Category: Poem a Month

In these times of turbulent
unrest for so many,
poems forests rivers songs
can be
our allies,
show us that their
rhythms and Wisdom
can be ours

They can help us
see hear feel touch
beauty as
a way of knowing
a way of being
a way of finding
Love in the pain
a way of living
a deep, Sacred life

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Questions for Contemplation

What speaks to you in this poem? If you are drawn to explore this, take some time to relax and quiet your mind. Slowly read the poem again and become aware of feelings that are evoked in you or any words that stand out. Choose either a feeling or word(s) and then free write or reflect for 10-15 minutes on your selection.

If you want to take this further, choose a word or image from your writing or contemplation and then use that as a prompt for additional writing or reflection.

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Seams are sewn
by the dividing mind
Shrewd weaver –
knows how to trick us
knows how to scare away
our Stillness
our wild
our free

Sitting quietly today by
the creek with my duck,
squirrel, tree, dragonfly
friends
I am reminded that the
seamless sky is also the
sea is also every flutter of
every leaf is every stone –
also my voice my body
every tear of joy and grief
every ache and celebration

The mind whirrs, worries and
wants –
believes in time
believes in seams

Sitting quietly
Seamless Being

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Questions for Contemplation

1. What is your experience in the domains of body, mind, feelings and spirit when your thinking mind is quiet? If you are drawn to do so, take some time to reflect on some or all of these domains in relation to resting in stillness. 

2. What helps you still your linear mind?

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Dear Silence,
Please show me
your ways – again
I am beginning – again
Please take my knowing
Teach me to cherish
Not Knowing mind

Teach me to hear you
inside this noisy,
troubled world
Let me see You everywhere
because You are
Please help me remember
that Silence includes
and widens everything,
rounds the edges
of everything

Please give me words
that won’t create ache,
that will be helpful
when help is needed,
that will speak Love
to the pain in our world

Teach me to speak like
the mountain
the lizard
the lion
the forests
the sea

Deep bow

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Questions for Contemplation

Is there a phrase in this poem that speaks to you and that you’d like to contemplate? If so, take a few minutes to relax and quiet your mind – then bring the phrase into your awareness. Notice what images, feelings and/or physical sensations arise. Take some time to just be with whatever presents itself. Then, if you are drawn to do so, free write in response to a feeling, image, or sensation that was present for you.

What place does Silence have in your life? How is Silence beneficial for you? If you’d like to experience Silence more often, what realistic, attainable steps might you take to bring that about?

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Not seeking
earthskycreaturepeople magic
today
Letting life happen
Be-ing
Not greedyspeedyneedy
This day gets to be
what it wants to be
I feel partnered with life

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Questions for Contemplation

What do the words ‘partnered with life’ evoke in you? If you’d like to explore this further you might reflect on or write about some of the ways and times that you’ve felt in partnership with life. You may also want to explore ways and times that you haven’t experienced this connection.

In addition, you could also select examples and contemplate or free write about them.

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Young children
say ‘Hi’ to squirrels,
butterflies, plants, bees –
converse with ducks,
trees, the creek
They cry when we kill spiders
My granddaughter talked to
flowers, chairs, her toys
until she was five

They know their place in
the web of life
They know Oneness –
don’t divide ordinary and
extraordinary,
animate and inanimate,
superior and inferior

Young children know there
is deep wise knowing in
every form
and in the formless,
that a wise web
connects us all

When I remember to
dethrone my ‘self,’
break the spell of
separateness,
remember that I am
birdsong and the
sycamore roots,
that I am the moaning
glaciers and grieving
elephants –
I am humbled

I remember my place

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Questions for Contemplation

Is there a line or phrase in this poem that is evocative for you? If you’d like to explore this further, write the words on a blank page. Then take a few minutes to relax and quiet your mind. When you’re ready, write whatever comes to you in response to these words without censoring or analyzing what you are writing.

Then reflect on what you wrote and become aware of any feelings or images that are evoked in you. You can either write them down and engage in some more free writing or just contemplate the images and/or feelings.

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We were born
holding stars
in our hands

We replaced
them with coins
Never enough

The stars
still close by –
willing to fall
into our hands
if we open them
Willing to help
us remember
our Light

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Questions for Contemplation

1. Is there a phrase, line or stanza in this poem that speaks to you?  If so, take some time either to reflect on the words that you chose or free write in response to your choice.

2. If you feel drawn to do so, write a poem, story or free write that begins with the words, “We are born…”

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When your listening
takes the shape of sky
I feel your heart
hearing mine

My tears –
frozen
lonely
frightened,
feel safe,
welcome this quiet
invitation to melt
and
flow into your caring field

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Questions for Contemplation

Is there is a particular line or stanza in this poem that resonates with you? If so, a suggestion is to use the line or lines as a writing prompt and then free write for 10-15 minutes in response to the words. If you like, you can review what you wrote and take some quiet time to reflect on an idea or phrase that speaks to you.

You can also write your own poem, simply beginning each stanza with “Peace when I….” or, perhaps, Joy, Strength, Courage or (fill in the blank) when I…..

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Peace when I
bring
a light touch
to the changing

Peace when I
open
the doors to Silence
greet the Unchanging

Peace when I
remember
the tree is ‘me’

Peace when I
am not enticed
by the alluring promises
of the world

Peace when I
surrender
the names
maps
past and future
people and things
I thought I owned
control
certainty
hard edges
self-centeredness

Peace when I
inhale
the goodness
and beauty
of Mother Earth
from the soles of my feet

Peace when I
am faithful
to the Sacred wishes
for our world

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Questions for Contemplation

Is there is a particular line or stanza in this poem that resonates with you? If so, a suggestion is to use the line or lines as a writing prompt and then free write for 10-15 minutes in response to the words. If you like, you can review what you wrote and take some quiet time to reflect on an idea or phrase that speaks to you.

You can also write your own poem, simply beginning each stanza with “Peace when I….” or, perhaps, Joy, Strength, Courage or (fill in the blank) when I…..

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She is vulnerable, trembling.
A bright spring sun
Bird chirping hours
Flowers seem glad to be back
Life-affirming green
adorning our town
Gardens breathing 
beauty and goodness

And…..and…..
So many of the most 
vulnerable in our world
afraid   
hungry   
hurting
lost   
alone

Raindrops of grief
on this sunny April day

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Questions for Contemplation

What phrase or line in this poem speaks to you? If you’d like to explore this further, put the words at the top of a blank page and free write for 10-15 minutes. Let words flow onto the page without censoring or analyzing what you’re writing. When you feel complete, choose one word from your free write that stands out to you.

Take a few minutes to relax, quiet your mind and reflect on the word for as long as you’d like, allowing feelings, images and/or physical sensations to arise. You can either do another free write in response to this or you can write about the feelings that came up for you.

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She is vulnerable, trembling.

I become a quiet, 
listening presence –
a soft invitation.
I ask her,
“What do you need?”
She may open,
find her words,
tell me her story.
If I listen with my
wholebeing,
she may cry.
I care for her tenderly.

She may ask me
to hold her secrets
in my heart,
ask me to show her
how to still
her haunting, insistent voices,
how to find safety
inside herself,
how to find her Light.

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Questions for Contemplation

What is your relationship to fear? How do you typically respond mentally, physically and emotionally when fear shows up in your experience?

This poem explores the possibility of gently befriending, opening and listening to fear when it arises. If you are drawn to this idea, you might experiment with what is presented here the next time fear arrives, asking questions that feel right to you in the moment.

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