Benefits of Mindful Poetry

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.

Photo by Flora Westbrook on Pexels.

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.

Photo by Thiều Hoàng Phước on Pexels.

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.

Photo by Polina Kovaleva on Pexels.

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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