Thanks to the Poetry Circle for bringing this poem into my day. “Instructions on Not Giving Up” By Ada Limon More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees that really gets to me. When all the shock of white and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave the pavement strewn with the

This part of the poem stays with me: For the divine alchemy to work, The Pitcher needs a still cup Read the full poem, from the book "The Gift" , Poems inspired by Hafiz, the great Sufi Master, by Daniel Landinsky. A Still Cup For God To make love, For the divine alchemy to work, The Pitcher needs a still cup. Why Ask Hafiz to say Anything more about Your most Vital Requirement? #hafiz #daniellandinsky #thegift #sufimaster #astillcup

In the Room of a Thousand Miles By Billy Collins I like writing about where I am, where I happen to be sitting, the humidity or the clouds, the scene outside the window-- a pink tree in bloom, a neighbor walking his small, nervous dog. And if I am drinking a cup of tea at the time or a small glass of whiskey, I will find a line to put it on. My wife hands these poems back to me with a sigh. She thinks I ought to be opening up my aperture to let in the wild rhododendrons of Ir

Opened randomly the beautiful book "Devotions", by Mary Oliver , to read this poem: The Buddha's Last Instruction by Mary Oliver “Make of yourself a light,” said the Buddha, before he died. I think of this every morning as the east begins to tear off its many clouds of darkness, to send up the first signal -- a white fan streaked with pink and violet, even green. An old man, he lay down between two sala trees, and he might have said anything, knowing it was his final hour. Th