1. Read the poem 

2. Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you

3. Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…

4. Use the selection of prompts below the poem

5. Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…

6. Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes

Aware

When I found the door 
I found the vine leaves 
speaking among themselves in abundant 
whispers. 
My presence made them 
hush their green breath, 
embarrassed, the way 
humans stand up, buttoning their jackets, 
acting as if they were leaving anyway, as if 
the conversation had ended 
just before you arrived. 
I liked 
the glimpse I had, though, 
of their obscure 
gestures. I liked the sound 
of such private voices. Next time 
I’ll move like cautious sunlight, open 
the door by fractions, eavesdrop 
peacefully.

Denise Levertov
https://allpoetry.com/poem/8503415-Aware-by-Denise-Levertov

Next Read Around is April 15, 2022

My Thoughts

A recurring theme in life is the dance between our unconscious habits and the challenge of mindfulness. Routines require very few attention units, which we mostly then spend spinning inside: talking to ourselves, explaining, judging, imagining, and running on reactive emotions. Mindfulness is the practice of directing attention to the moment. It illuminates what it attends to and puts us in relationship to the world as a presence. In a strange way, awareness (or consciously being in awareness) might actually be the marriage of the two: trust in our ability to respond to life fluidly and mindfulness in the present. We then access what Shunyru Suzuki called The Beginner’s Mind. We see and hear things in the world we might otherwise miss or see things for themselves rather than through our descriptions of them. Anyone who has practiced mindfulness can attest to the effort it takes to stabilize attention, to build the muscle of presence and be a vessel of awareness. Denise Levertov’s poem, Aware, states we might then hear the conversation between things in the world as they talk to each other, especially if we move into the space like cautious sunlight. We may not only become privy to the private voices of life, perhaps we may then even join in and have a genuine dialogue with life.

Prompt Menu

1. Journal or write a poem about the door to awareness. You can start with Levertov’s opening phrase: When I found the door…

2. Journal or write about the abundant whispers of vines (or trees, or tomatoes, or fuschias, or grass, or…). Describe what those whispers sound like? What might they whisper or gossip about? You can use the stem sentience, “I heard the (grass) gossip…

3. Describe a time when your presence seemed to hush a conversation (among other peope; or in life—the birds stopped singing when I stepped out the door). What emotion or concern (embarrassment or fear of being overheard) might have given them pause.

4. Write about a moment of pause (an embarrassment of your own or a time when caught off guard) in a conversation by the sudden appearance of someone or something. What then happened? Or write about an abrupt ending to a conversation. Or write about an unfinished conversation and how you might finish that conversation now.

5. Journal or write about “obscure gestures.” For instance, consider the gestural communication of people who do not speak the same language; or describe how a couple or a group of people can develop their own secret language of gestures; 

6. Journal or write about the obscure gestures of pets, plants, clouds, or whatever you like. 

7. What does it mean to move like cautious sunlight?  To open the door to the world by fractions? Journal or write a detailed descriptioni of doing so.

8. Write or journal about entering into life without disturbing it. How might you create the conditions to eavesdrop on life peacefully?

9. As usual, write about whatever else inspires you from the poem or from life.