Linda Pastan's poem is an ode to the power of the ubiquitous and necessary darkness, and sadness, in our lives.
Tag: Darkness
Wendell Berry – To Know The Dark
Berry's poem is a reminder that to truly know darkness and its divine power, we need the courage to step into and leave the light behind.
The Sacred Pulse of Night and Day
Deborah Eden Tull explores the experience of darkness and how it can be a transformative and expansive human experience.
Robert Frost – Acquainted with the Night
Robert Frost's sad and somber poem reads like a reminiscence told by a survivor of a period of bleakness so deep that it was something to be hidden
T.S. Eliot – East Coker from Four Quartets
T.S. Eliot's epic Four Quartets embodies a mystical vision of human life, time and memory sourced from Christianity and eastern philosophy.
Cynthia Ruse – The In-Between
Cynthia Ruse's The In-Between reflects the parallel and layered elements of life, where light and darkness are blurred and the narrative of a painting becomes experience in itself.
Emma Wynn – Sitting Dawn
Emma Wynn's poem inspired by a dawn meditation.
Wanda Coleman – Nocturne
Wanda Coleman's 'Nocturne' holds up the exertion born of necessity or stubbornness, and an awareness of the things—both internal and external—that impede momentum.
‘Better to Light a Candle’ – The Healing Power of Vespers
Brother David Steindl-Rast hones in on a transcendental moment of the day which in the monastic tradition is a time of reflection and healing.
The Path That Leads Into the Mountains
In 1993, Zen teacher Joan Halifax published a book called The Fruitful Darkness based on her anthropological engagements with Tibetan Buddhists, Mexican shamans, Native American elders and other tribal communities.