A poem full of clarity and wisdom to bring 2018 to a close. Keep on dancin', friends. And don’t take the title too literally or you’ll lose the poetry in "Poetry"! Poetry Its door opens near. It’s a shrine by the road. It’s a flower in the parking lot of the [...]
Talk back to darkness with song and dance and praise. No matter that such acts may seem incomprehensible, for "Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy." (Rabbi A. Heschel) (The following is the text of my welcoming remarks at TEDxBend Women on Saturday, December 1, 2018. What [...]
“And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.” Shakespeare, from Hamlet The Dream Title: "wondrous strange" Introduction: A woman walks with astrologer Rob Brezny and his rabbi friend, a silent yet friendly bear-man, in a large park filled with old trees. They stroll slowly and quietly, pausing occasionally. First [...]
Within true law, everything rises and falls together, inextricably interdependent. The outlaw's folly is to imagine this unified whole can be divided. 1. The cloud is free only to go with the wind. The rain is free only in falling. The water is free only in its gathering together, in its [...]
What if you tell the truth of your own experience? And what if in so doing, the wound you sustained is not denied, but liberated? In their 1999-2000 report, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) categorized and/or redefined “truth." Their purpose was to heal trauma and horrifying violence that victims [...]
This great, much needed poem is a potent antidote to despair. I'm also using it to celebrate 12 years for Poem of the Month. According to Kaveh Akbar: "...bewilderment is at the core of every great poem, and in order to be bewildered, you have to be able to wonder." Is this, then, why [...]
Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu (399 - 295 B.C.) illuminates the hazards of fixation on outcome. His words are as relevant now as they were centuries ago. Notice how you relate to this. When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots for a brass [...]
These words in a letter by John Muir entranced me. Immediately, I saw in them as a poem. I share this because it's a beautiful teaching in the art of contemplation. His exquisite attention to detail and the joy he describes in the encounter offer guidance. On the [...]
May this poem wrap you in a cloak of compassionate warmth. May it help you recollect the loveliness of all life. Especially in these times. Amen. The bud stands for all things, even for those things that don’t flower, for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it [...]
Dedicated James Baldwin on the 94th anniversary of his birth, with gratitude for the way he challenged and changed the perspective of so many of us. Someone asked me recently, “Who’s one person, living or dead, you’d love to share a meal with?” I immediately replied, "James Baldwin." Baldwin opened my mind to dimensions of experience [...]