Episode 18 - Poetry & paying attention
Description
In this episode I explore the relationship between poetry and paying attention – the ways in which poets are mindful - noticing things that often get missed in the merry-go-round of life. In the act of making poems, poets practice a kind of mindful attention – taking notice of what is happening in, and around, themselves in a clear-sighted yet caring and compassionate way. One of the primary purposes of poetry is to celebrate and share these acts of acute attentiveness as concisely and memorably as possible. This aspect of poetry has an affinity with the practice of zazen or mindful meditation. I begin by discussing the stated aims of a few poets and then go on to offer some examples of poems that evoke the process of paying attention with care and precision.
United States
