Poets including Afrose Fatima Ahmed, David Francis, Janet Norman Knox, Mercedes Lawry, and Tom Stiles, who reside in the Pacific Northwest created poetry inspired by their experiences with Meditation Circuit. Read the authors' bios on our Poets' page.
meditation circuit
i wanted that canvas
that knows how
to be alive
hangs from the breathing
canopy of a forest
rooting
teaching us lessons
in belonging
cobalt & daisy
color demanding
a meditation
walking breathing
inspiration
afrose fatima ahmed
----------------------
Second Growth
Often in autumn, up on the hill,
the wind lifts your hair.
Below in the woods meanwhile,
the air hardly stirs at all and you can hear
the smallest sounds, whether near
(a berry falling from salal at your shoulder;
the crisp snapping of madrone bark under-
foot) or far (beep from a truck backing up;
sports team cheering their players on).
It takes time to breathe, to exhale slowly.
Your path today follows a circuit –
when a pebble rolls downslope
and stops in front of you, you’re prepared
to notice, stepping gently over it.
David Francis
-------------
Sparking our synapses circuit ideas
at one point electrons tangential take off
touched in a tag game the curve whips along
as we lap round a loop of resistors earth ground
batteries blue voltage switch off and then on
alternating current concepts course through
our trance past boreal to wind-washed fields
of color that circle and circle around.
Janet Norman Knox
------------------
Measures
The air is redolent of pine.
I slip through trees in the ache
of tidal light. Shadows
settle on the leaves strewn
like an alphabet, disordered
but harboring language.
Time is anchor and wing.
I am here, sending down roots,
now a blue suggestion
over the pulse of the earth.
Mercedes Lawry
---------------
Meditation Circuit
1. Walking
The blood of red people
The sweat of yellow people
The tears of black and brown people
Soak the ground on which you walk
From which all green things grow
Asking what?
What
will you set yourself
on fire for?
2. Standing
Stand tall limbs outstretched
Bringing light down into earth
Patient with gray skies
3. Listening
Ocean of motors
Twittering canoe across
Listening journey
4. Seeing
Look again.
Things are and are not
as they seem.
When I go sideways
I may lose face
But how you see me
Depends less on
whats my line
And more on the
point of you.
5. Breathing
Breathe in and breathe out
Follow the breath wherever
And never look back
Tom Stiles
---------
i wanted that canvas
that knows how
to be alive
hangs from the breathing
canopy of a forest
rooting
teaching us lessons
in belonging
cobalt & daisy
color demanding
a meditation
walking breathing
inspiration
afrose fatima ahmed
----------------------
Second Growth
Often in autumn, up on the hill,
the wind lifts your hair.
Below in the woods meanwhile,
the air hardly stirs at all and you can hear
the smallest sounds, whether near
(a berry falling from salal at your shoulder;
the crisp snapping of madrone bark under-
foot) or far (beep from a truck backing up;
sports team cheering their players on).
It takes time to breathe, to exhale slowly.
Your path today follows a circuit –
when a pebble rolls downslope
and stops in front of you, you’re prepared
to notice, stepping gently over it.
David Francis
-------------
Sparking our synapses circuit ideas
at one point electrons tangential take off
touched in a tag game the curve whips along
as we lap round a loop of resistors earth ground
batteries blue voltage switch off and then on
alternating current concepts course through
our trance past boreal to wind-washed fields
of color that circle and circle around.
Janet Norman Knox
------------------
Measures
The air is redolent of pine.
I slip through trees in the ache
of tidal light. Shadows
settle on the leaves strewn
like an alphabet, disordered
but harboring language.
Time is anchor and wing.
I am here, sending down roots,
now a blue suggestion
over the pulse of the earth.
Mercedes Lawry
---------------
Meditation Circuit
1. Walking
The blood of red people
The sweat of yellow people
The tears of black and brown people
Soak the ground on which you walk
From which all green things grow
Asking what?
What
will you set yourself
on fire for?
2. Standing
Stand tall limbs outstretched
Bringing light down into earth
Patient with gray skies
3. Listening
Ocean of motors
Twittering canoe across
Listening journey
4. Seeing
Look again.
Things are and are not
as they seem.
When I go sideways
I may lose face
But how you see me
Depends less on
whats my line
And more on the
point of you.
5. Breathing
Breathe in and breathe out
Follow the breath wherever
And never look back
Tom Stiles
---------