Poetry Chaikhana - Sacred Poetry from Around the World: Sufi Poetry, Zen Poetry, Hindu Poetry, Buddhist Poetry, Christian Poetry, Yoga Poetry

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Welcome, traveler! Enter and take your rest...

A chaikhana is a teahouse along the legendary Silk Road pilgrimage and trading route linking China to the Middle East and Europe. It is a place of rest along the journey, a place to shake off the dust of the road, to sip tea, and to gather together to sing songs of the Divine...

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About Mary Oliver

Timeline (1935 - )

Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver poetry, [TRADITION], [TRADITION] poetry, [TRADITION SUB1] poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, [TRADITION2] poetry

What I Have Learned So Far

Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.

All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of -- indolence, or action.

Be ignited, or be gone.

-- from New and Selected Poems, by Mary Oliver

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/ Photo by Hamed Saber /

Read Ivan M. Granger's commentary on this poem.

More Poems by Mary Oliver

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