Trust in a Poem

A daily habit

photo by David Marlow ©2022

What If You Start Your Day With A Poem?

During this season of reflection and change, I'm inviting you to try something different to start your day.

Read a poem.

I love good poetry and cartoons because, in abstraction, they say something in a short space, which is so compelling that it charges your creativity and imagination.

For over two years, I've been starting my day by reading a poem or scripture meditation.

Reading a poem is a lyrical meditation without having to meditate.

Here is one to start you off, which, just by coincidence, has a strong Ikigai theme.

Trust

A thin skin of ice on the pond
comes and goes, an eye opening and closing.
Soon it will tire and stay closed.
The cattails rattle along the shore,
the red twig dogwood has nothing to say.
Sedges have bowed their heads
for the long prayer service.
There is no fear here.
Little creatures, and some great ones, have gone in.
The oaks hold their secrets tightly.
The last geese row, patient, across the pond of sky.
They know where they’re going.
The squirrels trust their hoards,
the nuthatches, the finches know
where to find things,
the chickadees know their songs.

I believe we can learn to trust
what is to come,
and what will come after that.

Poem by Steve Garnaas-Holmes Unfolding Light

If you are looking for a good source of poetry, here is a link to The Favorite Poem Project. You’ll find some marvelous poems there to get you started.