Poetry About Breathing

To breathe is to live. It is the first thing we do when we arrive and the last thing we do when we leave. Yet, we so often forget to notice it. These poems draw attention to the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation, the exchange of air that connects us to the atmosphere and to each other.

Breathing is also a metaphor for spirit, for inspiration (literally 'to breathe in'), and for finding calm in the chaos. In the pause between breaths, we find the present moment.

Featured Poems

Inhale, Exhale

A simple instruction for survival.

When the world spins too fast, when the ground shakes, return to the anchor. In. Out. One. Two.

You are a bellows fanning your own spark. Keep it burning. Just breathe.

- Maya Patel

The Wind Inside

We contain the sky.

I swallow the sky and hold it in my chest. For a moment, I am vast. I am blue. I am infinite. Then I let it go, giving it back to the wind, a borrowed gift returned with thanks.

- Lucas Gray

Panic

Fighting for air.

The air is thin here in the canyon of anxiety. My lungs are small fists, refusing to open. I have to coax them, gentle them open like terrified flowers. It is hard work, this simple thing.

- Zoe Lin

Classic Voices

The Breath of Nature

by William Cullen Bryant (1800s)

Reflecting on how nature breathes life into us and soothes our spirit.

To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of beauty, and she glides Into his darker musings, with a mild And healing sympathy, that steals away Their sharpness, ere he is aware.

Life

by Charlotte Brontë (1846)

A poem about the transient yet resilient nature of life's breath.

Life, believe, is not a dream So dark as sages say; Oft a little morning rain Foretells a pleasant day. Sometimes there are clouds of gloom, But these are transient all; If the shower will make the roses bloom, O why lament its fall?

Deeper Explorations

Meditation

Finding silence in the breath.

Center

Sit. Close your eyes. Follow the air as it travels the nose, the throat, the belly. Ride the wave of your own being. Here, there is no past. Here, there is no future. Only breath.

- Bodhi Sattva

Life Force

The invisible energy.

Prana

It is not just oxygen. It is light. It is energy. It is the universe pouring itself into you and asking you to pour yourself back.

- Devi S.

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