The Peace of Wild Things

A poem by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

and I  feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. for a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

A poem by Hafiz

Where Dolphins Dance

Again the work starts

as soon as you open your eyes in the morning.

Hopefully you got some good rest last night.

why go into the city or the fields

without first kissing the Friend 

who always stands at your door?

It takes only a second.

Habits are human nature –

why not create some that will mint gold?

Your arms are violin bows always moving.

I have become very conscious upon

whom we all play.

thus my eyes have filled with warm

soft oceans of divine music

where jeweled dolphins dance

then leap into this world.

              –Hafiz