Category: Poem a Month

The world pain
is pounding
on my Soul.

Head on fire
with ‘what-to-do’s’
fueled by fear and urgency.

Can I sit for awhile
in spacious not knowing,
let Love cradle me
until the fire
is ashes
and
I can hear the wise counsel
of Boundless Wisdom
guiding me
towards right action.

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Questions for Contemplation

Do you find your mind spinning these days in the face of personal difficulties or in response to the many challenges in our world right now? The thinking mind ‘needs to know,’ wants reasons, strategies, explanations. Uncertainty is not comfortable for the linear mind.

An invitation in this poem is to ‘sit for awhile in spacious not knowing.’ When you quiet your mind, you can access the Love and Boundless Wisdom that is ever-present within you. When it feels like the right time to turn to your intuitive knowing for guidance, here is an imagery exercise.

Find a place to sit comfortably. When you are ready, close your eyes and take a few minutes to settle in and relax. Imagine that you are in a beautiful place in nature. Explore this environment for awhile and find a place to sit.  A figure, as a symbol of your inner wisdom, such as an eagle, dolphin, ray of light or a wise sage, will join you. You can ask any questions that are important to you and your wisdom figure will respond in a way that you will understand. Be in a dialogue as you would with a dear friend until you feel complete. You may want to write down the messages you received.

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In spite of us
Love will continue
to bless
and shine
into every opening,
and onto asphalt,
metal
and steel.

Love will blanket
tight fists
stiff bodies
clamped jaws
clenched minds,
all the barbs and thorns.

Love’s Light
will illumine
the pain
in our world,
show us
the wounds that need us.

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Questions for Contemplation

In addition to personal wounds, what world wounds may be calling out to you for your love and attention?

If you’d like to explore this question, a suggestion is to take some time to free write about it.

Take a few minutes to settle in, relax, become quiet, and bring attention to your heart. Express your concerns and let your heart wisdom respond in writing. Take as long as you need, and write whatever comes to you.

If you feel drawn to consider a next step with regard to bringing love and attention to this wound, you can turn to your heart again and ask for guidance about this question.

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1935-2019

She died today.

It is winter.
I feel her in the barren trees
reminding us
to let ourselves be winter
let ourselves trust death,
become intimate
with leavings
and the cold.

She died today.

She has merged
with the Silence
that she painted
in her poems,
that she inhaled
from the roots
and exhaled
into us.

We will
feel her
on the wet earth
see her
in the holy moon
when we awaken
at night,
unmoored,
hear her
in the mothering sea.

When the season turns
we will flower again
into the world
with the whisper
of her wisdom.
“…I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never
close again…”

---

Questions for Contemplation

Is there a poet, artist, musician or any other creative person whose work and being have inspired you?

What qualities does this person embody and express? What teachings or messages have impacted you?

If you were to write a tribute to this person, what would you say?

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When I am quiet as frogs who stop croaking when we trespass their sacred marsh, when I am quiet as a child who is sad in every cell, when I am quiet as the moment death carried Mom away, I become the Here of my life, time just another thought.

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Questions for Contemplation

What is your relationship to Quiet? What place does Quiet have in your life? What is the connection for you between Presence, the Here of your life, and Quiet?

How do you relate to the phrase “time just another thought.”?

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Today the Sacred is taking the shape of pain. My body, a fist, as if the tightness, the ‘No,’ will command it away. No. The ‘No’ intensifies everything, tears with claws that dig in. “I don’t want this. I can make it go away. I can’t make it go away. What if it doesn’t? I hate this. What if it gets worse? What if something more serious is going on?” Catastrophic thoughts and the big ‘No’ stacked like heavy books in my head – spinning. I was whimpering, now moaning. Pause.      Oh. I remember. I forgot the wisdom curriculum – how pain      illness      aging disrupt dismantle debilitate stretch us to our limits and – how they humble teach surrender reveal portals into the dark the quiet the slow awaken us to what life here, simply, is teach that suffering arises when we resist what is natural, inevitable, true. Brings me to my knees and I remember the Infinite the Unchanging the Divine. In this moment, I’m ok. Breath sinks from chest to belly. The body, with its limits and losses, it’s life and destiny, is alright now, as is. Crying, moaning, being afraid is alright, too and – I will rest easier when I remember that Love and the Infinite are also here, always Here.

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Questions for Contemplation

Has illness or physical pain been a part of your life? How have you been impacted emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually? What challenges have you encountered?

In addition to the difficulties, what have you learned about yourself and about life? Has the experience changed you in any meaningful ways? Would you consider pain to be a teacher in your life?

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In these troubled times
are we closer to the roots
as we witness a shattering of the old,
as vaults of dark secrets
are being cracked open?

Are we, at times, relieved
that scabs are being
ripped off,
that wounds and injustices
can be seen
and breathe now?

Is our buried grief
being unearthed?
Do we feel the unspoken laments
of our ancestors
as we let in the heartbreak
of our abandoned sisters and brothers
who’ve been cast out for millennia?

Is the inhumanity
firing us up
to love more?

Can we show our tails?
Growl. Howl. Roar.
Let our hearts bleed openly?
Come out of hiding?
Get real?

What about Mother Earth?
Can we see our greed and selfishness
with raw eyes?
See what we have stolen,
what we have destroyed?
Cry for Her?
Help Her?

Are we able
to see our Oneness
and commit to foster healing?
Can we be Love?

Are we inspired
to gather in the streets,
at altars,
in temples,
at the sea,
to become humble
before the Divine?
Serve our sorrowing world?

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Questions for Contemplation

What are your considerations and feelings about the times we are living in? How do you think about the challenges facing our planet and so many communities, groups and individuals?

Are there particular stanzas in this poem that speak to you?

If you would like to explore the heart of these concerns for yourself, contemplation and/or free writing can be helpful practices. Reflect on what is being evoked in you with regard to a particular concern or numerous matters. If you are drawn to doing so, you can also explore ways that you might help to foster healing in our world.

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Resistance.
Sit at her feet
silent   still.
Be a safe invitation.
Open receive her open
so she can soften,
then whisper kindness
to her edges.
Listen.
Watch with the eyes of your Soul.
She may find her story,
unfold,
ask you to understand
and guide her
to a welcoming nest
for her pain,
to a welcoming nest
where she can heal.

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Questions for Contemplation

There is an invitation in this poem to open to resistance when you experience it. When we open to obstacles rather than ‘resist’ them there is an opportunity to see deeper into them and discover what might be underlying the difficult state. Obstacles can be messengers from the psyche pointing us to something that may need our attention.

Sentence completion is a simple writing exercise to explore resistance, or blocks and stuckness of any kind.

Complete the sentences, taking 5 minutes for each one. Relax, let go and keep your hand moving without thinking about the responses as you write. Here are some examples, but you can create your own.

1. The feelings (or issues) behind my resistance to working on the project are __________________

2. When I ask my resistance what it wants to convey to me, it says __________________

3. What I can do to work with what is beneath the resistance is __________________

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I cut out tiny shapes
from Japanese papers:
fans
cranes
temples
butterflies
chrysanthemums,
glue them
in harmonious relationships
to the paper
to each other
to my eyes, hand and heart.

I draw anything and everything:
small, detailed
fish
stones
leaves
doors
gates
shoes
umbrellas
in pen and ink,
then brighten them
with color.

A memory.
Young me
quiet in my room
cutting out paper clothes
for paper dolls,
stringing together tiny glass beads,
painting miniature ceramic pieces:
hearts
horses
cats
angels.
Feeling safe,
with glimmers of joy.

Being found me,
gave me ways
to stay steady,
find home
in this uncertain world
and helped me
trust beauty
as a compass.

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Questions for Contemplation

When you were young and had some time to yourself, what did you enjoy doing that was fulfilling and helped you connect to yourself? Do you still engage in any of those activities? If not, what do you currently do that settles and fulfills you?

What meaning and place does beauty hold in your daily life? If you wish to include more beauty, what might that look like? How does beauty affect you?

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She extends her hand.
Stone, I am.
Stone.

Sadness says,
“You will fall.
I will be with you.
You will break.
I will take the pieces
and turn them into gold.
You will wail an ocean.
I will teach you to swim.
You won’t know who you are.
I will walk beside you
as you shed the skins
you never were.”

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Questions for Contemplation

In the first stanza of this poem there is resistance to connecting to sadness. What is your relationship to sadness? How do you typically respond when you begin to feel sad about anything, eg., a loss, a difficult conversation, a friend’s hardship, a family struggle, the challenges of these times?

Relax, close your eyes and imagine that you are in a conversation with sadness, represented by a symbol such as a broken heart or dark cloud. Ask what it wants to say to you about a situation in your life that is evoking sadness. You can also engage further with the symbol and ask any other questions that are meaningful to you.

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Take dictation
from the flat stones
in the river bed.
They speak secrets.

Attend a gathering of trees.
Watch them in communion
with the wind.

Fall into
Earth’s belly.
Hear her cries.

Find the children
who brought pieces
of heaven with them.
Ask them what life looks like.

Make your way through the dark nooks
bends
hideouts
of the city.

Touch hearts
with our forgotten sisters and brothers.
Invite them to speak their raw pain.

Converse with
illness
healing
birth
death
the underworld
and
the Infinite.

Sink into long, quiet times.
Turn towards the fissures and stars
in your heart.
Study your heart
from the inside.

Now tell the stories.

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Questions for Contemplation

Is there any phrase or stanza that stands out for you to explore further? Choose one and reflect on it for a while. What is evoked in you?

Do you feel drawn to be in conversation with ‘illness, healing, birth, death, the underworld or the Infinite?’ You can personalize any of these, e.g. your father’s illness, your healing from an injury. Using your healing as an example – find a comfortable place to sit, close your eyes and relax more and more deeply with each outgoing breath. Then let an image appear that represents your healing, such as a star or flowering plant. Imagine a conversation between you and the image as if you’re in dialogue with a trusted friend. You are speaking and listening to each other, and either of you might have questions you’d like to ask. Another option other than this self-guided imagery is to write down the conversation.

What do you find when you ‘turn towards the fissures and stars in your heart?’ Either reflect on what you discover or free write what comes to you.

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