Poetry

This includes meditation practices as well as music, song, dance, poetry and laughter as medicine.

Poetry

Postby Judith » Thu Oct 24, 2013 2:08 pm

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Poetry

I first read years ago about the value of taking poetry on a long-haul flight—well if you think of your journey now as being for the long-haul, then perhaps the same holds true...

So I’m hoping others will download poems that have resonated with them on this long-haul journey, to keep them going and sometimes to keep spirits up, sometimes just to empathise with the down days.. or just because the poems are so brilliant without being related to a particular difficulty one’s going through ..my favourites include the wonderful Seamus Heaney & another Nobel prizewinner Cseslaw Milosz—also John Donne from the 17th century—on and on and on...

The first one here is by Emily Dickinson, and helped me when I was feeling very low:

Adrift! A little boat adrift!
And night is coming down!
Will no one guide a little boat
Unto the nearest town?

So Sailors say-on yesterday-
Just as the dusk was brown
One little boat gave up its strife
And gurgled down and down.

So angels say-on yesterday-
Just as the dawn was red
One little boat-o’erspent with gales -
Retrimmed its masts-redecked its sails-
And shot –exultant on!
c. 1858
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Then this one below may seem rather hackneyed (who knew all these very well-known phrases came from one source)—but I heard someone who’d been through a lot read it on the radio, and it sent tingles down my spine—see if it does the same for you. And by the way reading poems out loud, either to yourself or to another person or group of people, is a good experience—as of course is learning poems by heart. I do a poetry lecture series and often ask people to bring ‘poetry snacks’—these frequently turn out to be poems learned in childhood… below the poem here is a reaction from a teenager who read it…

Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley 1875


• "To put to rest all of the religious/ anti-religious debate over the poem, can I just ask one question? Does it really matter? I consider myself a religious person, but even I recognize this as one of the most powerful and influential poems ever written. However, if we were to truly understand the meaning of this poem, we must take into consideration what Henley meant by the word, soul.

If you look over his biography, you learn that he suffered many hardships in his life including the death of his six year old daughter as well as an amputation. Yet despite the many trials of life, he was able to prevail. I think he meant by soul that we, as humans, have the unique ability to overcome any obstacle, despite the fell clutch of circumstance, whether this ability was given to us from God or not. And that we, being the captain of our fate have complete control over the choices that we make, which will inevitably control the course of our destiny. So really, i don't believe that this poem is religious or anti-religious, but rather it is neutral. But what do I know? I'm just a high-school teenager".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Then here’s one by contemporary poet Jo Shapcott, who has been through this whole palaver too-and it’s about gratitude...not a bad idea to cultivate this even in hard times—though if you can’t manage it all the time, be easy on yourself as the song says...

Procedure by Jo Shapcott
This tea, this cup of tea, made of leaves/ made of the leaves of herbs and absolute
almond blossom, this tea, is the interpreter/of almond, liquid touchstone which lets us/scent its true taste as last and with a bump,
in my case, takes me back to the yellow time/of trouble with blood tests, and cellular/madness, and my presence required
on the slab for the surgery, and all that mess/I don’t want to comb through here because/it seems, honestly, a trifle now that steam/and scent and strength and steep and infusion/say thank you thank you thank you for the then, and now.


And here is one I have sent out to many people-a 1000 year old Poem given to me by a Chinese student, called 'Thinking of You'--looking at the moon can bring you closer to those you're far away from -and also perhaps from parts of yourself you may have lost sight of...

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水調歌頭

明月幾時有,把酒問青天?
不知天上宮闕,今夕是何年。
我欲乘風歸去,
唯恐瓊樓玉宇,高處不勝寒。
起舞弄清影,何似在人間。
轉朱閣,低綺戶。
照無眠。
不應有恨,何事長向別時圓?
人有悲歡離合,月有陰晴圓缺,此事古難全。
但願人長久,千里共嬋娟。


“Thinking of You”

When will the moon be clear and bright?
With a cup of wine in my hand, I ask the dark sky.
I don’t know what season it would be in the heavens on this night.
I’d like to ride the wind to fly to the home of moon.
Yet I fear the crystal and jade mansions up there are much too high and cold for me.

Dancing with my moon-lit shadow
It does not seem like the human world

The moon rounds the red mansion stoops to silk-pad doors.
Shines upon the sleepless.

Bearing no grudge
Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?
People may have sorrow or joy, be near or far apart
The moon may be dim or bright, wax or wane
This has been going on since the beginning of time
May we all be blessed with longevity

Though far apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.

And here is a link to another poem about kindness someone just sent me (October 2015)

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http://www.thesilverpen.com/breast-canc ... -kindness/

Still we learn and grow (October 2017).... see Lifesaving Poems on this blog, kindly sent to us by Josefine Speyer... https://anthonywilsonpoetry.com/lifesavingpoemsblog/
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Judith
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