We’re happy to share poetry from ICNer Pete Armstrong, offered as invitations to guide us into deeper heart engagement. 

He says of his poetry:

These poems mostly arose within a space of meditation, of opening to All, and were shaped-up within that space. Only when they were more-or-less complete were they written down.

There are more poems in five books available on Amazon:

The Commitment of the Lark                 poems for looking deeply.
Target Practice                                            100 poems for your inner journey
The Words on my Face                              poems on opening to God in the silence
Of Love and Bent Nails                              poems on an Integral path
Some Palaeolithic Creature in me        poems on the Way through

For personal and non-commercial usage, please copy, use, and share these poems as widely as possible!

Contact: pilgrimpoems@gmail.com

You can also access the previous week’s poems:

poems of the feet

Poems of the Womb

Poems of the Mind

Your heart’s desire

 As though in a dream, wandering the land,
I come across a shrine, and enter in.
An old man sits silently and smiles.

A question bubbles up within me
and floats into the space between us:
‘How can I be happy?’

I hear only kindness in his voice:
‘Wait a little in this place, and consider:
What is your heart’s desire?’ 

In the pause, I know the answer
is not about more holidays.

And then into the silence,
a voice begins to sing sweetly
bringing happiness to the room;
it is my heart, answering for herself: 

‘I wish to give love, on and on,
more and more, without stint. 

I wish to be wide open to the joy
of this immeasurable life. 

I wish to be with God again,
beyond words, as love.’ 

The old man fades, as does his smile;
the room too disappears, as though in a dream. 

The echo of the song remains.

From: The Words on my Face

Here are three more poems of the heart:

Below, you can also download a pdf of 10 poems of the heart from Pete

Heart

I said to God,
‘I long for your love so much.
Even though I am a poor soul
if I give you all my heart, will you give me yours?’ 

And God said to me,
‘I cannot give you my heart
for heart is all that I am
and all that I am, including you,
is heart.’

From: The Words on my Face

My mother showed me God

In certain moments I know
that love is God, and God is love.

When I was small I learned the basics of love
through the devotion of my mother.

In later years I have learned
from those more skilled than I
that love (that God)
is always asking us to go beyond our limitations
to encompass more and more
in what we love
in who we are
to pass even beyond all understanding. 

In certain moments I know
that beyond any limits
there are no limits to love
no limits to God.

From: The Words on my Face

Heart pay

Pay attention to your heart beating.
Pause between breaths and
feel your pulse reverberate throughout your body.
Resume breathing and be aware of
your heartbeat’s subtle presence
under every breath.

Pay attention to the hearts beating in those you love
for much joy and happiness is wrapped up around them.

Pay attention to the hearts beating in all those living
and in all those no longer living:
in homo erectus and in shamans
in hunter gatherers and in Buddha
in farmers and in Jesus.

Pay attention to the hearts beating in all the creatures
who live their lives beyond our own
and in all their ancestors.

Know that we all share a heart.

Pay attention to any alien hearts
that may or may not be beating
elsewhere in the universe and time.

From: Some Palaeolithic Creature in Me

About the Author

Peter Armstrong

I was born into 1950s England, the first child in a very loving family. But our lives were overshadowed by a serious accident that left my father paralysed, and led to his death three years later, when I was nine.

I grew up in the Anglican church, but, as is common, left in my late teens, when the mythological elements of religion became too much for my developing rational mind. I won a place at Oxford to study English, and my intellectual development continued there, but much less so with emotional literacy, or inner awareness, or spiritual connection…

I was determined to avoid a conventional career, and instead launched myself and my curiosity into the delights and flaws of the burgeoning alternative world. There was a lot to explore!

Becoming a parent to three children emphasised the need for greater stability rather than novelty…

Therapy took me further and further into an exploration of the inner life, and later on, serious meditation practices followed. I discovered Ken Wilber’s books and integral thinking, and was deeply grateful for those gifts, because they made sense of so much. His influence, plus that of Thich Nhat Hanh, brought me renewed perspectives on God, and gradually I came back to Christianity, particularly in its mystical guise. Paul’s book was a treasure, and ICN was another!

I had sometimes enjoyed writing creatively. In May 2010, my partner Mary and I, who had been together for many years, got married. It turned out there were to be some spiritual fruits of this new phase of our relationship. That same month, I found myself unexpectedly (and initially reluctantly) writing poetry…

I developed a way of sitting in meditation, opening to All, to God, and allowing new perspectives and insights to emerge. Then, sometimes, I would be able to shape them up into poems from within that space of meditation. Only when the poems were more-or-less complete in my mind did I write them down physically. This ‘poetry period’ lasted about five years.

Now, I continue to enjoy the pilgrimage of this gift of life, hoping to share more of the blessings with you, my fellow pilgrims!