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Garden

 

 

 

The metaphor of a garden to represent one's spiritual awareness is an ancient one used throughout India and the Middle East.

Think about a garden for a moment. What is it? First, it is a place where things grow, a place of life. It is the opposite of death, which is the state of nonspirituality.

The plants of the garden are rooted in the earth, yet they reach upward toward the light of the sun.

On an even subtler level, a garden is a place of nourishment and of beauty. What grows in our spiritual gardens feeds us through its "fruitfulness" and brings beauty, the awareness of harmony to our consciousness. The flowers of the garden represent the spiritual qualities that have opened within us, that in turn cause us to open to the Divine. The flowers are within us, and we are the flowers.

From the yogic point of view, the flowers sometimes represent the chakras that open during spiritual awakening.

Also, a garden is a place of contemplation and rest. It is a place where we give ourselves permission to simply be, to settle into the present moment. The garden represents the soul at rest in the living presence of the Divine.

Poems with the theme of Garden

  Alighieri, Dante And as a ray descending from the sky (from The Paradiso, Canto I)
  Alighieri, Dante The love of God, unutterable and perfect,
  Ammons, A. R. Identity
  Ansari, Khwaja Abdullah Devotion for Thee
  Arnaut Daniel The firm desire that enters
  Ashford, Eric Perfectly
  Ashford, Eric Stay Close to the Lovers
  Ashford, Eric Your Green and Living Art
  Attar, Farid ud-Din The Nightingale
  Attar, Farid ud-Din The Hawk
  Aulia, Hazrat Nizamuddin In Allah's garden you gather roses,
  Avaiyar Vinayagar Agaval
  Basava Does it matter how long
  Basho, Matsuo Temple bell,
  Battacharya, Mahendranath Screening its face amongst lotus stalks
  Blake, William Auguries of Innocence
  Bulleh Shah The soil is in ferment, O friend
  Catherine of Siena We were enclosed, (from Prayer 20)
  Ching-Yuen, Loy To know Tao
  Chinook (Anonymous) Teach us, and show us the Way
  Cloud of Unknowing The Ecstasy of the Atoms
  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Kubla Khan
  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor To Nature
  cummings, e. e. i am a little church(no great cathedral)
  Dariya Without love there can be no devotion and wisdom. (from Love Chapter)
  Dionysius the Areopagite from The Doctrine of Infinite Growth
  Dogen Wondrous nirvana-mind
  Emre, Yunus True speech is the fruit of not speaking.
  Feuerstein, Georg Squaring the Circle
  Francis of Assisi The Canticle of Brother Sun
  Ghalib, Mirza Let the ascetics sing of the garden of Paradise --
  Gibran, Kahlil Good and Evil (from The Prophet)
  Gibran, Kahlil Self-Knowledge (from The Prophet)
  Granger, Ivan M. Drink Up!
  Granger, Ivan M. Earth and Sky
  Granger, Ivan M. Twelve Ways to Lose Your Head on Maui
  Granger, Ivan M. white world
  Guilhem IX of Poitou Joyous in love, I make my aim
  Hadewijch Tighten
  Hafiz Spring and all its flowers
  Han-shan (Cold Mountain) [7] You have seen the blossoms among the leaves;
  Hanh, Thich Nhat Contemplation
  Hanh, Thich Nhat Interrelationship
  Hanh, Thich Nhat Please Call Me by My True Names
  Hawaiian (Anonymous) He kanaenae no Laka / A Prayer of Adulation to Laka
  Hayati, Bibi How can I see the splendor of the moon
  Hayati, Bibi Is it the night of power
  Hekhalot Hymns (Anonymous) The Face of God
  Herbert, George Church-Monuments
  Herbert, George The Elixir
  Herbert, George The Flower
  Hildegard of Bingen O virga mediatrix / Alleluia-verse for the Virgin
  Hirshfield, Jane Metempsychosis
  Hirshfield, Jane Tree
  Holderlin, Friedrich Remembrance
  Holderlin, Friedrich All the Fruit...
  Holmes, Dick You Have Me
  Ibn al-Farid, Umar Whispering, then listening close (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
  ibn Gabirol, Solomon Who can do as Thy deeds
  Iqbal, Allama Muhammad To the Saqi (from Baal-i-Jibreel)
  Iraqi, Fakhruddin We Yield Our Hearts
  Islam, Nazrul Come silently like the Moon
  Islam, Nazrul O Nightingale!
  Islam, Nazrul Song of Dawn
  Islam, Nazrul Talk to me, javas, talk to me --
  Jayadeva [3] When spring came, tender-limbed Radha wandered (from The Gitagovinda)
  Jayadeva [6] My heart values his vulgar ways, (from The Gitagovinda)
  Kabir Between the conscious and the unconscious, the mind has put up a swing:
  Kabir (4) Do not go to the garden of flowers!
  Kabir (6) The moon shines in my body
  Kalidas (Edwards, Lawrence) What mind can possibly approach you
  Kamalakanta The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight
  Kerouac, Jack The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
  Khayyam, Omar [5] Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose,
  Khayyam, Omar [13] Look to the Rose that blows about us -- "Lo,
  Khayyam, Omar [18] I sometimes think that never blows so red
  Khayyam, Omar [26] Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise
  Khayyam, Omar [46 - later edition] Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare
  Khayyam, Omar [74] Ah, Moon of my Delight who know'st no wane,
  Lalan The moon is encircled by moons.
  Lalla (Ded, Lal) What is worship? Who are this man
  Lawrence, D. H. And Oh--That The Man I Am Might Cease To Be--
  Lee, Li-Young From Blossoms
  Lee, Li-Young Nativity
  Lee, Li-Young Night Mirror
  Leon, Luis de The Life Removed
  Levine, Stephen Meng's mountain
  Llull, Ramon January (from The Book of the Lover and Beloved)
  Lu Tung Pin Sojourning in Ta-yu mountains --
  Machado, Antonio Proverbs and Songs
  Machado, Antonio Songs
  Mahadevi, Akka Would a circling surface vulture
  Maharshi, Ramana The Marital Garland of Letters
  Mathias, Michael (2) Dukkha - The Cause of All Suffering (from The Cosmic Soul and the World Tree)
  Mathias, Michael (13) Jalal's Search for Jamal and the Mystical Tree (from The Cosmic Soul and the World Tree)
  McCombs, Chris Passion for the Sacred
  McCombs, Chris Pavanas
  Mechthild of Magdeburg Of the voices of the Godhead
  Mechthild of Magdeburg The devil also offers his spirit
  Merton, Thomas A Practical Program for Monks
  Merton, Thomas A Psalm
  Merton, Thomas Aubade -- The City
  Merton, Thomas O Sweet Irrational Worship
  Merton, Thomas Song for Nobody
  Merton, Thomas The Fall
  Mistral, Gabriela Song of Death
  Nachmanides (Nachman, Moses ben) The Soul Speaks (from Hymn on the Fate of the Soul)
  Neruda, Pablo Too Many Names
  Niffari (an-Niffari, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan) Stand at the throne (from The Standing Of the Presence Chamber and the Letter)
  O'Donohue, John On the death of the Beloved
  Oliver, Colin Cold Mountain
  Oliver, Mary Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?
  Oliver, Mary Mindful
  Po, Li Alone and Drinking Under the Moon
  Po, Li Clearing at Dawn
  Porete, Marguerite Humility
  Rabjampa, Longchen An Adamantine Song on the Ever-Present
  Rahman Baba Sow Flowers
  Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) Come, let us go for a walk, O mind,
  Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) I drink no ordinary wine,
  Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) Its value beyond assessment by the mind
  Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) Kulakundalini, Goddess Full of Brahman, Tara --
  Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) Why disappear into formless trance?
  Reninger, Elizabeth Deer
  Reninger, Elizabeth Deluge
  Reninger, Elizabeth Vision
  Reninger, Elizabeth Wood Pile
  Rilke, Rainer Maria Buddha in Glory
  Rilke, Rainer Maria I am, O Anxious One. Don't you hear my voice
  Rilke, Rainer Maria I find you, Lord, in all Things and in all
  Rilke, Rainer Maria The Second Elegy (from The Duino Elegies)
  Rilke, Rainer Maria We are the driving ones.
  Rilke, Rainer Maria We say release, and radiance, and roses,
  Rosenstock, Gabriel (1) You are in me (from Year of the Goddess)
  Rosenstock, Gabriel (51) the grace showered on me (from Uttering Her Name)
  Rumi, Jelaluddin I'm neither beautiful nor ugly
  Rumi, Jelaluddin Seizing my life in your hands, you thrashed me clean
  Rumi, Jelaluddin You are closer to me than myself (Ghazal 2798)
  Ryokan The plants and flowers
  Ryokan The winds have died, but flowers go on falling;
  Saadi How could I ever thank my Friend?
  Sanai, Hakim Meditation
  Sanai, Hakim The Good Darkness
  Saraha The Royal Song of Saraha (Dohakosa)
  Sarmad He and I are one,
  Sarmad My heart searched for your fragrance
  silent lotus Feel the Peace
  Silesius, Angelus In God nought e'er is known,
  Sinan, Ummi The Rose
  Solovyov, Vladimir Three Meetings
  Soseki, Muso Snow Garden
  Soseki, Natsume Plum flower temple:
  T'ao Ch'ien Unsettled, a bird lost from the flock --
  Tagore, Rabindranath He's there among the scented trees, (from The Lover of God)
  Tagore, Rabindranath Your flute plays the exact notes of my pain. (from The Lover of God)
  Tagore, Rabindranath (75) Thy gifts to us mortals fulfil all our needs (from Gitanjali)
  Tagore, Rabindranath (81) On many an idle day have I grieved over lost time (from Gitanjali)
  Teasdale, Sara Two Songs for Solitude
  Therese of Lisieux The Divine Dew
  Thompson, Francis The Hound of Heaven
  Trinley, Karma A Song on the View of Voidness
  Trungpa, Chogyam A flower is always happy
  Trungpa, Chogyam A Heart Lost and Discovered
  Valad, Sultan The Soul That Does not Live in God is not Alive
  Vaughan, Henry The Morning Watch
  Vaughan, Henry Unprofitableness
  Vaughan, Henry Vain wits and eyes
  Vidyapati As the mirror to my hand,
  Walters, Dorothy Don't Make Lists
  Walters, Dorothy Ruined by Your Beauty
  Wei, Wang Fields and Gardens by the River Qi
  Wei, Wang Living in the Mountain on an Autumn Night
  Wei, Wang Stone Gate Temple in the Blue Field Mountains
  Whitman, Walt [6] A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands, (from Song of Myself)
  Wordsworth, William Such was the Boy--but for the growing Youth (from The Excursion, Book 1)
  Wordsworth, William "To every Form of being is assigned," (from The Excursion, Book 9)
  Wu Men (Hui-k'ai) Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
  Yun-k'an Tzu no tricks


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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
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