Nancy Hamilton’s enlightening poem “The Door Opened” revels in the glory of openness and emptiness, and overcoming illusions. A meditative narrative on overcoming barriers to inner peace and truth, this poem shows us that perhaps the obstacles we thought existed perhaps were never even there at all. “I wrote this piece inspired by an experience I had on retreat where what I was experiencing in meditation was mirrored by what I saw in the material world at the same time,” Nancy informed The Dewdrop.
The Door Opened
The door opened, and in she walked
–through the door marked No
–through the door marked Stop
–through the door marked Not You
–through the door marked Not Now
She walked through the door freely and openly and innocently,
the door not even knowing she had passed through
The same door once also said
———-Hurt
————Anger
————–Doubt
—————-Distrust
———-Restlessness
————Righteousness
————–Resignation
—————-Desperation
The door said all those things all at once, but
by the time she got there, the door had disappeared
It was so wide open that it ceased to be a door
——Just Openness
———-to here
———-to now
———-to stopping
———-to going
———-to you in me and me in you
———-to nowhere in particular and everywhere all at once
—————————–When I looked back,
I saw her coming through the door again
and as she disappeared through it ahead of me, I noticed underfoot
a silvery stream shimmering in the cool evening light –
———-a trail of fallen hinges,
———-unclasped and
———-holding on to nothing
Nancy Hamilton
Nancy Hamilton is a writer, translator, and instructor of Japanese tea practice living in the Bay Area. She holds an MA in East Asian Studies from Stanford University where she focused on Japanese literature and poetry. She is inspired by the poetic language of tea practice and the shared roots of classical Japanese poetry and tea practice in Buddhist ideals. When not biking, skating figures, or plotting her next trip to Japan, you might find her at a meditation retreat where sometimes things later turn into poems.
OMG!!! This is SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL. It touched my soul!!