Poetry

Do you read poetry?

I do! I love to soak in a hot bath, especially when I'm tired and achy from being on my feet all day at work, with a book of poems to read and contemplate. I love to hike out to a beautiful place in nature with a book of poetry in my backpack, and sit and read under the trees and sky. I read poetry on the bus, on the beach, in the doctor's waiting room, in bed, in the car when I'm waiting to pick up my kid from school, when I have to stand in a long line, on the couch with a cup of hot coffee...pretty much anywhere.

Poetry is soulful. It can give voice to the unspeakable, it touches what is unknowable. It can be inspiring or comforting, disturbing, provocative, confusing and nourishing. It can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. Reading poems is something that I consider to be part of my recovery process because it encourages reflection and introspection and appreciation. I even write poems sometimes, and maybe I will share one here someday.

I thought I'd share some poems here. I hope you find one that you like and that maybe you'll be inspired to find another.

I also hope some of you will share poems that have meant something to you in your life.
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You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

-Jack Kornfield

Wild Geese

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.

© Mary Oliver.
_________________
You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

-Jack Kornfield

In Blackwater Woods

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Mary Oliver
_________________
You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

-Jack Kornfield

Black Cat

A ghost, though invisible, still is like a place
your sight can knock on, echoing; but here
within this thick black pelt, your strongest gaze
will be absorbed and utterly disappear:

just as a raving madman, when nothing else
can ease him, charges into his dark night
howling, pounds on the padded wall, and feels
the rage being taken in and pacified.

She seems to hide all looks that have ever fallen
into her, so that, like an audience,
she can look them over, menacing and sullen,
and curl to sleep with them. But all at once

as if awakened, she turns her face to yours;
and with a shock, you see yourself, tiny,
inside the golden amber of her eyeballs
suspended, like a prehistoric fly.

Rainer Maria Rilke

_________________
You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

-Jack Kornfield

what is your avatar picture...it makes my skin crawl(seriously) weird how stuff effects people..

I have always written poetry as a way to express my feelings. It is a wonderful way to deal with life. I tend to only write when I'm very down so most of my poems are very depressing. And quite dramatic but it helps tremendously!
I'm a huge fan of Maya Angelou.....her poems are just perfect to me.
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Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. -Elizabeth Stone

That's kind of funny, I have always liked DoaQ's avatar because all I drank when I was younger was Orange Crush.

I like indigo's avatar too, that's Ville Vallo from H.I.M.

HIM has some great music. They call their brand of music LoveMetal, I think? Their HeartaGram is one of the best 'symbols' I have ever seen.

Ummm, about the poetry, I find poetry very hard to understand and when I do finally get it, it's usually sad or too deep for me to handle. Poetry sends me for a loop. Believe it or not, I am still working on getting my emotions to level out. I finally bit the bullet Thursday and had my doctor put me on someting for my OCD. He started me on Celexa. So, maybe in a week or so I'll be able to participate.

For now, this is the best I've got:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I am awesome
and so are all of you

Laughing

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Be kind to yourself. Our character defects do NOT define who we are!