Poems by Tenneson Woolf

A few of my poems are listed / linked below. However, if you click here, the magic of WordPress Categories brings up more of my recent poems included in blogs along the way. Thx for perusing and offering reflections.

“Poet” is an important claiming for me, particularly since 2018. It’s something I do (write, share, publish). It’s something I be (can’t help but think with a prosed heart and desire).

I’ve published three collections of poetry. In My Nature (CentreSpoke 2023) is my most recent. It goes along with Most Mornings (CentreSpoke 2022). I love sharing some of the inspiration that went with each poem in these collections. A Cadence of Despair: Poems and Reflections on Heartbreak, Loss and Renewal (CentreSpoke 2020) was also important to me but in a very different way than it was for In My Nature, and for Most Mornings. I offered some of my journey with despair, sometimes crafted into words, and sometimes clunked into words, knowing that many people were seeking such learning.

Invitations from Crocus (March 2023) — I love the invitation of Spring that comes with Crocus, the first of the flowering bulbs in my Utah yard.

What of the Loudness (March 2023) — I think I’m perpetually endeavoring to ground my relationships with inner and outer.

Have Courage (February 2023) — Guidance systems matter to me. Every now and then, a few simple sentences arrive as such (inspired by Pema Chodron’s book, Living Beautifully.

Courage and Toleration (January 2023) — Speaks to the desire and need for hearing and responding to life calling.

What Now?
Seen
Levels of Joy
Integrate the Remnants
(2021) — A collage published in The Journal of Creative Aging (p 30), with extra thanks to friend and colleague Katharine Weinmann.

Belonging is Biological (2020) — A few musings prosed to the irrepressibleness of belonging.

A Poem of Appreciation (2020) — I had recently returned from a trip to see my daughter and son in law, and was feeling grateful for connection.

Toward Pheasant Brook (2020) — It was one of those days when I really appreciated some unquarantined time.

Each Day: A Poem of Witness (2020) — Some sense making, and grief that comes with CoVid times.

Goodbye Son (2017) — A poem I wrote earlier this year, from a tender moment of saying goodbye.

Time and Time Again (2017). I have an ongoing relationship with time. I love the buzz of being able to be quick. I also am deeply troubled by it when speed and efficiency is all that there is, or all that we expect together. I wrote this poem one morning trying to shake things up.

I Want to Hear Our Voices (2014) — I wrote this one morning as I woke from a dream. It is a yearning that I hear in many men and in men’s work that comes from a place beneath the calcified surface.

The Bonneville Shoreline (2010) — This poem came from a hike I took near where I live. It was late evening. The sun was setting. I was looking over the valley that once would have been the Bonneville Sea, yet now is the urban area in which I live. I was reflecting on how things change.

I also often use poems by others. For the same purposes — to inspire, to bring depth and play. I haven’t curated these, but if you use the Search Feature on this site to search by poet name, you might find a few that your are looking for and that have moved me.