by Nadia Colburn

This poem by poet and teacher Nadia Colburn is one of those where there is not much narrative or content to hold on to, but that has quite a profound effect on me when I let it percolate. I recognise myself as having complications in my heart, taking a long time to begin learning to love my body and frequently mistaking the world for a task – ouch! But even so, I too can listen to the aliveness of the moment…

It brings to mind the story of the Buddha gathering his students for one of his many Dharma talks. Instead of speaking, he held up a lotus flower – like this… It’s said that most of his students were trying to figure out what he meant, yet one of them smiled. I picture that smile, dawning slowly on his (or her!) face in radiant recognition, again no words needed…

Likewise, this poem invites me into the space beyond the words, where listening to the voices both outside and within myself is the way to bear witness and take part in life. What do you hear?

PS. Opening fully to the moment is both wordlessly simple and not necessarily easy, and a tried and tested pathway to travel with others and supported by someone who knows the terrain can be helpful! There’s a new Level 1 course starting soon…

Photo by Antoine Pouligny on Unsplash

not through the slightest partition

shut out from the law of the stars.

The inner – what is it?

if not the intensified sky,

hurled through with birds and deep

with the winds of homecoming.

by Rainer Maria Rilke

As with most of Austrian Rainer Maria Rilke’s writings, I’m left beautifully mystified and beguiled by this poem. Something in me recognises and resonates with the longing he describes and knows it as my own – stars, sky, outer space and inner homecoming are all mixed together in a pile of metaphors and feeling. I want to fall into the poem and fly freely there a night-bird amongst birds, wild in the air and wholly unseparate.
Rilke’s poems are often velvety dark and full of enigma and this is why I love them and this is why I feel reluctant to engage any analytics or thinking mind curiosity for this one. How is it to completely let go off making something of it and to just feel the impact of the words? Would you like to read it again with this orientation? Maybe you could imagine walking slowly into the poem as if it were a mountain lake (poet John Keat’s advice not mine!) and then just be there ‘letting it get amongst you’ as one Mystical Poetry course participant said the other day…………… How was that? What gift did the poem give you?

I love this by Hafiz (rendered by Daniel Ladinsky):

‘A poet is someone who can pour light into a cup, then raise it to nourish your parched, holy mouth.’

And this by Grace Cavalieri, host and producer:

‘Reading great poetry is like finding a breath on the page that’s your own.’

What do these two quotes offer you in how you might receive the poems in our Wonder Words blog?

Ps. Would you like to take part in a day long retreat dedicated to receiving poems like this? We have one coming up in November (book here) and one just before the new year which hasn’t been advertised yet.

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

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