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Jim Moonan

Owner/Artistic Director, NorthWind Education

TEDCRED 30+

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Listen to the Poets

At any given time in a civilized society, there are poets who see what is happening and give transcendent meaning to it. (For example, T.S. Eliot's, "The Wasteland" and Ginsberg's, "Howl")

But there are countless "minor" poets (like you) who give us spoonfuls of understanding of what is happening and how everything is connected.

Let's take some time to listen to them. Good poetry is like meditation. It can reset, refocus, rejuvenate the conscience. Give us a poem that has caused you to be still and to listen. Share with us your own poetry that has poured out from your conscience.

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    Kieran Preissler

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    May 11 2012: As a 17 year old on the verge of graduation from high school, I'm a the peak of my quest to discover myself and what is "me". As of late, I've discovered my talents in athletics, music, and art. Anyway, I wrote this last night as I was taking in the atmosphere of my basement:
    I live for the small things in life,
    the moments of pure bliss.
    This ping pong ball is my metronome.
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      Jim Moonan 30+

      • +1
      May 12 2012: You are right about the small things in life. They are just as likely to hold the key to understanding as anything else.

      Here is a poem by David Whyte that reminds me of your ping pong ball:


      The Lightest Touch

      Good poetry begins with
      the lightest touch,
      a breeze arriving from nowhere,
      a whispered healing arrival,
      a word in your ear,
      a settling into things,
      then like a hand in the dark
      it arrests the whole body,
      steeling you for revelation.

      In the silence that follows
      a great line
      you can feel Lazarus
      deep inside
      even the laziest, most deathly afraid
      part of you,
      lift up his hands and walk toward the light.

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