As a professor of literature and composition for 37 years, I have, in recent years, begun every class by sharing a poem with my students. It is my way of bringing them to the present moment, an attempt to have them shed the past and to discourage them from thinking about the future for the 50 minutes we are together.

Reading poetry requires mindfulness and insists that the reader pay attention and shut out all the noise.

Practicing mindfulness is a lifetime journey for me. I first learned of it by reading some of the work of Pema Chodron, who teaches me to rejoice in the ordinary: “The key is to be here, fully connected with the moment, paying attention to the details of ordinary life…this combination of mindfulness and appreciation connects us fully with reality and brings us joy.” In the words of Stephen Batchelor: “Awareness is a process of deepening self-acceptance. It is neither a cold, surgical examination of life nor a means of becoming perfect. Whatever it observes, it embraces” (Batchelor........

© Psychology Today