Themes :
Awakening

The metaphor of being spiritually "awake" is used a lot but not always with deep reflection. The actual experience of sudden opening is very much like waking up . It's as if you've been drifting through life in a dream state and just not known it. Nothing around you has changed, but you finally, truly see things as they are. The dream-like barrier of mental filters and projections that has stifled your perception for so long falls away like a heavy blanket. You blink, look around yourself, and are surprised to realize you've been in a sort of half-seeing trance all your life... and now you are awake.

Poems with the theme of Awakening

  A Morning Offering
  Beannacht / Blessing
  For Freedom
  For Presence
  Abhishiktananda, Swami (Le Saux, Henri) Arunachala is a symbol
  Abil-Kheir, Abu-Said Rise early at dawn, when our storytelling begins
  Adyashanti Rest and Be Taken
  Adyashanti The Shape of Love
  Adyashanti Today I Awoke
  Akha Speaker of truth and the sun -- these two
  Akha The Essence is only as far away as the sky
  Alighieri, Dante And as a ray descending from the sky (from The Paradiso, Canto I)
  Allama Prabhu Looking for your light
  Ammons, A. R. Still
  Andal The lotus is greeting the rising sun and the lily has closed its petals; (from Tiruppavai)
  Angelou, Maya A Brave and Startling Truth
  Angelou, Maya Million Man March Poem
  Angelou, Maya On the Pulse of Morning
  Angelou, Maya Still I Rise
  Ansari, Khwaja Abdullah Empty Me of Everything But Your Love
  Attar, Farid ud-Din About True Seekers
  Attar, Farid ud-Din The pilgrim sees no form but His and knows
  Attar, Farid ud-Din God Speaks to David
  Aurobindo Reminiscence
  Avaiyar Vinayagar Agaval
  Battacharya, Mahendranath Tell me, what are you doing now, Mind
  Berry, Wendell Sabbaths 1999, VII
  Berry, Wendell The Peace of Wild Things
  Blake, William Awake! awake O sleeper of the land of shadows (from Jerusalem)
  Blake, William Hear the voice of the Bard!
  Blake, William Of the Sleep of Ulro! and of the passage through (from Jerusalem)
  Boethius Love is Lord of All
  Booth, Philip How to See a Deer
  Booth, Philip Saying It
  Brabazon, Francis Dawn is a Friend
  Brabazon, Francis The Dawn-Song Of His Mouth (from Stay With God)
  Brabazon, Francis We have waited all night for you, and now the dawn is come
  Bronte, Emily Last Lines
  Broughton, James Quit your addiction
  Broughton, James The Gardener of Eden
  Carpenter, Edward The sun shines, as of old
  Crashaw, Richard To the Name above every Name, the Name of Jesus
  cummings, e. e. i am a little church(no great cathedral)
  cummings, e. e. i thank You God for most this amazing
  Dadu Dayal So priceless is the birth, O brother
  Dickinson, Emily There came a Day at Summer's full
  Dickinson, Emily It was a quiet way
  Dogen, Eihei One of six verses composed in An'yoin Temple in Fukakusa, 1230:
  Feuerstein, Georg Dawn of Wisdom
  Feuerstein, Georg Our Worded Universe
  Feuerstein, Georg The Original Oak
  Fox, John Home Equity
  Gibran, Kahlil Good and Evil
  Gibran, Kahlil Prayer
  Gibran, Kahlil Reason and Passion
  Gibran, Kahlil Self-Knowledge
  Giraut de Bornelh Reis glorios / Glorious king
  Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Ha! What is this dance of bliss (from Faust)
  Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von In the tides of life and action (from Faust)
  Granger, Ivan M. First dawn
  Granger, Ivan M. Empty Dawn
  Gyatso, Chone Lama Lodro A Dance of Unwavering Devotion
  Gyatso, Kelsang Little Tiger
  Hafiz A New World
  Hafiz Cupbearer, it is morning, fill my cup with wine
  Hafiz It Is Time to Wake Up!
  Hafiz The Pearl on the Ocean Floor
  Halevi, Judah Lord, Where Shall I Find You?
  Hallaj, Mansur al- If They Only Knew
  Hanh, Thich Nhat Please Call Me by My True Names
  Hayati, Bibi Is it the night of power
  Heschel, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Intimate Hymn
  Hildegard von Bingen Columba aspexit / Sequence for Saint Maximin
  Hildegard von Bingen De Spiritu Sancto / To the Holy Spirit
  Hildegard von Bingen O mirum admirandum / Antiphon for Saint Disibod
  Hirshfield, Jane The Lives of the Heart
  Hirshfield, Jane The Task
  Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia / Yoka Genkaku [4] Once we awaken to the Tathagata-Zen (from The Shodoka)
  Ibn al-Farid, Umar I sought her from myself (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
  ibn Gabirol, Solomon I Sought Thee Daily
  ibn Gabirol, Solomon Rise and open the door that is shut
  ibn Gabirol, Solomon You are wise (from From Kingdom's Crown)
  Ikkyu (Sojun, Ikkyu) To write something and leave it behind us
  Iqbal, Allama Muhammad Selfhood can demolish the magic of this world (from Baal-i-Jibreel)
  Iqbal, Allama Muhammad To the Saqi (from Baal-i-Jibreel)
  Iraqi, Fakhruddin Love the phoenix cannot be trapped
  Islam, Nazrul Song of Dawn
  Jimenez, Juan Ramon Who Knows What is Going On
  Kabir O Slave, liberate yourself
  Kabir The Guest is inside you, and also inside me
  Kalidasa Exhortation of the Dawn
  Kerouac, Jack The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
  Khayyam, Omar [38] One Moment in Annihilation's Waste
  Khayyam, Omar [53] With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead
  Kuzminsky, Irina A Sequence of Embraces
  Lakota (Anonymous) Three Lakota Songs
  Lee, Li-Young Night Mirror
  Leon, Luis de Ode to Francisco Salinas
  Leon, Luis de The Life Removed
  Li Bai Along the Stream
  Li Bai Clearing at Dawn
  Li Bai Parting
  Lowitz, Leza Waiting
  Lu Tung Pin The Hundred Character Tablet (Bai Zi Bei)
  Marpa (Lotsawa, Marpa) Realisation of Dreams and Mind
  McCombs, Chris Is This Your Time?
  Merton, Thomas Aubade -- The City
  Merton, Thomas Stranger
  Meshullam da Piera Song at Dawn
  Milarepa Song to the Rock Demoness
  Mueller, Lisel Why I Need the Birds
  Nachmanides (Nachman, Moses ben) Prayers for the Protection and Opening of the Heart
  Niffari (an-Niffari, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan) The Standing "My Time Has Come"
  Nirmala it is here
  O'Donohue, John For a New Beginning
  Oliver, Mary Starlings in Winter
  Oliver, Mary Sunrise
  Oliver, Mary Thirst
  Osborne, Arthur Be Still
  Porete, Marguerite You who would read this book
  Rabjampa, Longchen An Adamantine Song on the Ever-Present
  Rahman Baba Soul Train
  Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) Once for all, this time
  Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) So I say: Mind, don't you sleep
  Ramprasad (Sen, Ramprasad) Why disappear into formless trance?
  Ramsay, Jay Blessed Unrest
  Ramsay, Jay St. Ives
  Reninger, Elizabeth Dawn
  Reninger, Elizabeth Late Autumn
  Reninger, Elizabeth Wood Pile
  Rilke, Rainer Maria Buddha in Glory
  Rilke, Rainer Maria For your sake poets sequester themselves
  Rilke, Rainer Maria Rememberance
  Rilke, Rainer Maria The Second Elegy (from The Duino Elegies)
  Roethke, Theodore The Waking
  Rosenstock, Gabriel not the slaked thirst of Bayazid
  Rosenstock, Gabriel (8) Barefoot (from Year of the Goddess)
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin Ah, what was there in that light-giving candle that it set fire to the heart, and snatched the heart away?
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin I smile like a flower not only with my lips
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin Inner Wakefulness
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin On Love
  Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
  Sarmad My friend, engage your heart in his embrace
  Saure, Gunter The Meeting
  Schneider, Pat Instructions for the Journey
  Shabistari, Mahmud The Tavern Haunters
  Shiwu (Stonehouse) Trying to become a Buddha is easy
  Shore, Laura Jan Again
  Singh, Darshan At dusk, at dawn I gaze upon your beauty
  Singh, Darshan In what state was I
  Snyder, Gary At Tower Peak
  Snyder, Gary Manzanita
  Soseki, Muso Buddha's Satori
  Soseki, Natsume Plum flower temple
  Stafford, William Any Morning
  Stafford, William Yes
  Symeon the New Theologian We awaken in Christ's body
  Teasdale, Sara Dew
  Therese of Lisieux My Song for Today
  Therese of Lisieux The Divine Dew
  Thomas, R. S. Lore
  Thompson, Francis The Hound of Heaven
  Tilopa Song of the Mahamudra (Tilopa's Song to Naropa)
  Tolkien, J. R. R. EƤrendil the Mariner
  Tolkien, J. R. R. Frodo's Lament for Gandalf
  Tolkien, J. R. R. Sam's Song of Strength
  Trungpa, Chogyam The Education of the Warrior
  Tu Fu Visiting the Monastery at Lung-men
  Tukaram This heart of mine is determined that for me now
  Ueshiba, Morihei The rays of the rising sun flow in
  Ungar, Lynn The Way It Is
  Vivekananda Song of the Sanyasin
  Walters, Dorothy Don't Make Lists
  Walters, Dorothy Gifts
  Whitman, Walt I think I could turn and live with animals
  Whitman, Walt O Captain! my Captain!
  Whitman, Walt Pioneers! O Pioneers!
  Whitman, Walt [44] It is time to explain myself -- let us stand up (from Song of Myself)
  Wordsworth, William "If the dear faculty of sight should fail (from The Excursion, Book 4)
  Wordsworth, William Such was the Boy--but for the growing Youth (from The Excursion, Book 1)
  Yeats, William Butler Crazy Jane and God
  Yeats, William Butler The Dawn
  Yeats, William Butler The Lake Isle of Innisfree
  Yeats, William Butler The Secret Rose
  Yen-shou, Yung-ming Immovable Mind
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