Poems to Contemplate

If I'm absolutely still
I can hear the surge of the sea
from my bed
but it isn't enough to be absolutely still
I also have to draw my thoughts away from the land

It isn't enough to draw one's thoughts away from the land
I also have to attune my breathing to the sea
because I hear less when I breathe in

It isn't enough to attune one's breath to the sea
I also have to ban impatience from my hands and feet

It isn't enough to calm hands and feet
I also have to give up images

It isn't enough to give up images
I have to rid myself of striving

It isn't enough to be rid of striving
if I don't relinquish my ego

It isn't enough to relinquish my ego
I'm learning to fall

It isn't enough to fall
but as I fall
and drop away from myself
I no longer
seek the sea
because the sea
has come from the coast now
has entered my room
surrounds me

If I'm absolutely still.

​~ Dorothee Soelle

THE BRIGHT FIELD’
​BY R. S. THOMAS

​I HAVE SEEN THE SUN BREAK THROUGH to illuminate a small field for a while, and gone my way and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
​
on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.