Poetry & Readings

For want of a nail … Anonymous

For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And … Read more

My Hero by Billy Collins

Just as the hare is zipping across the finish line, the tortoise has stopped once again by the roadside, this time to stick out his neck and nibble a bit of sweet grass, unlike the previous time when he was distracted by a bee humming in the heart of a wildflower.

Sweet Darkness by David Whyte

When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you. Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love. The dark will be your womb tonight. … Read more

A Gift by Denise Levertov

Just when you seem to yourself nothing but a flimsy web of questions, you are given the questions of others to hold in the emptiness of your hands, songbird eggs that can still hatch if you keep them warm, butterflies opening and closing themselves in your cupped palms, trusting you not to injure their scintillant … Read more

Primary Wonder by Denise Levertov

Days pass when I forget the mystery. Problems insoluble and problems offering their own ignored solutions jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing their colored clothes; caps and bells. And then once more the quiet mystery is present to me, the throng’s clamor recedes, the … Read more

The Fountain by Denise Levertov

Don’t say, don’t say there is no water to solace the dryness at our hearts. I have seen the fountain springing out of the rock wall and you drinking there. And I too before your eyes found footholds and climbed to drink the cool water. The woman of that place, shading her eyes, frowned as … Read more

Beyond all Reason by Dieing Embers

The shadows of doubt dance precariously around the edge of reason with open arms they taunt me to trust them and jump head first into the darkness that surrounds them only to find reflected in their souless eyes mine own filled with tears that hold my dreams captive prisoners of my own fears unable to … Read more

A Litany for Those not Ready for Healing By Dr. Yolanda Pierce

Let us not rush to the language of healing, before understanding the fullness of the injury and the depth of the wound. Let us not rush to offer a band­aid, when the gaping wound requires surgery and complete reconstruction. Let us not offer false equivalencies, thereby diminishing the particular pain being felt in a particular … Read more

Diary Of A Wave Outside The Sea by Dunya Mikhail

The martyr couldn’t believe his eyes when his tomb was bombed as he braided a garland for his beloved— a red garland, yet…on the way to heaven… it turned white. He bent toward the water with a small rainbow clutched in his hand. In this way he makes music. He lifts is hands to the … Read more

I dwell in Possibility by Emily Dickinson

I dwell in Possibility – A fairer House than Prose – More numerous of Windows – Superior – for Doors – Of Chambers as the Cedars – Impregnable of eye – And for an everlasting Roof The Gambrels of the Sky – Of Visitors – the fairest – For Occupation – This – The spreading … Read more