Dear friends, we’re happy to share that new material is available in our Resources category, where you can now find ‘Peace and Protest Poems’.
During the summer of 2025, senior monastic Sister Dieu Nghiem (Jina) read and recorded 22 of the poems from Thich Nhat Hanh’s collection Call Me By My True Names. The collection is unsurprisingly comforting, a much-needed companion both in times of struggle and in times of peace, and a reminder of the depths of the human experience. Sister Jina’s voice adds warmth and a new layer of beauty to Thay’s words and their core message. In these recordings, they resemble a meditation on both past and current events, while offering the calm and peace that can help us overcome obstacles.
All 22 poems will be gradually added to the app over the coming weeks, so do keep an eye on this space (link). In the meantime, you can listen to the first four – and, for those who would like to see the texts, we’ve attached three below (with the kind permission of Parallax Press).
About the poems
Call Me By My True Names is a stunning poetry collection that explores lesser-known facets of Thich Nhat Hanh’s life, revealing not only his path to becoming a Zen meditation teacher but his skill as a poet, his achievements as a peace activist, and his experiences as a young refugee.
Through more than 50 poems spanning several decades, Thich Nhat Hanh reveals the stories of his past—from his childhood in war-torn Vietnam to the beginnings of his own spiritual journey—and shares his ideas on how we can come together to create a more peaceful, compassionate world.
Uplifting, insightful, and profound, Call Me By My True Names is at once an exquisite work of poetry and a portrait of one of the world’s greatest Zen masters and peacemakers.
About Sister Jina
Sister Dieu Nghiem was ordained as a novice nun at the Hokyoji Temple, Fukui, Japan, 1985, with the ordination name “Ji Na” (“Loving Kindness”). She joined the Plum Village community in 1990 as one of Thay’s first European monastic disciples, and received full bhikshuni ordination from Thay on January 10th 1992, and the Lamp Transmission to become a Dharma Teacher on the following day. She was the abbess of Lower Hamlet from 1998 until 2014.
Each year, Sister Jina leads mindfulness retreats around the world, including in her ancestral lands of the Netherlands and Ireland. Her gentle and illuminating teachings have nourished generations of practitioners.
Sister Dieu Nghiem is a beloved elder in the community, tirelessly offering her time to listen, reflect, and guide her younger Dharma sisters and brothers. She loves to relax in nature, and enjoys mountain-hiking, birdwatching, and folk-dancing.
A LOTUS JUST BLOOMED ON THE OCEAN
A lotus just bloomed on the ocean.
A baby was born amidst the waves.
At midnight this January 30th,
two hundred eighty-one people aboard the Roland
pray silently,
their eyes on the ocean.
The eight-member crew directs the ship
south towards Tioman Island.
They are without water
and hope to refill the tank.
The waves tap on the sides of the boat,
punctuating the prayers.
The moon has already disappeared.
Only the light of the stars
shines the way for you to enter life, little one.
Down below, the waves are shaking their silvery heads.
The mother, lying on the bare deck,
does not have a private room
to welcome her newborn.
And the doctor,
also one of the wandering boat people,
stands up to address the others
with the good news.
The cries of the baby entering life
are swept away by the wind.
The mother smiles faintly,
and two hundred eighty-one people clap their hands
as the captain announces,
“We are heading south,
and our population is now two hundred eighty-two.
Let us give thanks to Buddha and to God.”
The small radio linking the ship to shore
transmits the good news to the continent.
The human race is still there.
Tonight, on solid land, they learn of the coming into life
of Rolanda Thi Nguyen.
Where do you come from, little one,
and where are you going?
Why did you choose to come to life on this wandering boat?
She does not ask questions,
but we have to give answers.
Who has the heart to let the tiny lotus flower
that bloomed at midnight on the waves
perish in the depths of the ocean?
Brother, Sister, tell me,
where should we bring her?
We need your help.
In 1976, during an operation to help the boat people, a
baby was born on one of the boats we hired, the Roland.
When we received the news that she was born, I wrote this
Poem.
SILENCE
The paper smells wonderful
as I turn the pages of this ancient book.
The water in my glass
smiles to me with crystal eyes.
Suddenly oceanic waves come up one after another
with their foamy heads.
A cold stone
summons the fog
up on the distant mountain
where the wind is howling hard.
I wake up.
The tip of my tongue is frozen
by the dewdrops
that have been sent to me
by a blade of grass on a late night.
Light flashes across
like the blade of a sword.
Perhaps it is the beginning of a storm.
Clouds rise very quickly.
From the East, urgently,
the sound of the horns is calling.
Where is my palm-leaf raincoat of years ago?
The winds are chasing after the leaves.
The lines and strokes
your brush used to trace
are brown,
the color of your arm,
the sweat that penetrates the rice field.
In this moment, our planet is lost
somewhere in the unknown,
and the giant bird
is shaking its wings in outer space.
Space in puddles
is splashing.
Space is exploding.
There is a sun
struggling up and down
in the ocean
like a giant fish with enormous red eyes.
My telephoto lens
is trying to catch the images of prehistory.
Look! The door is just unlocked,
and the future is let free.
For many lives,
that door has prevented the future from fleeing.
This morning on my way to the woods,
through the singing of the bird,
I know you are there, free,
free on a green path.
There are buds, flowers, and tiny leaves
waving to space.
The hand,
the hand that holds the baton of the talented artist
conducts the world of sound.
All sounds return
to this one point
of great silence,
this point
of great emptiness.
There is too much light—
too much light for a baby just entering life.
I see now
our grandmother
with her hair tied behind her head
in the form of an onion.
She is sweeping bamboo leaves.
She begins to gather the leaves into a pile
and burn them.
The smoke is rising,
warming up the sky.
The Buddha smiles behind a thin cloud.
Tonight the moon is full.
MORNING OF PEACE
Treading the path that leads to the moon,
I look back and can’t stop marveling.
I see a bubble of water on the immense ocean of space.
It is the Earth, our green planet,
her sumptuous beauty sparkling and proud,
yet oh so fragile.
In her, I discover myself.
Walking mindfully on the earth,
a grassy path,
my feet make the promise
to embrace the early morning
and touch the peace of the present moment.
Autumn leaves fall and cover the path,
unrolling a carpet of walking meditation.
A shy squirrel, hiding behind the oak tree,
looks at me, surprised,
then dashes to the top of the tree
and disappears behind a cluster of leaves.
I see a clear stream
flowing between cracks in the rocks,
its water laughing,
while the trees whistle.
Together we celebrate a morning of peace.
At the same time,
I see places of deep suffering
where men imprison men,
and make each other suffer—
the waves of discrimination, hatred, and greed,
inevitable causes of catastrophe,
crash upon the earth.
Chicks of the same hen
wear different colors in order to fight with each other.
Heartrending cries declare the horrors of war.
Brothers and sisters,
the beautiful Earth is us.
I embrace her and hold her tenderly against my chest.
Breathing together in the same rhythm
we restore our calm, our peace.
Let us accept ourselves
so we may accept one another.
Let us share the vision and make it possible
for Great Love to arise.
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