Short poems on Wisdom and Enlightenment

One of my favourite poems is William Blake's Joy and Woe:

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine,
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Through the world we safely go.

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

~ R. S. Thomas ~

The Meaning of Existence

by Les Murray


Everything except language
knows the meaning of existence.
Trees, planets, rivers, time
know nothing else. They express it
moment by moment as the universe.
Even this fool of a body
lives it in part, and would
have full dignity within it
but for the ignorant freedom
of my talking mind.

O sweet spontaneous

by: e.e. cummings (1894-1962)

sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting

fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
, has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

beauty, how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
(but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

thou answerest

them only with

spring)

THE B.A. IN FOUR LINES:

Beer and hard:
in the yard.
Hard and beer:
in the clear.

- Anonymous

 

One of my favourite poems
is by Zeera (Zee) Charnoe,
from his book: The Soul of a Poet-Philosopher,
available for free at his website:
The Structures and The Dynamics of Oneness.
http://ecophysics.org/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,72/Itemid,30...

STARS SHINE

Stars shine
not only that the universe may know they're there
but that in shining
they may extend their care

Their light
is not only a light
illuminating darkest sky
but that which shines upon the soul


Photosynthesis of spirit
the work of starlight


Violets of the soul's realm
root themselves in earthly experiences
are watered by love
and shined upon by stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


they bloom

So many good poems, but this, oh this:

"Whatever happens. Whatever
What is is is what
I want. Only that. But that."

Prayer
by Galway Kinnell

My hut lies in the middle of a dense forest;
Every year the green ivy grows longer.
No news of the affairs of men,
Only the occasional song of a woodcutter.
The sun shines and I mend my robe;
When the moon comes out I read Buddhist poems.
I have nothing to report my friends.
If you want to find the meaning, stop chasing after
so many things.

by Ryokan