Poetry Page

By cutting to the truth of our experience, poetry shakes us and awakens us. Through it we open our eyes to what Robert Frost called “the pleasure of taking pains.” And what is gratitude besides this playful engagement with life as it unfolds in all its challenges and delights?

Jerome
by Stephen Mitchell
"Jerome" is one of my many favorites among Stephen Mitchell's poems. (As a prose poem, it has all the essential properties of a regular poem except meter.) Soon after Stephen and i first met, we discovered that both of us were so fond of Albrecht Dürer's woodcut "St. Jerome in His Study." As a boy, i used to pour over this picture. The rather cozy hermitage that Dürer imagined became a refuge for my soul. Decades later, on the day on which i found myself hanging up the scissors exactly as Dürer imagined them hanging there on St. Jerome's wall, i realized what an impact this archetypal hermitage had had on my life. There is a hermitage in every heart. Few of us have the good fortune to find it realized in the outer world. But thanks to the magic of Stephen Mitchell's poetry, we can enter that sacred inner space whenever we read and reread this poem. (Br. David)

You Men (english | spanish original)
by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
It's most remarkable that in the 17th century a woman had the courage to write words like this. All the more we owe her great respect. (Br. David)

Lightening the Load
by Francis Dorff, O. Praem.
When we take for granted the satisfaction of the present moment, we begin to fear for the future, and this becomes an unnecessary burden that hampers our journey. Gratitude helps us shed this material, mental, and emotional baggage. But what shall we do if we then find ourselves in an arid wasteland, where we aren't even sure our needs will be met? As Brother Francis Dorff describes in "Lightening the Load," we may at that very moment be opening ourselves to what we desire most. (PCC)

Trillium
by Pat Campbell Carlson

Going Deeper
by Anne Powell
Gratitude flourishes when we are happy, but it also knows how to light up the ordinary with fresh appreciation and even to find the gem hidden in suffering. In Going Deeper, Anne Powell shows that we have within ourselves reservoirs of power, clarity, wisdom, and surprise. We can flow with these gifts beyond surface appearances into the depths from which gratefulness arises. (PCC)

Psalm 46
Norman Fischer
The Psalms in the Hebrew Bible belong to the earliest written documents of gratefulness. Ancient texts sometimes need a new translation to recover their freshness. It is a rare gift, however, when a true poet recasts prayers like these into words that speaks to the heart because they come from the heart. Norman Fischer offers us this gift in Opening to You: Zen-inspired Translations of the Psalms. Psalm 46 below will show you the power of his language. (Br. David)

Sun Trail
by Dale Biron
How do we each respond to happiness? Can we gratefully embrace the gifts life provides? Or are we, in a paradoxical way, uncomfortable receiving all that we truly want in life? Also, can we move on when we need to, allowing ourselves to heal from inevitable wounds we receive along the way? "Sun Trail" suggests that to be grateful and fully present with our happiness is a true blessing. (DB)

more poems

Poetry Editors: Patricia C. Carlson (PCC), Dale Biron (DB), Brother David Steindl-Rast (Br. David)