Reflection on Water Calming the Mind
My morning walk takes me through fields of wheat and barley before entering a wooded nature reserve dotted with small lakes. I often stop beside the water to rest and have begun to notice something. My mind becomes quieter here. As mindfulness finds its way more naturally into my everyday life, I wonder what is happening. Is it simply the stillness of the water? Is my mind responding before I am even aware of it? Or have I become more able to notice a calmness that was always there?
Tanka
still beside the lake
water holds the morning sky
thoughts begin to slow
does the water calm my mind
or do I at last notice
I discovered the Tanka a couple of years ago. The rhythm really works, I like that the five syllable lines describe the stillness and slowness amid the longer sentences.
I started to learn about short form poetry during the covid years initially from coleen chesebro’s book and her weekly challenges online. I wrote mostly nature inspired haiku at that time. But lately I’ve found that writing tanka prose fits with my Buddhist life and that I can write about my Buddhism in this form often connected to nature too. It adds something to my longer posts and articles.
Thank you for noticing, I really appreciate your comment which adds to the post and gives me encouragement 🙏☸️
Covid got a lot of things started. Well done, the Tanka form really works well.
Water is like therapy, the life blood of the planet.