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The experience of reading a poem is a meditative experience in and of itself. As author John Brehm writes in The Dharma of Poetry, to enter a poem is to shift out of everyday consciousness. . . to step out of the ongoing flow of experience and look at it. A poem inspires a moment of pause in which we can engage in an imaginative activity that has no practical value.

Poet Chase Twichell reflects that the process of writing her collection The Ghost of Eden was not unlike the work required in zazen. . . it involved a concentration of mind and a letting go of thought. When we approach poetry with a meditative mind, we can practice the deep listening necessary to let language itself speak. We are invited to, as Twichell encourages her students, regard each poem as a chance to trick ourselves into a new perception, or even surprise ourselves into saying things we didnt think we knew.

In honor of National Poetry Month, weve collected a selection of poems published in Tricycle over the years that embody the deep and fruitful relationship between meditative practice and poetic inquiry.

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The PossibilityLeath Tonino, Poems of Walking and Sitting (May 31, 2020)

i dont expectany of usto knowwhat its liketo be freeof worry

all i askis that whena tree or stoneor cloudmentions the possibility

we stopwhat were doingturn our headslisten

Myoko DreamJoanne Kyger, Arriving Without a Sound (April 22, 2015)

Stop fidgeting she saysIm picking candle wax off my robesWere all sitting in the ZendoPeople of all ages introducing themselves.

Im here because I read too much I say.

August 2007

Poem #104Zen Master Ikku, translated by Sarah Messer and Kidder Smith, Incense Thrown on the Buddha (June 26, 2015)

True transmission sidesteps delusive combat.Vast kalpas of unenlightennment are made of thefeelingsself and other.Carrying self and other makes the balance poleheavy.When emptiness looks at a butterfly, the wholebody becomes light.

Word SoundPauline Oliveros, Word Sound: A Meditation (September 4, 2013)

Sound a word or a sound.Listen for a surprise.Say a word as a sound.Say a sound as a word.Say a sound until it is a word.Sound a word until it is a sound.Speak a sentence of sounds.Sing a phrase of words.Cross overs.

Imaginary Dokusan: PerfumeChase Twichell, The Ghost of Eden (Fall 2003)

Crushed lime halves in the sink, a wood matchs sweet-acrid strike. . .

I keep looking for things with a beauty thats not incidental, but have found none. Because of this, the difference between sensuality

and being fully awake in the momentis often unclear to me, for example

the suns smell of ripening even in things still immature which of the two pleasures is that?

WavesCho Oh-Hyun, Waves (Winter 2016)

Reading sutras deep into the night,I look up at the dark night sky,

Listen, all alone, to the cryof the distant sea

The 1,000 sutras, the 10,000 treatises,all just waves blown in the wind.

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Read the rest here:
6 Poems to Inspire Sacred Contemplations of the Everyday - Tricycle