Remarkable as Breathing

Breathing is of course an entirely predictable and everyday activity, at least for as long as it continues. And it is also a visceral and immediate opportunity for each of us to become awake to the extraordinary - the remarkable business of being always newly aware of this very moment we now inhabit.

'Remarkable as Breathing' by Rose Lucas is a collection of poems explicitly informed by a range of contemplative practices, such as mindful breathing, mindful walking and a paying of close attention to the immediacy of experience. These practices highlight a mode of being in the world which aligns closely with the impulses of poetry - drawing out, through close attention and reflectiveness, the flow of fundamental interconnection between the point of perception and what is being perceived.

These wonderful poems help us to embrace the full possibilities of every level of mindful breath - different ways of seeing or understanding, the vitality of exchange and interconnection, the business of attentiveness and interpretation, and the importance of stillness and the restorative capacities of letting go into silence. Their exploratory meditative mode is a gift to readers.