If you wish to attend the read around (t’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). Note: If you registered already, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:

Next Read-Around is 1/30/25 at 5:00 PM PST

How It Works:

  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

  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

My Thoughts

As I go about my days, my attention often flitters between a list of to-do’s and a world of distraction reminding me that I am a specimen of the modern world: a product of our consumer culture, which will use every means possible to grab our attention and keep it long enough for us to hit the buy button. The average human attention span has been reduced to such brief snippets that a team of Google researchers claim goldfish hold their attention longer.

It is no surprise that mindfulness has become a hot topic as an antidote to the stress of the modern world. Essentially, we have forgotten how to be idle, to be present enough in the world that we actually notice things around us. When we go beyond looking to seeing, we have a chance of experiencing the world in the way Mary Olver describes in her poem, Mindful. Perhaps it is my poetic heart, but I, too, like Oliver see or hear something everyday that more or less kills me with delight. Today it was the variegated green patterns and slick body that give the sword-like leaves of my shake plant its name. Some of those leaves have grown so tall they bend like dancers arms striking a pose illuminated by streams of sunlight through the window. More astonishing is the fact that these plants acutally serve as air purifiers.

Perhaps that is why the snake plant caught my attention this morning while pondering what to say about Mary Oliver’s poem. Mindfulness is the air purifer of the mind. The poem arrived in a substack feed coincidentally (and I am sure it was purely coincidental and not algorithm related) with the start of the 8-week MBSR course. MBSR stands for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction derived from Buddhist practices and neuroscience research. The course was developed out of the work of Jon-Kabat-Zinn. So I was delighted to happen upon Mary Oliver’s poem, Mindful, as a lead in for the course and as reminder that this is what I was born for-to look, to listen, to lose myself inside the soft world.

Mindful

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant -
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

—Mary Oliver
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-oliver

Prompt Ideas

  1. Journal or write a poem about what grabs your attention. You can either notice what grabs your attention in your everday life (positively or negativels) or go out into the world intentioally to find out what grabs your attention or choose something to attend to. Then write about it.

  2. What is something that more or less kills you with delight? You can use that as your stem sentence: what kills me with delight is…

  3. Oliver claims she was born to look, listen, and lose herself in the soft world. Journal or write a poem in a simlar vein about what you were born for.

  4. Oliver says she is inside the “soft world.” What world do you live inside? What qualities or traits would you ascirbe to the world you are inside?

  5. Journal or write apoem about any part of the world Oliver leaves out: the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant.

  6. Consider yourself the good scholar: what teachings from the world or life help you to grow wise?

  7. Joural or write a poem about the prayers that are made out of grass? Or prayers made out of…

  8. As usual, write about anything else in the poem or in life that inspires you.