This little book was created following a very playful conversation between me and Luang Por Sumedho in the sauna at Amaravati in June 2014. I had been occasionally sending Luang Por poems over my years as a monk as little offerings. He told me that he liked them very much and had kept all of them in a scrapbook. He asked me if I had any more. I felt very much honored of course and confessed that I had thought of producing a small booklet of poems to give him for his birthday, ‘I’ll even write a recommendation for you if you like,’ he said. This was how the idea of a personal present became the idea for this publication. The poems that follow span nearly

20 years of my relationship with Luang Por and his teachings, a relationship that has profoundly affected my life. I include all the poems I could find that I actually sent and also, with his permission, a few more that I would have sent had I known how much he liked the others. The themes of listening and intuition, of space and of the mindfulness that makes the ordinary extra-ordinary I hope clearly echo his teaching.

‘I am not very good at poetry,’ Luang Por said to me, ‘so I need someone else to do that for me.’

Alright, I will try but you’re the inspiration, right!

Kalyãno Bhikkhu July 2014