I haven't been a poetry fan, because I often "don't get it."
However, I've
enjoyed the way you use poetry at your web site
and it's never too late to learn.
I
hesitate to advise anyone on poetry, because that's such an
individual taste, though I know of several people who've come to appreciate poetry
through two poets in particular: David Whyte and Mary Oliver.
David Whyte has
lectured in organizations and has a wonderful book called
The Heart Aroused:
Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America. At one of his seminars I saw
two Eights sitting in the front row, weeping. If you have a chance, listen to David in person
or audio - his compelling voice and the way he repeats
significant lines can reach places for which logic has no
language.
Mary Oliver's New and Selected Poems
are inspiring. Here's one I picked at random:
Sunrise
You can
die for it--
an idea,
or the world. People
have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound
to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But
this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought
of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun
blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises
under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?
What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it
whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.
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