Poetry for Transformation

I have a feeling that my boat

Has struck, down there in the depths,

Against a great thing.

And nothing happens!

Nothing.Silence.Waves.

--Nothing happens?

Or has everything Happened,

And are we standing now, quietly, in the new life?

– Juan Ramon Jimenez (Oceans)

I am not I.

I am this one

Walking beside me whom I do not see,

Whom at times I manage to visit,

And at other times I forget.

The one who remains silent when I talk,

The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,

The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,

The one who will remain standing when I die.

– Juana Ramon Jimenez (I AM NOT I translated by Robert Bly)

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.

Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."

– Carl Jung

Ring the bells that can still ring,

Forget your perfect offering,

There is a crack in everything,

That's how the light gets in.

– Leonard Cohen

There is a pain-so utter-

It swallows substance up-

Then covers the Abyss with Trance-

So memory can step

Around-across-upon it-

As one with a Swoon-

Goes safely-where an open eye-

Would drop Him-Bone by Bone.

– Emily Dickinson

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its rest-

less tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink form the river of silence

shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top,

then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs,

then shall you truly dance.

– Kahill Gibran (Of Death, The Prophet)

The song I have come to sing

remains unsung to this day.

I have spent my life

stringing and unstringing

my instrument.

– Rabindranath Tagore

Though leaves are many, the root is one;

Through all the lying days of my youth

I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;

Now I may wither into the truth.

– WB Yeats (The Coming of Wisdom with Time)

Do not say that I will depart tomorrow

because even today I still arrive

Look deeply: I arrive in every second

to be a bud on a spring branch

to be a tiny bird, with wings still so fragile

learning to sing in my new nest

to be a caterpillar in the heart of flower

to be a jewel hiding itself in stone

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,

in order to fear and to hope,

the rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,

and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily in the clear water of the pond,

and I am also the grass-snake who,

approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,

my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,

and I am the arms merchant selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the 12 year old girl, refugee on a small boat,

who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate,

and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving

I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands,

and I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to my people,

dying slowly in a forced labour camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life.

My pain is like a river of tears, so full it fills up the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once,

so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can wake up,

and so the door of my heart can be left open,

the door of compassion.

– Thich Nhat Hahn (Please Call Me by My True Name)

Those who will not slip beneath

the still surface on the well of grief

turning downward through its black water

to the place we cannot breathe

will never know the source from which we drink

the secret water, cold and clear,

nor find in the darkness glimmering the small round coins

thrown by those who wished for something else

– David Whyte (Well of Grief)

Willing to experience aloneness,

I discover connection everywhere;

Turning to face my fear,

I meet the warrior who lives within;

Opening to my loss,

I gain the embrace of the universe;

Surrendering into emptiness,

I find fullness without end.

Each condition I flee from pursues me,

Each condition I welcome transforms me

And becomes itself transformed

Into its radiant jewel-like essence.

I bow to the one who has made it so,

Who has crafted this Master Game;

To play it is purest delight -

To honor its form, true devotion.

– Jennifer Paine Welwood (Unconditional)

Enough. These few words are enough.

If not these words, this breath.

If not this breath, this sitting here.

This opening to the life

We have refused again and again

Until now.

– David Whyte

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