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Category: Tenneson Woolf Poetry

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On Being With Life

The photo above is earlier this summer near Lac Clermoustier, Quebec. It’s a road that I walked several times during the week that I was there. I was contemplating. I was appreciating friends and colleagues. And on this particular day, I was enjoying a rainbow.

From my contemplations, a most prominent theme that has arisen for me over the last couple of years is the way that humans both live life, and, are lived by life. We make plans, and, serendipity claims us. We give our attention to structure, and, emergence sweeps it all. I’ve seen it many times in many realms — personal, team, community.

In poetic form, it sounds something like this below, a reminder to myself to be with life and to be with life being with me. It names a code for living, which is so often what my poetic heart seeks.

For clarity.

Be With Life

Be with Life.
Be with Life being with us.

Let go the rest.
Let come the vibrant unfolding.

Celebrate all of it.
Keep the story big.
Keep the values clear enough.
Contribute steps small and big.
Love it all.

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Brushed Together, Horizon & Silhouette

Sunrise Near Bluffdale, Utah, July 2023

I love the way
a horizon calls out yearning for what is distant
to live in present moment.

I love the way
a silhouette invokes imagination for what lives
in front of details.

I love the way
a sunrise brushes it all together.

Let us share stories of what we love.
Of horizons that wake us.
Of silhouettes that simplify.

Let us find brushing together.

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A Poet’s Words of Wondering About Now and Next

This Morning Glory, vining its way among Lavender, compels me. Beauty and vibrancy have a way of compelling.

Questions also compel me, for the way that they vine among people. Questions give us shared domain. And beauty. And vibrancy.

Questions that invite sense-making are never out of place. What is going on? What is happening?

It’s true that some layers of attention don’t change. In the most general terms, the sun rises each day — it’s the same.

Yet nuance is what many of us are learning again. The deep nuances that live within our changing selves, and among the people with whom we work, live, play, learn, love, and lose.

At many others layers of attention, everything changes and is in perpetual becoming. The sun rising today nuances to many many layers of uniqueness.

I am a human being that wonders. That might be one of my most defining qualities. I wonder about things connected. I wonder about attentiveness. I wonder about what evolves and what emerges. In this way, every life is a rich and thick garden. Every moment with a team is invitation to learn kindness with “what is” and with “what is changing.”

It is never out of place to live curious about what is happening. It is never out of place to reclaim ability to pay attention to what is obvious, what is murky, what is simple, and what is perplexing. It’s never out of place to pay attention to paying attention.

This morning I wrote these lines, in the spirt of such wonder, from my poetic heart.

For inspiration, and for invitation with others.

What now
in this great, great journey?

What now
that is slow, steady?

What now
that is quickened, changed?

What now
in this great, great unfurling?

Perhaps, just one now.
And then another.

Perhaps the journey
knows itself to unfurl.

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There Are Times

There are times when the simple appears.
As blessing.
As clarity.

A pond, speckled with lily pads and scurrying frogs.
A reminder, from teachers near and far.
A shared home, nestled in woods.
A chair, invitation to commune with deeper self.
A path, that brings joy to steps ahead and behind.

There are times when the simple appears.
And beauty guides.
And joy is enough.


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Gifts of Circle - Question Cardsasd
Gifts of Circle is 30 short essays divided into 4 sections: 1) Circle's Bigger Purpose, 2) Circle's Practice, 3) Circle's First Requirements, and 4) Circle's Possibility for Men. From the Introduction: "Circle is what I turn to in the most comprehensive stories I know -- the stories of human beings trying to be kind and aware together, trying to make a difference in varied causes for which we need to go well together. Circle is also what I turn to in the most immediate needs that live right in front of me and in front of most of us -- sharing dreams and difficulties, exploring conflicts and coherences. Circle is what I turn to. Circle is what turns us to each other."

Question Cards is an accompanying tool to Gifts of Circle. Each card (34) offers a quote from the corresponding chapter in the book, followed by sample questions to grow your Circle hosting skills and to create connection, courage, and compassionate action among groups you host in Circle.

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In My Nature is a collection of 10 poems. From A Note of Beginning: "This collection of poems arises from the many conversations I've been having about nature. Nature as guide. Nature as wild. Nature as organized. I remain a human being that so appreciates a curious nature in people. That so appreciates questions that pick fruit from inner being, that gather insights and intuitions to a basket, and then brings the to table to be enjoyed and shared over the next week."

This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in In My Nature. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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Most Mornings is a collection of 37 poems. I loved writing them. From the introduction: "This collection of poems comes from some of my sense-making that so often happens in the morning, nurtured by overnight sleep. The poems sample practices. They sample learnings. They sample insights and discoveries. They sample dilemmas and concerns."

This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in Most Mornings. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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