.....blurred

Yogis,
I recently listened to an interview with Ada Limon. To be honest I didn’t know who she was, but she became our 24^th Poet Laureate in July of 2022. (How did I not know that?) There was discussion of her childhood, her personal life, her professional life, and of course, the reading of many of her poems. Her almost conversational way of stringing together words and the soul level connection to nature she weaves throughout have won me over.

One of the questions asked was how she goes about writing a poem. The mechanics. She referred to one of her poems entitled ‘The Quiet Machine’ which I have included at the end of this note. In it she speaks of silence. All the ways we can be silent. All the places we can find silence. How silence creates the space from which the words take form and spew forth.

When Ada was asked what originally drew her to poetry, again she spoke to silence, but this time in its way of creating spaces. The space on the page surrounding the poem. The spaces between the words. How at the end of each line there is an unconscious knowing in all of us to pause. To be still…..if only for a moment. Poems leave us hanging.

I too am asked how I go about writing these weekly missives. This morning I had one of those ‘aha’ moments while running along the shoreline.

Coming over the dune I saw the fog. Thick. I stepped in and it became denser with each step toward the ocean until I was shrouded in mist. No longer able to see what was ahead or behind it was as if I was suddenly alone. The world around me had blurred. Silence.

Hearing only my breath as I ran, I would startle the birds who too could not see from a distance. They took flight and were quickly swallowed by fog. The early morning sun damped down by haze. Boardwalk buildings no more than a mirage.

It was in this silence that I knew what I was going to write about today. There was no thought involved. Words formed effortlessly.

My mind went back to the interview. Yes! Only when I let the outer world become blurry does the inner world clear. I’ve known this all along but today it became sharper. When we find ourselves trying too hard, the answers will always arise in the quiet.

All it takes is remembering. Remembering to step back. To be alone. To allow the world to blur. Remembering that each and every time I enter silence, I leave with a gift.

Running up the path which would thrust me back into civilization, my eyelashes were heavy with dew, but my heart was floating. Thank you, Universe! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The pictures are blurry but my inner lens is crystal clear,
SARAH