Olive
12-16-2004, 12:20 PM
Hello all!
I wanted to start a thread to share some of my own poetry as well as work that has spoken to me on a deep level. I would love to read some other people's work as well and words of poets that have affected you. I'll start with a poem I wrote this morning . . . still unrefined. And I want to share my two all-time favorite pieces by other poets.
Morning Commute
by Olive
Standing at the bus stop
watching the sharp-eyed birds
catch dawn on their wings.
I stand quiet, observant, smiling
a part of, apart from
the flow of traffic, drifting trash, school children.
Feeling the pressure of air
on the delicate bones
of a gliding gull.
Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
The Guest House
by Jelaluddin Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty it of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
I wanted to start a thread to share some of my own poetry as well as work that has spoken to me on a deep level. I would love to read some other people's work as well and words of poets that have affected you. I'll start with a poem I wrote this morning . . . still unrefined. And I want to share my two all-time favorite pieces by other poets.
Morning Commute
by Olive
Standing at the bus stop
watching the sharp-eyed birds
catch dawn on their wings.
I stand quiet, observant, smiling
a part of, apart from
the flow of traffic, drifting trash, school children.
Feeling the pressure of air
on the delicate bones
of a gliding gull.
Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
The Guest House
by Jelaluddin Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty it of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.