read deep, breathe easy
Poet Marianne Moore once said, 'Poetry watches life with affection,' a sentiment echoed in her poem Black Earth, which featured in a 1924 collection called Observations. In the poem, Moore imagines herself - affectionately - as an elephant, with thick skin 'cut into checkers by rut upon rut of unpreventable experience' that conceals the 'beautiful… Continue reading Black Earth – Marianne Moore
"Poetry itself is an instrument of resilience," Jane Hirshfield wrote more than a decade ago when referring to her poem 'Optimism' for the Washington Post. Poetry, she continues, reflects "life's continuing embrace of its own implausible, risky existence." A residential Zen student of many years, Jane Hirshfield's work embodies a continuing sense of wonder and… Continue reading Jane Hirshfield’s Ode to Optimism and Resilience
The image of a caged bird is one that Maya Angelou used repeatedly to illustrate the struggle of African-Americans during the Civil Rights era in the United States. A powerful image, it can also represent the wider human endeavor towards freedom of every variety, both internal and external. The free bird is the one who… Continue reading The Caged Bird Sings of Freedom
Babak Ganjei is a London-based artist, musician, comic book writer and radio show host. The poetry he writes can be found on his website. An adept of blackout poetry - for which he has used books by Jeremy Clarkson, Nigel Farage and Donald Trump, Babak also writes his own original verse like this brilliant homage to… Continue reading Babak Ganjei – Don’t Interrupt the Adults
In addition to the volumes of essays and lectures on Zen and Zen practice, Dogen also expressed himself and his teachings through poetry. This particular verse, which reflects on a moment of realization in which the poet's mind underwent a profound perceptive shift, is written in a Chinese style. The translation is Philip Whalen and… Continue reading Snow Makes a Mountain
"I could hear / the freemen call / the way is hard / the gate is narrow / what matter I say" Patti Smith's A Writer's Song pays homage to the instinct for laying one's mat 'among the reeds' and writing one's name 'upon the water'. Writing, she suggests, is a response in tune with… Continue reading It is Better to Write, Then Die – Patti Smith
Although Toni Morrison was primarily a novelist and an essayist, The Dewdrop was excited to find a short series of poems also penned by the author as a special contribution to the Black Mountain Institute. The five poems were printed back in 2002 for a limited edition letterpress that was released to help raise funding… Continue reading I Am Not Seaworthy – Toni Morrison
Picking up from last week's poem by James Wright that was written in honor of his friend Robert Bly, this week I'm posting a work by Bly himself that pays homage to another poet, Wallace Stevens. The simple imagery of Bly's poems conjure the verses of old Chinese masters, and echo the words of Wallace… Continue reading Thinking of Wallace Stevens by Robert Bly
'If nothing's here, nothing's there', writes poet Stephen Dunn about the instinct to believe that happiness is a place other than where we are, over the horizon, up in the sky, on the streets of a foreign city. If you are expecting to find salvation there, he says, all you'll find are reflections of the… Continue reading There’s No Salvation in Elsewhere
A pediatric doctor by training, Puerto Rican-American poet William Carlos Williams advanced his poetry by scribbling lines and ideas onto the notebooks of his medical profession. What grew out of this practice was a way of writing that was strikingly humane and attuned to the American vernacular. Between Walls is a simple poem that almost… Continue reading Between Walls – William Carlos Williams