Are you a poet?

The Poet Within

“…it’s not the size but the surge that tells us

 when we’re in touch with something real…”

                                                            Mary Oliver

                                                            from “The Little Owl Who Lives in the Orchard”

“Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colors

which it passes to a row of ancient trees.

You look, and soon these two worlds both leave you,

one part climbs toward heaven, one sinks to earth…”

                                                            Rainer Marie Rilke

                                                            from “Sunset” (translated by Robert Bly)

“Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.”

                                                            Carl Sandburg

            I once attended a weekend workshop outside of Charlottesville, VA, called, “Awakening the Poet Within.”  It was led by the poet in residence at the Kennedy Center and met on a farm, surrounded by woods and pastureland.  We had a beautiful weekend for the event and about twenty people, none of whom were poets, in attendance.  I will always remember one of the exercises.  We each chose a Mason jar and spent one hour out in the surrounding area collecting whatever we found of interest.  I walked through woods and collected moss, pretty stones, little fern plants, flowers and other asssorted objects.  When the bell rang to come back, we removed what we’d collected and using each object, constructed a poem.  I was surprised at the charmed writing that came from non-poets. After that workshop, I filled my journals with poetry.

,            My friend, Isie Hanson, is a poet, though she doesn’t think of herself as such.

She wrote this prayer and had it printed on small cards that she gives to people if she thinks they could use a lift.  She tucks them into the adorable stuffed animals she creates as a silent blessing.  It is her gift to the family of earth.

            “Thank You for this new day, and for our lives in it.

            Help me to be open like a wide-mouth vessel full of holes

that You may flow through me as I do your work with the many, many gifts          

You have placed in me.”

            Poetry is not simply the province of people who publish books of it, but is the passionate voice of Spirit speaking though everyday people.  Poetry communicates directly with the heart.  It is a right-brain activity in the same vein as painting a picture.  It is, in fact, painting with words.  It doesn’t have to rhyme or be any particular style; no iambic pentameter---just words that flow from an open heart.  And, it’s fun.  I hope you’ll try your hand at it today.  Begin with a word that jumps into your head and go from there.  Don’t try to control it, just write what’s there without censorship.  Let your spirit tell you what it wants to say

                                                                        Keeping the faith,

                                                                        Jane