Themes :
Garden

The metaphor of a garden to represent one's spiritual awareness is an ancient one.

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 -- and the world -- through its "fruitfulness." The garden 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. Or sometimes it represents the opening of the heart and mind to heaven.

Also, a garden is often a place where lovers secretly meet. It is where we go to spend time in the embrace of the Beloved.

Finally, 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.

In fact, the word "paradise" means... garden

Poems with the theme of Garden

  For Light
  In Praise of the Earth
  Adyashanti Rest and Be Taken
  Alighieri, Dante All Being within this order, by the laws (from The Paradiso, Canto I)
  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
  Anandamurti (Sarkar, Prabhat Ranjan) Oh unknown traveler, you come alone
  Angelou, Maya A Brave and Startling Truth
  Ansari, Khwaja Abdullah Devotion for Thee
  Attar, Farid ud-Din The Pupil asks; the Master answers
  Attar, Farid ud-Din The Nightingale
  Attar, Farid ud-Din The Hawk
  Attar, Farid ud-Din The peacock's excuse
  Aulia, Hazrat Nizamuddin In Allah's garden you gather roses,
  Avaiyar Vinayagar Agaval
  Barker, Elsa The Mystic Rose
  Basho, Matsuo The temple bell dies away
  Battacharya, Mahendranath Screening its face amongst lotus stalks
  ben Kallir, Eleazar He Shall be King!
  Berry, Wendell Enriching the Earth
  Berry, Wendell How to Be a Poet
  Berry, Wendell Testament
  Berry, Wendell The Wish to Be Generous
  Blake, William Auguries of Innocence
  Boethius The Bent of Nature
  Brabazon, Francis Once God, that Great Being (from Stay With God)
  Broughton, James The Gardener of Eden
  Bulleh Shah The soil is in ferment, O friend
  Carpenter, Edward Freedom! the deep breath!
  Carpenter, Edward The Central Calm
  Carpenter, Edward The Lake of Beauty
  Catherine of Siena We were enclosed (from Prayer 20)
  Cavafy, Constantine P. Growing in Spirit
  Ching-Yuen, Loy No use fretting over gold, beauty or fame;
  Ching-Yuen, Loy To know Tao
  Chinook (Anonymous) Teach us, and show us the Way
  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Kubla Khan
  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor To Nature
  Crashaw, Richard The Flaming Heart or the Life of the Glorious S. Teresa
  Crashaw, Richard To the Name above every Name, the Name of Jesus
  cummings, e. e. i am a little church(no great cathedral)
  Daniel, Arnaut Every day I improve and grow better
  Daniel, Arnaut The firm desire that enters
  Dariya Sahib of Bihar Without love there can be no devotion and wisdom (from Love Chapter)
  Dickinson, Emily Nature and God -- I neither knew
  Dogen, Eihei Wondrous nirvana-mind
  Efendi, Seyh Ibrahim The Sufi Way
  Eliot, T. S. I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you (from Four Quartets)
  Emre, Yunus I haven't come here to settle down
  Emre, Yunus Let Them Have Paradise
  Emre, Yunus Oh disciple of love, open your eyes
  Emre, Yunus True speech is the fruit of not speaking
  Farid, Baba Sheikh You must fathom the ocean
  Feuerstein, Georg Squaring the Circle
  Francis of Assisi The Canticle of Brother Sun
  Galib, Seyh Love is a lamp of God, I am its moth
  Ghalib, Mirza Let the ascetics sing of the garden of Paradise
  Gibran, Kahlil Good and Evil
  Gibran, Kahlil Pain
  Gibran, Kahlil Self-Knowledge
  Gikatilla, Joseph The Nut Garden
  Granger, Ivan M. Earth and Sky
  Granger, Ivan M. Twelve Ways to Lose Your Head on Maui
  Guilhem IX of Poitou Joyous in love, I make my aim
  Gyatso, Kelsang Little Tiger
  ha Nagid, Samuel Gazing Through the Night
  Hadewijch Tighten
  Hafiz Spring and all its flowers
  Hafiz The Garden
  Hafiz (Ladinsky, Daniel) Why Aren't We Screaming Drunks?
  Han-shan (Cold Mountain) Here's a message for the faithful
  Han-shan (Cold Mountain) You have seen the blossoms among the leaves;
  Hanh, Thich Nhat Contemplation
  Hanh, Thich Nhat Walking Meditation
  Hanh, Thich Nhat Padmapani
  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 Love
  Herbert, George The Elixir
  Herbert, George The Flower
  Herbert, George The Pearl. Matthew 13
  Hildegard von Bingen O virga mediatrix / Alleluia-verse for the Virgin
  Hirshfield, Jane Metempsychosis
  Hirshfield, Jane Standing Deer
  Hirshfield, Jane To Hear the Falling World
  Hirshfield, Jane Tree
  Holderlin, Friedrich Remembrance
  Holderlin, Friedrich All the Fruit...
  Holmes, Dick You Have Me
  Hopkins, Gerard Manley God's Grandeur
  Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia / Yoka Genkaku Roll the Dharma thunder (from The Song of Enlightenment)
  Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia / Yoka Genkaku [1] There is the leisurely one (from The Shodoka)
  Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia / Yoka Genkaku [34] They roar with Dharma-thunder (from The Shodoka)
  Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia / Yoka Genkaku [35] High in the Himalayas, only fei-ni grass grows (from The Shodoka)
  Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia / Yoka Genkaku [36] One moon is reflected in many waters (from The Shodoka)
  Ibn al-Farid, Umar Whispering, then listening close (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
  ibn Gabirol, Solomon Lord of the World
  ibn Gabirol, Solomon Who can do as Thy deeds
  ibn Gabirol, Solomon Who could accomplish what you've accomplished
  Ikkyu (Sojun, Ikkyu) a well nobody dug filled with no water
  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
  Izzet, Asik Ali The Path of the Beautiful
  Jayadeva My heart values his vulgar ways (from The Gitagovinda)
  Jayadeva When spring came, tender-limbed Radha wandered (from The Gitagovinda)
  Kabir Between the conscious and the unconscious, the mind has put up a swing
  Kabir Do not go to the garden of flowers!
  Kabir I burst into laughter
  Kabir 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 [11] Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough
  Khayyam, Omar [12] "How sweet is mortal Sovranty!" -- think some
  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 [39] How long, how long, in infinite Pursuit
  Khayyam, Omar [42 - later edition] Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit Waste not your Hour, nor in the vain pursuit
  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
  Khunrath, Heinrich A Philosophicall short songe of the incorporating of the Spirit of the Lord in Salt
  Krishnamurti, Jiddu I Am All
  Krishnamurti, Jiddu Song of the Beloved (from The Immortal Friend)
  Kuzminsky, Irina A Sequence of Embraces
  Lalan The moon is encircled by moons
  Lalla Just for a moment, flowers appear
  Lalla What is worship? Who are this man
  Lalla Your way of knowing is a private herb garden
  Lawrence, D. H. And Oh--That The Man I Am Might Cease To Be--
  Lee, Li-Young Become Becoming
  Lee, Li-Young From Blossoms
  Lee, Li-Young Nativity
  Lee, Li-Young Night Mirror
  Leon, Luis de The Life Removed
  Levertov, Denise Seeing for a Moment
  Levine, Stephen Meng's mountain
  Levine, Stephen Trust Your Vision
  Li Bai Alone and Drinking Under the Moon
  Li Bai Clearing at Dawn
  Li Bai If High Heaven had no love for wine
  Llull, Ramon January (from The Book of the Lover and Beloved)
  Lu Tung Pin Sojourning in Ta-yu mountains
  Lu Tung Pin The Hundred Character Tablet (Bai Zi Bei)
  Machado, Antonio Proverbs and Songs
  Machado, Antonio Songs
  Maghribi, Muhammad Shirin The Moon of Your Love
  Mahadevi, Akka Treasure in the Ground
  Maharshi, Ramana The Marital Garland of Letters
  Maier, Michael Three Golden Apples from the Hesperian grove (from Atalanta Fugiens)
  Marpa (Lotsawa, Marpa) Realisation of Dreams and Mind
  Mechthild of Magdeburg Of the voices of the Godhead
  Mechthild of Magdeburg Set Me on Fire
  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
  Merwin, W. S. Thanks
  Milarepa Song to the Rock Demoness
  Milarepa The Song of Food and Dwelling
  Milarepa The Song of View, Practice, and Action
  Milarepa Upon this earth, the land of the Victorious Ones
  Mistral, Gabriela Song of Death
  Nachmanides (Nachman, Moses ben) Prayers for the Protection and Opening of the Heart
  Nachmanides (Nachman, Moses ben) The Soul Speaks (from Hymn on the Fate of the Soul)
  Naropa The Summary of Mahamudra
  Nasimi, Imadeddin At love's most sumptuous feast was I with love made drunk
  Nasimi, Imadeddin I take the Merciful One's shape, the Merciful I am
  Neruda, Pablo Past
  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)
  Novalis When Geometric Diagrams...
  Nurbakhsh, Javad Desiring You
  Nurbakhsh, Javad The Beloved
  O'Donohue, John For a New Beginning
  Oliver, Colin Cold Mountain
  Oliver, Mary Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?
  Oliver, Mary Mindful
  Oliver, Mary Morning Poem
  Oliver, Mary The Buddha's Last Instruction
  Patrul Rinpoche Advice from Me to Myself
  Patrul Rinpoche Use the time of your life
  Plunkett, Joseph Mary I Saw the Sun at Midnight
  Pope, Alexander The Universal Prayer
  Pope, Alexander What if the foot ordain'd the dust to tread (from An Essay on Man I)
  Porete, Marguerite Humility
  Rabia al-Basri (Adawiyya, Rabia al-) My joy
  Rabjampa, Longchen An Adamantine Song on the Ever-Present
  Rahman Baba Sow Flowers
  Ramakrishna Is there anyone in the universe
  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?
  Ramsay, Jay At Fintry House
  Reninger, Elizabeth Deer
  Reninger, Elizabeth Deluge
  Reninger, Elizabeth Vision
  Reninger, Elizabeth Wood Pile
  Rilke, Rainer Maria Buddha in Glory
  Rilke, Rainer Maria For your sake poets sequester themselves
  Rilke, Rainer Maria I am, O Anxious One
  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
  Rilke, Rainer Maria What birds plunge through is not the intimate space
  Roethke, Theodore In a Dark Time
  Roethke, Theodore The Waking
  Rosenstock, Gabriel the grace showered on me
  Rosenstock, Gabriel (1) You are in me (from Year of the Goddess)
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin I smile like a flower not only with my lips
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin I'm neither beautiful nor ugly
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin Now comes the final merging
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin This love sacrifices all souls, however wise, however "awakened"
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin What can I do, Muslims? I do not know myself
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin With Us
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin You have fallen in love my dear heart
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin You are closer to me than myself (Ghazal 2798)
  Ryokan At Yahiko Mountain
  Ryokan The plants and flowers
  Ryokan The winds have died, but flowers go on falling
  Sa'di How could I ever thank my Friend?
  San'at, Mohammad 'Aref The Lamp of Your Face
  Sanai, Hakim It's your own self
  Sanai, Hakim Meditation
  Sanai, Hakim Naked in the Bee-House
  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
  Sarton, May Now I Become Myself
  Sarton, May The Work of Happiness
  Saure, Gunter In Time
  Shiwu (Stonehouse) It's something no on can force
  Shiwu (Stonehouse) Most of the time I smile
  Shiwu (Stonehouse) Paper windows bamboo walls hedge of hibiscus
  Shiwu (Stonehouse) This body's lifetime is like a bubble's
  Shiwu (Stonehouse) To glorify the Way what should people turn to
  Shore, Laura Jan Don't Say It
  silent lotus Feel the Peace
  silent lotus The Hush
  silent lotus The Temple Walls
  Silesius, Angelus In God nought e'er is known
  Silesius, Angelus Unless within you it already lies
  Sinan, Ummi The Rose
  Singh, Darshan At dusk, at dawn I gaze upon your beauty
  Singh, Darshan In what state was I
  Snyder, Gary For All
  Solovyov, Vladimir Three Meetings
  Soseki, Muso Snow Garden
  Soseki, Natsume Plum flower temple
  Sri Chinmoy (Kumar Ghose, Chinmoy) At Last I Shall Listen
  Stafford, William The Gift
  Stagnaro, Janaka Crushing Leaves
  Symeon the New Theologian The Light of Your Way
  Szymborska, Wislawa Children of Our Era
  Szymborska, Wislawa Nothing Twice
  Szymborska, Wislawa Possibilities
  T'ao Ch'ien In youth I could not do what everyone else did
  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 I touch God in my song
  Tagore, Rabindranath On many an idle day have I grieved over lost time (from Gitanjali)
  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)
  Teasdale, Sara Two Songs for Solitude
  Tennyson, Alfred Flower in the crannied wall
  Tennyson, Alfred If thou would'st hear the Nameless (from The Ancient Sage)
  Teresa of Avila In the Hands of God
  Thayumanavar All visible life that is clothed in body vesture (from Bliss that is Perfect Full)
  Thayumanavar O Mind, Be Clear
  Therese of Lisieux My Song for Today
  Therese of Lisieux The Divine Dew
  Thompson, Francis The Hound of Heaven
  Tilopa Song of the Mahamudra (Tilopa's Song to Naropa)
  Tolkien, J. R. R. Sam's Song of Strength
  Tolkien, J. R. R. The Song of Beren and LĂșthien
  Tolkien, J. R. R. Upon the hearth the fire is red
  Traherne, Thomas Love
  Trinley, Karma A Song on the View of Voidness
  Trungpa, Chogyam A flower is always happy
  Trungpa, Chogyam A Heart Lost and Discovered
  Tukaram I have found the sea
  Tukaram Smaller than the smallest atom
  Ungar, Lynn Camas Lillies
  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
  Walcott, Derek Earth
  Walters, Dorothy Don't Make Lists
  Walters, Dorothy Ruined by Your Beauty
  Walters, Dorothy The Abundance of Brightness
  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 Pioneers! O Pioneers!
  Whitman, Walt [1] I celebrate myself, and sing myself (from Song of Myself)
  Whitman, Walt [6] A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands (from Song of Myself)
  Wordsworth, William For I have learned (from Tintern Abbey)
  Wordsworth, William O joy! that in our embers (from Ode. Intimations of Immortality)
  Wordsworth, William Such was the Boy--but for the growing Youth (from The Excursion, Book 1)
  Wordsworth, William Thus while the days flew by, and years passed on (from The Prelude, Book 2)
  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
  Yeats, William Butler Sailing to Byzantium
  Yogananda, Paramahansa OM
  Yun-k'an Tzu no tricks
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