Let It Be, Paul McCartney
Ten Thousand Flowers, Wu-men
Poem Out of Childhood, Muriel Rukeyser (excerpt)
Sometimes I Go About Pitying Myself, Ojibway Song
Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Anonymous
Coming Out, Mark Nepo
The Orange, Wendy Cope
For The Raindrop, Ghalib
Keeping Quiet, Pablo Neruda
Last Night as I Was Sleeping, Antonio Machado
What a Wonderful World, Bob Thiele and George David Weiss

* * *

Mindful, Mary Oliver
Out Beyond Ideas, Rumi
I’m Nobody, Emily Dickinson
Repeatedly We Are Asked, Mark Nepo
The Three Goals, David Budbill
In My Next Life, Woody Allen
Dharma, Billy Collins
To Ramona, Bob Dylan
Why Are You Unhappy, Wei Wu Wei
Thinking Like a Butterfly, Mark Nepo
This Guest House, Rumi
To Live In This World, Mary Oliver
Within You, Without You, George Harrison
I Am Not I, Juan Ramon Jimenez
The Summer Day, Mary Oliver
In These Latter-Day Degenerate Times, Kobayshi Issa

* * *

This presentation is also designed to accompany a yoga class, as the notes following the poem titles indicate.

 
 


Let it Be
by Paul McCartney

You should get the text from another source.

 
 

Ten Thousand Flowers
by Wu-men

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn
A cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
This is the best season of your life.

To the mind that is still
the whole universe surrenders.

 
 

Poem Out of Childhood (first two lines)
by Muriel Rukeyser

You should get the text from another source.

 
 

Sometimes I Go About Pitying Myself
Ojibway Song

Sometimes I go about pitying myself,
And all the time,
I am being blown by great winds across the sky.

 
 

Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Author Anonymous

Row row row your boat
gently down
the stream
merrily merrily merrily
merrily
life is but a dream.

 
 

Coming Out
by Mark Nepo

You should get the text from another source.

 
 

The Orange
by Wendy Cope

You should get the text from another source.

 
 

For the Raindrop
by Ghalib

For the raindrop, joy
Is entering the lake. . .

We are soul within a lake of spirit

World and self begin to merge
As we listen and grow

 
 

Keeping Quiet
by Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

 
 

Last Night as I was Sleeping
by Antonio Machado

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt — marvelous illusion –
that there was a spring breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct
are you coming to me, o water,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt — marvelous illusion! –
that there was a beehive
here in my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey,
from my old failures.

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt — marvelous error! –
that there was a fiery sun
here in my heart.
It was fiery because it gave
warmth as if from a hearth,
and it was sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.

Last night as I slept,
I dreamt — marvelous error!
That there was God
here in my heart.

 
 

What a Wonderful World
by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss

You should get the text from another source.