thich nhat hanh peace is every step poem

It’s an impressive resume to have influenced Martin Luther King, and to have a foreword to the book written by the Dalai Lama! Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk originally from Vietnam, instrumental in peace movements for decades. This one had a helpful bio of the author in the introduction. My second author was Thich Nhat Hanh, through his book Peace Is Every Step. So let me just quote a few lines I liked and leave it at that. I don’t have a lot to say abou t Rumi, but in a strange way I think he’d approve that. I’m not sure what, if anything, I learned exactly…but I do want to explore more. And that’s an unusual stance for me to take! As probably happens often in poetry, I could read along for several pages with nothing speaking to me, then suddenly a line or stanza would jump out as beautiful or insightful or just intriguing. But there were some eighty poems by Rumi, which was enough to give me a flavor of him. I still don’t feel I know much about Rumi, as the book didn’t turn out to contain much context about the author (though there was a lot in the introduction about an ancient bridge, and the translator’s experiences…for me, it was maybe too much of the wrong kind of information). Despite that, I knew next to nothing about him! So I hunted my library collection and picked an appealing title – Rumi: Bridge to the Soul: Journeys into the music and silence of the heart, translations by Coleman Barks. I’ve frequently seen Rumi quoted, and almost always liked whatever I heard. (Author three was a Franciscan friar so back in the fold, but that’s for another day!) I started with Rumi, who comes from Islamic tradition, and followed with Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, both of whom I’d been hearing about for a long time. I’m practicing Catholic but I have a broad view on spirituality, so I began my reading with two writers I’ve long been intrigued by, both outside of Christianity.

One of my major reading goals this year is to read more spiritual books.

Thich nhat hanh peace is every step poem