The call of awakening can come in any form, even from something as simple as the voice of a blackbird, in David Whyte's poem, The Bell and the Blackbird.
Tag: 2020
Bradley Samore – There Was Never a Door
There Never Was a Door was composed at Hokyoji, a Zen Practice Community in Minnesota. The passage to the abandoned shed without a door echoes Nicholas Trandahl's pilgrimage to the hidden Chapel as well as Shitou's Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage. There Was Never a DoorFor Dokai Minutes before the opening actof the play… Continue reading Bradley Samore – There Was Never a Door
The Absolute Nature of Suffering
Zadie Smith asks whether the discourse about privilege still applies in the same way when we consider the suffering of individuals.
Samia Singh – The Storms Within
The Storms Within is a series of etchings created by Punjab-based Samia Singh during a residency in Florence.
Mary Oliver – When Death Comes
Mary Oliver's poem When Death Comes is a meditation on death and an uplifting reminder of the joy and importance of a life well-lived.
Matthew Kohut – I Me Mine
The germ of the poem I Me Mine came to Matthew Kohut when he startled awake on a train that was passing through the area where he grew up.
Jorge Luis Borges – Poem Written in a Copy of Beowulf
The Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges once wrote: “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
Margaret Atwood – Habitation
Using the stark language of cold glaciers and barren deserts, Margaret Atwood paints a picture of marriage as something that survives on the very peripheries of primitive forces and natural epics. Not a house or even a tent, it's a place where we are 'learning to make fire', as though we are still in the very first and most primal stages of the endeavor.
The Danger of the Single Story – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie argues that which stories get to be told and how they are told essentially depends on who is telling them, and that the privilege of storytelling usually lies with the person with power. In a pluralistic and diverse society, it's important that storytellers from every perspective be heard, in order to reflect the truth of that society and its multi-faceted nature.
Lucille Clifton – why some people be mad at me sometimes
Poet Lucille Clifton once said, 'writing is a way of continuing to hope,' adding, 'perhaps for me it is a way of remembering I am not alone.' This powerful poem of hers resonates through its brevity and sparing use of language, which she was otherwise known for.