye of the pond;
the wet face of the lily;
the bright, puckered knee of the broken oak;
the red tulip of the fox’s mouth;
the up-swing, the down-pour, the frayed sleeve of the first snow—
so the gods shake us from our sleep.”

Notice
Hear
Admire
Astonishment
Tenderness
Most wonderful
To be present, shaken awake.

Jan 29

Bewilderment and Beauty

“Holy unanticipated occurrences!”― Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice.”― E.M. Forster, A Room With A View

Detachment and distancing
Emergence and embrace
Deepening and weaving
Leaning in and leaning back
Grief and grace
Color and hue
Gratitude and gravity
Reverence and awe
Metaphor and paradox
Dance of poetry
Beauty in motion.

“Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.”― W.H. Auden, New Year Letter

Nov 16

Forefront and Backdrop

“There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep. ”
― Elizabeth Bishop

“There are those fortunate hours when the world consents to be made into a poem.”― Mark Doty

Space and reflection
Curiosity and attention
Pause and praise
Spell of rest to notice
Forefront and backdrop
Magic of melody, flow
Music and poetry woven into this day
To be found, to be written
Joy, no slight thing

“What did you think, that joy / was some slight thing?”― Mark Doty

Nov 15

Poetry of Presence

“Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.”― Naomi Shihab Nye

“only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.”
― Naomi Shihab Nye

From doing to being
Swift to slow
Pausing to notice, partake
Kindness of gratitude, awe, wonder
Shimmer of this day
Poetry of presence
Interrupted by beauty

“Every day is a poetry day.”― Naomi Shihab Nye

Nov 8

Beauty Lingers, Awaiting Your Noticing

“one small thing
I’ve learned these years,
how to be alone,
and at the edge of aloneness
how to be found by the world.”
― David Whyte, River Flow

“Song for Autumn”

Don’t you imagine the leaves dream now
how comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of the air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees, especially those with
mossy hollows, are beginning to look for

the birds that will come—six, a dozen—to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
stiffens and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its long blue shadows. The wind wags
its many tails. And in the evening
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.”― Mary Oliver

Autumn beauty lingering
Awaiting your noticing
Partaking
Praise
Presence
Finish opening the gifts of the season
Beauty within and out
In all seasons.

“When we devote some calm time to the heart and come off the treadmill of stress and distraction we can enter into the beauty within.  Each of us can prepare for that inner arrival: where ‘night holds sway’ and the inner forest becomes ‘free of strangers’.” – John O’Donohue

Oct 26

Birthday Reflections and Gratitude

“Now is the time to free the heart,
Let all intentions and worries stop,
Free the joy inside the self,
Awaken to the wonder of your life.
Open your eyes and see the friends,
Whose hearts recognize your face as kin,
Those whose kindness watchful and near,
Encouraging you to live everything here.
See the gifts the years have given,
Things your effort could never earn,
The health to enjoy who you want to be
And the mind to mirror mystery.” – John O’Donohue

“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 down 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.” – Mary Oliver

Happy Birthday to me and 9th Birthday to Abby, my birthday buddy.
Blessed with family, friends, love.
Sharing a few of my favorite things … poetry, quotes, reflections.
“What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
And to stay in the arena, striving, coming up short, with great enthusiasm, devotion daring greatly.
Awaken to the wonder of life.
To stay awake each day with inquiry and curiosity.
To keep unlearning, relearning, growing, becoming, no matter age.
Reflection and presence.
Kindness and generosity of spirit.
Hope, resilience and peace that passes understanding.
Grace, gratitude, laughter, slowing, savoring,  joy, delight.
Deepening faith and trust in God’s plan, not my own.
With reverence, wonder, awe.
Seeking wisdom rather than knowledge.
Joy on the journey wherever it leads.
To celebrate each day.
And most of all, cast light.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”― Theodore Roosevelt

Oct 23

Beauty Ever Blooming

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius

“I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcomes the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Waves of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more”
–  John O’Donohue

To find good in this day
To let good find you
Invitation
Conversation
Communion
See beauty, witness and partake
Let it soak in
To be made new
By wonder, awe, delight.

“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.”― Carl R. Rogers

Oct 21

2 Comments

World in a Leaf

“It’s possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry and biology through the complex beauty of such a perfect structure.
It’s also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing.”
― Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from The Sky: Poems

“Bless the poets, the workers for justice,
the dancers of ceremony, the singers of heartache,
the visionaries, all makers and carriers of fresh
meaning—We will all make it through,
despite politics and wars, despite failures
and misunderstandings. There is only love.”
― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

Proximity and attention
Inquiry and perusal
Curiosity and imagination
Awe and wonder
Finding the world in a leave rippling with color
A flower breaking earth
The pulse of a poem
With enthusiasm, anticipation, hope, delight
Fresh morning, new meaning.

“Gather strength, pull it in
Be right where you are.”
― Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

Oct 16

Two Lives

“This sky
Where we live
Is no place to lose your wings
So love, love
Love.”― Hafez, The Gift

“My time is too short:
I want the essence,
my soul is in a hurry.
I don’t have many sweets
in the package anymore.
I want to live next to human people,
very human,
who know how to laugh at their mistakes,
and who are not inflated by their triumphs,
and who take on their responsibilities.
Thus, human dignity is defended, and we move towards truth and honesty.
It is the essential that makes life worth living.
I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch hearts, people who have been taught by the hard blows of life to grow with gentle touches of the soul.
Yes, I’m in a hurry, I’m in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give.
I don’t intend to waste any of the leftover sweets.
I am sure they will be delicious, much more than what I have eaten so far.
My goal is to reach the end satisfied
and at peace with my loved ones
and my conscience.
We have two lives.
And the second begins when you realize you only have one.” – Mário Raul de Morais Andrade

Urgency to slow, deepen
Attention to find beauty and joy woven in this very day
Seen with fresh eyes, open heart
Reverence for presence
Love, grace, gratitude
Awe, wonder, delight
Kindness, light, love
Rooted and in flight.

“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.”― Søren Kierkegaard

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