Last year, a friend gifted me a small heart-shaped patch (like the kind that Girl Scouts sew onto their sashes) with the words Heart Tender stitched on it. I cherish this gift because I like to think of my work as a poet and as a teacher as someone who tends the hearts and minds of the children I teach. If there is one lesson the pandemic has taught us is that in this time of peril and possibility children’s hearts matter. We cannot proceed with business as usual in schools with a singular emphasis on hard skills and testing.
Poetry can cultivate our hearts and so can mindfulness. In fact, poetry is a powerful act of mindfulness in its own right. It invites us to slow down, be present, feel how a poem resonates inside us, listen to the musicality of words — while quieting our restless minds.
I’ve practiced mindfulness and meditation for over thirty years. When I was a poetry student at Columbia University, I began a meditation practice and I was also teaching poetry and writing in the New York City schools through the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. In my Subaru station wagon, I traveled to schools from Far Rockaway to the South Bronx where I spent the day listening to the poetic imagination and wisdom of children. In the late afternoon, after circling the streets searching for a parking space, I climbed the three stories to my apartment, sat on my couch and meditated. Mindfulness and meditation haves been an anchor for me all these years, and from this center I learned how to listen deeply to children, and to my own voice.
In My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness I wanted these two practices: poetry and mindfulness to meet; since they are kindred spirits, and both have been pillars throughout my life.
In the beginning of my book, the poems speak to our need for mindfulness. In “There Is a Monkey In My Mind,” the words themselves, and the illustration, show how our thoughts sometimes leap from branch to branch, tree to tree like a monkey, and how ultimately, we can lead our monkey mind to a peaceful place through mindfulness. I also want to applaud Isabel Roxas, my brilliant illustrator, whose illustrations and design help the book come alive and give clarity to all the poems.
Mindfulness is not a one-size-fits-all practice. Each person must find their own way into it. The poems in the book are divided into five sections that speak to different approaches to mindfulness.
The first section, Breathe In Breathe Out, consists of poems about breathing practices such as “Counting Breaths” and “Ocean Breath.” One of the easiest and most natural ways to get started in mindfulness practice is to focus attention on the natural rhythm of our breath.
Being mindful of our emotions helps us stand back from our feelings, understand them, not to fear and struggle against them, and gently guide us to calmer place. In Mindful Me, the poems focus on how to let our thoughts sail by/like sweeps of clouds in “My Thoughts Are Clouds.” In some schools, children are inspired to create daily inner weather reports to check in on how they’re feeling based on my poem “My Inner Weather Report.”
Poets havelong observed the world in a mindful way, and noticed beauty where others might have missed it. Mindful World includes poems that teach us how to be mindful in the world around us such as in “Nature Walk” where taking a walk in a forest, or any place in nature, can be a mindful practice. In Japan they have a word for the peace that nature gives us — shinrin-yoku. Shinrin in Japanese means forest and yoku means bath. So shinrin-yoku means bathing in the forest atmosphere. Another poem in this section “Consider a Raisin” is about mindful eating, and how the joy we feel about what we’re eating depends on our level of mindfulness.
In Meditation, I hope to shift perception of meditation from sitting cross-legged for hours on a snowy mountain top to any practice that simply freeze frames a small portion of time to be fully present. “Butterfly Body Scan” takes the metaphor of a butterfly as a way to bring mindfulness and alertness to parts of our body that feel tense.
The final section, Kindfulness is a mindfulness practice where we take a deep look at our perceptions, our actions in the world and see the dignity and beauty of every person. Maya Angelou once said that poetry makes us more tender to each other, and I believe mindfulness does too. Poetry and mindfulness share the twin job of bridging barriers as Amanda Gorman says:
Poetry has never been the language of barriers, it has always been the language of bridges.
In my poem “Kindfulness” a student writes her own version of Christina Rossetti’s popular poem “Hurt No Living Thing,” Be mindful in thought, in the words you speak./ Open your heart to the world; open it deep.
Despite the growing interest in mindfulness, there are a few stereotypes of what mindfulness is. The longer I practice, the more I realize that it’s not about numbing uncomfortable feelings and forcing myself not to have any thoughts. Nor am I calm and serene every minute of the day. Instead, mindfulness teaches us to pay attention to our thoughts and steer our mind back to the present without negative judgement when it wanders. It helps us stop just for a moment, take life a little slower and gives us a chance to think about ourselves and our connection to others. I think of mindfulness the way Rita Dove writes about poetry:
we have an interior life…without that interior life, we are shells, we have nothing. And we have to remember it, honor and, occasionally, listen to it.
My hope is that the poems in My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness will inspire your students to practice mindfulness, and to honor and listen to their interior lives.
Georgia Heard is the author of 18 books including My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness and Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School. She received an MFA in poetry from Columbia University, and travels the world giving workshops on writing and poetry. She lives in South Florida with her husband and family. To learn more about Georgia check out her website, www.georgiaheard.com, or follow her on Instagram or Twitter.
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
This giveaway is for a copy of My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness and a 20-minute Skype/Zoom visit. Many thanks to Macmillan for donating a copy for one reader.For a chance to win this copy of My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness, please leave a comment about this post by Friday, May 28th at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Stacey Shubitz will use a random number generator to pick the winner, whose name she will announce at the bottom of this post, by Friday, June 4th. You must have a U.S. mailing address to enter the giveaway.Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so Stacey can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win.
If you are the winner of the book, Stacey will email you with the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS – HEARD. Please respond to Stacey’s e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. A new winner will be chosen if a response isn’t received within five days of the giveaway announcement.
COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED.
Congratulations to Jill Puhlmann-Becker whose commenter number was selected for this giveaway.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
What a lovely book this looks to be. How much care and thought has gone into the writing and construction of it. Especially like the thought that poetry is the language of bridges and not barriers. Would love to read it.
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Thank you to all the wonderful teachers at Two Writing Teachers and all of you here for your wonderful and inspiring comments on My Thoughts Are Clouds. I look forward to hearing more about sharing mindfulness and poetry with your students. XO
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Just reading about this book and author makes me feel relaxed. I’ve been practicing mindfulness with fifth graders for over five years now. How wonderful to find this resource!
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I love this book! I can see it as a shared reading experience, and I can also imagine what would happen if I asked my kids to craft a similar poem. What thoughts, what words, in what patterns, would they consider to bring a more mindful state for themselves and those around them? My gears are cranking on this one!
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I’ve been inspired by Georgia’s work and her poetry for all of my teaching career. I remember attending her incredible workshops at Hamline University in St. Paul years ago. She cast a spell then and still does. What a perfect book at the perfect time! Thank you, Georgia.
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I purchased this book for myself and shared “Open Your Eyes” with my 7th-graders as an inspiration for writing their own poems. The kids loved it! This book is one I will g be e using over and over as a mentor text both personally and with my students!
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Wow, what a brilliant concept to combine mindfulness and poetry. I cannot wait to read this. Thanks for this wonderful, validating post about putting children’s hearts first.
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OMGOODNESS, this looks like a book we all need to have ASAP!
Thank you to TWT for getting this program going and to Georgia Heard for supporting mindfulness and reflection for everyone.
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I can’t wait to read the book. I love how you started out the post – it is so important to remember that school is about more than just hard skills!
Thank you for your beautiful work!
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Georgia Heard has always been such a great resource for writing instruction and her work serves as fabulous mentor texts for our young writers! Can’t wait to see this book in the flesh…
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I love it! Perfectly timed. This is the book I will use for focusing my professional development goal next year. I am working to tie mindfulness with yoga movement and pencil movement with poetry. This book fits it all together perfectly!
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I love Georgia’s work. I am going to be ordering this book. Thank you for sharing.
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All of Georgia’s work is magnificent. This book feels incredibly necessary at a time where we have all experienced some change, anxiety and even trauma. Mindfulness and poetry (or any form of writing) can help in so many ways. I appreciate the chance to win a copy!
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This book sounds like something we all need right now! Thank you for this post. My email address is ebgriffin1119@gmail.com.
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Georgia, I cannot think of a more gorgeous collection of poetry that plays with language and the meditative state; the idea of thoughts as space and place for comfort and solace. Thank you for this — can’t wait to read them all!
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Thank you for sharing the structure of your book and some of the beautiful poems. We can all benefit from these poems. My mind is a monkey all the time.
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Love this post! Can’t wait to dive in to this book! Thank you, Georgia, for these valuable reminders. Thank you to Macmillan for sponsoring the giveaway! May this be a year filled with gratitude.
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Several years ago I attended a conference where I was lucky enough to attend several sessions on mindfulness. I had certainly heard about mindfulness prior to attending the conference, but had yet to engage in this practice. The sessions I attended offered a whole new focus for me and the students in my class. The presenter even engaged all of the attendees in eating a raisin mindfully. Those sessions changed my focus and I am sure Georgia Heard’s book will only enhance those changes.
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A gift of words at just the right moment.
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This book will be wonderful as I strive to focus more on social-emotional learning in the classroom. Thank you for sharing.
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I’ve played around with writing and mindfulness independently but never together. Marrying these exercises is true synthesis. This book has so much potential for the classroom.
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The pause that’s needed to set the stage for meditation and word mining seems even MORE crucial this year. I am so excited about this book. ❤️
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This book and the poems sound wonderful. You had me at “There is a monkey in my mind.”
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Just requested this book. I have loved attending poetry sessions any time Georgia Heard presents. She’s such a gift to our learning community. Although I’m retired, I would love to share the visit with a friend’s classroom and I’ll be sure to attend.
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I got chills reading this! Our counselor has been working with our students to foster mindfulness this year. This book is a wonderful complement to her work.
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This book sounds incredible! I can’t wait to share it with my class!!!
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I loved learning Georgia’s long practice of mindfulness and how it is the theme of this new book. Can’t wait to read it and share it with my students!
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Knowing and understanding your students is essential to good teaching. Using poetry to help students “breathe” as our iwatches tell us, can open doors for students to share their feelings and emotions. Thank you Georgia Heard for all your amazing work.
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This is incredible. I so love Georgia Heard. This sounds like an amazing all-school read too!
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What an amazing gift Georgia Heard is- I cannot wait to read this book- ordering right now!
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I am so excited to read Georgia’ new book. I am going to use the her quote about how poetry can cultivate our hearts and so can mindfulness to lead into having our teachers share the found poems they have created as a reflection on this school year. We are excited to celebrate by sharing our poems.
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