What We Need Is Here
Horseback on Sunday morning,
harvest over, we taste persimmon
and wild grape, sharp sweet
of summer's end. In time's maze
over fall fields, we name names
that rest on graves. We open
a persimmon seed to find the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed's marrow.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.
The poem "Wild Geese", From Selected Poems of Wendell Berry.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: How do you relate to the wisdom of "what we need is here?" Can you share a story of a time you came in touch with your truest reality through what was in front of you? How do you develop the eyes to see the deepest reality in front of you?
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10 Past Reflections
On Jan 17, 2020 Carol A Tyx wrote :
The poem as printed here as a few errors, words omitted. As a poet myself, I would urge the posters of this blog to take care to print texts as they have been written.
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On Nov 24, 2019 Suzanne wrote :
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On Sep 22, 2019 Michael Burke wrote :
It’s the use of the word abandon that puzzles me. Are the geese abandoning us? Or is abandon Used to express the fleetingness of reality and it all we have is the present moment?
1 reply: Mike | Post Your Reply
On Mar 20, 2016 david doane wrote :
Past and future are imagination. Only the present is alive. Living and dying are happening right now, and what I need is here and now. The challenge is to be present, be responsive here and now to myself, to those I am relating to, and to the world I'm in. The only time I've come in touch with my truest reality is through being present to what was in me, in front of me, and around me, sharing and operating out of what I am experiencing. When I've done that in relating to others, the experience is rich. I develop the eyes to see the deepest reality by practicing being present. Spending time with someone who is good at being in the present was of great help to me in developing the eyes to see deeper..
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On Mar 18, 2016 Abhishek wrote :
Being clear in eye
Ah! that is surely worth praying for
Because I have eyes upon eyes upon eyes
Lenses upon lenses
Filters on filters...
In fleeting moments
I'm stripped of them
By a sharp sweet wild grape
And I glimpse raw reality
Uncut by words
Uncoloured by "me"
Each time I tried
To develop those eyes
I loaded with more and more
already-always "seeings"
But in rest and surrender
A rude shock of love comes
Sweeps me off my feet...
And tells me all I need is here
On Mar 2, 2021 Karen wrote :
For refelection the following:
Developing a mindful awakeness in every moment.
It is a "knowing trust", but it is honed and developed over time and through experience..
It is unlearning old habits that can "steal our inner peace"
Like the perssimon seed that holds the promise of a tree... Noticing it and letting the thought flow to other elements and back to geese on high whose ancient faith takes them to familiar places each year in their migratory flight.
We can rest in "abandon as in sleep"...
That what we need is here...
If we awake to each moment and respond to it and one another, rather than to simply quickly react.
Reaction (if merely done fast) can take important lessons from us, rather than teach us deeper, yet known ways...
Again, what we need is here...
I am still battling with "being fully present each moment".
Whem I am, it brings immence peace and insight, about myself and the other and how intertwined everything is...
Being "a part of" where the sky closes and yet falling into it with trusting abandon and the knowing "eyes clear"...[Hide Full Comment]
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