Poetry of Nature Newsletters

Autumn Moonlight

Autumn moonlight—
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.

~ Matsuo Basho
Translated by Robert Hass

The rock strengthens me.
The river rushing through me
Cleanses
Insists
That I keep moving toward
A distant light
A quiet place
Where I can be Continuous
And in rhythm with
The song of summer
That you have given me.

~ Nancy Wood

For early summer I’m sharing two poems that have been constant companions and medicine for my heart.

“There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.” ~ Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

May this letter find each of you well, safe, and strong. May you have time to delight in your neck of the woods, and this turn around the sun. May the joy and exuberance of mid spring awaken and nourish your being.

“Time flows in a strange way on Sundays.” ~ Haruki Murakami

Fresh

To move
Cleanly.
Needing to be
Nowhere else.
Wanting nothing
From any store.
To lift something
You already had
And set it down in
A new place.
Awakened eye
Seeing freshly.
What does that do to
The old blood moving through
Its channels?

~ Naomi Shihab Nye

Happy New Year. Welcome to the Poetry of Nature. Geoff and I are so glad you said, “Yes!” to this Year of Poetic Medicine. Many thanks to those of you who are joining us for a second, or third year of Poetry of Nature! May this letter find you all well, safe, and strong. If this is not the case for you and yours, please know that all of us at The Institute for Poetic Medicine extend our love and care.
This year we invite you to honor your turn around the sun by being in relationship with Nature. We do this through attunement, and by practicing openness, receptivity, curiosity, and deep listening - to ourselves, and to our “neck of the woods”.

Attunements: November Letter From Geoff Oelsner