Christopher Haywood Poet Quatrain

Notes About The Poem

This expression captures the 13th-century contemplative spirit I often explore but applies it to a universal, modern psychological struggle. It is effective because it treats the "wandering mind" as something to be befriended rather than conquered.

Be Gentle with the Wandering Mind

It begins with the breath, a simple, rising tide, 
The only clock that tells the honest truth. 
It asks you, for a moment, to reside 
Beyond the reaching hunger of your youth. 
To sit within the center of the storm, 
And watch the lightning strike without a flinch, 
To let the tangled thoughts begin to form, 
But never let them gain a single inch.
It takes a hunter’s patience, still and deep, 
To track the way the light falls on the wall, 
To wake the senses from their heavy sleep 
And hear the silence underneath it all.
 It is the scattering  of your burdens on the floor, 
Not casting them away, but letting go, 
To stand before a wide and windowed door, 
Content to simply watch the river flow.
You must be gentle with the wandering mind, 
As one would guide a lamb back to the fold; 
To leave the bitter stresses far behind, 
And trade your iron chains for threads of gold. 
For mindfulness is not a mountain peak, 
Nor some elusive prize you have to find— 
It is the very stillness that you seek, 
The quiet home you carry in your mind.

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