photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
Mist rises through light poured into the meadow,
blessing breathed into the world.
Here, on the sidewalk, without
having to know, you inhale it.
Not the meadow you saw
gleaming this morning,
but one far off. This light has come far
to find you.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
🌞
Love sometimes wants to do us a great favor: hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.
Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a stranger,
Only to someone who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket
To protect you.
Stay close to any sounds that make you glad you are alive.
Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you.
I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in the darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.
There are different wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far too deep for that
Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.
Even after all this time the sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me”
There is no pleasure without a tincture of bitterness.
💙
– Hafez
I stand in the cold surf
waiting
for what I am to receive
I look at,
then past,
glistening rocks,
colored shells,
green sea glass,
none of them right.
My back to the Sound,
head down,
Waves coming and going,
Sand shifting under my wet feet.
I scan,
wait for what I must recognize –
then I see it.
this????
a black glob of rocks stuck together
browns and grey and bits of reds
it’s ugly
it’s heavy
it’s rough
it’s jagged
it’s not what I thought I wanted,
it’s not what I thought was valuable.
what is it, that the water has just delivered,
and I feel lead to pick up
to take home with me?
I want it to be romantic.
Maybe…
I search for romance…
Could it be a meteorite?
a mystery from another planet?
I walk the mile home,
wondering what lessons I will learn from this ‘gift’
I have just received from the ocean.
Almost home,
one more curve,
I spot my favorite kinda caterpillar,
the brown and black,
softest, loveliest velvet
crawler in the world.
I loved the feel of them as a little girl,
let them crawl all over me.
I pass it,
then double back,
as directed by intuition,
to visit this small friend.
I am bent down,
as my fuzzy friend moves along,
and recognition comes.
I carry,
in my hands….
asphalt,
ASPHALT???!!!
a piece of the road,
which came to me by way of the ocean.
I belly laugh
as I my lesson,
my gift,
becomes clear.
I am,
right now,
every moment,
in the ocean of grace
no matter where I am
the path is in the ocean of love,
of God.
This road is everywhere!
It rises to meet me,
no matter where I stand!
I comes one small glimpse at a time.
This is gift –
teaching me what I need,
bringing me diamonds with each step.
Living,
breathing,
learning,
expanding
thanks
is the best gift.
We are always loved
The message is waiting in
every surf,
every leaf,
every tree,
every song,
every heart beat,
every tiny created thing,
every little moment,
breathes and burns.
Oh, Beloved,
Remove your shoes.
Dive into the sky!
sing
holy, holy, holy!
then fly away
home.
I’ll meet you there!
xoxo
🏞
AL
And you have only just now
accepted the grace!
These fragments of your life,
the broken lines,
the missing phrases,
endings that don’t quite
rhyme, beginnings
that die in non sequitur,
stillborn ellipses
of awkward syntax
silently holding hands
as you disappear
around corners together
alone again, until
suddenly it falls
into place
as a single poem
needing no interpretation
because the mystery
of your beauty fills
all its empty spaces…
☺️
Fred LaMotte
Good poetry begins with
the lightest touch,
a breeze arriving from nowhere,
a whispered healing arrival,
a word in your ear,
a settling into things,
then like a hand in the dark
it arrests the whole body,
steeling you for revelation.
In the silence that follows
a great line
you can feel Lazarus
deep inside
even the laziest, most deathly afraid
part of you,
lift up his hands and walk toward the light.
☄
The Lightest Touch by David Whyte
Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way to begin
the conversation.
Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.
To hear
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes an
intimate
private ear
that can
then
really listen
to another.
Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.
Start close in,
don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
…
START CLOSE IN by David Whyte
Days of wine and focus
of hanging on
of staying strong
of keeping faith
of sitting still
of being silent
of standing in my own shoes
of letting go
of allowing the mystery
of hearing the call
of accepting what is
of not crossing borders or boundaries
of opening and opening
of trusting the journey
of seeing the face of God
of surrender into something bigger than I can know
of making the daily commitment
of acknowledging the grace
of thanking for everything
of looking for the miracles
of talking to trees
of taking time to prepare
of expressing my thanks
of helping in time of need
of following my own path
of obedience rather than sacrifice
of love and love and love
of all things love
💞
AL
A life without love is a waste. “Should I look for spiritual love, or material, or physical love?”, don’t ask yourself this question. Discrimination leads to discrimination. Love doesn’t need any name, category or definition. Love is a world itself. Either you are in, at the center…either you are out, yearning.
❤️
~ Shams
to learn to trust
we must be trustworthy.
trust is a choice.
not an easy choice.
but the best choice.
trust is not naive
trust is
brutal
reckless
ruthless
courageous
strong
brave
trust takes the teeth out of insanity
trust allows us to make good choices
trust gives us the ability to know wisdom
trust opens the door to love
trust brings healing to our lives
trust is a gift
that must start with yourself
just trust yourself a little bit
learn to be trustworthy to your soul
soon you will be able to give some to others
then, maybe, even the world
💞
AL
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. The one who looks outside, dreams; the one who looks inside, awakens.
❤️
-Carl Jung
I want to both awaken and dream, to see all that is in my heart (and yes, that means the dark gunky stuff as well as the wonderful shiny stuff) and see the world in a way that helps me contribute to dreams of sustainable peace and justice. And here it is- the gift of another day to begin again.
❤️
– Oriah Mountain Dreamer
The surface is always blank.
The real, submerged.
Look down into that sky,
where beneath a vague cloud flashes,
—is it above or below?—
created, given, waiting.
There is another way,
another side of your little boat.
Beneath your dreary, fruitless nights
something graced awaits,
abundance exceeding your capacity, blessing
at which you laugh in wonder and fright,
a gift that bears you to the breaking point,
a net swelled with light and glory,
and not by luck, but given in love: a presence,
a companionship you hadn’t recognized.
Heaven is offered, hearts are restored
in something as simple as a broiled fish, shared.
But first you learn a new way,
another side, the unrecognized friend.
And then, after the gift, the revelation,
you learn a new way, another side.
The Mystery doesn’t leave you.
It leads.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
find photo sources at http://www.pinterest.com
On this bitter-sweet morning
I spot the jar,
and slowly,
deliberately,
lick the white-golden sticky.
Spun honey directly from the spoon.
Remembering…
my Grandma Duvall
always had spun honey,
and so many other beautiful treats,
at her house.
As a little girl,
I loved it…
I love it still –
tho it goes right to my head,
and makes me a bit dizzy.
Buzzz…..Buzzzzz
Mature tastebuds know…
there must be balance.
Wisdom is learning to choose balance.
I think of how kind words are compared to honey.
How important it is to choose the sweet,
right in the middle of the bitter,
the choice is all mine.
I suck the last bit off the spoon,
and move along into my day,
carrying the smile,
the sticky, sweet, stolen glow,
of that moment with me.
A bit of healing sweetness
right there in the kitchen.
A bit of amazing grace
right in the mess of my moments.
A bit of heaven,
right here and now,
on a mixed – up Monday.
🐝
AL
To love everything, not just parts …
To love all of yourself, not just certain traits …
To rest in not knowing …
To carry the cross
and to lay your burden down …
To savor the medicine blue of moon,
the fierce sugar of tangerine …
To be a Christ unto others,
a Christ unto one’s self …
To laugh …
To be shameless, wild, and silly …
To know—fully, headlong,
without compunction—the ordinary magic
of our beautiful human bodies …
these seem worthwhile pursuits, life-long tasks.
All is grace.
⚜
selected from/ A Poem for My Daughter by Teddy Macker
It is the work of feeling,
to undo expectation.
A black-faced sheep
looks back at you as you pass
and your heart is startled
as if by the shadow
of someone once loved.
Neither comforted by this
nor made lonely.
Only remembering
that a self in exile
is still a self,
as a bell unstruck for years
is still a bell.
🔔
Sheep by Jane Hirshfield
photo sources found at http://www.pinterest.com
It is big sky and its changes,
the sea all round and the waters within.
It is the way sea and sky
work off each other constantly,
like people meeting in Alfred Street,
each face coming away with a hint
of the other’s face pressed in it.
It is the way a week-long gale
ends and folk emerge to hear
a single bird cry way high up.
It is the way you lean to me
and the way I lean to you, as if
we are each other’s prevailing;
how we connect along our shores,
the way we are tidal islands
joined for hours then inaccessible,
I’ll go for that,
and smile when I
pick sand off myself in the shower.
The way I am an inland loch to you
when a clatter of white whoops and rises…
It is the way Scotland looks to the South,
the way we enter friends’ houses
to leave what we came with, or flick
the kettle’s switch and wait.
This is where I want to live,
close to where the heart gives out,
ruined, perfected,
an empty arch against the sky
where birds fly through
instead of prayers
while in Hoy Sound
the ferry’s engines thrum
this life this life this life.
⛴
Orkney / This Life Andrew Greig
For Catherine and Jamie
this birth of awaiting changes
this for that
tit for tat
tuxedo memories
pinstripe debonair
glamour hangs
like confetti in the air
life goes
round and round
flinging dreams
synthetic roads
leading nowhere
screams and laugher
hardest when not fair
up one side now
down the other there
we hang on
we stomp our feet
and swear
this ain’t right
this we cannot bear
life goes forward
ever on and on
wanting only
to change our point of view
we are loved
no matter what we lose
love will win
love’s always
life’s sweet muse
sight or blind
the vision ours to choose
❤️
AL
I’ll be the wild that keeps your heart in the clouds and you’ll be the anchor that keeps my feet on the ground.
⚓️
by Victoria Erickson
Hey, wait a minute…(pause…..)
Living artfully with time might only require something as simple as pausing.
—Thomas Moore
Let Me Tell You About Beginnings..
I was born out of love and with a purpose unknown to me then, but revealed to me one day at a time.
☀️
Today by Walter Dunlevy
This world doesn’t improve by demanding perfection. It improves when we reach through our armor and touch another with tenderness. It improves when we bust through the walls of our conditioning, and try a new way of being on for size. It improves when we work through our unresolved shadow and share what little light we can find. It is the small, positive steps that we take when we are at war with ourselves that change the world.
☀️
– Jeff Brown
awe…
examination…
it keeps appearing…
again…
I delete…
again…
I delete…
haven’t I already written this poem?
haven’t I already done that one?
What is left that I haven’t taken out?
haven’t examined properly?
There are always layers…
As Shrek reminds me…
I am an onion…
layers…
illusions…
shadows…
truth left to excavate…
healing to be won…
motivations to uncover…
mystery to be discovered…
always more!
God keeps getting bigger…
and bigger…
as I examine…
reduce…
open…
help me to stay in this mode of self realization…
growth…
humble me…
my best self emerges within this process…
send it again…
remind me again…
💞
photo sources at http://www.pinterest.com
It’s all connected –
All the love,
All the loss,
All the joy,
All the pain.
The world is made of God.
We live in the ocean of God’s breath,
His very words.
We are all artists.
We all speak creation.
Our words are our greatest art form,
make sure they create a masterpiece.
God is love is life is truth is word is love is –
every little thing is connected to each other.
Everything I really needed to know
I learned from the ocean and the trees.
The mountains introduced me to the angels.
Acorns were my very first teachers,
the finest flock of seagulls are my most recent.
We are the temple.
We includes the universe we find ourselves in.
We are brothers and sisters to stars and starships.
🚀
AL
Picasso, when asked if painter’s ideas come to him “by chance or by design answer: “I don’t have a clue. Ideas are simply starting points. I can rarely set them down as they come to my mind. As soon as I start to work, others well up in my pen. To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing… When I find myself facing a blank page, that’s always going through my head. What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas”.
Thank you, in advance. It’s what I desire. 💞
life: acoustic & amplified 