{"id":1653,"date":"2011-09-15T16:27:23","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T20:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=1653"},"modified":"2011-09-15T16:27:23","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T20:27:23","slug":"robert-pinsky-buddha-goo-and-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/09\/robert-pinsky-buddha-goo-and-meditation.html","title":{"rendered":"Robert Pinsky, “Buddha-goo,” and meditation ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

…One hates the sanctimonious Buddha-goo
\nBut loves to meditate. To think one word
\nAnd the breath balanced on its floor of muscle<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

… Falling and rising like years. The brain-roof chatter
\nSettling among the eaves. …\u00a0 ~ Robert Pinsky<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes, poetry works so well it’s hard to catch my breath. I have to stop, look out the window. Remember that it’s only words, after all.<\/p>\n

This is for my friends (and family) who see Buddhism as touchy-feely. Liberal BS, as I read somewhere today. Instead of “the breath balanced on its floor of muscle….brain-roof chatter settling…”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Me? I think Robert Pinsky is the man. No gooey-ness for him, this poet who held his own suitcase in his lap when I picked him up for a gig at the university. I drove him 90 of the pleasantest miles I’ve spent w\/ a stranger. Another word-gamer. The kind of kindred spirit who spent hours, he said, looking for the terms used to describe the pieces of a shirt. For a poem, where he used only one.<\/p>\n

That’s the beginner’s heart in him. A kind of joyous obsession with something small, something critically important and yet totally not…Just words… Just breathing… But necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…One hates the sanctimonious Buddha-goo But loves to meditate. To think one word And the breath balanced on its floor of muscle … Falling and rising like years. The brain-roof chatter Settling among the eaves. …\u00a0 ~ Robert Pinsky Sometimes, poetry works so well it’s hard to catch my breath. I have to stop, look…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22],"tags":[11,1181,1187,12],"class_list":["post-1653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-poetry","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-robert-pinsky"],"yoast_head":"\nRobert Pinsky, "Buddha-goo," and meditation ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"...One hates the sanctimonious Buddha-goo But loves to meditate. 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