I've been leading a weekday meditation group online since the shutdown in March 2020 and have been ending every meditation with a poem. I wasn’t planning on doing this, but early on after I closed a meditation without a poem, one of the participants asked with concern, “What happened to the poems?” So, that was that. A poem a day it would be.
I have kept track of all of the poems I've used and challenged myself to try to find a different poem every day. While I have repeated some poems, mostly I've found different ones to use from a variety of authors. It's been fun and enriching for me to read so much new poetry from a variety of authors, and find poems to go along with different kinds of meditations. Here’s the current list below, as well as books and websites of mindfulness-related poetry. I’ll update the list periodically. Please feel free to comment with more poems and quotes!
Sources
· Poetry of Presence, Phyllis Cole-Dai
· How to Love the World, James Crews
· Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude, Ross Gay
· The Book of Delights, Ross Gay
· Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, Joy Harjo
· Poems of Earth and Spirit, Kai Siedenberg
· Awakening, Kaveri Patel
· Devotions: Selected Poems, Mary Oliver
· To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’Donohue
· The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy, John Brehm
· Bonfire Opera, Danusha Laméris
· A Book of Luminous Things, Czeslaw Milosz
· Whatever it is, Gently, Devon Spier
· The Art of Blessing the Day, Marge Piercy
· The House of Belonging, David Whyte
· New Collected Poems, Wendell Berry
· A Portable Paradise, Roger Robinson
· http://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/
· https://www.mindfulnessassociation.net/category/words-of-wonder/
· http://www.juliecspoetry.com/
· http://adriennemareebrown.net/tag/poetry/
· https://www.best-poems.net/danna-faulds/poems.html
· https://www.poetryfoundation.org/
· https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/blogs/posts/praying-the-news/705/tiny-prayers-for-the-covid-19-pandemic (which it turns out is soon going to be a book!)
· https://www.wisdominwaves.com/poems.html
Poems and quotes
The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry
Blessing (Beannacht), John O’Donohue
Now is the Time to be Still, John O’Donohue
On Meditating, Sort Of, Mary Oliver
Whatever Doesn’t Serve, Danna Faulds
Mindful, Mary Oliver
You Reading This, Be Ready, William Stafford
With That Moon Language, Hafiz
Walk Slowly, Danna Faulds
I Worried, Mary Oliver
Enough, David Whyte
Saint Francis and the Sow, Galway Kinnell
When I am Among the Trees, Mary Oliver
We Can make our minds so like still water, WB Yeats
Dear You, Kaveri Patel
Ring the Bells, Leonard Cohen
Kindness, Naomi Shihab Nye
Our Real Work, Wendell Berry
Two Kinds of Intelligence, Rumi
Wild Geese, Mary Oliver
I Go Among Trees, Wendell Berry
You Are Me, Thich Nhat Hanh
The Guesthouse, Rumi
Walk as if you are kissing the earth… Thich Nhat Hanh
Belonging, John O’Donohue
To Begin With, The Sweet Grass, Mary Oliver
Praise the Rain, Joy Harjo
Late Fragment, Raymond Carver
Who Turns, Karen Maezen Miller
The Place Where We Are Right, Yehuda Amichai
I Said to the Wanting Creature Inside Me, Kabir
Being Present, Danna Faulds
Awareness, John Austin
Sorrow is Not My Name, Ross Gay
Martha Postlewaite--Clearing
For One who is exhausted, a blessing, John O’Donohue
Mary Oliver--Mornings at Blackwater
Lost, David Wagoner
Messenger, Mary Oliver
After all these years the sun doesn’t say you owe me, Hafiz
Lingering in Happiness, Mary Oliver
The Breeze at Dawn, Rumi
Allow, Danna Faulds
Love After Love, Derek Walcott
Thank You, Ross Gay
Be Patient… Rainer Maria Rilke
July 6 Tiny Prayer, Micah Bucey
The Word, Tony Hoagland
Between stimulus and response there is a space… Viktor Frakl
Resting in the River, Thich Nhat Hanh
The Patience of Ordinary Things, Pat Schneider
One Morning, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
On The Necessity of Snow Angels for the Wellbeing of the World, Grace Butcher
Imagine, Lynn Ungar
The Way It Is, Lynn Ungar
On the Other Side, Lynn Ungar
The Thing Is, by Ellen Bass
Let the Beauty we love… Rumi
The Cure, Albert Huffstickler
Lie Down, Nancy Paddock
Fluent, John O’Donohue
Sincerely, the Sky by David Hernandez
I Will Keep Broken Things, Alice Walker
Let the Beauty we love… Rumi
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters, Portia Nelson
Love is not the other side of tears… Alice Walker
Flowering, Linda Buckmaster
Come Home to Yourself, John O’Donohue
Sifter, Naomi Shihab Nye
Well of Grief, David Whyte
“Though I may not be here with you…” John Lewis quote from NY Times
Invitation, Mary Oliver
Breathe, Lynn Ungar
Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me, Mary Oliver
When I Taught Her How To Tie Her Shoes, Penny Harter
Meeting the Light Completely, Jane Hirshfield
The Summer Day, Mary Oliver
Going to Walden, Mary Oliver
Birdwings, Rumi
It Is a strange and wonderful fact to be here… John O’Donohue
A Moon Kind of Night, Adrienne Maree Brown
Pandemic Psalm 1, Rachel Barenblat
Enough, Wayne Muller
Liberation, Adrienne Maree Brown
I Know Enough, Adrienne Maree Brown
What I Have Learned So Far, Mary Oliver
We shall not cease… T.S. Eliot
May you be happy… Alice Walker
Blessed, by Rachel Barenblat
We were made for these times… Clarisa Pinkola Estes
This Morning, by Mary Oliver
If the Path Could Speak, Rhonda Magee
Come Again, Rumi
Today’s Tiny Prayer (for those who are seeking a bit of hope), Micah Bucey
Wild Geese, Mary Oliver
Wage Peace, Judyth Hill
The Second Music, Annie Lighthart
A Sacrament, Paulann Peterson
The Cure for it All, Julia Fehrenbacher
Instructions for the Journey, Pat Schneider
Under Ideal Conditions, Al Zolynas
Keeping Quiet, Pablo Neruda
Untitled, Gregory Orr
So you mustn’t be frightened… Rilke
The Thing Is, Ellen Bass
An Observation, May Sarton
The Journey, Mary Oliver
What Else, Carolyn Locke
For Courage, John O’Donohue
The Waterwheel, Rumi
This Morning, Edith (from Thich Nhat Hanh’s community)
Our True Heritage, Thich Nhat Hanh
What We Need Is Here, Wendell Berry
The Good News, Thich Nhat Hanh
Blessing (Beannacht), John O’Donohue
Praise the Rain, Joy Harjo
I Worried, Mary Oliver
The Little Duck, Donald Babcock
The Quiet Listeners, Laura Foley
In the Middle, Barbara Crooker
Starfish Story, Author Unknown
Today’s Tiny Prayer for those who worry too much, Micah Bucey
The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry
No More Same Old Silly Love Songs, Neil Carpathios
Whatever Doesn’t Serve, Danna Faulds
Midlife, Julie Cauldwell Staub
The darkness of night is coming along fast… Kabir
Birdwings, Rumi
My dear, In the midst of hate… Camus
A Poem for my Daughter, by Teddy Macker
A Moon Kind of Night, Adrienne Maree Brown
Forget About Enlightenment, John Welwood
On the Other Side, Lynn Ungar
Blessing the Boats, Lucille Clifton
Life is Going to Unfold... Sylvia Boorstein
Between Going and Staying, Octavio Paz
For One Who is Exhausted, a Blessing, John O’Donohue
Sometimes I am Startled Out of Myself, Barbara Crooker
Instructions for the Journey, Pat Schneider
I Happened to Be Standing, Mary Oliver
I am Going to Start Living Like a Mystic, Edward Hirsch
The Joins, Chana Bloch
With That Moon Language, Hafiz
When I Am Among the Trees, Mary Oliver
For A New Beginning, John O’Donohue
Meditation on a Grapefruit, Craig Arnold
Wild Geese, Mary Oliver
The Facts of Life, by Padraig O Tuama
Longing, Julie Cadwallader Staub
Birdwings, Rumi
The Moment, Marie Howe
Praise Song, Barbara Crooker
Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me, Mary Oliver
Sweet Darkness, David Whyte
Forgiveness, Kaveri Patel
Today’s Tiny Prayer (for those who see a light at the end of the tunnel), Micah Bucey
A New and Deeper Truth, Kaveri Patel
Dear You, Kaveri Patel
Love After Love, Derek Walcott
Leonard Cohen “Ring the Bells”
Resting in the River, Thich Nhat Hanh
Albert Einstein “A human being is part of the whole…”
Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen “We never grow by dreaming about a future wonderful state or by remembering past feats.”
Last Days, Mary Oliver
Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness “Even in the depths of darkness, the light is implicit...”
On The Necessity of Snow Angels for the Wellbeing of the World, Grace Butcher
Mitta - Friend, From the book, The First Free Women - Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns
Solstice, Robyn Sarah
In Celebration of the Winter Solstice, Stephanie Noble
Evidence, Mary Oliver
At Blackwater Pond, Mary Oliver
Attention is Love, Marge Piercy
The Open Door, Danna Faulds
Reverence, Julie Cadwallader Staub
The Mosquito Among the Raindrops, Teddy Macker
Keeping Quiet, Pablo Neruda
Measurement, Julie Cadwallader Staub
Thich Nhat Hanh – Singing The Living Tradition – #505
Faith, Julie Cadwallader Staub
Winter Poem, Nikki Giovanni
At the Lake, Mary Oliver
“Love as the will to extend…” quote from bell hooks
“Both suffering and happiness are of an organic nature” - Thich Nhat Hanh
Instructions for the Journey, Pat Schneider
Blackbirds, Julie Cadwallader Staub
The Path, Lynn Ungar
Around us, life bursts with miracles… Thich Nhat Hanh
The Offering, Laura Foley
The Storm, Mary Oliver
A Brief Detente, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Stand Still, David Wagoner
Snow Geese, Mary Oliver
I Go Down To the Shore, Mary Oliver
Winter Grace, Patricia Fargnoli
Joy, Julie Cadwallader Staub
The Cure For It all, Julia Fehrenbacher
The Guesthouse, Rumi
Lie Down, Nancy Paddock
Where Everything is Music, Rumi
Small Kindnesses – Danusha Laméris
Throw the Doors Wide Open, Jane O’Shea
In The Land of Words, Eloise Greenfield
How to Breathe When You Want to Give Up, Cleo Wade
Eat Bread and Understand Comfort, Mary Oliver
The Other Kingdoms, Mary Oliver
Danna Faulds, Walk Slowly
Within The Body You Are Wearing, Robert K. Hall
A Momentary Creed, W.S. Merwin
One’s Ship Comes In, Joe Paddock
The Poet With HIs Face in His Hands, Mary Oliver
Clearing, Martha Postlewaite
A Poem for my Daughter, Teddy Macker
I Am The Black Lace Tree, Wendy Simpson
Walking a Field Into Evening, Larry Smith
Feather at Midday, Sister Dang Nghiem
The House of Belonging, David Whyte
Boundaries, Lynn Ungar
An Old Story, Tracy K Smith
Loneliness, Mary Oliver
A Morning Offering, John O’Donohue
At Sea, Wendy Mnookin
The Poet Compares...Mary Oliver
We Shake With Joy, Mary Oilver
Ishihara Yoshiro: "Wheat"
One Heart, Li-Young Lee
Singing the Living Tradition #505, Thich Nhat Hanh
The Word, Tony Hoagland
Li-Young Lee, Blossoms
“Each moment is a chance…” Thich Nhat Hanh
Allow, Danna Faulds
Invitation, Mary Oliver
Tomato on Board, Ross Gay
Softest of Mornings, Mary Oliver
Saint Francis and the Sow, Galway Kinnell
I Will Keep Broken Things, Alice Walker
Meditation Blues, Stephen Levine
Blessing for the Light, David Whyte
How I Go To the Woods, Mary Oliver
I, May I Rest in Peace, Yehuda Amichai
I Have Just Said, Mary Oliver
Adios, Naomi Shihab Nye
The Facts of Life, Padraig O’Tuama
Daily, Naomi Shihab Nye
Moon, Billy Collins
Walking Meditation, Thich Nhat Hanh
Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House, Billy Collins
What Would Happen, Jeff Foster
If the Path Could Speak, Rhonda Magee
Who Shall Bear Hope, Marge Piercy
Last Night As I Was Sleeping, Antonio Machado
We Are A River, Lao Tzu
Evidence, Mary Oliver
Beloved Mother of All Beings, Thich Nhat Hanh https://plumvillage.org/ressources/key-practice-texts-fr/touching-the-earth-to-mother-earth/
Nothing Wants to Suffer, Danusha Lameris
Fear, Khalil Gibran
A Portable Paradise, Roger Robinson
A Poem For Someone Who Is Juggling Her Life, Rose Cook
Eyesight, A.R. Ammons
Whatever Doesn’t Serve, Danna Faulds
Wound Care, Kaveri Patel
Miriam Pederson: "Listening to Scrabble"
I am the earth, Larry Ward
Ten Thousand Flowers in Spring, Wu-Men
Ode to Enchanted Light, Pablo Neruda
Blessing, John O’Donohue
Grace, Alice Walker
On Meditating, Sort Of, Mary Oliver
The Same Stream of Life, Rabindranath Tagore
Lessons of Water, David Wagoner
Over the Weather, Naomi Shihab Nye
When Giving is All We Have, Alberto Rios
Perhaps It Would Eventually Erode, But...Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Perceptive Prayer, Grace Bauer
The Once Invisible Garden, Laura Foley
Keeping Quiet, Pablo Neruda
Promise, Barbara Crooker
Forgiveness, Mary McCue
Before I Leave the Stage, Alice Walker
Climbing the Golden Mountain, Michael Kiesow Moore
In Gratitude, Abigail Carroll
In Love With the World, Mark Nepo
What Matters, Terri Kirby Erickson
Go Among Trees and Sit Still, Wendell Berry
After Spending the Morning Baking Bread, Jack Ridl
In Any Event, Dorianne Laux
Improvement, Danusha Laméris
What If there is no need to change? Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Reincarnate, Patricia Fargnoli
Earth’s Eternal Heart, Kaveri Patel
On Waking, John O’Donohue
At the End of the Day, a Mirror of Questions, John O’Donohue
Down to Earth, James Crews
Just As the Calendar Began to Say Summer, Mary Oliver
Wedding Poem, Ross Gay
Hope, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Ask Your Body, Kai Siedenberg
Against Panic, Molly Fisk
Watching the Sunset from a Plane in Spokane, Kaveri Patel
Breathe Into Your Heart, Kaveri Patel
Our Big Chance, Kai Siedenberg
Anxiety to Acceptance, Kaveri Patel
My Morning Bath, Kai Siedenberg
Travelling Lightly, Padraig o Tuama
A Special Day, Kai Siedenberg