Story

asking each daybreak
what might be
our story today..
does it enfold
those eddies and cracks..?
is clever ego coloring
special highs and lows..?
all of this seems
of sublime import..
this Story a mirror
an identification photo
we carry today..
yet might we remember
Story is parable
our Story today
was never before
and never will be...?

Grooves

these practices

have faces of

survival and prison..

locations

for keys and coats

this route to work..

times

for appointed rounds

rising and retiring

simple habits form

creep and enclose..

a crying out

for new grooves..

escape from prison

a good habit..
a good habit..?
enclosing..?

Reset

full moon reminds

we each own

a switch to reset

always at ready..

mind prisons entangle

our plans and chores..

reaching that switch

floods our slate

for this moment

with Light
clearing...

Full Moon

at last
an arrival in
yesterday's nightfall
this fullness of light..
our preparation completed
by growing slices each night..
partials direct remembering
to light lost and then found
full dark and full light..
let's imagine the dark
naming now
a friend's painful rant
his questions are struggle
enclosing reason and doubt..
might his rant find itself
in lunar transformation
a new grasp of the whole..?
ranting and stimulating
as electrical pole..
return and flow
reaching and receiving
Full Light...?

not sure this will be
satisfying to my friend..

Forgiveness

what is sought
for grievances untold..
You are forgiven
in this moment
one path unfolds..
Or bending work
prescribed
to reach peace
for forgiver and
forgiven..
Let us ask
is this choosing
better resolved
in that place
where time and hurt
touch inner light..?
then we hear
You are forgiven
Now as
work begins...

the Voice

through the lace
mirrored reflections
on a tiled floor
morning light variations..
remembering the sun
brilliance beyond
filtered reflections here
on lace and floor..
then I heard
the sun is lace
to a light refined..
and that light...

OSV retreat reflection
January 26, 2013)

Escher indeed

a search outside
often finds darkness
in our other..
we hope for
penetrating warmth
our furnished light..
We ask
how our light 
renews its flame..
enter Escher with
his tiled lizards..
we see the fitting
without any gaps
scaled symmetry 
and no overlaps..
this oneness display
feeds inner light..
our new inside
and out...

the Flood

massive flooding data
with fingertip suggestions
authority assertions..
our longing rises
for calm correspondence
and peaceful correlation..
but splitting continues
with mounting pain..
new vessels we need
very desperate need
for patterns to shape
those complex splits..
when vessels emplaced
we stand guard
informing screaming data
now gather or go...

you might blame
Adam and Eve...!

Wax and Wane

increase and decrease
brilliance and shadow
these pairs appear as
wax and wane..
in her wane she
restrains that light
preparing a room
birthing again our
shadowed creation..
the blinding wax
shines then hides
then shines again
a monthly pulsation..
careful to preserve
his precious creation
cradled within..

a Flow

in times as ours

sharp compressions

pinch our insides..

and mirror

perfect storms outside..

these our possessions 

our very own

black holes

out there

in here..

all seeking room

to transmute relieve..

a birthing rise

a burdened delight

a Flow introduced...

our toruSelf...

breathing

beginning to end

life's pulsing flow

yes oxygen delivery

what is more..?

bonding with Now

a hidden de-light..?

inhale is reaching

 pathway to light..

exhale

descending creating

 with shadow

 thickening sometimes

outside and curving..

inhale once more

center stream rising

pinpoint of light

growing surrounding

bathing..

then exhale calling

to tend our creation..

and then...

Now and then...

(painting by Alex Grey)

(

There is evidence

There is evidence, so it appears

our Universe is collapsing

surrendering into dark matter.

There is evidence, so it appears

I am expanding awareness

surrendering unto myself .

There is evidence, creation is not complete.

(Written by Mae from Hello Poetry!)

Norm with dog walking

an awkward title perhaps
but may present
a vision of patience
varied in shades..

our neighbor's dog
extraordinary not at all
relishes like others
daily sniffing exploration..
Norm with dog
seen tethered together..
control however
very hard to discern..

on certain streetcorners
with odors exploding
Norm with dog
share equally
decisions to move on..
some neighbors say
it's patience we find
life's lesson displayed..

patience has colors
shades of suffering..
yet on this walk
two carry a leash
joining senses of discovery..
we neighbors might see
brighter Lighter
shades of Patience...?

"Adopt the pace of nature:  her
secret is patience."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The essence of leadership  The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.  Theodore Hesburgh  Where there is no vision, the people perish.  - Proverbs 29:18  Do you have a clear vision?

the Wedding

the bride and groom

unseen

prepare to unite

two become one

in joyful celebration..

might we ask

what came before

this place and time..?

an earlier chapter

of everyone's story

is told with wine..

when those barrels

of water transform

one becomes two..

old Adam alone

becomes Adam with Eve

our birthing story

unfolds again..

this split for creation

a delivery dramatic

all with accompanying

complaint and pain..

stands now a

reminder from Cana

of our separation.. 

with some news

of joy's return...

Home and Pathway

the afterlife

so much is said

speculation and hope..

after all of this

might new perspective

bring fulfillment Now..?

this mystery Now

claims amazing power

sculpting a modern

but most ancient tower..

 Now diminishes rank

of our favorite tools..

space and time

stand subordinate to

the encompassing Now..

Now ever transforming

becoming the richer

when in-sights lift..

Now seems both

home and pathway

these two faces

creating each other..

Now.. removes that "after"

from worn afterlife...

Now is Life...?

            The degree of wisdom that defined the palace the moment before now becomes the very corridor to the next palace of wisdom through which he enters the moment after. This is the way of Man - to evolve from one palace to another for all eternity.

            Therefore, we do not have before us a corridor and palace. There is no gross, physical world that whose essence is only a means towards an end. Rather, we have before us a world of Wisdom that has concealed within it the wonderful quality of elevation. This is its aspect of the corridor and only because of this is it called the corridor.

            Precisely because of this we see among the masters of the world - the Patriarchs - that despite the fact that they reached the highest levels that man can attain they did not separate themselves from Olam haZeh - our apparent physical world. Rather, throughout their greatness they were involved daily and for their entire lives. This was true to such an extent that we find [for example] that Jacob our Father, the “perfection of the Patriarchs”, was a shepherd for 21 years for Laban the Aramean. This was because through his greatness he “saw his world in his lifetime” and he discovered within everyday things, which appear to us so simple and external, peaks upon peaks of Divine Wisdom.

            As a result, angelic entities were sent from above to teach him [the hidden mysteries] concerning the [coloring patterns of the] sheep - akudim, nikudim and berudim [the primordial worlds of "Bonded", "Pointed", & "Interconnected"]. To this day, generation after generation, when we stand in prayer we are dependent upon the merit of these [patterns that he engraved upon the sticks].           

            Also because of this, where the written Torah mentions the reward for the mitzvot, we do not find explicitly stated also the reward that is given after one's death. Because, if one does not “see his world in his own lifetime”, this is a loss for him, as opposed to the fully realized man whose corporeality has been shed and he has returned to his true divine form. This then is his true Olam haBah - his [endless] in-coming world [s] - now in the very present. And "Greater is one moment of teshuvah and good actions in this world than all the bliss of the coming world”.

Outcomes and Processes

the end of

a process is

known as outcome..

our outcomes formed

in planning and visions..

all ends embedded

in those beginnings..

but a danger lurks

when our awareness

of process idles..

process is struggle

mitigated by joy

living this moment

crying out Now..

vital experience between 

departure and arrival

stimulates both

beginning and end..

when process forgotten

dogma and fundamentalism 

these cousins loom...

entanglement

x + y
thus two things
entangled as one..
neither can exist
all alone..
might that little +
create those things..?

can we then
find ourselves as +
as creator between..?
are we entanglers
(co-) creators...?

when stepping higher
now we are Ms x
or perhaps Mr y..
and Who then
is the +..?

are we and
a Creator
so conjoined...?

("...the universe is a joint
venture between the
observing consciousness
and the observed: it
requires the observer to
bring that which is observed
into being."
Lynne McTaggart,
The Bond)

an Arrival

a forgotten Departure
from simplicity..
discoveries of living
accomplishment and shade..
then suddenly
after so many years
a remembering but
only a glimpse
of that Departure
covered in mist..
finding simplicity now
containing
our voyage treasures..
an Arrival of knowing...
---Charles Coon

"And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
--TS Eliot

T. S. EliotLittle Gidding V

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. Through the unknown, remembered gate When the last of earth left to discover Is that which was the beginning; At the source of the longest river The voice of the hidden waterfall And the children in the apple-tree Not known, because not looked for But heard, half heard, in the stillness Between the two waves of the sea. Quick now, here, now, always-- A condition of complete simplicity (Costing not less than everything) And all shall be well and All manner of things shall be well When the tongues of flame are in-folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire and the rose are one.

Vibrating Words

In our 

speaking and hearing

words akin to solid things

 oftentimes standing alone..

 the weight of many nouns

 fills our logic and comfort
our progress and pain

until now..?

new times demand

 enjoined conversations..

resonances which reach

to levels obscure..

processes and verbs

waking sleeping nouns..

each word an experience

 simple vibration

or nothing at all...?

Enough

is an edge

a border line

north of the line

find spare scarcity  

abundance resides south..

a life fulfilled is

 a precarious walk

on that edge..

our stumbling arises

when this line

becomes smudged 

south appears north

 north seems south..

when bearings are lost

we have forgotten

abundance and scarcity

are siamese twins..

one is by 

the other defined..

both are needed

to ply our way

survive on the edge..

to find again and

in each moment

 the illusive
Enough...

Joy in relation

no flower here..?
can we approach
this seeming defiance
of old common sense..?
the poet says
that our joy
lies in relation..
we pause to
shift our awareness
to the possibility
that the flower
over there depends
on the flower
nearby..
casting further in
modest extension:
each flower appearing
is both creator
and creation..
the poet's vision..?
salve for those
hurtful hours...?

"The upswing of the light ones, the bowing sway of the heavy ones
and the delicate ones' timid curve.
Everywhere joy in relation and nowhere grasping;
world in abundance and earth enough."  --Rilke

Lifting my eyes from the book, from the tightly sequenced lines
to the full and perfect night:
Oh how like the stars my buried feelings break free,
as if a bouquet of wildflowers
had come untied:

The upswing of the light ones, the bowing sway of the heavy ones
and the delicate ones' timid curve.
Everywhere joy in relation and nowhere grasping;
world in abundance and earth enough.

Rainer Maria Rilke----Uncollected Poems