POETRY

Poetry Changes You as Nothing Else Can

Glimpses into the magical world beyond

David Majister
5 min readDec 14, 2020

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Photo by Taryn Elliott from Pexels

During my 10-day silent retreat, reading was forbidden. You could write, draw, walk, meditate, pray, eat, smile. Even browse the bookstore — so tantalizing. But no reading.

Each day I’d meet with Rob, my spiritual director. That was the only non-silent part of the day, chatting with Rob.

A couple of days in, I went on a walk in the country lanes around the retreat center, and I told Rob about what happened:

“A butterfly landed in the hedgerow, right in front of me,” I said. “I just watched. It was a beautiful blue and white. Then I reached out to touch it, to cup it in my hands, and it flew away.”

The incident left me overwhelmed with wonder. I told Rob how it reminded me of some lines from William Blake:

He who binds himself to a joy
Does the wingèd life destroy
He who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sunrise

As Rob’s role was to be my spiritual guide, I expected him to use this as a starting point of interrogation, to ask: “What joys are you binding yourself to?” or something like that.

But that wasn’t Rob’s way. Instead, he asked: “Do you like poetry, then?”

When Rob asked the question, I hadn’t really thought about whether I liked poetry. I figured maybe I did. I also wondered: Was it really that unusual to memorize and recite William Blake? But I didn’t say that aloud.

“Maybe you should read some poetry in the library,” Rob said.

I double-checked with Rob that I’d understood correctly. I was on silent retreat. Reading was forbidden. There was a library? And my spiritual director was telling me to go there?

He said yes, that’s what he was suggesting that I do.

My bibliophile heart fluttered with joy. I made a pledge with myself that I would only look at poetry books. I’d stick to the rules of the retreat, only using the exemption Rob had given me. I spent much of the rest of the retreat in the library. I devoured the poetry shelves and got lost in the lines of Rilke and Rumi.

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David Majister

10x top writer. World traveler (26 countries). Runner (1k+ miles). Meditator (9.5k minutes). Introvert. Wild swimmer. Story maker.