Love the synchronicity of this! Our book club reading for this month helped to spark this idea, a desire to commit to a daily practice, but in a way that feels nourishing and reflective. Can’t wait to read your post and share it! 🙏🏼💛
“Make yourself a light,” said the buddha before he died.
I feel the pores on my skin open and grow into black circles through my body.
All trapped matter is released through them like white vapor before they shrink and close back leaving nothing but soft bones and a fleshy heart inside.
A heart that becomes my new body.
I feel this heart as a candle.
The yellow and orange flames tickle my insides, the blue flames break the barrier and are perceptible from the outside.
Wow. Paula, this is so beautiful! I love "All trapped matter is released through them like white vapor before they shrink and close back leaving nothing but soft bones and a fleshy heart inside." and of course that ending made me smile too - I'd like to tickle the world!
I love your intentions for these circles, Zen and Mary Oliver and the wonders of nature all speak to my soul. Sadly my time zone in Bali would be 2 am for your circle.
So glad to hear that we share the same love and wonder for the natural world. I will be recording our monthly circles so you can still participate on your own time. As the community grows, I am hoping I can start offering a couple different time options as well! Grateful to have you here 💛
"Let the light within you find its way out" - I love that, the continual work of drawing the curtains open from inside ourselves to reveal what's shining from within. That quote from Thomas Merton ends the poem perfectly too.
I love that image of pushing the darkness and allowing it to pass through. The last line speaks beautifully to how one light can be powerful enough to radiate across the universe💛
Wow, Elyza!! Thank you so much for resharing this poem here. There are so many profound questions in this poem that I want to come back and read again and again. I love the image in the first stanza of your body as a lighthouse, especially this line - my spirit the shining light scanning the horizon of my heart for my own mercy. Mary Oliver would be so proud!!
So insightful. The funny this is, I’m also writing a post about Mary Oliver. We are on the same wave length!
Love the synchronicity of this! Our book club reading for this month helped to spark this idea, a desire to commit to a daily practice, but in a way that feels nourishing and reflective. Can’t wait to read your post and share it! 🙏🏼💛
💝
Love this prompt xx
Would love to see what it inspires in your writing, Nelly!
“Make yourself a light,” said the buddha before he died.
I feel the pores on my skin open and grow into black circles through my body.
All trapped matter is released through them like white vapor before they shrink and close back leaving nothing but soft bones and a fleshy heart inside.
A heart that becomes my new body.
I feel this heart as a candle.
The yellow and orange flames tickle my insides, the blue flames break the barrier and are perceptible from the outside.
The warmest, palest colour.
I’d like to tickle the world.
Wow. Paula, this is so beautiful! I love "All trapped matter is released through them like white vapor before they shrink and close back leaving nothing but soft bones and a fleshy heart inside." and of course that ending made me smile too - I'd like to tickle the world!
I love your intentions for these circles, Zen and Mary Oliver and the wonders of nature all speak to my soul. Sadly my time zone in Bali would be 2 am for your circle.
Hope to keep connecting here.🌿
So glad to hear that we share the same love and wonder for the natural world. I will be recording our monthly circles so you can still participate on your own time. As the community grows, I am hoping I can start offering a couple different time options as well! Grateful to have you here 💛
What a great invitation to practice in a community! Wonderful poems, Oliver's and yours.
Thank you, Melodie! You're welcome to share a poem inspired by this week's prompt in the comments here too if you feel inspired 💛
I posted a poem in response to this prompt in the subscriber chat thread where the prompt was introduced! It obeyed my line breaks.
The only thing
Needed to become a light
Is to be still
Quiet the noise In
In your mind
Let go of your
Endless thoughts
And thereby let
The light within you
Find its way out
Thomas Merton wrote,
There is a light shining
Within everyone
Like a thousand suns
Belonging entirely
To the Divine;
Seek it and you will
Become that light.
"Let the light within you find its way out" - I love that, the continual work of drawing the curtains open from inside ourselves to reveal what's shining from within. That quote from Thomas Merton ends the poem perfectly too.
Make of yourself a light, said the Buddha before he died.
Push against the darkness, allow it to pass through
Breath into the stillness, the light knows the way
Home warms the inside, in belonging, igniting the soul
One light, radiates across the universe, extinguishing the darkness
I love that image of pushing the darkness and allowing it to pass through. The last line speaks beautifully to how one light can be powerful enough to radiate across the universe💛
Thank you 💡
Thank you for this beautiful prompt. I am so touched by Mary Oliver's poetry. My version was inspired by the monks walking for Peace across America.
“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha before he died.
Today 19 monks walk for peace across
America, they are carrying this light.
Despite the cries of hatred and division,
their feet speak of harmony.
Make of yourself a vessel of peace,
surrender your fences and righteousness
with a tender heart that listens.
Make of yourself a light, to shine
understanding and compassion
into a world that has forgotten -
we are all the same,
we are all sparks of the Divine.
When the world has grown dark, who
will shine their light?
This is beautiful, Laura. I love that you wrote it for the monks who are walking for peace as we speak, the living embodiment of Mary's poem. I love:
Make of yourself a vessel of peace,
surrender your fences and righteousness
with a tender heart that listens.
Thank you! I look forward to the next Mary Oliver prompt. 🙏🏼
I finally figured out how to indicate line breaks in comments, so I figured I would post my first Mary Oliver inspired poem here!
"Make of yourself a light,"
said the Buddha before he died.
I imagine myself a lighthouse,
my spirit the shining light scanning
the horizon of my heart for my own
mercy, while my body is the tower
of stone standing stoically in the face
of chaotic storms.
----
How does the ocean of life around me
bear those powerful storms upon its back,
breaking into the wholeness of its own
surrender again & again? How does it
allow the dawn of compassion to place
its tender hands upon it, not to soothe,
but to honor life’s shadow in holy witness?
----
How does that ocean breathe
with that dawn, making each swell
a testament to gravity’s silent devotion?
----
How are life’s shadows reborn
in the sacredness of their own
ache to be defined & held
by the light? How can I make
of myself a light brave & gentle
enough to hold & honor
those shadows? How can I be
serene with the knowing that
they offer me their own kind
of complete presence?
Wow, Elyza!! Thank you so much for resharing this poem here. There are so many profound questions in this poem that I want to come back and read again and again. I love the image in the first stanza of your body as a lighthouse, especially this line - my spirit the shining light scanning the horizon of my heart for my own mercy. Mary Oliver would be so proud!!
Aww, thank you so much! What incredible feedback! I’ll make it into a post soon!