Both poetry and mindfulness have the ability to take us off autopilot. They can short circuit our thinking and bring us into deep contact with our experience of the present moment.

These poems can be used when sitting or walking. Bring your mind home to your body and allow it to rest there, in your living presence. Thoughts will likely arise, as your brain aims to critique or to understand the poem, giving opinions on what it likes or doesn't like.  Allow your thoughts to pass by in their own time, without feeding or entertaining them. Return to the sounds of the poem and the response that it evokes physically in you.

When the recording is over, you could spend a few minutes soaking in the aftermath of the poem, simply being in your open presence. 

...the slightest ripple in the stillness

Pete Armstrong's beautiful meditation on teaching evokes the sense of receiving a living gift, when the time is ripe.

begin afresh, afresh, afresh

'The trees are coming into leaf / like something almost being said...' - relax in this outdoor Spring morning recording (complete with birdsong) and practice being open to the ever-changing life in and around us.

be your own illumination

Rest in open awareness and be a light unto yourself with 'Trusting Prana' by Donna Faulds. 

In the great silence of this moment...

This is an excerpt from 'Deep is the Hunger' by Howard Thurman.
Allow yourself to unclip the past and the future, and alertly rest your whole being in this moment.

come into the presence of still water...

Get yourself settled and enjoy this short poetry dive into 'The Peace of Wild Things' by Wendell Berry.