Hello and welcome to the Daily Poem. I'm Heidi White, and today is Monday, May 3rd. And today I'm going to read for you a poem by American poet Chase Twitchell. She was born in 1950, and she studied at the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop where she got her master's in fine arts. She's written several volumes of poetry,

and today's poem is called Cloud of Unknowing, and this is how it goes. In spring, the apple and cherry trees are clouds and 20 shades of pink, yet always behind them, a vaster radiance flares. What what i see i see through drifts and veils there must be cloud in me too

snow is a cloud of distracting beauty its tiny sharp flowers aloft with weight they can't bear each question must have a body i know my body so what is my

question who speaks to me out of the blossoming cloud this poem is only ten lines long it's written in two

stanzas and plus the title, of course. And yet within

those 10 lines and the title, there is just a very rich interplay of imagery and illusion that

create a profound meditation on human spirituality. So I'm going to point out a few things about

the poem and then leave you to reflect on its riches. So first let's start with the title, cloud of unknowing. That's not just the title of this poem. It's also a reference or an allusion to a book to a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer that was written in the late Middle Ages

in the second half of the 14th century. It's an anonymous text on Christian mysticism.

And this is interesting actually to connect with the particular poet.

Chase Twitchell is a practicing Buddhist. She practices Zen Buddhism. And although Zen Buddhism and Christian

mysticism are very different from each other, there's many, many points in which they do not connect.

And that's important to say. And yet there's also some points of resemblance. And Chase Twitchell is

pointing out here, even in the title, before we even start, she's pointing out that she is going to speak about human spirituality and the search for divine reality through a particular lens.

Both Zen Buddhism and Christian mysticism advocate for an approach to divine reality that's founded on a humble posture of contemplation

rather than as contrasted with simply an intellectual approach. And that is particularly conducive not only to poetry but also to prayer.

And that's a very profound connection for Chase Twitchell to make here.

She's going to compare the experience of looking at various kinds of clouds in the natural world

with the search for significance, the search for human spirituality, the search for truth,

the search for divine reality.

And she's advocating already within the title, an approach of mystery and of unknowing, a posture

of contemplation rather than an attempt to intellectually understand the spiritual mysteries of life,

...