poetry

Sep 17 2020

GRACE?

I wonder what I really know about Grace?
It seems to elude me mostly
I like the vibration of the word
Yet I know so little about it

The flowery religious words
Do not speak to me at all
They basically obscure the clarity I seek
They seem entrenched in the past

Grace feels like active energy
It feels expansive and important
It feels a bit like I would like to be seen
It holds a knowing I would love to embody

Perhaps it is found in kind acts
Or in lovely blooming flowers
It feels like it might be in the
Sounds of music at times

I think it is something I am growing into
Yet I do not know the path forward
Maybe to live in Grace means to try
To be gentle and quiet sometimes

Or it could mean to be thoughtful
Deeply attentive or grateful
Grace might live in the mountains
They always take my breath away

Grace seems to call me within
I know in being there, something shifts
Grace shows up when I walk along a beach
With the sand, the water and the beauty

Perhaps Grace is a call to wholeness
Always playing in the back ground
Always just elusive enough to be interesting
Just beyond one’s ability to capture it

I think of Grace as a special type of freedom
One I can grow or not, as it is up to me
Perhaps if I begin with my desire to know it
It will reveal itself, again and again

Jul 30 2020

A Very Special Day

When I enter the dark woods
I feel a welcoming dampness and camaraderie
We share a cognizance of knowing
There is peace energy here and cooperation

There is stillness along with chirps and chatter
The foot prints of the deer and raccoons speak
The stream runs continuously to the west
The wind makes itself known, gently

I am invited to breath deeply of moss and bark
To make myself known to the greater whole
To leave my worries and tasks behind
To be, to smell, to feel, and to give thanks

Just ahead, the may apples are beginning to peak out
Unknown names of wild flowers dot the forest floor
I delight in their profound colors so shortly present
Yes so brilliantly displayed for me to rejoice with them

This isolated community reminds me of connection
I touch to compatible energy existing and flowing
I feel inner tightness falling into the ground
All tension and stress being cleansed by the trees

My body can walk and be and feel and release
My mind seems to float away from focus
Joy bubbles up and a favorite tune starts in my head
I hope nobody find me here, hope no talking is required

One day maybe I can both talk and be present
Though I talk so much that I sometimes forget
The silence within me, that gets too little attention
I feel whole here like all my parts are present

Who knows me in this place, so centered and solid
I hardly ever show this me to outsiders
They know my credentials and my outer history
They know about me but know not of me, the real me

So these woods are my go to place, in person
In my imagination, in my dreams, in my writing
Today I am letting you into this special place
Treat it with love and gratitude for that will be returned

Maybe one day we can be here together
On the same wave length and vibration
Just to be and know, feel and be together
That would be a very special day indeed.

Jul 27 2020

GOD of All, Hear Us In Our Hour of Need

We lay our profound suffering before You
Calling for an end to vast sadness and grief
Commanding the inclusion of all peoples in Grace
Hear us now, as endless darkness deepens

We are lost in fear and doubt,
Angst and sorrow so profound,
Getting out of bed is humbling
Getting to sleep, impossible

My heart shrinks and shrivels up with
Thousands feeling loss, destitution, and brokenness
Pervading fear grips the strongest among us
Endless trials repeat, each darker than before

Thousands crossing the Brooklyn Bridge
Hundreds gassed at peaceful protests
Nameless, faceless paramilitary units
Threatening, confronting, with anger, then arrest

God of All, the old hatreds must go and soon
We cannot sustain this level of bedeviling disarray
We can’t return to the horrors of the past
The horrors of the present must end, and swiftly

Thousands unable to pay the rent, find a job, bury their dead
Thousands of businesses gasping for one more breath
Daily number explosions of more sick, dying and dead
Dreams, hopes, nest eggs, disappearing, perhaps forever

Guide us to peace, safety, and forgiveness
Bring us to the expanding path of Wholeness
Help us ensure that together, we all rise on the tide
Ever staring down darkness, by choosing Love

I choose to be kinder and clear out my anger and fear
I call in more compassion, banish all remnants of ego
Guide me to walk humbly with my God on the toughest days
Cleanse me of doubt and bring me home when my work here is finished

Jun 10 2020

The Heart of the Nation

The heart of the nation is raw
With fear and violence
Burning anger and rage
Beatings, smashing, and killings

And still we do not see
That we are part of the cause
We are the blinded ones
We are hiding from the darkness

We live in safe communities
And hope the discomfort
Quickly passes us by
With little disruption to our lives

Let others do the marching
Let others deal with the fall out
Surely this will “return to normal”
Sooner than later, as swiftly as possible

But the images are so bloody
What if we were one of those
Being singled out for our skin color
Being chased and killed through hatred

We want protections from this happening
We want everyone to make this go away
We want the cops to stop being racist
We want those killings to cease and desist

But it is not only the killings
It is living in abject fear of being singled out
Living with constant need to keep one’s head down
Every single day in public and never feeling safe

This causes entrenched resentment
Deep anger, righteous indignation
Mistrust and more segregated communities
Mistreatment for all while everyone lives in fear

When one among us is at risk
We are all at risk because we tolerate
Those among us who are at risk
And go about our lives as if we are separate

Nothing works when this is the response
No one learns to change, when isolated
No one practices compassion unless
Closeness is personal and meaningful

Beware, our feeling bad does not change a thing
The compassion felt from TV news touches no one
The shaking of one’s head and returning to normal
Leaves those at risk, still at risk

All have to stand for justice
For freedom, for goodness for all
For opportunities for all
For good systems available to all

This has to be the way forward
To stem the flood of sorrow and grief
Beyond simply patching up the brokenhearted
All have to banish racism in all forms

Then all become truly safe and whole
No other way works for all people
And so it is, for now and for always
With determined hearts, so it can be.

May 28 2020

Keeper of Your Gate

There is no other keeper of your gate but you
You have helpers along the way
Those who parented you and loved you
Those who befriended you and taught you

In the end though you are the sole keeper of your gate
You decide what to focus on and who to let in
You decide what you feel and how to react to those feelings
You decide what is worthy of your attention and what is not

You make all the choices of what and who can enter
Based on all the love and hurts you have ever experienced
You draw to yourself all the wonderful and awful
Experiences you need to come clean with yourself

Every life is a balance of the good and the bad
You have to sort it though and decide what to allow
What you will put up with and who you will tolerate
Those people who are helpful and those who are not

This can feel incredibly overwhelming
The sense that is it all up to you
That each choice or decision is solely up to you
This is not fully true, nor your only alternative

The experience of feeling alone and wholly responsible
Is the human interpretations of a lifetime
There is a spiritual dimension that can also be present
That choice is to connect to all the Love energy available

What if you tried to connect your heart to Love
Every single moment of the day and night?
What if you asked for Divine help to do this?
Knowing you will always be heard and supported

Not so alone, not so solely responsible for your life’s trajectory
What if you truly sought the guidance of the Great Spirit?
Try it. Nothing keeps you from opening to Divine Love
And seeing where it leads you. Seeing where you are taken.

You really have nothing to lose but unhealed inner negativity
You have everything to gain, a pathway to Peace and Balance
You will also be accompanied if you call this energy into your life
You have to give permission though for help to be given to you

Take a leap into the arms of Divine Love and Knowing
You are already wired for this, by being in body
You have already committed to learn everything needed to come to Peace
However, you must still activate this call to Divine Source again, now

You may think you have set up your life to work with Spirit before you came in
However, until you consciously make that choice again in body
You will not be fully able to work with Spirit because of Free Will
You have to call in the Presence of Divine Love now for it to manifest

It is not a hard thing to do
Only you may need to set down
The feeling that you do not deserve
To know God’s presence

That is a human issue, fully coming out of false self-perceptions
Set those down, call the Divine energy in anyway
The act of calling in the Presence of All That Is
Will set you on a renewed path to Inner Peace, Kindness, and Love

poetry

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