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Welcome to the Spiritual Poetry Portal Join us within the panorama below--
"Wave Garden" themes (throughout the Poetry Portal) by Dafna Mordecai hosted by Richard Schiffman The Spiritual Poetry Portal where inspiration is a click away! Many of us were
first introduced to the inner life of the Spirit by reading great poetry in school. We
caught glimpses of a deeper truth in the words of writers like Walt Whitman, William
Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. But most people lose touch with poetry as
they grow older. While almost everyone can still remember a line, a striking metaphor or
image from a favorite poem, few turn to poetry for daily inspiration in their lives. That’s
unfortunate, because poetry offers not just delight, but wisdom of a kind that is hard to
come by in our sound bite culture. Yet poems also present us with difficulties of language
and interpretation that may scare many readers off initially. Moreover, a lot of
contemporary writing is obscure, overly intellectual, or frankly narcissistic, and has
lost its deeper connections to the spiritual wellsprings which watered the roots of poetry
in the past. But the good news
is that great poems continue to be written. And many of them are just a click away on the
internet. In these pages we’ll introduce you to some of these gems, and hopefully
encourage you to write your own!
Richard Schiffman
My name is Richard Schiffman. I am a spiritual author and a former journalist who started writing poetry a few years back. I’m glad that I did! For me writing and reading poetry has become a meditation, a way to become reacquainted with my own deeper self. In these pages I’ll share with you some of my own recent work, as well as my reflections on “the poetry of the Spirit.” Most of all I’ll offer links to some favorite contemporary poems and poets, places where you can begin your own exploration into this rich and exciting world. REACH RICHARD: For communication and dialogue about The Spiritual Poetry Portal you can reach me at richschiff@earthlink.net
Detail from"Wave Garden, theme A" by Dafna Mordecai
Poetry of the Spirit-- Some Reflections Richard Schiffman
There are times
when words seem inadequate to convey our deeper experiences in life. How do we speak about
the hush of a snowy morning, the awe we under the stars at night, or the intimacy and
tenderness of first love? How much less can we express the ecstasy of a mystical awakening
in which time and space collapse into the limitless awareness of Divine Presence. Spiritual poetry
is an effort to find words for the wordless. As such, it is bound, in one sense, to fail.
But, paradoxically, the effort to express the inexpressible can serve as “a finger
pointing toward the moon,” in the language of Zen. That is to say, at its best
spiritual poetry brings us to the edge of the Great Mystery in which we live and move. Spirit-filled
poets have lived in all nations and periods of human history. Yet their words feel
timeless, because they speak to us of what most fundamentally we are. They remind us
that we are not just a body of flesh and blood moving through a world of transience and
death. We are not just mental beings flailing on the puppet strings of thought and
emotion. Yes, of course we are that too! Still there is something within all of us that
refuses to surrender to any limited condition. There is something that still re-members
its connections to the larger life beyond our skins. Spiritual poetry
is the voice of that remembrance. It reminds us of all that we are not finally conditioned
creatures at the mercy of external circumstance, but inwardly “the master of all we
survey” as the poet William Cowper wrote. We are children of the Most High, sparks of
the creative fire which forged the universe! “In the faces of men and women I see
God” wrote Walt Whitman in his immortal American spiritual classic, “Leaves of
Grass.” Yet spiritual
poetry does not content itself with stating abstract, universal truths. It revels in the
momentary and the particular. It fully honors the actual sights, sounds, persons and
events of life. Unlike pure philosophy or metaphysics, poetry never loses sight of the
physical creation. It uses the language of the senses to root inner experience firmly in
the real world of our experience. Mystical verse
sees “Eternity in a grain of sand. And a heaven in a wildflower,” as William
Blake so memorably expressed it. And it hears a frog jumping into a pond (in Basho’s
famous haiku) as a call to Timeless Presence. It also brings God down from heaven to the
earth. It conceives of the Everlasting, not as some metaphysically distant ruler, or
bloodless divine essence, but as the personal Beloved of the soul, as in the ecstatic
devotional poetry of Saint John of the Cross, Mirabhai, Kabir and so many others. When we think of
spiritual poetry, we often think of the great writers of the past. Amazingly, the Sufi,
Jalaluddin Rumi, is the bestselling poet in America today! It is no accident that this
13th century mystic speaks to many people more directly and powerfully than our own
contemporaries! But the unique genius of a Rumi should not blind us to the fact that he
speaks of experiences and states of at-one-ment that are equally available to us today. The word
“Spirit” is etymologically associated with the Latin root for breath. Poetry is
also a spoken art attuned to the natural rhythms of the human breath, and the still deeper
and more hidden breathings of the soul. It is the natural and fully spontaneous
outbreathing of the Spirit within us. In earlier times
poets were widely regarded as prophets, bards and seers, who brought down the knowledge of
the gods to the human world. The essentially spiritual nature of poetic speech was
understood and highly valued. As the modern world became increasingly secular and
skeptical of nonmaterial reality, however, poets increasingly used their art for personal
psychological exploration, the so-called “confessional poetry” which dominated
much of twentieth century verse. Others, the “language poets,” reflected on the
inability of speech to convey universally valid meanings. In many circles,
nature poetry, religious poetry, humorous verse, even love poetry were frowned upon as
being sentimental or naive. While the skeptical temper of the times in the academic
“literary establishment” has often discouraged overt spiritual expression, many
poets continue to swim against the prevailing current and create works of great depth and
mystical power. Fueled by the explosion of poetry in new venues like the internet, email and slam festivals, there has been a growing demand for a new nonacademic poetry that speaks directly to the heart. Poetry is also increasingly being performed together with other arts like music, dance and film. Inspired voices like Mary Oliver, Robert Bly, Naomi Shihab Nye and Coleman Barks attract large audiences from outside the traditional literary world. I regard these writers as the forerunners of a new poetry of the Spirit. ____________________________________________ to reach Richard Schiffman, email richschiff@earthlink.net
Water Detail from"Wave Garden, theme A" by Dafna Mordecai
Richard's Poems -- Richard's Links and links to Richard's poems to other poets Here is a sampling of my poems and links to several which are available on the internet: Smart
Cookie (After Wallace
Stevens) The
fortune that you seek is in another cookie, was
my fortune. So I’ll be equally frank-- the wisdom that
you covet is in another poem. The life that you desire
is
in a different universe. The cookie you are craving is
in another jar. The jar is buried somewhere in Tennessee. Don’t
even think of searching for it. If you found that jar, everything
would go kerflooey for a thousand miles around. It
is the jar of your fate in an alternate reality. Don’t even think
of living that life. Don’t even think of eating that cookie. Be
a smart cookie-- eat what’s on your
plate, not in some jar in
Tennessee. That’s my wisdom for today, though I know it’s not what you were looking for.
Alone To
you who are lost today like a needle in a haystack, reading
this poem alone. Alone, brother island, sister
moon. The ocean is big, the sky is bigger, but
no one knows your measure-- no
one can say where you end and
the world begins. And
why talk about the world, when you yourself are
the world that contains the world-- which
is alone in you, not you in it. Can
you be tender with this homeless globe rocking
it in your cradle, enfolding it with your ocean? It
is the child that you were born to cherish. This swarm of
all and everything alone in all and everything. Only
you can soothe it. Brother
island, sister moon, the ocean is big, the
sky is bigger. But love dwarfs all-- as
the thinker is greater than his thought, the
doer exceeds her deeds, the dreamer wilder
than the wildest dreams, the
giver the biggest gift of all. Therefore,
pour yourself as gift-- the
world’s gift to itself. But do not tell us. That’s
the point, be nameless, like the wind, the
rain, swelling the shoreless ocean, ripping
the heart’s sky open. Until
nothing remains outside it. Or
within it. The
heart is not a needle in
a haystack. It is the haystack-- and
it was never lost. After the Opera The
curtain parts one last time and
the ones who killed and
were killed, who
loved inordinately, who
went berserk, were flayed alive, descended
to Hades, raged,
wept, schemed-- victims
and victimizers smile
and nod and graciously bow. So
glad it’s finally over, they
stride off suddenly
a bit ridiculous in
their overwrought costumes. And
the crowd-- still dark, like
God beyond the footlights of the world-- rises
to its feet and
roars like the sea. _____________________ *Thanks to Southern Poetry Review, Rosebud, and Sojourners for permission to reprint these poems ____________________________________________
Detail from "Wave Garden III" by Dafna Mordecai (see entire work below)
links to more poems by Richard Schiffman
Watching the Birdwatcher, Sunglasses http://inpossereview.com/IPR_Schiffman.htm Crows and Hawks http://www.bloodorangereview.com/v4-1/schiffman_hawks.htm Clever Stalk www.thepedestalmagazine.com/gallery.php?item=2829 Bullet and
Memorial Day Excursion http://ravingdove.org/richardschiffmanfall09 Sermon to the
Trash http://42opus.com/v9n3/sermon-to-the-trash A Poem After Rumi http://damazine.com/archives/2009_fall/a_poem_after_rumi_richard_schiffman.html
Inter-Animal Dialogue, Quetzalcoatl, Cloud Nation
_________ Richard's links to other poets Art by Dafna Mordecai
Here are some great sites for spiritual poetry:
Wave Garden I A
group of poems on the theme of gratefulness from Brother David
Stendl-Rast’s fine website. http://www.gratefulness.org/poetry/index.htm
Wave Garden II Extensive
collection of sacred poetry from around the world arranged
according to themes. http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Themes/
Wave Garden III A
good site for exploring Zen and Buddhist-inspired poetry,
with a nice collection of quotes on the subject of poetry itself. http://www.gardendigest.com/poetry/index.htm
Wave Garden A (detail) Numinous: Spiritual Poetry, a webzine out of http://numinousmagazine.wordpress.com
Wave Garden A (detail) A
nice selection of old and new poems. http://www.panhala.net/Archive/Index.html
Wave Garden B A
selection by the poet, Jane Hirshfield of 22 of her favorite
spiritual poems on the Poetry Foundation website, one of the best resources for poetry on
the internet. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=178390
Wave Garden B (detail) Bill Moyers has done wonderful books and broadcasts with a variety
of spiritual poets. Click on “Enjoy poetry from our archives,” to hear
interviews and readings by Coleman Barks and others. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03062009/profile3.html
"Soul Excavations" (details below) by Dafna Mordecai
One of the
bestselling poets in http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/oliver/online_poems.htm
This is a
compassionate masterpiece by the Buddhist meditation master, Thich
Nhat Hanh, Please Call Me By My True Names http://www.allspirit.co.uk/names.html
A sampling of Tagore poems, not exactly a contemporary, but one of the great
masters of the mystical lyric.
One of my
favorite Jane Hirshfield poems, read by the author. Also
check out some of the other videos on this page. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/hirshfield.html
To hear Naomi Shihab Nye speak is a thrilling experience. She writes poems
dripping with empathy, humor and spiritual insight. Don’t miss her! http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/174 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/nye.html
Linda Pastan writes luminous, generally short and accessible poems.
Here is a one in response to one of my favorite Whitman poems. http://washingtonart.com/beltway/pastan2.html
Some
contemporary translations of Rumi by Coleman Barks and
others. http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/Rumilove.html
Former poet
laureate, Californian Robert Haas creates poetry that is both
meditative and sensual. He is also one of the finest and most generous teachers and
essayists on poetics alive today. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=2987
____________________________________ InterSpiritual Dialogue 'n Action (ISDnA, est. 2002) & Broadband Contemplative Alliances Network (bcan.ws, est. 2004) with Brother Wayne. Multiplex Maingate is www.isdna.org; Multiplex Visitors Center is multiplex.isdna.org. All rights reserved for original materials first published here; thanks to many associates for linked and associated materials. ISDnA's educational partner is One Spirit Interfaith (www.onespiritinterfaith.org), ISDnA is a founding member of The Order of Universal Interfaith (OUnI www.ouni.org), World Council of Interfaith Congregations (WCIC, www.ouni.org), The Coalition for OneVoice (www.coalitionforonevoice.org) and the Universal Order of Sannyasa (originally envisioned by Bro. Wayne, www.orderofsannyasa.org). Administrator Contact kurtjohnsonisd@yahoo.com
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