O drums
that sound
within
my heart

resound in me,
resound.

O heart
that beats
inside
my chest

repeat in me,
repeat.

O chest
that houses
all my love
where all
my treasures
reside

remain untouched
inside of me,
inside of me
reside.

O love
that lives
outside
of me

live on in me,
my love.

O spirit
running
through and through
about
the world
around

encircle us
and hold us
fast
till this life
is through.

Poet’s Notes on “O Drums”

I don’t consider myself a very spiritual person, but I do enjoy reading mantras or short, repetitive poems with a clear message. Often, this type of poetry has a very spiritual undertone. I was exposed to a lot of it due to my upbringing in the Methodist Church, and though I’m not a Christian today, I still look on a great deal of Christian music, especially early Christian music, fondly, and draw a great deal of inspiration from Christian themes, music, and the Bible for my poetry. As you may have noticed! (For a poem with some especially Christian inspirations, check out my poem “Quartet.”)

An example I can give is the Taizé Community’s rendition of “Veni Sancte Spiritus,” which is a deeply comforting song regardless of whether or not you can understand the Latin or relate to the Christian message. Here’s a YouTube video of that song that you can watch if you’re interested.

Anyways, the first “verse” of this mantra came to me out of the blue, and I also thought that I could arrange it in a very interesting way on the page. I hope that the final result has made you feel something! This poem is more positive and uplifting than most of my others, as well as being quite lyrical (I think). I can very much see it being set to music by someone much more talented than myself. I’d love to hear what you think about it, so drop me a line in the comments and say hi!