Born from a practice of mindful contemplation, these 40 poems span topics from love and union to knowledge. Use this collection to remain intentional about your own interests and explore your own mindful journey. All the images are from AI.
*You may use these poems with proper citation: "Yung Suk Kim, 40 Meditative Poems, URL: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html."
40 Meditative Poems on Mindful Topics
1
Mind
Yung Suk Kim
Mind is a mystery, yet real—
Free, floating, and frail.
It is our engine of imagination, rationality, joy, and sorrow.
It never works alone.
Sometimes, it wanders wild;
At other times, it seeks clarity and understanding.
Mind is embodied and relational,
Open to all environments, beings, and no-things.
It lives its own rhythm, in tune with body and spirit.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
.jpg){kind=small}
2
Uncertainty
Yung Suk Kim
It is woven into the breath of life.
We are born crying—
Our first admission that we are frail,
The signal flare of a soul’s complex journey.
We learn to smile,
Mistaking the intimidating world for clay,
Believing it malleable in our hands.
But comfort fades when desire meets the wall;
We grieve, we break, we demand what is fair.
Breathless, we fall,
Bereft of strength and emptied of aim.
Yet here, in the hollow, a presence swells—
Surrounding the world, surrounding me,
The irresistible grace of God.
Facing the fog,
I refuse to shatter.
I remain true.
I find my renewal in the unknown itself.
Standing on the brink,
I sense a force
Far greater than my own.
I navigate safely,
Not because the tempests cease,
But because a path of grace persists beyond my hands.
Revitalized by the turmoil,
I embrace the haze that keeps me awake,
Revealing the true light that guides my way.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
3
Time
Yung Suk Kim
Time flows nowhere; a vast mirage,
Boundless, endless, a drifting collage.
A soft, slow whisper that memory breathes,
An echo of all that the mind believes.
Here in the now, it breaks apart,
In sharp, brief beats of the human heart.
It writes the narrative, shapes the life,
The unspoken depths, the joy, the strife.
We sense its weight, yet hold but one—
This fleeting instant, this sudden sun.
Luminous, whole, and contained in its might,
The present alone is our truth and our light.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
4
Truth
Yung Suk Kim
What is truth?
For truth is not a prize to be possessed,
But a life to be embodied—
To be lived fully, faithfully,
And with unbound freedom.
It is no mere concept for the mind to grasp,
But a spirit woven of compassion:
Gentle as a breath,
Yet unflinching as stone.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
5
Life
Yung Suk Kim
Life is a precious gift.
It does not belong to us,
Yet we are the keepers of its flame,
Responsible for its care.
To live well is to reverence the now,
Respecting each moment—
Brief, vanishing, yet heavy with worth.
It is finding joy in clarity,
In remaining true to yourself.
Simply exist. Feel deeply.
For in that raw experience,
The meaning of life becomes real.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
6
The Paths We Walk
Yung Suk Kim
Every soul shapes its own design,
A distinct way of living, thinking, and feeling.
This path must be respected,
Flawed though it may be.
Yet there is a common road,
A shared law we all must keep:
To treat each other with deep regard,
Living honorably,
Bound by love and trust.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
7
Sin
Yung Suk Kim
Sin is the failure to love your own soul,
To leave the spirit broken, not whole.
It is the pain we inflict on another,
The harm we cause to sister and brother.
And deepest of all, the path wrongly trod:
The silence that refuses to honor God.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
8
Salvation
Yung Suk Kim
Salvation is the finding of peace—
A quiet, normal state
Where we stop the longing for tomorrow
And cherish what we hold today.
It rests on simple ground:
Bread, shelter, the hands we touch,
The bond with others and the Great Beyond.
A whole and simple truth:
To be content in this moment.
It cannot be delayed.
Salvation begins now,
With this very breath,
In the present where real life wakes.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
9
Hebel/Vapor
Yung Suk Kim
Vapor or breath appears and disappears,
but it does not vanish; it merely transforms into invisible air.
There is nothing wrong with it.
Accept things as they are.
Our life is hebel (vapor/breath).
There is nothing wrong with it.
The paradox is that life is precious because it is fleeting.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
10
Faith
Yung Suk Kim
Faith is trust in grace divine,
A steady beam, a sacred sign.
Its highest form is love made plain,
A life whose warmth reveals the flame.
From sacred guides, we learn to be
A living, shining testimony.
So we pursue that faithful way,
And live out love in every day.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
11
Repentance
Yung Suk Kim
Repentance is a shift of mind,
Toward the divine, by love defined.
A humbled heart in love’s design,
Where worth and nothingness align.
Rooted in God’s eternal view,
We find our value, deep and true.
This awakening must never fade,
A constant choice that must be made.
A continuous turn, a conscious way,
To live this truth by night and day.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
12
Confidence
Yung Suk Kim
Confidence grounds our ethics and health,
Rooted in Love divine, our wealth.
A can-do spirit that makes things be,
"I am that I am," a certainty.
Acknowledge the Divine in every place,
Accept that love and your own face.
Assure that in the work you do,
The greater will is done through you.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
13
Normal
Yung Suk Kim
Who determines what is normal’s rule?
On what criteria in the school?
From God's perspective, all are right,
Or should be normal in the light.
God supports us to return,
To that normalcy we yearn.
When anxious or depressed you feel,
Say "I am normal," make it real.
Not because life is perfect, free,
Or lacking in difficulty,
But circumstances, old or new,
Do not define the heart of you.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
14
Agency
Yung Suk Kim
From God’s love, I come to be,
A unique presence, solely me.
I am I, and no one other,
With my own choices to discover.
Decisions are my own to make,
For I am not the form I take,
Not merely thoughts or feelings' trace,
But a soul upheld by divine grace.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
15
Prayer
Yung Suk Kim
I pray because I am weak.
I pray to find a silence in the mind,
To alter the currents of my thought
And the shape of my deeds.
I do not ask to change God,
Nor to alter the hearts of others.
I do not pray to bargain for heaven.
I pray only to live well
In the heavy truth of the here and now—
To stand resilient.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
16
Love
Yung Suk Kim
We exist because of love alone,
A want and need that all have known.
God loves, we are loved, and we love too,
And others need this love from you.
True love is neighborly and near,
But a neighbor is not an object mere.
We cannot simply look and see;
We must be neighbors actively.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
17
Hope
Yung Suk Kim
Hope is grounded in our want,
A true desire, no idle vaunt.
True want from mindfulness will grow,
Which feels the urgency of “now.”
Hope is the hold on this time's sense,
Refusing to yield in its defense.
Nothing can block, no wall so high,
The path where this fulfillment lies.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
18
Mortality
Yung Suk Kim
Mortality is a gift, we find,
If the body were forever bound,
It would be a burden, vast and deep,
A boredom that would never sleep.
Simply trust God, let go of strife,
And find the joy within your life.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
19
Distance
Yung Suk Kim
"Out of sight" once made us pine,
For distance drew a longing line.
But now the web dissolves the space,
And wipes the miles from every place.
Where minds engage, the bond is near,
And deep connections will appear.
Yet still we need to stand apart,
To keep a distance in the heart.
We need our time, a separate zone,
A space that we can call our own.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
20
Politics
Yung Suk Kim
Politics is a human need,
We need the good to sow the seed.
It integrates the different parts,
Into a whole of harmonious hearts.
But bad politics breaks the bind
Of community and humankind.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
21
Pause
Yung Suk Kim
I need to pause to create more,
To calm the rush and anxious core.
A pause is not just stopping work,
No idle duty that we shirk.
It is the time to think anew,
With fresh ideas to carry through.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
22
Union
Yung Suk Kim
In union, members think and act distinct,
Yet by their love and understanding linked.
No single lifestyle rules the rest,
But in their love, they do their best.
Whatever path or thought they own,
Each one is precious, loved, and known.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
23
Mindfulness
Yung Suk Kim
Mindfulness honors the sense of being,
Questioning all that we are seeing.
Nothing stands outside its view;
It holds the world and questions, too.
A struggle to sense the life we lead,
To understand the human deed.
It is a journey, seeking, leaning,
To reach the point of life’s true meaning.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
24
Unity
Yung Suk Kim
Who calls for unity so deep?
Those who have their things to keep.
Most people need no such decree,
No hollow form of unity.
They want a simple life’s communion,
To live their days in peaceful union.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
25
Bond
Yung Suk Kim
A bond implies solidarity,
Not glue that ends authenticity.
No mix where original self is lost,
Or distinctness is the final cost.
If the bond is blind or immature,
It is a prison, strict and sure.
And this question must always loom:
Solidarity is shared with whom?
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
26
Retirement
Yung Suk Kim
Retirement is maturity's cause,
Not the time to rest and pause.
It is a season vast and towering,
The time for the last flowering.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
27
Justice
Yung Suk Kim
Justice seeks the right for me,
And good for others to be free.
It means knowing when to give in,
To yield the prize and not to win.
Seek not too much for your own sake,
Be mindful of the share you take.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
28
Religion
Yung Suk Kim
Religion is good, though human-made,
No perfect purity displayed.
Yet we need it, religious at the start,
A deep desire within the heart.
Good faith helps people and the earth,
And gives self-love its proper worth.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
29
Evil
Yung Suk Kim
Evil is all that virtue is not,
Dormant in mind, a silent plot.
Sometimes it wakes and turns to real,
A force that other people feel.
We must control this darker part,
And win it with a loving heart.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
30
Virtue
Yung Suk Kim
The most beautiful virtue is humility,
Not letting oneself down in misery.
To stand as nothing before God’s face,
Yet find the most precious in that place.
It gives true existence its sense and law;
Through that lens, all else is observed in awe.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
31
Wisdom
Yung Suk Kim
True wisdom holds our smallness and our worth,
Two sides of truth we carry on this earth.
It views reality with an honest glance,
To see things clearly, leaving naught to chance.
Though we live briefly in this time and space,
We fill the fleeting hours with mindful grace.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
32
Development
Yung Suk Kim
True growth unfolds with patience and with time,
A steady process, slow and yet sublime.
Rush the work, and it will fall apart—
Like seeds that need a season at the start
To blossom fully and to bear their fruit,
Revealing beauty, perfect and absolute.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
33
Integration
Yung Suk Kim
Integration joins the good and bad,
Chaos and stability.
Joy and sorrow, success and failure,
Merged in totality.
It moves without slowing,
Like a river flowing.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
34
Desire
Yung Suk Kim
Without desire, no rhythm or life,
It is energy, small or large.
There is a negative and positive fire,
And good acts flow from good desire.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
35
Chaos
Yung Suk Kim
Chaos is disorder, wild and strange,
Calling for a reoriented change.
It informs us of the hidden wrong;
If known, the chance to shift is strong.
Merged into the whole and good,
It brings creation where it stood.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
36
Maturity
Yung Suk Kim
Maturity is a goal to gain,
But at the peak, we don't remain.
Once reached, we fall upon the ground,
To start again, as plants are bound.
Maturity cannot stand forever;
It falls to start a new endeavor.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
37
Survival
Yung Suk Kim
Every moment, we survive what we face,
Life is a game or a fight taking place
Against counterforces of every kind.
But bare survival is death, we find.
We need to survive, but the path we take
Depends on the lifestyle and efforts we make.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
38
Harmony
Yung Suk Kim
Harmony is not the middle ground,
But every part within the whole is found.
Integrated fully, bound and there,
Connected by a deep and loving care.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
39
Healing
Yung Suk Kim
Healing is the weaving of the whole,
True integration of the soul.
It touches every aspect of our life,
Through all our times, through calm and strife.
It spans all situations we pass through,
And holds all emotions, old and new.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
40
Knowledge
Yung Suk Kim
Knowledge is power, firm and steep,
But knowing our ignorance runs more deep.
To see the void is the stronger part;
Be honest, then, within your heart.
Poem source: https://drkimys.blogspot.com/p/40-day-mindful-journey-and-reflections.html
See also my poetry collection: Roots and Starlight
