In April 2004 Sri Chinmoy celebrated the fortieth anniversary of his arrival in the West. For his students, it presented the perfect opportunity to take up a personal challenge and complete it by April - anything from learning forty songs on a new instrument to doing forty long-distance runs to repeating a mantra forty thousand times over three months.
Around January 2004, I was working for a month with other students of Sri Chinmoy in a shop in Graz, Austria when I instinctively putting a few things to paper, and before I knew it I had three poems written. Then the idea came to turn it to forty by April.
I was doing pretty well and on target with a month to go but then I took my eye off the ball and ended up having to write ten poems in the last week! Sri Chinmoy had said of his poetry that he just concentrates on the quantity and lets God take care of the quality - this was certainly true of me that last week. But it was all completed and sent off - strange thing is, I haven't written another poem since.
These three I wrote in Graz - I kind of like them because they remind me of a time when spiritually I was doing quite nicely.
Also, here's a link to some poems I like by other poets...
Richard, a student of Sri Chinmoy from the Oxford centre, runs a great site called poetseers.org where one can find spiritual poetry from all around the world...
Not to mention Sri Chinmoy's own poems...
First Steps
walking home
it had rained
the streetlights were dancing in the puddles
dancing all the way home
All I could think about
was the memory
of my youngest brother
about to take his first steps
all set up for the cameras
Dad holding him upright
and Mam waiting with arms outstretched.
I only really remember
the look on his face,
those eager moons of eyes
that have never known suspicion,
and that smile;
........to think that a smile
could break loose
from the shackles of his face
and resurface inside my heart now
all of fifteen years later........
That smile,
it filled him up so completely,
and he probably wasnt even aware
of the task ahead of him,
oblivious to everything
except his love for his mother,
and his absolute trust
that she would never let anything happen to him
Dad let him go
and he ran
Running up hills
My body hates hills.
My mind hates hills.
My vital boasts its enthusiasm
for the first hundred metres or so.
okay, my vital hates hills too.
But only my heart matters
my heart
bounding forward like a puppy
dragging its supposed owner by the leash
Gratitude
gratitude for this Yoga
every day I am left confounded
that it still survives
my clawing mind
but then again
I suspect
it has never fully recovered
I suspect
despite the maintenance of facade
deep down
it will forever remain in shock
staring slack-jawed
in amazement
as to how I was won over
by what seemed to it
to be just another theory
where I could carve the bits I liked
and wedge them in
to fill the holes
in all my other theories
gratitude for this Yoga
for the inspiration and courage I needed
to throw away these fond musings
the chance to just live this life
and let this Yoga cradle me;
you have taken my horizons
and flown away with them
towards the stars
a smile-shaped constellation
inside my heart
a smile stretching
one end of the universe
to the other
Sri Chinmoy Sri Chinmoy Centre (Global site)
Sri Chinmoy Centre (Irish home)
Return to Shane's home page