Tips on Responding to Poetry:
Read (or listen to the audio link below) and allow the words to simply sit with you and sink in.
Maybe choose your favourite line or a few words that resonate.
Set a timer for 5 minutes, pick up a notebook and write anything that comes to mind.
We conclude gentle June by returning to our original message: summer does not have to mean speeding up. There is as much need for rest and protecting your own capacity now as there is at any other time of the year.
Firstly, an apology. Today’s poem is a repeat of the one shared last time as I feel it is just a relevent to this week’s topic. However, in order to still offer something different to new my regular subscribers, alongside it I am sharing an old favourite of mine - the beautiful classic ‘Lesiure’ by W H Davies. I hope that even if you’ve heard these words before, they will prompt fresh reflection for you.
Always Up
There’s a saying that when you reach the peak, find a higher mountain to climb.
But surely when you get to the top it should be resting time?
Why is up always strived for and coming down seen as wrong?
If musical notes only rose higher, they would never form a tuneful song.
A chest must fall as much as rise for you to be alive.
Stopping, resting, going back are all needed to thrive.
© Leona Marie, 2025
Leisure
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to pass, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
© W H Davies, 1911 (published in Songs of Joy and Others)
Journal Prompts
