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

Each center has one featured poem in written and audio form.

And below that you can access a downloadable PDF with 10 poems on the heart, feet, womb, and mind.

Beaks and Minds

 I saw standing on the stones of the riverbank
a dark bird with its back to me.
It turned its head to left, then right
revealing a beady eye
and an outrageous orange beak
almost as long as its head.

In some other world
I knew it as an oystercatcher.

I have seen different birds’ beaks adapted
in manifold ways to feed self and offspring.

I have also seen human minds adapted to their purpose:
displaying stabbing verbal sharpness
or the scattering gloom of anxiety
or the tight gleam of avarice.

And I have seen the enlightened mind
intimate with everything
like a soft beak the colours of the rainbow
big enough and flexible enough
to nourish the world.


From: Some Palaeolithic Creature in Me

Poem of the Heart:

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

Poem of the Womb:

The touchings of butterflies

 We sat in a bower.
We were together, open.
We were blessed with being alive
and knowing we were alive
knowing the humming of bees
and the unfelt settlings of butterflies
on a shoulder.

As we separated I saw we had
no need to struggle into the depths
to find the light, the truth.

At this moment I knew fundamentally
Light just is
Love just is
God just is
bubbling away like a spring
rising up through
the layers of our beings
so subtle, then ever denser, more material,
shaped by our common mistakes
and our individual structures
condensing as words, actions, paintings,
manifesting as life.


From: The Words on my Face

Poem of the Feet:

I wandered in your woods drenched in autumn colour

 I wandered in your woods drenched in autumn colour.
I walked a long way then found your door open to me.
I recognised your voice of welcome
calling me in, calling me in.

In your oratory of simplicity and rounded walls
I was bathed in the sweet voices of your Sisters
devoted to you, devoted to you.

I recognised your voice of wisdom and was at home.
I sat within your peace, within your peace.
When your bowl of mystery came round
I ate your bread and tasted the sharp tang of your wine.
I took them into my body and my blood.
I know nothing about you, nothing about you.

I wander in your woods drenched in love.
I give myself to your embrace, your embrace.
I wander in your woods drenched in love.
I give myself to your embrace, your embrace.


From: The Words on my Face

Click for a Free Download of 10 Poems from Pete on each Center:

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!

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