Poetry As Contemplation

I would like to share with you a poem and a prompt I wrote today on the topic of conversations. I will first read the poem, allow words to settle, and provide a prompt to take with you

A practice of enquiry to you and conversations.

As always, my suggestion is to open up in a contemplative mind and find a quiet space, but you can also listen to it as you carry on with life's doings.

Hope you enjoy and always, thank you.

Transcript

Welcome to another poetry as contemplation. This poem came today from the ripple of conversations in my own life and just how the day unfolded. I planned to write at the coffee shop and I planned to write something completely different, Something that I wanted to, You know, Tap into and explore a little bit more and go through those valleys. But just as the day unfolded and how I like to follow rhythm and and not stick so much to structure, But if I get distracted or guided towards somewhere else, I tend to follow that lead. So this one came after two conversations during the day, One with a friend or a person that I see regularly and the other with a stranger. And the poem I've titled Conversations. And I think I won't go much into detail of it before I read it, As to just savour into the poem in itself, Without any anticipated thoughts or experiences about it. So I'll read the poem complete and I'll give some space and time to kind of let it ripple through and then after that I'll provide some prompts or a prompt from the poem to carry with you perhaps in contemplation as you leave this meditation. And please settle yourself in. Arrive fully where you are. Whether you are continuing with your daily life, With your tasks, With your humanness, Or whether you're sitting and reflecting and having some space for your internal self fully paused. Conversations. Conversations do not end at the parting of two human vessels. They linger and ripple through the body's system, Felt in the waters of our being. There is a certain frequency and a resonance that each of us as individual humans carry. From our own lived experience, Our values and our truths. It is not just a conversation between two people in the meeting of words, But a meeting of two fields, Two nervous systems communicating. And sometimes what we wish to communicate does not fully settle in the other. Or does not fully express from us in fullness. Because of the patterns and fears that our body carries. Our need for safety and protection. Our need to safely protect what's inside us. But sometimes, Only sometimes, A conversation between two people arrives fully, Not only in words but in the rhythm of the symphony to each particle of both bodies. And so we meet without words. And suddenly the conversation meets you, Them and the parts of you that we're holding on. A conversation on a Monday morning on a rush hour to work tastes different than a conversation on a Sunday morning over coffee. The environment can cause and affect the outcome of each arrival in conversation, But past that is the meeting of our own self despite the time and day and environment. The environment can cause and affect the outcome of each arrival in conversation. But past that, There is a meeting of our own self, Despite the time, The day and our environment. And the prompt that I'd like to leave or suggest or invite you to carry with you. Is that next time you find yourself in a conversation, Listen. Not to the person speaking. But to you. To the holding of your heart and when it softens and when it closes. And when the conversation ends. Deepen into that. Do not move to a next conversation, Next task, But pause and listen, Open up. What did you take with you through that conversation? What stayed in your being? And what did not quite leave with you, What stayed out? We do not meet the person deeper in their own arrival. We do not meet the person deeper in their own arrival, Meaning we do not meet someone else by fully listening to their words. But in how deeply we can arrive to ourselves. But in how deeply we can arrive to ourselves.