This is our second and final podcast in celebration of National Poetry month. I devote the April episodes to National Poetry month, to honor and recognize the shared origins of poetry, myth, and song.
I also want to share some of the power of poetry. A poem, like a song or a story, can evoke a deep and necessary sense of the rightness of things. In his work titled
The Relevance of the Beautiful,philosopher Hans Gadamer writes “[…] the experience of the beautiful, and particularly the beautiful in art, is the invocation of a potentially whole and holy order of things, wherever it may be found.”
Attention to beauty is one way to find the quiet eye in the middle of our collective storms. I need the perspective and peace of mind that communion with a poem offers. Maybe you do too.
Transcript of A Strange feather, 10 poems for perspective and peace of mind
Hello, and welcome to Myth Matters, storytelling and conversation about mythology and why myth matters to your life today. I’m your host and personal mythologist Dr. Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours, you are part of this story circle.
This is our second and final podcast in celebration of National Poetry month here in the United States, and I’m excited to share these poems with you. I’ve devoted the April episodes to National Poetry month ever since I began podcasting 9 years ago. I started doing this because I wanted to honor and recognize the shared origins of poetry, myth, and song. These ancient arts were often one and the same, in form and performance, in our earliest recorded days, and they still emerge from the same psychic, mythic stream.
I also want to share some of the power of poetry. A poem, like a song or a story, can evoke a deep and necessary sense of the rightness of things. In his work titled The Relevance of the Beautiful,philosopher Hans Gadamer writes “[…] the experience of the beautiful, and particularly the beautiful in art, is the invocation of a potentially whole and holy order of things, wherever it may be found.”
The experience of beauty in a poem can take a number of forms. A good and useful poem may be beautiful in sound, form, craft–or speak about beautiful things. It may invoke the beauty in a moment. The beauty may also be in the act of making, in the courageous heart and imagination of the one who found and laid out the words.
Attention to beauty is one way to find the quiet eye in the middle of our collective storms. This is the thread that runs through the poems that I’ve selected for you today. Communion with a poem brings me perspective and peace of mind. Something that I’ve very much needed lately, and perhaps you do too. If this possibility–turning to a poem– is new to you, I hope you’ll try it.
When you are feeling tense, worried, or anxious, one of these poems may help. Reading poetry, especially reading poetry aloud to yourself, is a way to get grounded and regain your trust in life. Read a poem and speak it until the words feel like your own, your own expression.
Now, let’s meet these poems. I invite you to relax and listen. I hope these poems bring you a moment of beauty, a shift in perspective, courage, peace of mind and heart. I’ll pause for an extra moment between poems to allow us each the space for a breath or two. This first poem is an old touchstone for me, a reminder to let it go, to laugh, as this too shall pass…
“A Strange Feather” by Hafiz
Hafiz at The Poetry Foundation
“Waxwings” by Robert Francis
Robert Francis at The Poetry Foundation
Thank you Teresa, for sending me this next poem. “The Leash” by Ada Limón, from The Carrying.
Ada Limón at The Poetry Foundation
“Elegy” by Aracelis Girmay
Aracelis Girmay at The Poetry Foundation
Thank you to Brenda, for sending me this next poem, “Fear” by Kahlil Gibran
Kahlil Gibran at The Poetry Foundation
Thank you to Mario for sharing this next poem, titled “The True Love” by David Whyte.
David Whyte at The Poetry Foundation
“For What Binds Us” by Jane Hirshfield
Jane Hirshfield at The Poetry Foundation
“The Sycamore” by Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry at The Poetry Foundation
“Kuan Yin” by Laura Fargas
More poems by Laura Fargas at The Poetry Foundation
Thank you to Ronny for sending me this next poem, “I Am Not I” by Juan Ramón Jiménez.
Juan Ramón Jiménez at The Poetry Foundation
I have one more poem for you today but first let’s pause to give a big welcome to new subscribers Rachel and Mark. Thanks for subscribing for email announcements about the podcast and my other programs.
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Now I realized when I was putting this together for you, that I ended the last podcast with words by Mary Oliver. And this led me to consider Oliver as an example for beauty seeking and the peace that can be found by attending to beauty. In one of her poems, Oliver writes “I am a bride to amazement.” A bride to amazement.
Shifting our attention away from the news and the horrors and our fears about the future is such a powerful, powerful thing. Not only because it soothes us, but because it is a way of participating in that holy order and coherence in the world. It’s sometimes hard to believe, that as one, little, ordinary (supposedly), human being, that we can contribute anything to the suffering in the world and yet, we can through the way that we live our lives, and this is a function of where we put our attention.
With this in mind, let me read this past poem. It’s called “I Worried” by Mary Oliver.
Mary Oliver at The Poetry Foundation
And that’s it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters. Thank you so much for listening. I’ll meet you here for a story next time and until then, take good care of yourself and keep the mystery in your life alive.
