"Poetry is the natural ally of
the Enneagram in the cultivation of compassion... Poets enable us to enter
the worldview of another and experience it as our own." (Clarence Thomson,
Comments on Poetry and Personality)
"Poetry provides guidance, revealing what
you did not know you knew before you wrote or read the poem. This moment of surprising
yourself with your own words of wisdom or of being surprised by the poems of others
is at the heart of poetry as healer."
(John Fox, Poetic Medicine)
A Feast for
the Soul: A Writer's Digest article offers resources for poetry lovers (and
cites this page).
Tibetans call their Buddhist tradition a
"wish-fulfilling jewel tree."
Those who absorb its teachings will experience bliss and enlightenment.
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Poems of Transformation:
Ones -- Those who
are known as perfectionists, who preach at others for falling short of perfection. The
driving force of this personality style is anger, which usually erupts when someone has
failed to live up to their expectations. They can also have a "running amok"
side that allows temporary escape from their own high standards.
Twos -- Those who have
to maintain the self-image that they are helpful, giving help and advice whether others
want it or not. They use manipulation to influence people. If they feel betrayed they may
even become vindictive ("after all I've done for you!"). Their driving
force is pride (it's very difficult to admit that they have needs, too).
Threes -- Those
who are self-promoting and can showcase themselves at the expense of others. They look
outward for their reflection in the eyes of others, and their inner life is lacking. Their
driving force is vanity, which requires that they always try to look good.
Consequently they tend to be self-deceiving, reframing failure as success.
Fours -- Those who can
easily focus on their own flaws and sink into moodiness; their conversation is ripe with
sad stories. The driving force of this personality style is envy, which shows up in
dissatisfaction with the ordinary, the mundane. The grass always seems greener somewhere
else.
Fives -- Those who like
to think long and hard, and sometimes sound as if they're giving a dissertation. They may
have deep and passionate feelings, but they tend to disdain the role of emotions in human
interaction. Their driving force is hoarding, which shows up particularly as a detachment
from feelings, a stinginess of affection.
Sixes -- Those who are
characterized by self-doubt, indecision, and procrastination. In interaction with others
they look for hidden agendas and can be accusing, especially of those whom they worry have
power over them. To counter their driving force of fear they exhibit a kind of reckless
courage, then worry that they've shot themselves in the foot.
Sevens -- Those who
love to tell anecdotes and may forget to invite others to talk. They're sometimes
perceived as oversimplifying or skating over the surface because they are so interested in
a variety of attractions. Driven by a search for pleasure, they are overfocused on
enthusiasm and uneasy activity. For this type, life MUST be fun!
Eights -- Those with a
"bull-in-the-china-shop" quality and the reputation of being controlling,
because it is difficult for them to acknowledge any vulnerability. Driven by the need for
excess, they feel it is their responsibility to intervene in and direct situations, and
they pursue power aggressively. They greatly value justice--as self-defined!
Nines-- Those
"nice" people tend to merge with others' preferences. Taking a strong position
is difficult because they see all sides of an issue and are essentially non-aggressive.
Their driving force is indolence -- in that they are out of touch with their own wishes, a
kind of self-forgetting. They tend toward epic tales (it's hard for them to focus).
Alphabetical List of Published
Poets
Anthony Abbott: The Philosophers
(Fives)
Sherman Alexie: The Exaggeration of Despair (Fours)
John Ashbery: The Problem of Anxiety (Sixes)
Margaret Atwood: Bored (Nines)
W.H. Auden: I Have No Gun, But I Can Spit (Fives)
Gregory Bateson: The Manuscript (Fives)
Jeanne Marie Beaumont: Afraid So (Sixes)
Sheila Bender: For My Daughter Who Has Gone to Study in Japan
(Twos)
Sheila Bender: My Mother was Here Today (Twos)
Wendell Berry: Warning to My Readers (Nines)
John Berryman: The Animal Trainer (1) (Threes)
Elizabeth Bishop: Manners (Nines)
Nina Bogin: Initiation II (Sixes)
Emily Brontë: Stanzas (Threes)
Cathleen Calbert: The Woman Who Loved Things (Twos)
Billy Collins: Osso Buco (Sevens)
Billy Collins: Forgetfulness (Nines)
Carolyn Creedon: first communion (Fours)
Carolyn Creedon: Pub Poem (Fours)
Carolyn Creedon: litany (Fives)
e.e. cummings: Sonnets-Unrealities. III. (Fours)
Philip Dacey: Prisms (Sevens)
Emily Dickinson: I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed (Sevens)
Rita Dove: Three Days of Forest, a River, Free (Sixes)
Stephen Dunn: His Music (Sixes)
Louise Erdrich: The Glass and the Bowl (Twos)
David Allan Evans: Bullfrogs (Ones)
Carol Frost: To Kill a Deer (Eights)
Robert Frost: Mending Wall (Fours)
Gary Gildner: First Practice (Eights)
Allen Ginsberg: After Yeats (Nines)
Louise Glück: Unwritten Law (Eights)
Seamus Heaney: Doubletake (Eights)
Anthony Hecht: Lizards and Snakes (Sixes)
Jane Hirshfield: A Room (transformation poem)
Michael Hofmann: Fine Adjustments (Nines)
Michael Hofmann: Last Walk (Nines)
Jonathan Holden: At a Low Mass For Two Hot-Rodders (Threes)
John Hollander: Powers of Thirteen-6-Fancy-Pants (Threes)
Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Windhover (Sevens)
A.E. Housman: To an Athlete Dying Young (Threes)
Mary Karr: The Worm-Farmer's Lament (Fours)
Mary Karr: Winter in the City of Friendship (Fives)
Jane Kenyon: Depression in Winter (Fours)
Galway Kinnell: Showing My Father through Freedom (Fours)
Paul Klee: Individuality (Fives)
Maxine Kumin: After Love (Twos)
Maxine Kumin: Nurture (Fours)
Stanley Kunitz: The Portrait (Ones)
D.H. Lawrence: The Wild Common (Fours)
Denise Levertov: Variation on a Theme by Rilke (Nines)
Don Marquis: the lesson of the moth (Nines)
Irene McKinney: Fame (Threes)
W.S. Merwin: The Stranger (Eights)
W.S. Merwin: Far Country (Nines)
Jim Wayne Miller: Rechargeable Dry Cell Poem (Fives)
Pablo Neruda: Summario (Twos)
Mary Oliver: Wild Geese (Ones)
Mary Oliver: The Journey (Twos)
Dorothy Parker: Résumé (Fours)
Dorothy Parker: Comment (Sevens)
Dorothy Parker: A Portrait (Nines)
Linda Pastan: The Book (Fours)
Marge Piercy: For Strong Women (Eights)
Sylvia Plath : Child (Sevens)
Marie Ponsot: One Is One (Eights)
Marie Ponsot: Old Mama Saturday (Nines)
Naomi Replansky: Housing Shortage (Fives)
Adrienne Rich: Stepping Backward (Fours)
Rainer Maria Rilke: Presentiment (Fours)
Teresa Noelle Roberts: Apotheosis of the Kitchen Goddess II
(Eights)
Luis J. Rodríguez: Cloth of Muscle and Hair (Eights)
Theodore Roethke: In A Dark Time (Sixes)
Theodore Roethke: The Meadow Mouse (Eights)
May Sarton: Now I Become Myself (Sevens)
Susan Fromberg Schaeffer: Confession in April (Ones)
Susan Fromberg Schaeffer: Afterwards (Fours)
Anne Sexton: The Bells (Twos)
Karl Shapiro: How Do You Walk? (Fours)
Karl Shapiro: The Sickness of Adam (Fives)
Charles Simic: The Return of the Invisible Man (Nines)
Macklin Smith: Walking Around With Tubes and Bottles
(Fours)
Stevie Smith: Not Waving but Drowning (Sevens)
Stephen Spender: Dolphins (Sixes)
William Stafford: Bi-Focal (Threes)
William Stafford: With Kit, Age Seven, At the Beach (Sixes)
William Stafford: A Story That Could Be True (Sevens)
May Swenson: Beast (Ones)
May Swenson: The Lightning (Ones)
Dylan Thomas: Fern Hill (Fours)
Sharon Thomson: On The Flatlands (Sixes)
Sharon Thomson: Pigeons (Eights)
John Updike: Dog's Death (Nines)
Mona Van Duyn: The Delivery (Twos)
Alice Walker: S M (Twos)
Ronald Wallace: The Belly Dancer in the Nursing Home
(Sevens)
Lew Welch: He Thanks His Woodpile (Fives)
Lew Welch: ring of bone (transformation poem)
Walt Whitman: A noiseless patient spider (Twos)
David Whyte: Waking (Nines)
Anna Wickham: The Marriage (Eights)
Roger Woddis: Down With Fanatics! (Nines)
William Wordsworth: Composed Upon Westminster Bridge (Nines)
William Wordsworth: A slumber did my spirit seal (Nines)
Paul Zimmer: Zimmer Resisting Temperance (Sevens)
Paul Zimmer: The Great Bird of Love (Eights)
Al Zolynas: A Nine Considers His Curses and Blessings
(Nines)
Al Zolynas: Postcard From Home (Nines)
