The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

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So welcome, welcome to everybody.

It's nice to be here with you all.

Today I'm going to continue on this theme of poetry of practice.

And today I'm going to use a poem that chances are you've heard it.

I think that I've heard it a number of times in Dharma talks, but there's something about this poem.

And I would say in all poems that have a, I don't know, the poems that tend to touch us share something with the suitess, you know, like the early Buddhist literature.

And what they share is this depth or maybe we could say with that is even though with we might read them or hear them again.

We find something different.

We hear something different.

And I know certainly in the suit as this is true for me, many of you know that Gil and I have like taught a suitess for a number of years now.

I'm not currently teaching, of course, right now.

But and we often are saying this like, wow, we've taught this already once before, but when we look at it again, we're finding something new.

And the same thing with poems, that even though they might be similar, that we find something new when we look at them.

Not only might they be similar, might they be the exact same poem, but maybe we are not the same.

And this poem that I will drop and during our guided meditation this morning, something that's very simple.

It doesn't have a lot of complicated imagery, but it has some real distinct imagery and not a lot of complicated concepts, but maybe part of the power is in its simplicity.

Part of the power is part of the imagery that's being used that I think all of us can find a part of our lives, find something that is relevant for this particular poem.

And I will give the name of the poem and the name of the poet after I ring the bell, because I would just you know allow yourself to just experience it without already having some preconceived ideas of whether you know the poem or not or what it's about or sometimes when we're on our computers.

There's a temptation of like, oh, just Google it or you know something, but I just encourage me just to allow the poem to be received and experienced.

And then we can explore it together afterwards.

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