Hey guys, it’s Penny!
As a literature graduate, I love poetry. That’s why reading mindful poetry was something I truly enjoyed during my 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course. Our teacher used to read us one, and after that we had a little meditation break, lasting about 5 to 10 minutes. After finishing the course, I still continued to read those poems, and I believe they hold the power to draw your attention here and now.
You can read them when you wake up, before or after your meditation, or when you feel overwhelmed at work or school. You can listen to their audio versions and listen to them when you are doing your daily mindful walk.

Here’s the first one;
Love After Love by Derek Walcot
The time will come
when, with elevation
you will great yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome
and say, sit here. Eat
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

The Guest House- Rumi
This human being is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweeps your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Let me know what you think about these poems! Was this mindful break useful for you?
Let’s meet in the comments below!
Until the next post,
Penny x
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