Poem: Good Hours (By Robert Frost)

Although there is a tendency to associate mindfulness with positive emotions (e.g., joy or awe), mindfulness allows all emotions to show up and be acknowledged. Rather than focusing on whether emotions are pleasant or unpleasant, it is often helpful to give them space to just 'be' for a while.

For me, Good Hours by Robert Frost elicits the emotions of loneliness and longing, which are emotions that nearly everyone experiences from time to time; there is comfort in knowing that we are not alone in feeling this way.

Thank you for listening, and I hope that you enjoy this reading of Good Hours.

Transcript

Good Hours by Robert Frost I had for my winter evening walk no one at all with whom to talk,

But I had the cottages in a row up to their shining eyes in snow.

And I thought I had the folk within,

I had the sound of a violin,

I had a glimpse through curtain laces of youthful forms and youthful faces.

I had such company outward bound,

I went till there were no cottages found.

I turned and repented,

But coming back I saw no window but that was black.

Over the snow my creaking feet disturbed the slumbering village street.

Like profanation by your leave at ten o'clock of a winter eve.