Teaching Poem Archives

Hakuin’s Song of Zazen

August 23, 2020August 24, 2020 Vanessa Able

Hakuin's Song of Zazen is an encapsulation of the merits of meditation, in which he encourages the student to focus on the immediate experience of presence.

Orhan Pamuk on Writing By Hand
Orhan Pamuk's hand-writing habit hasn't budged, despite the conventions of our time.
How We Live Is How We Die: Pema Chödrön on Preparing for Death Here and Now
Pema Chödrön on what the Tibetan approach to living and dying can teach us about liberation in the present moment.
The Path that Goes Nowhere – Barbara Brown Taylor on the Practice of Labyrinth Walking
Barbara Brown Taylor reflects on her own experience of Labyrinth-walking and the significance of the path without a destination.
What Can the Earth’s Crisis Teach Us About Ourselves? David Hinton’s Tao of Ecology
David Hinton on what Taoism can teach us about Deep Ecology and how we can reconnect with our own ancient Paleolithic roots.
‘When the Lights of Health Go Down’- Virginia Woolf on Being Ill
Virginia Woolf on our relationship to illness, its potential spiritual value, and the mysterious intelligence of the body.

Susan Coultrap-McQuin – Sunday Morning at the Cabin Up North
Poet Susan Coultrap-McQuin shows us nature's sacredness with her poem "Sunday Morning at the Cabin Up North".
Ronán P. Berry – On The Mountain of Forth
"On The Mountain of Forth" is Irish poet Ronán P. Berry's anthem of the natural and wild world and what could even be considered enlightenment.
Regina Dilgen – Meditation on Thomas Merton’s Hermitage
Regina Dilgen's exquisite "Meditation on Thomas Merton's Hermitage" imagines American monastic Thomas Merton worn by grief and inspired to write.
Orhan Pamuk on Writing By Hand
Orhan Pamuk's hand-writing habit hasn't budged, despite the conventions of our time.
Mike Christie – Knock Knock Knock
A narrative of a woodpecker at work on a tree expands to the oneness of all things in Mike Christie's "Knock Knock Knock".