Poetry
The following are a selection of poems to support you in connecting more deeply to yourself and the relationship you have with the world around you.
The River Cannot Go Back ~ Khalil Gibran
It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.
Love after Love ~ Derek Walcott
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
To the Sensitive Ones ~ Jeff Foster
Do not be ashamed of your sensitivity!
It has brought you many riches.
You see what others cannot see,
Feel what others are ashamed to feel.
You are more open, less numb.
You find it harder to turn a blind eye.
You have not closed your heart,
in spite of everything.
You are able to hold
the most intense highs
and the darkest lows
in your loving embrace.
(You know that neither define you.
Everything passes through.
You are a cosmic vessel.)
Celebrate your sensitivity!
It has kept you flexible and open.
You have remained close to wonder.
And awareness burns brightly in you.
Don't compare yourself with others.
Don't expect them to understand.
But teach them:
It’s okay to feel, deeply.
It’s okay to not know.
It’s okay to play
on the raw edge of life.
Life may seem ‘harder’ for you at times,
And often you are close to overwhelm.
But it’s harder still
to repress your overwhelming gifts.
Sensitive ones,
Bring some gentleness into this weary world!
Shine on with courageous sensitivity!
You are the light bearers!
A Blessing ~ John O’Donohue
Blessed be the longing that brought you here and that quickens your soul with wonder.
May you have the courage to befriend your eternal longing.
May you enjoy the critical and creative companionship of the question “Who am I?” and may it brighten your longing.
May a secret Providence guide your thought and shelter your feeling.
May your mind inhabit your life with the same sureness with which your body belongs to the world.
May the sense of something absent enlarge your life.
May your soul be as free as the ever-new waves of the sea.
May you succumb to the dangers of growth.
May you live in the neighborhood of wonder.
May you belong to love with the wildness of Dance.
May you know that you are ever embraced in the kind circle of God.
It Felt Love ~ Hafiz
How Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its Being,
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too Frightened.