In the first of a series of conversations I am planning to have in the Bay Area, I had a great chat with a local poet Maryam Khawar. We shot at the lovely coffee shop in Pleasanton, California The Inklings.
We discussed some of her short poetry, where she is inspired, why art is important in our lives, and how to become GREAT at anything.
Here is a very short poem of hers we discussed:
How beautiful, was your mind
and the ability to see the essence of the universe
I see it through you
As you pass from artist to artist
We also read the poem "The Apology" by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Think me not unkind and rude, That I walk alone in grove and glen; I go to the god of the wood To fetch his word to men.
Tax not my sloth that I Fold my arms beside the brook; Each cloud that floated in the sky Writes a letter in my book.
Chide me not, laborious band, For the idle flowers I brought; Every aster in my hand Goes home loaded with a thought.
There was never mystery, But 'tis figured in the flowers, Was never secret history, But birds tell it in the bowers.
One harvest from thy field Homeward brought the oxen strong; A second crop thine acres yield, Which I gather in a song.
