poetry

W.S. Merwin’s Lines of Gratitude

This morning we opened our Collected Poems of W.S. Merwin to the poet counting blessings and expressing gratitude. Which we find ourselves doing as we read it.

Ode to Tomatoes, for the Last Days of Summer (Neruda with Recipes)

Every September, aware that the last moments of perfect summer tomatoes are imminent, I prepare them these simple ways in of advance winter, and remember Neruda’s lovely ode.

Short, Powerful Instruction for an Alternative Possibility of Being

We read haiku often for the power they offer in just a few lines; they are HELPFUL, always offering a shift of our thinking and deepening of the moment. Jane Hirschfield illuminated why.

This Enters Through the Brain’s Back Door To Make You More Creative

Our reason for mixing poetry into articles about very practical matters is done with fierce intention: Poetry enters through our brain’s back door and shakes things up. We find that it helps greatly in envisioning possibilities…

Gift: Yayoi Kusama’s The Little Mermaid for Adults and Children

The inspired pairing of Yayoi Kusama’s drawings with Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale has resulted in a unique experience. The text and brilliantly patterned images infiltrate the senses in unexpected ways.

How to Walk Around with “Poet Mind”

Knowing of our love of — and frequent postings of – centuries-old Japanese Haiku, tiny poems that perfectly describe an instant, a friend gave us The Haiku Anthology. It contains very surprising haiku written by contemporary Americans in English; evidence of modern life is everywhere…as poetry and insight… long meeting I study the pattern embossed on the napkin * freshly…

A Time-Limited Mind Sharpening Practice

After our friend Tim Chegwidden suffered a stroke years ago at age 54, he had to painstakingly learn how to speak again. He immediately started figuring out systems to do the thing he loved most: express the complexities of what he read or saw. Not satisfied with the level of nuance of the words he used, he developed a powerful practice to deepen them.

drink from your own well…and the current within

“Drink from your own well.” I take those words on board whenever I’m struggling to create. I believe they mean that each of us has to dig deeply into our authentic self as the wellspring for our best work. If we search outside ourselves we may neglect something that is essential to our art. Poet William Stafford‘s wrote this…

meditation practices for those who can’t sit still

Our recent Facebook post about alternative ways to meditate got a lot of hits. Its single line —’Can’t sit still when you meditate?: try turning everyday actions into a practice’ — told us that there are A LOT of people who have trouble sitting and meditating. So we thought we’d elaborate. The solution is an…

maria robledo’s stunning instagrams will change your view

We’ve just discovered photographer Maria’s Robledo’s crazy-beautiful Instagram, a trove of images that will make you SEE the everyday differently and put you right in the moment. Only Maria could have come up with this simple, curiously moving arrangements of pussy willow blossoms (which people usually just throw away once they’ve been knocked off their stem). The…

gary snyder ‘don’t… be victimized by your lesser talents’

We were reading a packed-full-of-revelations1992 interview with poet Gary Snyder when we came across this amazing, of-the-cuff line. What a concept! The context is his answer to the question about whether he’d work as Secretary of the Interior or other political post if asked: I’ve never thought seriously about that question. Probably not, although I am foolish…

morning poem: cheetahs running in slow motion

(Video link here.) We’ve watched this slow-motion footage of cheetahs running flat-out several times already. It is just BEAUTIFUL and made us wonder where such a thing could have come from. Who dreamed up that wondrous spotted fur, flight taken with each stride? We figured it would be a perfect morning “poem” for today: a language…

pablo neruda on the creative process

A while back, we accidentally ordered a book of poems by the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. We love his poetry, especially his odes, but weren’t crazy about the selections in this particular book. Or so we thought. We’ve discovered that opening it randomly often yields treasures we could have sworn weren’t there when we first…

Morning poem

A favorite poem by Japanese poet Shiki, from one of our favorite morning reads Zen Art for Meditation, accompanied by an image by the great photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. Can you see the blue?…