A Quiet Mind
Where do we find stillness when the mind itself is full of noise?
Marking World Mental Health Day, this episode of A Voice Like This brings together two poems written almost eighty years apart, each finding its own way through uncertainty, isolation and the restless noise of life.
In “I Am!”, John Clare writes from a place of profound loneliness and confusion, yet beneath it all remains a simple, defiant assertion of existence: I am.
Max Ehrmann’s “Desiderata” offers a gentler path through the noise, with its enduring counsel on solitude, kindness, self-acceptance and finding peace amid an imperfect world.
Neither promises that difficult thoughts can simply be silenced. Perhaps a quiet mind is something else entirely.
Poems featured:
I Am! — John Clare
Desiderata — Max Ehrmann
A Voice Like This brings poetry off the page and into the spoken word, with a new episode each week.