I’ve been drawn to poetry lately. Poetry is often misunderstood, because it must be read with the eye of the soul.

To see what the Poet is conveying with their words delivered in a poem takes feeling and seeing with inner awareness.

Keats wrote: Poetry should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts and appear almost as a Remembrance.

I admire the long-forgotten poets of yesteryear, from Dickinson, Emerson, Frost, Keats.

I have the Ten Poems collection written by Roger Housden. Ten Poems to Change Your Life, Ten Poems to Open Your Heart, Ten Poems to Set you Free, Ten Poems to Change Your Life Again & Again.

I also have 2 of his other books; Risking Everything, Dancing with Joy. I am his student. I learn something every time I read / reread his reflections.

 Roger’s reflections and interpretation are full of insight into poems. His Ten Poems series has been a valuable companion to me for over twenty years.

This morning, I read an Emily Dickinson poem that was posted on Meta:

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

      I shall not live in vain:

If I can ease one life the aching,

     Or cool one pain.

Or help one lonely person

      Into happiness again

      I shall not live in vain

It was followed by a breakdown of the poem in the form of an English literature lesson. I was so happy reading this simple, yet heartfelt poem that I was instantly moved to my Roger Housden Ten Poems Collection. I let the energy of my spirit select the Ten Poem Series and guide me to a beautiful poem to share here on my blog with readers.

The poem is from; Ten Poems to Set You free. The poem is by Naomi Shihab Nye.

So Much Happiness

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.

With Sadness there is something to rub against,

a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.

When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to

pick up,

something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs

or change.

But happiness floats.

It doesn’t need you to hold it down.

It doesn’t need anything.

Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,

And disappears when it wants to.

You are happy either way.

Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house

and now live over a quarry of noise and dust

cannot make you unhappy.

Everything has a life of its own,

it too could wake up filled with possibilities

of coffee cake and ripe peaches,

and love even the floor which needs to be swept,

the soiled linens and scratched records….

Since there is no place large enough

to contain so much happiness,

you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you

into everything you touch. You are not responsible.

You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit

for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,

and in that way be known.

Roger Housden Notes

The stance with sadness there is something to rub up against, …

 Sadness has a gravity to it that weighs down both body & mind.

Sadness can turn to self-pity and become a lid to seal away our happiness for years. Depression can become addictive, a whole new way of life. Notice how many verbs there are in these few lines, and all of them refer to doing something in response to sadness: to rub against… to tend…  pieces to pick up…  to hold… sadness requires action. The need to feel in control or fix things.

Happiness on the other hand just happens; shrug… raise your hands…take no credit… float. It’s difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.

It doesn’t need you to hold it down.

It doesn’t need anything.

Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,

And disappears when it wants to.

You are happy either way.

Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house

and now live over a quarry of noise and dust

cannot make you unhappy.

This poem is not referring to the comforts of home and job that afford us a safety net. Even though these do provide contentment.

What comes from stability can become numbing & sad (routines become boring and can close us off to ourselves) if we don’t take the time to honor who we are, we feel lethargic at best.  It is so easy to become inflexible and take on the persona of our close-knit familiar structures that we forget who we are. True happiness untethered to income, social status, acceptance can only be had with our own authenticity.

I wish for you today to take a moment and escape into the essence of you. Breathe, rest, listen to a beautiful song, a bird singing, the hum of the earth, raise your hands high to the sky and feel the gentle cold or heat of the day. Let yourself smile and dance and love you. Then go and hug someone else. Quit carrying sadness for a brief time and notice that it will become easier to step into that peace of happiness. Let it be.

With Love,

Ladybird...