Always Giving

Always Giving

Remember

The anticipation

You felt

When your arms

Were new

And sprouting

Above legs

That habitually

Went against

The law

Of gravity

And won?

The greatest gift

Was on the way

And once

Opened

The world

Would never

Be the same

Eventually

Disappointment

Toys broke

Games became

Boredom’s tools

There’s only one

Gift

All gifts

Merely

Wait patiently

And point

Up the road

To the glowing

Horizon

Where

Anticipation

Burns

Without end

And you are

 Always

Opening

Always

Squealing

With delight

Because

You play

On a

Trampoline

Woven from a thread

Of infinite variation

Bread

Bread

Today I wish to bake bread
I want to measure
And pour
Perfect peace
To inhale motes of flour
Suspended in warm sunbeam
I must need this
The softness between my fingers
A place for my head
To lose itself
In the swirling grains
Of forgetfulness
Then I wake up
And remember
This is a dream
Like a point of light
That would shoot away
Before you blinked
But is held
By a ballast
Of the ancient smell
Which has brought
Comfort to sick hearts
Filled empty bellies
And gathered people
To the hearth
Like a plump mother
Radiating love

All You've Been Told

All You've Been Told

Let it go

Breathe

Release the tension

So often we hear

These words

Not empty

In themselves

But rendered

Hollow

By the hollowness

Of the speaker

Disregard

All you’ve been told

The words

Just serve

To uphold

Backdrops

Painted by the blind

Black Hole Unique

Black Hole Unique

You fear being faceless

To the marrow of your

Unseen white bones

Bred to feel unique

This may be your

Greatest curse

The dull emotion

That puppets

The bones

Under the curse

Of uniqueness

Is like a black hole

Sucking in the

Material world

As sacrifice

To feed the fire

Of illusion

Remember

Reality

Is its own

Foundation

And illusion

Is a bonfire

Rapaciously

Swallowing

Forests whole

Do not fear being

Common

Unplug yourself

From the machine

That projects

Phantoms

Of uniqueness

Watch those

Puppets

Implode

Under the strain

And know

Eventually

No one can bear

The lie

For we are

As common

And uniform

As leaves

Spreading above

A great trunk

Of grace

Our only job is

To serve

As we gather

The light from above

And pray

I Don't Wish To Serve

I Don't Wish To Serve

I don’t wish to serve you

I want my hands

And heart unbound

So that I may wrap

My arms around you

At any moment

Exactly when you need it

I don’t wish to serve

The ideas you have

About me

For they are inevitably

Untrue

I want to remain free

So that I may grow

Toward the sun

Unhindered

I don’t wish to serve you

I want to employ my strength

Not in the construction of

Your reflections

But

In weaving the invisible

Web of love

So that all creatures may

Seek comfort

And shelter

From the storm

Of selfishness

That blows like a hurricane

Through the space between threads

 

Despair

 

Despair

Despair isn’t useless

Not just a yoke

Forged in cosmic flame

To weigh you down

It is not a sign of your

Incompetence

Or imminent

Defeat

In this soul struggle

Wrestling match

You’ve found yourself in

No

Despair

Can mean many things

A way finder

Beckoning you back 

Because you’ve lost your way

A strong, hard shot of despair

Crawling into your limbs

Is a powerful tonic

Slowing momentum

Till time crawls

And the empty days

Provide room

For invisible servants

To sweep out

The trash

It’s not pointless

Or perhaps better stated

Despair has as much weight as joy

Nothing more

Both are buoys

You cling to

In the roiling sea

When you should

Let go

And allow yourself to drown

To sink

Into the stillness

That has been waiting for you

 

A Life Of Magic

A Life Of Magic

 

I sit beneath vaulting curves of wood

Snake forms spiraling into the sky

With a million flags of green

Sprouted in complete surrender

A breeze comes

And I can hear the movement

Of the sky

And in this moment doubt erupts

Who am I to feel this way?

Where are my credentials?

Where is the proof?

My heart dips

In the trough of emotion

I stare out from the bottom

And suddenly I catch a swell

My heart leaps to crest and

I spring up to capture the

Hawk feather tumbling by

I hold it

And feel no need for faith

I carry the feather with me

As a beautiful mark in time

When I swam in alignment

Later

A little girl on a red tricycle

Looks through her golden locks

At the feather in my hand

She squints at the sun

And says, “Can I have it?”

I place the feather in

Her little hand

And she smiles

“It’s a magic feather,” I say

“Take good care of it”

Lessons can grow roots from tests

No matter pass or fail

These roots will go deep

If I take care of them

Magic

Exists only in relationship

Alone

It can’t survive the elements

We must give it shelter

In the warmth of our near bodies

Unicorn Supernova

Unicorn Supernova

Good words

Nice sentiments

Wrapped in resplendent nature

With a psychedelic bow

And perhaps a baby animal

Riding on the back of a unicorn

Are rather unsavory

To the tyrant in you

You cynically dismiss

Flower-child words

And shred petals

In the grinder of your mind

Bake them in hard science

Then bury them in the backyard

Oh, how the positive

Pisses you off

Look around you, dreamer

There’s no such room

Amongst forests plucked for greed

And waters poisoned for profit

Hard weapons that effortlessly

Deliver on the promise of death

Oh, contraire, my lovelies

The proof lies in the dismissal!

You wouldn’t feel so strongly

You wouldn’t feel like retching

At the mention of peace and love

If they weren’t hidden

In the core of your being

A supernova

Waiting to explode

What Is Love?

What Is Love?

What is love but a strong breeze

That enters this spirit infused clay vessel

And defines its volume

Describes its arc and curve

By touching inner space

With invisible hands

Defining that which has no definition

What is love but a river

Flowing ceaselessly into the sea

And the sea ceaselessly accepting

That which is given

And neither the river nor the sea

Holding back for a moment

Not the sea for fear of space

Nor the river for fear of running dry

Love is a gradual unfolding

Like the clouds becoming flush with sunrise

Till all the darkness is driven away

And there is only light

Winding Through Ferns

Winding Through Ferns

The trail you walk curves through a landscape of ferns. You can see the thin line of bare earth cut gently through the plants and disappear over a rise. They seem ancient. So ancient that you think that’s probably how they looked millions of years ago after having settled from the ambulations of a dinosaur. The air is rich and moist and when you inhale through your nose it feels like you are participating in the forest’s essence, taking it deep within you and savoring it. The enormous trees rise from their bed of ferns like stately pillars charged with upholding the sky. The canopy is thick with billions of slender green needles, each a variation on an ancient form, shaped to gather fog so that the tree might drink. Your steps are silent on the spongy ground and it’s almost like you’re not even there, passing through the play of light and shadow, swaying around you on the dictates of cloud and wind. You feel part of the ecology of this place, aware of everything without having to focus on any of the details. This land has found a home in you and you smile as your legs take you, you know not where and this does not matter because each step you take is one into your heart and from this you will never stray.  

 

So Hard To Be Natural

So Hard To Be Natural

Why is it so hard to be natural?

It should be the easiest thing in the world

At some point in all of our lives

We were naturals

Never questioning

Just doing

But then gradually this was eroded

As we were encoded with dictums

Told how to be

In ways which were against our being

Then to escape the conflict

The tension created

By dogma and blind belief

Escape in all the fleeting pleasures

Even in the ruddy orange of sunsets

If you count on beauty

It will fail you

Take it in the moment

As it comes

And be glad when it’s gone

Because it can’t last forever

But you can

If you don’t escape

You know the chains around you?

The ones that cut your flesh if you move

Or struggle against them?

Get to know them

Stay put

And understand there is no escape

Live in the moment

And you will see

There is every such thing as eternity

And no such thing as the chains

You forged link by link

In the crucible of your mind

Awaken With The Dawn

Awaken With The Dawn

The morning is newly awakened in your eyes. Dawn reaches above the tree line in gathering shades of pink and pale blue. You can hear bird calls of several different species intertwine in the crisp air around you and you feel free and healthy. You bring the fragrant air deep into your lungs and exhale a fine mist just as the sun rises above the horizon. You can feel the sky expand as it blows through your hair, warmed by the gentle ball of fire. You feel a harmony within yourself. The boulders seem perfectly positioned to catch the quickening light, the moss clinging to the large arcs of stone has a slow and irrefutable purpose, trees balance light and shade in constant interchange with the wind, creating a dynamic pattern which the wild grass in the meadow you stand in resonates with until the air seems to hum around you. You’ve never seen a morning like this, an awakening that mirrors a slow gathering of love in the basket of your heart.

The Secret Of Immortality

The Secret Of Immortality

It is possible that the universe is an evolved consciousness that discovered the secret of immortality. The secret being to never remain constant, existing in a state of perpetual evolution. The seeds of immortality are held in the concept of having no fixed idea of the self and absolutely no sense of self-preservation, a constant giving, a constant mutation – and because of this the universe never dies, because – in a sense – it never was…and we are this too and doesn’t this description sound a lot like pure love?

Just For A Moment

Just For A Moment

Just for a moment dear one

Just a moment

Give yourself

A break

Stop trying to prove

How clever you are

It’s a given

Because cleverness

Is acrobatics

Executed in virtual reality

And you are spinning

Like a top

Just calm down long enough

To let go

And fall

Into the waiting net

Of the Earth

To Know Without Knowing

To Know Without Knowing

You see a flower

At the moment of unfolding

The last purple petal spreads

Like silk over your eyes

And you stare in wonder

How could such beauty exist?

The yellow belly button

At the center of the bloom

Yells yellow at your eyes

Till you think of the sun above

Your heart leaps for love

Reminding you of something you’d nearly forgotten

You walk over and snap the green stem

The umbilical cord to the Earth severed

The petal now swings like a pendulum in your hands

As you begin to think of other things

And the colors will never match that moment

The petals won’t even try

They know without knowing

They can’t trace a direct line

To the magma center of their home

From the vase on your coffee table

A Prayer For A Sunday

A Prayer For A Sunday

There is a cure for our sickness

This cure need not be administered with prayer

It does not require faith in a higher being

It does not require a strong foundation of belief

It can be administered by the scientific method

A method some would say caused this sickness to begin with

Fighting poison with poison

The cure is simply said

But momentous to execute

A revolution would flow in its wake

Do what is good for the Earth

What is good for all other forms of life

Including the rocks and the water that rushes over them

For they have souls too

Do this, say no to destruction and waste

And yes to balance

Yes to helping all life flourish

We should grow up

And be the stewards we were made to be

Then everything will be a prayer

Faith will be unquestioned

Because it will be a seed

Sprouted from each individual’s heart

As they tend the Earth with their love

And sow it with belief

 

To Beat The Birds

To Beat The Birds

I wore a face that was not my face

The muscles tensed and gripped

In ways they were not designed for

Long hours of frowning in front of a computer

Too many times smiling when nothing was funny

Or the worst, curling the lips at the corners

To sign approval of an act I found despicable

These muscles were meant to express

Love

Hunger

Rage

Kindness

Hilarity

Grief
Wonder

The molds my face understands

And for far too long this face has slipped

Between the deep grooves of Being

And skated along the shallows of conformity

No more

For I no longer recognize the rudimentary lines

And weak boundaries I have been asked to force my face into

It takes too much energy to be nothing, to be subservient, to follow the program

For I am too strong to hold myself down

I give my face permission to act as it will, say what it wants

Take the forms it finds comfortable

And laugh to beat the birds

The Self Drops Free

The Self Drops Free

You relieved me of thoughts of the Self

I held the concept out trembling in my hands

Like a sickly bird that could not fly

For I did not want to let it go

It was everything

This quest for the True Self

Which had become deeply rooted in my mind

Bounding who I am within the confines of mere idea

And ideas don’t exist

They haunt the mind

Taunt it in a whirlwind of whispers

In Your presence

Overwhelmed in the light of wholeness

My hands shook with fear

And I persisted in this fear

As all humans must for change to happen

And my ideas of the Self dropped free

Like brown leaves from a great tree

That serve it no more

Remember

 

Remember

Remember Son. Remember Daughter

The ground upon which you stand

Is not just ground

It is Earth

Connected to Earth

Until it meets the Sea

And then it ends

But only for your feet

The Earth continues

Downward

Through the fathoms

Under the deepest depths

To support the waters

And hold them up

Cradled in the loving palm of Earth

All that water

Remember Son. Remember Daughter

This is the place from which you came

From which all life began

The Earth is unbroken

The continuity of seasons

Can be traced to the time

Before seasons

And this Time too has a Mother and a Father

Just like you Son. Just like you Daughter

You are unbroken

You are whole

And you came from the Sea

 

Nature

Nature

Everything is vibration...Everything is song

Kushi Uni

Kushi Uni

I drink a cup of balance
A cup of wholeness
And like oil and water
The inner muck gets pushed out
I hang the dirty laundry
In my private garden
And watch the soiled garments
Swing in the breeze
I water them with clear, warm tears
Until they’re drenched
Dripping down to slake the thirst of the grass

I can see what keeps me from You
I note the shapes, the cuts of fabric, the stitching
The worst are the ones with words woven into them
Like barbed fences and high guard towers
The tattered ones too, so old
Since I’ve had them since childhood
And somehow they’ve grown with me
Keeping pace with my growing body
Always maintaining a snug fit
And never losing stiffness or the hundreds of needles
Pointed inward and outward

Relieved of this branding
I see that I have chosen all of my garments
Not that I made them
But that I accepted them
And dress myself in the mirror with these same clothes every day

I’m naked and I close my eyes and turn my head to the sky
I can see patterns of veins illumined by the sun’s warmth
And I drape myself in their latticework
Regal and pulsing with the dignity of my being
I am a node, clean and open to the great vibrations of Your heart
Your rhythm, Green Mother, becomes my rhythm
And we dance in harmony as my voice erupts in song
The notes of which spring feathers and I rise into the brilliant blue
Out of my private garden
And see all boundaries are artificial
And that there is only You