Internationally acclaimed poet David Whyte is an Associate Fellow at Templeton College and Said Business School at the University of Oxford, David works with many European, American and international companies, using poetry and thoughtful commentary to illustrate how we can foster qualities of courage and engagement.
In his talk, David encourages us to remain open to know the dialogue with our surroundings inform and inspire our ideas.
A collection of poems and pieces of spiritual insight, reflection and guidance in the tradition of Rumi and Walt Whitman. These poems by Steve Taylor show the experiential core of his best-selling books on psychology and spirituality. Written with the precision and descriptive ability of a true poet, the pieces communicate profound truths, and have the power to transmit spiritual experience to the reader. The book also includes an essay by the author on Poetry and Spiritual Experience
Steve Taylor is the author of The Fall, Waking From Sleep, Out of the Darkness and his latest book Back to Sanity. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as ‘an important contribution to the global shift in consciousness.’ Steve is a lecturer in transpersonal psychology at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. In 2012 he was included (at no.31) in Mind, Body, Spirit magazine’s list of ‘The 100 most spiritually influential living people.’ He also writes poetry – his first book of poems, The Meaning, has just been published.
The Meaning by Steve Taylor
You can’t explain the meaning
Reduce it to thought or confine it to words
Break it down to basic building blocks
Or trace it back to an origin.
But when you see the meaning, you know it.
Just when you’ve forgotten it existed
You’re driving along the motorway
and turn your head to the side
As if someone’s tapped your shoulder
And it’s there, stretched across the evening sky
Filling the spaces between the clouds.
You open the door to empty the bin
And it’s there, rustling with the wind through the trees
Stroking your face softly like a lover.
You tilt your head back to catch the rain
And it’s there, falling with the infinite silver points
Bringing down benevolence from the sky.
Your eyes spring open in the middle of the night
As if there’s an intruder, an unfamiliar noise
And it’s there – in the dense, rich darkness that fills the room
And the glow of unconscious communion
Around you and your partners’ bodies.
The most familiar forgotten place
Your home from a previous lifetime
A mother’s soothing presence
And her warm enfolding arms.
Click Here to browse inside
In A THOUSAND MORNINGS, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her life’s work, transporting us to the marshland and coastline of her beloved home, Provincetown, Massachusetts. In these pages, Oliver shares the wonder of dawn, the grace of animals, and the transformative power of attention. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her adored dog, Percy, she is ever patient in her observations and open to the teachings contained in the smallest of moments.
Our most precious chronicler of physical landscape, Oliver opens our eyes to the nature within, to its wild and its quiet. With startling clarity, humor, and kindness, A THOUSAND MORNINGS explores the mysteries of our daily experience.
About the Author
Born in a small town in Ohio, MARY OLIVER published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of twenty-eight. Over the course of her long career, she has received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She has led workshops and held residencies at various colleges and universities, including Bennington College, where she held the Catherine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching. Oliver currently lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Click Here to browse inside
Poems from A Thousand Mornings
A THOUSAND MORNINGS
All night my heart makes its way
however it can over the rough ground
of uncertainties, but only until night
meets and then is overwhelmed by
morning, the light deepening, the
wind easing and just waiting, as I
too wait (and when have I ever been
disappointed?) for redbird to sing.
THE FIRST TIME PERCY CAME BACK
The first time Percy came back
he was not sailing on a cloud.
He was loping along the sand as though
he had come a great way.
“Percy,” I cried out, and reached to him—
those white curls—
but he was unreachable. As music
is present yet you can’t touch it.
“Yes, it’s all different,” he said.
“You’re going to be very surprised.”
But I wasn’t thinking of that. I only
wanted to hold him. “Listen,” he said,
“I miss that too.
And now you’ll be telling stories
of my coming back
and they won’t be false, and they won’t be true,
but they’ll be real.”
And then, as he used to, he said, “Let’s go!”
And we walked down the beach together.
IN OUR WOODS,
SOMETIMES A RARE MUSIC
Every spring
I hear the thrush singing
in the glowing woods
he is only passing through.
His voice is deep,
then he lifts it until it seems
to fall from the sky.
I am thrilled.
I am grateful.
Then, by the end of morning,
he’s gone, nothing but silence
out of the tree
where he rested for a night.
And this I find acceptable.
Not enough is a poor life.
But too much is, well, too much.
Imagine Verdi or Mahler
every day, all day.
It would exhaust anyone.
From A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver. Copyright 2012 by Mary Oliver. Excerpted with permission of Penguin Group.
Click Here to listen to the interview.
Mary Oliver with Coleman Barks
Mary Oliver’s poetry, with her lyrical connection to the natural world, has firmly established her in the highest realm of American poets. She is renowned for her evocative and precise imagery, which brings nature into clear focus, transforming the everyday world into a place of magic and discovery. Her recent books include Owls and Other Fantasies, Why I Wake Early, and New and Selected Poems, Volume Two. As poet Stanley Kunitz has said, “Mary Oliver’s poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing.” Oliver lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Biden on 9/11: ‘The World Goes On’
The vice president reads a poem by Mary Oliver at ground zero.
Here is a mystic poem from Gitanjali (Art thou abroad on this stormy night), composed by Rabindranath Tagore, and recited by Deepak Chopra. Music composed and produced by Dave Stewart.
Nothing Lasts Forever – Tagore / Recited by Artist : Lisa Bonet
Nothing lasts forever
No one lives forever
Keep that in mind, and love
Our life is not the same old burden
Our path is not the same long journey
The flower fades and dies
We must pause to weave perfection into music
Keep that in mind, and love
My beloved, in you I find refuge
Love droops towards its sunset
To be drowned in the golden shadows
Love must be called from its play
And love must be born again to be free
Keep that in mind, and love
My beloved, in you I find refuge
Without seeing my love, I cannot sleep
Let us hurry to gather our flowers
Before they are plundered by the passing winds
It quickens our blood and brightens our eyes
To snatch kisses that would vanish
If we delayed
Our life is eager
Our desires are keen
For time rolls by
Keep that in mind, and love
My beloved, in you I find refuge
Beauty is sweet for a short time
And then it is gone
Knowledge is precious
But we will never have time to complete it
All is done and finished
In eternal heaven
But our life here is eternally fresh
Keep that in mind, and love
(Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1941)
Lisa Bonet
For Lisa Bonet’s biographyView Here
