“It allows us to cherish what we’re given,” poet, Naomi Shihab Nye, says of poetry in a conversation with Krista Tippett.

Poetry allows us to cherish what we’re given. Whether it be a heartbreak, a second chance, a soft morning mist, a moment or…an onion, poetry, with its impossible-seeming combination of soft lens and precision, brings to our awareness that which might otherwise go unseen, unrecognized, un-cherished. Poetry opens us to life, to surprise, to shadow, to beauty, to insight.

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As you may have recognized by our frequent posting and references, we love to share poetry that resonates with our values here at gratefulness.org. It is with happy hearts that we celebrate and share the value of poetry by offering you an opportunity to receive a poem each month in your inbox. We have provided this service for some time for our monthly donors but it has become clear to us that our world might be well-served by more of us engaging with poetry. To this end, we are reminded of the words of William Carlos Williams in “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”:   

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
             yet men die miserably every day
                                   for lack
of what is found there.

Poetry offers a different kind of news. News of a world that it is much vaster, more intimate, connected and whole than we might learn about from other sources; a world in which we cherish what we’re given, who we are, and who we might become.

More on poetry and gratefulness:

Remembering Ourselves Whole Again: How Poetry Speaks from the Heart of Gratefulness – a blog by Dale Biron. “…great poems help us re–member and re-connect ourselves to ourselves, to others, and to the great other.”

Odes to Everyday Things – a collection of poems celebrating everyday wonders. Odes written by our community here at gratefulness.org. You can download the collection as a PDF or read as an eBook.

A Fierce and Enduring Gratitude: How Poetry Supports Us In Good Times and Bad – an on-demand eCourse that explores poems as wise and timeless tools that can support us on our path to gratitude, happiness and joy.

O Gaia: Nature and the Poetic Intuition – an essay by Br. David Steindl-Rast. “Poetry gives us access to those reasons of the heart which reason cannot fathom. Only the poet within each of us has eyes for the inherent sacredness of nature.”

Poems – our poetry collection includes writing from Jane Hirshfield, Alberto Ríos, David Whyte, Lisel Mueller,  Rumi,  Emily Dickinson and many others. Our gratefulness for poets and poetry knows no bounds!

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