The poems we use for the Lectio Divina portion of our Centering Prayer practice are intentionally curated for inclusivity–most of the poets do not identify as White, dominant-culture, or heteronormative. Welcome, welcome, welcome!

This list is sorted by the order in which we used the poems, the most recent at the top.

Heliophilia by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Kimberly BlaeserAbout Standing (in Kinship).

For Sister Gwen Brooks by Sonia Sanchez

 After Rothko’s Green Blue Green (1969) by Blu Mehari

Let Them Not Say by Jane Hirshfield

Six Quatrains by Ursula K. Le Guin

Butterfly by Linda Hogan

Saguaros by Javier Zamora 

Doña Sebastiana I by Rosabetty Muñoz

I come from… by Marcie Rendon

Eating Together by Li-Young Lee 

Ponderosa Pine by Liza Sparks

For Mauna a Wākea by Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio

Summoning the Body That Is Mine When I Shut My Eyes by Jenny Johnson 

Pan Dulce by Jose Hernandez Diaz.

 Poet Wrestling with the True Nature of the Photon by Rosebud Ben-Oni

The Slow Leaving by Olive Franklin 

View from a Dodo’s Chair by Mónica De La Torre

Waterline by Ocean Vuong 

the earth is a living thing by Lucille Clifton

When The World Falls in Around You or, Vows to My Palestinian Wife on Our Wedding Day by Lehua M. Taitano

Mother Metro, by Martha Sprackland

Lullabye for the Grieving, by Ashley M. Jones

I Dare You, by Dorianne Laux

Sea Church, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Summer Songs, by Rigoberto González 

Quemado, Texas, by Analicia Sotelo

Earth Keeper, by N. Scott Momaday 

This Too Shall Pass, by Kim Addonizio

Eat, by Joy Harjo

Migraines Have Their Say, by Teri Ellen Cross Davis

The Healing Time by Pesha Gertler

From “The Black Maria”, by Aracelis Girmay

Lioness, by Adrienne Rich

Mercy, by José Antonio Rodríguez

To be Held, by Linda Hogan

Testimonial, by Rita Dove

Worm, by Gail McConnell

I Will Keep Broken Things, by Alice Walker

Hurry, by Marie Howe

Lineage Anagrams I, by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

Elegy in Joy (excerpt) by Muriel Rukeyser

Villanelle with a Line Borrowed from Bishop by Kimiko Hahn

For the Traveler by John O’Donohue

When I Was the Forest by Meister Eckhart

When I See the Stars in the Night Sky by Joy Priest

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

Living Testament by Gil Headley

The Unbroken by Rashani Réa

Consider the Hands that Write this Letter by Aracelis Girmay

Love After Love by Derek Walcott

WHEREAS my eyes land on the shoreline by Layli Long Soldier

Evening by Jeremy Radin

A Blessing by James Wright

Come Healing by Leonard Cohen

Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limón

Wonder Woman by Ada Limón

Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo

Emergence by Joy Harjo

The Long Boat by Stanley Kunitz

Feather on a Midday by Sister Dang Nghiem

What is Broken is What God Blesses by Jimmy Santiago Baca

A Happy Birthday by Ted Kooser

The Worst Thing by Chelan Harkin

Words Get Tired, Don’t They? by Pedro A.Sandin-Fremaint

Breathing Underwater by Carol Bialock

The Cure by Albert Huffstickler

Some Things I Like by Lemn Sissay

Bioluminescence by Paul Tran

THE ‘X’ IN ‘XICANO’ SPEAKS by Ariana Brown

Winter Grace by  Patricia Fargnoli

Child of God, from Nikki Giovanni’s collection of African spirituals, On My Journey Now

Turbulence, by Adrienne Rich

Initiation Song from the Finders’ Lodgeby Ursula K. Le Guin

Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo

Now is the Time, by Hafiz

For Longing, by John O’Donohue, from his book To Bless the Space Between Us

God, written by Rumi and translated from Discourses of Rumi by Fatemeh Keshavarz