Sunrise

Sunrise
Sunrise on Sunset Beach

Sunday, June 19, 2011

To Make a Poem Live

Athens, Georgia
June 14, 2011; revised January 6, 2015

A million poems that might be made,
and each one phrased a million ways  –
but one is said, the others dead
and never more than fleeting thoughts
that twitter past mind’s eye half read
and gone, but one that lingers on
defines the mind that gives it life.

In minds there lurk a million states
expressing thought a trillion ways –
within each moment one congeals,
the others hover not yet real
left hanging from a golden thread
that loops through mind outside of time
to bind the poems we thought were dead.

The hand that writes a poem down
and makes it real outside the mind,
a concrete form that’s fossilized
in frozen death until it’s said
aloud or read by kindred souls,
in thought to make the poem live
and resurrect my mind from thread –

A million lines that I might write
all fight for life outside my head
to die and rise when thought anew –
the few I love and bring to life,
I gently leave their fate to you
for that, dear soul, is why I write, 
that song is why I live.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

To Heal the World - Mat Meditation 2

Athens, Georgia
May 30, 2011

The world is too much with you now I see
the tension tracing pathways down your spine
and monkey chatter chasing through your mind,
but let them be, come stretch with me, now breathe.

And in the mindfulness of breath to break
through form if form constrains, to break
down form if form requires;
to let form conform
in nature’s way
to cleansing
breath just
breathe.

Through cadence of your breath begin to feel
the hush of peace that permeates a place
in the calm embrace of natural grace
your life’s a vast cathedral space made real.

Breathe
deep breath,
drawing breath
from the stillness
let yourself become
the lightest touch of grace
a piercing shaft of light through space
that brightens shadows cast across all paths.

While pressing worlds of pain will always be,
those spacious depths of breath will frame a life
for quiet mind to cleanse our world of strife.
For dreams to be, first stretch with me, now breathe.

see also Mat Meditation 1

Thursday, June 2, 2011

To Heal the World - Mat Meditation 1

Athens, Georgia
May 23, 2011

The world is more than we perceive,
in hidden ways, beyond our sight.
Relax now, let it go, just breathe.

Though oceans weep and biomes grieve
and groan beneath our growing might,
this world’s much more than we perceive.

We stretch our bodies to conceive
and kindle minds that yearn for right.
Relax now, let thought go, just breathe.

The sharpened mind is best ensheathed
in harmony, deflecting fight.
Such mind is more than we perceive.

Our healthy minds and bodies weave
a gracious soul that seeks pure light.
Release love, let it grow, just breathe.

This soul transcends what we believe,
to heal the world – its wild delight.
You are much more than you perceive:
Rejoice! Now let it go, just breathe.

see also Mat Meditation 2