Depth of the Unchanging One

It’s our last full week of NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. I hope you’re enjoying the A to Z of Depth.

One Unchanging Substance, One Underlying Being by Maria L. Berg 2025

Yesterday we dove into change and transformation, so when I read, “the human mind is capable of fathoming that unchanging one behind the many, and having fathomed it, the mind would understand what makes the center hold . . .” in Does the Center Hold?: An Introduction to Western Philosophy (amazon assoc link) by Donald Palmer this morning, I thought that would be a great depth to explore today.

Does the Center Hold? attributes the idea of the unchanging one to Thales of Miletus (ca. 580 B.C.E.), a pre-Socratic Greek Philosopher who is believed to be the first to use nature to explain the world instead of mythology. He believed that all of nature is based on a single ultimate substance and theorized that the substance is water. Not exactly wrong, but he also believed the planet Earth floated on water.

Parmenides of Elea, also a pre-Socratic 6th Century B.C.E. Greek philosopher, known for his poem, On Nature(pdf), proposed the idea (said to be one of the most radical in philosophy by Philosophy.Institute) that reality is unchanging and indivisible. He wrote that there is only “Being,” a singular, eternal existence. He believed that “change and motion are impossible because they would imply the existence of something that ‘is not,’ and nothingness, in his view, cannot exist.” He proposed that the information we receive from our senses are fabrications, creating illusions of change. Plato used Parmenides in one of his Dialogues, putting Socrates in argument with Parmenides.

Plato’s Theory of Forms also proposes an idea of the unchanging one, but in his philosophy it is the Form of the Good which is the ultimate source and the highest reality (replace Thales’s natural source, water, with the abstract concept of Good). Plato believed that everything we perceive in the physical world is a copy or shadow of eternal archetypes outside time and space (Depth Psychology‘s precursor, perhaps?). The forms are uncreated, indestructible, unchanging, and eternal. The forms can only be understood by an intellect that has transcended the senses, and according to Plato, understanding the Forms is what leads to enlightenment.

Aristotle also presented an idea of the unchanging one, but he called it the Unmoved mover, or Prime mover. Aristotle’s idea was that for motion to exist in the universe, there has to be an unmoved mover to move other things (a first uncaused cause). He also describes the prime mover as an independent divine eternal unchanging immaterial substance.

These philosophies of the unchanging one made me think of The All in The Kybalion. I chose The Kybalion as my source material for found poetry for Heron Tree this year. I searched for best sellers in 1912 and depth, and found this interesting book that describes itself as “A study of the hermetic philosophy of ancient Egypt and Greece by Three Initiates.”

“Under and back of, the Universe of Time, Space and Change, is ever to be found The Substantial Reality—the Fundamental Truth.”—The Kybalion.

One thing I find very amusing about The Kybalion is it quotes The Kybalion. Above is the epigraph to Chapter IV. THE ALL. These three initiates (identified as one writer, William Walker Atkinson) appear to agree with Parmenides that though we may think the world is constantly changing, these are only appearances or manifestations of an underlying “Substantial Reality.” Atkinson writes that the Hermetic Masters call this underlying power by the Hermetic name “THE ALL.” According to “Hermetic thinkers of all times, as well as of those illumined souls who have reached higher planes of being” the inner nature of THE ALL is unknowable. In the Kybalion, Atkinson presents THE ALL as infinite living mind. He goes on to say The All is spirit, but then explains that spirit is a name man gives to infinite living mind. Gotta love those circular definitions. And he pretty much ends his explanation with THE ALL is something we must acknowledge that we cannot fully understand. Here are some more fun quotes from the Kybalion that are quoted in the Kybalion:

“THE ALL creates in its Infinite Mind countless Universes, which exist for aeons of Time—and yet, to THE ALL, the creation, development, decline and death of a million Universes is as the time of the twinkling of an eye.”—The Kybalion.

“The Infinite Mind of THE ALL is the womb of Universes.”—The Kybalion.

“The Universe is Mental—held in the Mind of THE ALL.”—The Kybalion.

Will this depth study lead to one eternal, unchanging substance? What do you think?

Today’s Poem

Show Time

We hit the stage
hot mics, and bright hot lights
and the drinking people stare
almost a village from stage right

Playing rhythm in his cowboy hat
he is in his youth
all his years of hard living passed
Don’t do anything at all

The beat pounded out in army camouflage
jittery, obsessive, compact and cute
And if you go chasing rabbits And
you know you’re going to fall

Leather chaps fresh off his Harley fronts
a man of a million voices in sweet tenor tones
watches the black and white tiled dance floor for
the men on the chessboard [to]
Get up and tell you where to go

Long hair in all black wailing lead
makes up for his lack of memory
with skilled inspiration for when
your mind is moving low

And I thump the bass
with a woman’s curves
and a permasmile in lace
wanting to stay forever
in your fight
for your right
to party
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge. And it’s Open Link Night at dVerse Poetry Pub, so link up your poem, and read and support the other dVerse poets.

And don’t forget, Academy of American Poet’s National Poetry Month Celebration, Poetry & the Creative Mind is tonight, April 24 at 7:30 pm Eastern!

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about the unchanging one? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.

Transformation

It’s our last full week of NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. I hope you’re enjoying the A to Z of Depth.

Transformations by Maria L. Berg 2025

Depth can lead to transformation. Transformation is change:
a. change in composition or structure
b. change in outward form or appearance
c. change in character or condition

Looking at our depth definitions, transformation could come from: 1b. A profound or intense state; also: a reprehensibly low condition. Or definition 3. The quality of being deep (when looking at the third definition of deep), definition 4. The degree of intensity; also: the quality of being profound, or full (as of knowledge), or definition 5. The quality or state of being complete or thorough.

Stages of Change

According to Nahrain Raihan and Mark Cogburn in their article Stages of Change Theory, The transtheoretical model (TTM) is “one of the most commonly applied theoretical and clinical frameworks in mental health” for understanding the factors that influence change behavior.

Let’s look at how this model relates to depth and transformation. In the Transformation section of Walking In This World, the second book in The Complete Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron writes, “It is a spiritual law that when we are ready to transform, transformation will come to us.”

  1. Precontemplation = Shallowness. The state of being before we are ready to transform.
  2. Contemplation = Looking deeper. Having an open mind and thinking there might be something better.
  3. Preparation = This is when we consciously foster openness, and creativity in ourselves, opening ourselves up for opportunities for growth and change. We are now ready to look more deeply into our inner lives and begin a journey of self-discovery.
  4. Action = This is where so many of the definitions of depth we’ve been exploring come in: Abstract and concrete thinking; Belief; Complexity; Data; Facing Fears; Deep Image; Depth Psychology; Questions; Deep Knowledge; Mindfulness; Reading; Reflection; and everything we do to think and live more deeply.
  5. Maintenance = The transformation that becomes deep-seated; a “constant collaboration between what we are made from and what we wish to make of ourselves.” ~Julia Cameron

So why are we so resistant to change? Fear of loss. Research has shown that fear of loss is twice as powerful as the joy of gain. Fear of losing the safety of what we know wins out over the hope of positive change in the unknown. But as long as we continue to want to change and see set-backs as a natural part of the cyclical nature of change, transformation can be achieved.

Today’s Poem

I Am an Open Book, but Someone Tore Out the Pages

“Both a bird and a shaman are common symbols of transcendence, and often are combined” ~Joseph L. Henderson

Not thinking seriously about the dove’s deep coo
at my second-story window, I note it until
its blonde wing flutters at the pane, pulling
me from deep reading. I contemplate how
rarely I hear that full-throated
croak so close, and I’m not thinking seriously
I’m distracted, but it’s deeper than the moan
of the lone lovebird: it’s the complete betrayal
of these walls to keep me safe, protect me from
outside noises of the unknown.
I’ve got to do something. But what can I do?
Now, sitting with my wireless headphones
not thinking seriously about the swirling
stereo sounds, I wonder if the spring dove’s coos
have attracted a mate. I’m distracted by the deep
loss in my inner voice, and search the empty
panes for doves.

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about transformation? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.

Sounding for Depth

It’s our last full week of NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. I hope you’re enjoying the A to Z of Depth.

Olaus Magnus Historia om de nordiska folken. Bok 2 – Kapitel 12 – Om de norska hafskusternas omättliga djup. – Utgivningsår 1555.

Sounding is a way to physically measure the depth of a body of water. Using a thin rope with a plummet usually made of lead to weight the end, the leadsman would cast the rope into the water and let it fall until it reached the bottom. Then, by counting knots in the rope representing one fathom (six feet) each he would sound the depth. He would yell out “by the mark” and the number for each of the knots, and “by the deep” followed by the last number if the depth was between knots.

The term deep-six, meaning to destroy or dispose of something irretrievably, is believed to come from “by the deep six.” Six fathoms being the depth where something thrown overboard would be hard to recover.

Samuel Clement’s pen name, Mark Twain, came from his years as a river boat pilot. “By the mark twain” (twain being old English for two) was yelled out for the safe depth of two fathoms.

Sounding was used for safety, navigation, mapping, and bathymetry. Bathymetry—from the ancient Greek bathús meaning deep and métron meaning measure—is the study of underwater depths. The first recorded evidence of water depth measurements are from Ancient Egypt over 3000 years ago. Sounding is even mentioned in the bible:

about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; And sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day. ~Acts 27:27-29

In 1802 Edward Massey, a clockmaker, invented a sounding machine.

“The machine was designed to be fixed to a sounding lead and line. It featured a rotor which turned a dial as the lead sank to the sea floor. On striking the sea floor, the rotor would lock. Massey’s sounding machine could then be hauled in and the depth could be read off the dials in fathoms.” (Wikipedia)

Modern Sounding

Today, sounding is high tech, using sonar for echo sounding, along with satellite bathymetry, computer models, and compilations of all these techniques. For one example of using these techniques, take a look at Sounding the Northern Seas.

Though sounding has gone high tech, many ships still have a traditional sounding line for emergencies.

Today’s Poem

How the Music is Stolen

Don’t tell me I’m accepted
to receive your instruction
after my audition then tell me
that you’ll have to tear me down
start from scratch, reteach me everything
starting with scale fingering.

Don’t tell me that my last teacher
who taught me the piano is a percussion
instrument, who changed my fingers to mallets
who made practice fun, convinced
me that I could play anything
needs to be forgotten, yet another
wrong way, keeping me from greatness.

Don’t tell me how lucky I am
that you’ve seen my potential
that my formative years of daily practice
so many nerve-shattering recitals,
contests, and conservatories
would all amount to nothing
if I hadn’t played for you.

How is it that each new teacher
believes he is fated to form
me and shape me, yet needs
to steal a little of the music from
inside me, and replace it with disdain.

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge, and the dVerse Poetics prompt.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about Sounding? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.

Depth is Recondite

It’s our last full week of NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. I hope you’re enjoying the A to Z of Depth.

Recondite is also a DJ. I just love the space he’s in.

“To gain a reputation for wisdom a man must seem to have a store of recondite knowledge . . .” ~Bertram Russell

I like the word “seem” in that quote.

Recondite is an adjective meaning: difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible; not known about by many people and difficult to understand.

“Difficult to penetrate or comprehend: recondite” is the third definition of deep, so depth’s third definition: “the quality of being deep” would lead to depth meaning the quality of being recondite.

How do we understand depth when in its own definition it is difficult to penetrate or understand? How would we approach any subject or topic that is recondite?

  1. Discussion. Bouncing ideas off other people to come to some consensus.
  2. Break the subject into its smallest parts and start with something that is comprehensible.
  3. Take your time. Learn a little bit, let it rest, then revisit and review. Learn a little more and ruminate.

Searching for recondite knowledge, so we can gain a reputation for wisdom, I found an interesting article: “Infrasound, human health, and adaptation: an integrative overview of recondite hazards in a complex environment“

And this pdf of Recondite Harmony: Essays on Puccini’s Operas.

Today’s Poem

Recondite Day

Pressure on her chest
and a lick on her nose
mean it’s time to get up
and feed the cat.

Pen to page to
start the day
morning light slants
through where the
curtains break.

She explores her depths
barely escaping
the swirling tentacles
of the octopus of her soul.

And there she meets
her shadow and
invites her to tea.
They sip steaming
Darjeeling and reminisce
about the things they
never dared to dream.

And when she isn’t looking
her shadow steals her pen
and suddenly she finds
herself deep in the dark
cave of the octopus’s den.

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge.

This Thursday, April 24 at 7:30 pm Eastern is Academy of American Poet’s National Poetry Month Celebration, Poetry & the Creative Mind.

It’s free. Just RSVP.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about Recondite Depth? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.

A Day of Rest

Two of my poems (first drafts) were discussed on Rattle’s Critique of the Week this week. Watch this video to share in this exciting learning experience:

Today being Sunday, there is no A to Z. Here is my poem in response to the prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s Poem a Day Challenge.

Easter Bunny

Little brown bunny
sitting by the mailbox
where did you hide those eggs?
I don’t want to work for them
not for the green one with stickers
not for the pink one with wax resist flowers
not for the sky-blue one with sparkles
I want to rest into this day
the potato salad is made
and all I have to do is get dressed
show up and be
Oh, fuzzy brown bunny
greeting me at the end of the driveway
where do you get eggs anyway?

Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.
And for those of you celebrating, Happy Easter!

Deep Questions

It’s already April, and at Experience Writing that means it’s time for NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. Continuing this year’s theme, I’m writing about the A to Z of Depth.

Deep Questions by Maria L. Berg 2025

To learn anything, we need to ask questions. To reach a depth of understanding we need to ask a lot of questions. How do we come up with the questions to get to the deepest answers?

We can start by using the Deep Knowledge Worksheet from the Depth of Knowledge post to explore our subject as deeply as we can, and see what questions we still have. We could play the What If and What If Game from my Day 1 post on Abstract and Concrete Thinking. But then, how do we decide where to focus for further exploration?

Topoi

While reading Mindful Writing by Brian Jackson which I came across while writing the Depth Through Mindfulness post, I read about a system for creating arguments used by students of rhetoric in ancient Greece. Topoi (plural of topos meaning place) are questions to contemplate when trying to find where to start your argument.

ToposRelated Questions
Definition,
category, or
essence		What is this thing? How is it defined? How is it classified (with other things? How does this thing work? What is its purpose?
divisionHow can this topic be divided? What are its parts? How do the parts relate? Which parts are most important?
comparisonWhat is this thing like? What is it not like? What analogies or metaphors could be used to compare this to other things?
cause or consequenceWhat happens because of this thing? What are the consequences of it? Who or what is influenced by it?
antecedent or originWhere did this thing come from? Who started it? What is its history? What is it a consequence of?
authorityWho speaks about this? Who are the experts or stakeholders? Who knows the most about this? Who cares about this?
valueWho values this thing? Is it good or bad? How is this thing evaluated? What laws, morals or practices are influenced by this? What’s the consensus on it? The disagreements?
spaceWhere is this thing? What is its reach, scope? Where is it concentrated? How far does it go?
possibilityWhat’s possible related to this thing? How much can it change? Who has power to change it? What’s difficult or impossible about this?

We can choose to focus our argument (or exploration) in one topos, or explore several topoi to deepen our argument.

Topoi led me to an amazing website called Excellence Cluster Topoi (2007-2019). This website stopped updating in 2019, but it is so full of interesting information, I don’t think I’ll ever run out of reasons to visit it. This site was part of a world-wide network of ancient studies. Reading it is like stepping into a section of the Noosphere.

Just one Edition Topoi titled Space and Knowledge has downloadable articles I can’t wait to read like:

The Textile Revolution. Research into the Origin and Spread of Wool Production between the Near East and Central Europe

The Trialectics of Knowledge, Space and Identity in Ancient Civilizations and in the Study of Antiquity

Representing Authority in Ancient Knowledge Texts

The Meaning of Ancient Words for ‘Earth’: An Exercise in Visualizing Colexification on a Semantic Map (Depth Grammar anyone? 🙂)

Spatial Metaphors of the Ancient World: Theory and Practic

and so much more.

In the Exhibitions section I found The Soul is an Octopus an exhibition in Berlin in 2016 where Topoi researchers “presented their ongoing research on ancient conceptions of the interaction between body and soul and attempts at localization of the soul within the human body.”

“The exhibition introduced three important questions that were central to classical philosophers and physicians alike:”

  • What is the ruling part of the soul?
  • Where does it reside?
  • How does it communicate with the body?

Now those are some deep questions.

Forming a Hypothesis

Another way to focus on what questions to ask is to start with a hypothesis. A hypothesis is an assumption or idea proposed for the sake of argument so that it can be tested to see if it is true. For today’s post my hypothesis is: Asking the right questions will lead to depth.

How would I start to explore that hypothesis? I would have to start by defining my variables (the parts that are most likely to change). In an experiment, we want to keep all the variables constant except for one, the one we want to evaluate. What do I mean by right questions? What do I mean by depth? How do I measure the rightness of a question? How do I measure depth?

I can revisit the depth scale I created for our Artist Date Drawing Depth Data to measure depth. To find the “right” questions, I can generate questions and observe if answering them gets me to the lowest rungs of my depth scale. A “right” question would be a question that measures Deep Dive or lower with the goal of generating questions that reach Sea Floor. I will need to redefine my levels slightly:
Deep Dive: The question leads to further exploration of the subject using multiple sources.
Scuba: The question leads to finding unanswerable questions: Areas where both sides of an argument could be right.
Submarine: The question leads to personal discoveries that can be applied to further exploration.
Sea floor: The question leads to epiphanies, real change in thinking, and/ or recognizing new truths in the world.

Do you have an hypothesis about depth? I would love to read it in the comments.

This sounds like a fun and worthwhile experiment. I’ll work on it for the rest of the month and if I get to some worthwhile conclusions, I’ll share them in my reflections post at the end.

Today’s Poem

* Content Warning: domestic abuse

The Crime of Dirty Counters

Every time I wipe down my counters
I think of the man who said he
would get so angry at his wife
because she didn’t wipe down the counters.

I don’t remember where I encountered him
If he was fact or fiction, but he’s stuck
in my head. And I always wonder
why didn’t he wipe down the counters
himself?

I imagine him coming home
seeing splatters of oil
hissed from a pan
a tiny floret of broccoli
some pepper and salt
and he sits fuming in his seat
at the head of the table
as she serves him his
braised beef and sauteed
vegetables that he won’t
even taste because all he
can think about is how
she neglects his kitchen
counters. She yammers on
about her day, but he doesn’t hear.
He sees broccoli florets
in her teeth and on her tongue
and his anger grows. He tells her
he has work to do and retires
to his den, so he won’t
slap her filthy face, again.

I imagine him dripping
honey on the counter
to test how long it takes
her to wipe it off. Noticing
every speck that sticks
to it. Counting each minute
as a personal affront.

I think how livid
he would be, seeing me
wipe my counter with
this coffee-stained sponge.
How he would hate me
because these old, grooved
yellowish seventies counters
can never get clean enough.

Then I think about after:
after the rage was too much
and he couldn’t go on
living this way, and the
little specks and florets
were all he could see
so he did something
about it and put her
where old, dirty sponges
belong, who wiped
down his counters then?
Counters don’t stay
clean for long.

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.

Depth Perception

It’s already April, and at Experience Writing that means it’s time for NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. Continuing this year’s theme, I’m writing about the A to Z of Depth.

Stereopsis

Binocular depth perception is also called stereopsis. Stereopsis is the process in which we perceive depth due to the merging of two different image inputs from our two eyes. The area in the field of vision where stereopsis is maintained is called Panum’s fusional area, fusion being the neural process of combining the two images into one.

When the two images cannot merge because they are too different, one image is suppressed, so only one is seen at a time for a few moments each. This is called Binocular rivalry. When the eyes are misaligned like for people who are crosseyed, binocular rivalry can lead to one eye being permanently suppressed which stops stereopsis leaving the person stereoblind.

Monocular Depth Cues

People who are stereoblind and people who have lost an eye can still perceive depth due to many monocular depth cues working together. Monocular depth cues consist of:

  • relative size – as objects we are familiar with look smaller, we perceive them as farther away. When they get larger or closer to the size we are familiar with we perceive them as closer.
  • interposition – when objects overlap, we perceive the overlapped object as further away.
  • linear perspective – parallel lines converge to a point with increasing distance.
  • aerial perspective – Because of the scattering of blue light in the atmosphere, creating a “wall” of blue light, distant objects appear more blue
  • light and shade – because our visual systems assume light comes from above, light and shadow provide dimension cues and depth information.
  • monocular movement parallax – when we move our heads side to side, objects move at different relative speeds. Closer objects move against the direction of head movement and farther objects move with the direction of head movement.

In Fixing My Gaze(assoc. link) Susan R. Barry shares her experience being born stereoblind and later training her brain to see in three dimensions. As an infant she was crosseyed, so her growing brain compensated for her double vision by relaying information from only one eye. She had many surgeries to correct her vision, but remained stereoblind. Her whole life she believed she saw in three dimensions until in college it was brought to her attention that she didn’t see like her classmates. In an NPR interview Susan said, “When I didn’t see in stereo, space was very contracted and compacted. So, for example, if I looked at a tree, the leaves or the branches would appear to overlap one in front of another. But I didn’t actually see the pockets of space between the individual leaves or branches.” In her fifties, as a neuroscientist, she went through vision therapy and saw in three dimensions for the first time.

Dr. Dennis M. Levi at U.C. Berkeley is at the forefront of stereopsis recovery. He is using virtual reality in his efforts to retrain the brain to see in 3-D which you can read more about in his article “Applications and implications for extended reality to improve binocular vision and stereopsis.”

Today’s Poem

Song of the Psychopath

Driving under the streetlamps
he sings along with the radio
smiling, head bobbing
from shoulder to shoulder
the summer sun’s calling my name
I hear you now

He turns the wheel
coaxes the car through a gate
sings over muffled yells
and kicking from the trunk
Tires crunch gravel
as he brakes to a stop
He shuts off the engine
but the song still plays
everybody sings
so happy today

Sometimes sunny days torture
those not feeling well
guilting them for not going outside
calling and calling to work or to play
to be burned by the taunting
flame-ball in the sky

He sings as he douses
the car in gasoline
I gotta get out
get me some of those rays
He whistles as he walks away
and the car becomes a ball of flame.

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge. It was also inspired by a scene in the last episode of the show Castle which is available on Amazon Prime video.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about Depth Perception? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.

Depth of Mary Oliver’s Poetry

It’s already April, and at Experience Writing that means it’s time for NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. Continuing this year’s theme, I’m writing about the A to Z of Depth.

Made with Book Collage Maker

“Mary Oliver’s poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations.” ~ Stanley Kunitz

I found this quote on the back of Mary Oliver’s Pulitzer-winning collection, American Primitive. I have copies of Mary Oliver’s craft books A Poetry Handbook and Rules for the Dance, but had never read much of her poetry. So when I started my third round of Portable MFA Poetry program by Rita Gabis from the book, The Portable MFA in Creative Writing from The New York Writers Workshop, I decided to study Mary Oliver. (amazon assoc. links)

Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was a prolific writer of poetry and essays, and The New York Times wrote that she was “far and away, this country’s [America’s] best-selling poet.” She authored twenty-one volumes of poetry and six books of prose. She grew up near Cleveland, Ohio, then lived in Cape Cod, then Vermont. Her work is very focused on nature, drawing lessons and conclusions from observations on daily nature walks.

Mary Oliver was influenced by James Wright, a Deep Image poet who was deeply influenced by Robert Bly. Upon Wright’s death she wrote 3 Poems for James Wright and she dedicated American Primitive, “For James Wright in memory.”

After reading Stanley Kunitz‘s quote, I set out to answer, “What makes Mary Oliver’s poetry deep?”

In her book Winter Hours, she told me herself. She said that she has three rules for every one of her poems:

  1. Every poem must have a genuine body – she pays careful attention to the shape and form of her poems.
  2. Every poem must have sincere energy – she believes that every poem is an implicit pact between the author and reader.
  3. Every poem must have a spiritual purpose.

She then revealed other “admonitions and consents”- the poem must:

  • “rest” in intensity
  • be rich with “pictures of the world”
  • carry threads from the perceptually felt world to the intellectual world (deep image)
  • indicate a life lived with intelligence, patience, passion and whimsy
  • ask something and, at its best moments, let the question remain unanswered
  • make clear that answering the question is the reader’s part in the author-reader pact
  • have a pulse, a breathiness, some moment of earthly delight
  • not contain anything that would keep the reader from becoming the poem’s speaker

That’s a lot to put into every poem, but it provides a window into the depth of her thought process. What rules do you have for your poetry?

When I started studying Mary Oliver’s poems, one poem for a week at a time, I chose a poem called “Something” from American Primitive. After so much discussion on Rattle’s Critique of the Week about the importance of titles, and the power of a good title, I was surprised that Mary Oliver would title her poem “Something.” Imagine my surprise when I found another, completely different poem titled “Something” in her collection, Why I Wake Early. I started noticing that she uses the word “something” a lot:

Devotions 49 times
Red Bird 14
Felicity 8
Dog Songs 7

I searched, expecting to find an MFA or PhD thesis or two on the use of “something” in Mary Oliver’s work, but didn’t find anything. Perhaps the spiritual purpose rule for each of her poems left her always searching for “something.”

Today’s Poem

We Can Be Brave Together

When you’ve got my back
I do not fear the faceless
dancer in the hallway.
The curved horns of the albino
bull with his crystal ball
are not piercing.
He becomes an elegant teacher
when I feel you at my side.

You are the music from my walls
the nest in my chair
the flowers growing between
the tiles beneath my feet.
You are my prism making rainbows
my overflowing toolbox.
When you hold my hand
I only see beauty
and I have everything I need.

As we face the oracle’s expanding
petals and wide-spread eyes
while the greyhound howls
at the faceless dancer’s
shadow approaching
I only quiver in anticipation
because together I know we can
face any future prediction, any
fate, and even in the strangest
times, you’ll make it fun.

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and the Meet the Bar (MTB) prompt at dVerse Poets Pub. My poem was inspired by the paintings: Remedios Varo, “Armonía” (Harmony) (1956) and Leonora Carrington. And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur. 1953.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about Mary Oliver’s deep poetry? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.

Depth of the Noosphere

It’s already April, and at Experience Writing that means it’s time for NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. Continuing this year’s theme, I’m writing about the A to Z of Depth.

infographic from Human Energy

the formation, taking place before our eyes and arising out of this factor of hominization, of a particular biological entity such as has never before existed on earth — the growth, outside and above the biosphere . . . of an added planetary layer, an envelope of thinking substance, to which, for the sake of convenience and symmetry, I have given the name of the Noosphere.(from noos, mind: the terrestrial sphere of thinking substance.) ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin from The Future of Mankind

Mankind taken as a whole is becoming a mighty geological force. There arises the problem of the reconstruction of the biosphere in the interests of freely thinking humanity as a single totality. This new state of the biosphere, which we approach without our noticing it, is the noösphere. ~Vladimir Vernadsky

I first learned about the Noosphere during the A to Z Challenge and NaPoWriMo 2018 when my theme was new to me words. It is the sphere of human consciousness and mental activity, especially in regard to its influence on the biosphere and in relation to evolution. The Noosphere, alternately written Noösphere, is a philosophical concept developed starting in the 1920’s by Vladimir Vernadsky (Ukranian) a biogeochemist, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (French) a Catholic priest and paleontologist.

When I first learned about the noosphere, I thought it was a way of defining the human imagination. I pictured an individual in the noosphere as pictured in the video in my previous post. But now that I’ve looked at the noosphere more deeply by reading the original source material and listening to experts in the field, I realize that I had it wrong. The noosphere is defined as a physical realm of collective consciousness that affects the planet.

No one can deny that a network (a world network) of economic and psychic affiliations is being woven at ever increasing speed which envelops and constantly penetrates more deeply within each of us. With every day that passes it becomes a little more impossible for us to act or think otherwise than collectively. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin from The Future of Mankind

Collective consciousness sounds like it would be the opposite of Carl Jung‘s collective unconscious, but at the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS) I read, “Through intensive research and groundbreaking experimentation, we explore the interconnection between personal, inner space and the “outer space” of our shared reality.” This sounds a lot like Jung’s individuation process to me.

If you’re interested in learning more about Collective Consciousness, IONS offers a free series of webinars called Introduction to Consciousness.

At Human Energy they say that the Noosphere is a future vision that combines the ideas of cosmic evolution, Gaïa hypothesis, and the technological singularity.

At Human Energy they are mapping the Noosphere‘s major systems such as “the economy, trade, and transportation (the noosphere’s circulatory system), as well as human population distribution (the noosphere’s thinking and feeling component).”

At The Global Consciousness Project they are tracking the noosphere using random number generators.

Fun synchronicity: At The Global Consciousness Project I found A Global Consciousness Meditation, where they talk about Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life which I mentioned yesterday.

As you can see, my depth of knowledge of the noosphere has deepened, but there’s much more depth to explore.

Today’s Poem

The Local Noosphere

When the sun unspools
it energizes humans to work
and their work has a music
the growling, vibrating leaf blower
rattle and crunch, clank, clank, clank
of a truck with an empty flatbed
ladders extend with a squeal of sliding metal
a shovel scrapes a wheelbarrow

The second I start writing
a radio comes on
the radio has no bass
truck tires on gravel
flapping of a small fishing
boat cutting a wake then
the whir of its motor
the radio plays a hollow
country twang
then it’s suddenly gone

The song of the house finch
a man’s laugh
The song of the spotted towhee
The whistle and whoosh
of a jet-engine overhead
a dog barks, a man coughs
he says, “I’ll take four bottles of that”
waves lap the ramp with the water
dispersed by the fishing boat
splash, glug, splash, glug, splash, splash

and every house I see has people
and those people have thoughts
those thoughts are influenced by
their pasts, imagined futures
inner lives and outer lives
colliding in every moment
and those moments are all
part of life on Earth, part
of Earth’s energy, mingling
beyond the biosphere, smearing
into one evolving noosphere
the human contribution beyond
physical existence where
a collective consciousness resides

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about the Noosphere? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.

Depth Through Mindfulness

It’s already April, and at Experience Writing that means it’s time for NaPoWriMo (National /Global Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. Continuing this year’s theme, I’m writing about the A to Z of Depth.

The Practice by Maria L. Berg 2025

“Mindfulness is the awareness that arises from paying attention on purpose in the present moment and non-judgmentally.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

Mindfulness is the practice of staying in the present moment. Paying attention to the present moment without judgements from the past or fears of the future, with only acceptance of what is.

There are many ways to practice mindfulness. Here is a list from The Mayo Clinic where they say that clinical trials have shown that mindfulness meditation can help with stress, anxiety, pain, depression, insomnia, high blood pressure, and can improve attention, decrease job burnout, improve sleep, and improve diabetes control:

  • Pay attention. Take the time to experience your environment with all of your senses — touch, sound, sight, smell and taste. For example, when you eat a favorite food, take the time to smell, taste and truly enjoy it. I have a Conscious Eating kit with affirmation and meditation cards that I keep on the table to remind me not to be distracted and stay present during meals.
  • Live in the moment. Try to intentionally bring an open, accepting and discerning attention to everything you do. Find joy in simple pleasures. Research indicates observing nature outdoors is especially beneficial.
  • Accept yourself. Treat yourself the way you would treat a good friend. Practice self-care, paying attention to your needs in the moment.
  • Focus on your breathing. The meditative practice is learning to stay with the breath. There are many breathing techniques for relaxation and calm such as: belly breathing, box breathing, and pursed lip breathing. Here’s an article from healthline 10 Breathing Exercises to Try When You’re Feeling Stressed that explains the how-to’s of these different breathing exercises.

You can also try more structured mindfulness exercises, such as:

  • Body scan meditation. Lie on your back with your legs extended and arms at your sides, palms facing up. Focus your attention slowly and deliberately on each part of your body, in order, from toe to head or head to toe. Be aware of any sensations, emotions or thoughts associated with each part of your body. Jon Kabat-Zinn guides a body scan meditation in his Masterclass.
  • Sitting meditation. Sit comfortably with your back straight, feet flat on the floor and hands in your lap. Breathing through your nose, focus on your breath moving in and out of your body. If physical sensations or thoughts interrupt your meditation, note the experience and then return your focus to your breath. The Calm Ease meditation below is a sitting meditation.
  • Walking meditation. Find a quiet place 10 to 20 feet in length, and begin to walk slowly. Focus on the experience of walking, being aware of the sensations of standing and the subtle movements that keep your balance. When you reach the end of your path, turn and continue walking, maintaining awareness of your sensations. There is a guided walking meditation in Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein’s Insight Meditation.

Meditation

I’ve tried many different guided meditations over the years. I stuck with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein’s Insight Meditation for a while. I tried to make a daily practice of Mandhu Bazaz Wangu’s Meditations for Mindful Writers. And I took Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness and Meditation Masterclass.

Though all of these guided meditations have their merits, they didn’t work for me. They guide too much. The moment I feel that I’ve quieted my body and mind, their voices interrupt me and disturb my peace.

Recently, a friend recommended that I try Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Calm Ease.” I love it! He speaks just enough to keep me focused and he makes me smile every time.

Thich Nhat Hanh was a Zen Master who was exhiled from Viet Nam for his peace work during the war, and for refusing to take a side. He found a home in France and founded Plum Village, a mindfulness practice center.

If you would like to explore further, here are books by each of the people I’ve mentioned (amazon associate links):

The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh

Unblock Your Creative Flow by Madhu Bazaz Wangu

Real Happiness by Sharon Salzberg

Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Mindful Writing

I found some articles about writing meditation, but they were about freewriting and morning pages from The Artist’s Way as writing meditation. But then I found this article from Psychology Today “Struggling with Meditation? Mindful Writing Might Work.” Unlike morning pages where I write three pages in my journal of anything that comes to mind until I fill three pages, his mindful writing was listing his physical sensations along with his specific thoughts in the present moment. I think I might try this. It’s different and might be a good way to start my writing day.

I found a book called Mindful Writing (2017) by Brian Jackson. In it he says that writers get better when they are mindful of getting better. He says we are mindful when we think about our thinking. He equates mindfulness to metacognition and says, “You improve as a writer when you plan, practice, revise, and reflect—mindfully.”

If you like worksheets like I do, there’s a Mindful Writing Activity at Inherent Peace you can download.

Today’s Poem

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo, Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge, and the multi-dimensional prompt for Sculpting a Poem from dVerse Poets Pub.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about Mindfulness? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry.