life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “mystery”

time to fly

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If I had wings
where would I fly?

You can see God from anywhere,
if you’re looking.

There was a time
when I would sing for you

Where will I fly
now you’re not my self appointed sky?

How about…

Second star from sunrise
straight on to myself

We’re all waiting
on the edge of yesterday
birds of red, blue and black
longing
for our time to fly

cause all the little birdies just got to fly
away away up in the sky
Those mamma birds are born to fly
higher higher in the sky

If I had wings
where would I fly?

You can see God from anywhere,
if you’re looking.

ACL 10/20/14

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joy comes

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love you 💞

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love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky

“66” by E.E. Cummings

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May the road rise to meet you! – Irish Blessing

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I stood in the surf
waiting
for what I was to receive
I looked at,
then past,
glistening rocks,
colored shells,
green sea glass,
none of them were right.
My back was to the Sound,
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 cart home with me?
I want it to be romantic.
Maybe…
I search for romance…
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,
and 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 clearer.
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.
The road is everywhere!
It rises to meet me.
It comes one chunk at a time.
This is gift –
teaching me what I need,
bringing me diamonds with each step.
Living,
and breathing,
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.
Remove your shoes,
dance wild by the fire,
dive into the sky,
sing loud and long –
holy,
holy,
holy
and fly away
home.
I’ll meet you there!
xoxo

ACL 9/22/14

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I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. – Lucy Maude Montgomery

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Some October, when the leaves turn gold, ask
me if I’ve done enough to deserve this life
I’ve been given. A pile of sorrows, yes, but joy
enough to unbalance the equation.

When the sky turns blue as the robes of heaven,
ask me if I’ve made a difference.
The road winds through the copper-colored woods;
no one sees around the bend.

Today, the wind poured out of Canada,
a river in flood, bringing down the brilliant leaves,
broken sticks and twigs, deserted nests.
Go where the current takes you.

Some twilight, when the clouds stream in from the west
like the breath of God, ask me again.

“Some October” by Barbara Crooker

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on writing a poem

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I string words like pearls,
Knotting silence between each one
like silk thread
in a jewelers skillful hands.
long strands
or chokers,
built with love.
strategic placing of diamonds
where needed.
sometime a sparkling, featured,
brilliantly jeweled
pendant
swings carelessly.
always taking special care with the hardware,
the finishing is the most important.
it must stand up to daily use.
easy for right or left hands alike.
then on to a final polish before bagging
when each piece is complete.

ACL 4/11/13

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beautiful

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I sit with the storm,
watching the wind do what wind does –
visible-invisible work.
It howls through the roof tops,
blows leaves past the window.
It is quite the showoff this morning.
The tree drips sorrow.
Thunder and lightening,
scare the dog into the bathroom,
but thrill me with their ferocity.
All morning it goes,
as I work at my 4′ space
pausing,
occasionally,
or more,
to watch the crying games just a few inches away.
Then,
suddenly,
my writing lights up.
It’s dramatic,
startling even.
I look up to see what has happened.
The storm is completely gone.
The sunlight has broken through the overcast sky.
The trees are drenched in golden glow,
leaves glistening like glowing emeralds.
It is so beautiful it takes my breath away.
I sit and stare for timeless time,
drinking it into my soul,
into my storehouse of these glory moments.
Then I go back to my work,
full of wonder and hope.

ACL 10/04/13

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touches of the wings

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Some Sunday afternoon, it may be,
you are sitting under your porch roof,
looking down through the trees
to the river, watching the rain. The circles
made by the raindrops’ striking
expand, intersect, dissolve,

and suddenly (for you are getting on
now, and much of your life is memory)
the hands of the dead, who have been here
with you, rest upon you tenderly
as the rain rests shining
upon the leaves. And you think then

(for thought will come) of the strangeness
of the thought of heaven, for now
you have imagined yourself there,
remembering with longing this
happiness, this rain. Sometimes here
we are there, and there is no death.

“1996, V” [“Some Sunday afternoon, it may be”] by Wendell Berry

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On this bitter-sweet morning
I spot the jar,
and deliberately,
lick spun honey from a spoon.
Remembering my Grandma Duvall,
always a mystery person for me,
always had that,
and other, oh-so-wonderful,
treats at her house.
As a little girl,
I loved it so,
I love it still,
tho it goes right to my head,
and makes me a bit dizzy.
My more mature tastebuds know
there must be balance.
Remembering the wisdom
of Solomon in Proverbs.
How kind words are like honey.
How important it is to choose the sweet,
right in the bitter.
I suck the last bit off the spoon,
smile a bit,
and move along.
Angels visit us in strange ways some days.
A bit of healing
right there in the kitchen.
A bit of grace
right in the mess.
A bit of heaven,
right here and now,
on a rainy Tuesday.

ACL 9/16/14

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tree-mendous

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For today, I will memorize
the two trees now in end-of-summer light

and the drifts of wood asters as the yard slopes away toward
the black pond, blue

dragonflies
in the clouds that shine and float there, as if risen

from the bottom, unbidden. Now, just over the fern—
quick—a glimpse of it,

the plume, a fox-tail’s copper, as the dog runs in ovals and eights,
chasing scent.

The yard is a waiting room. I have my chair. You, yours.

The hawk has its branch in the pine.

White petals ripple in the quiet light.

“Solitudes” by Margaret Gibson

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A tree you pass by every day is just a tree. If you are to closely examine what a tree has and the life a tree has, even the smallest thing can withstand a curiosity, and you can examine whole worlds.
– William Shatner

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The aspen glitters in the wind
And that delights us.

The leaf flutters, turning,
Because that motion in the heat of August
Protects its cells from drying out. Likewise the leaf
Of the cottonwood.

The gene pool threw up a wobbly stem
And the tree danced. No.
The tree capitalized.
No. There are limits to saying,
In language, what the tree did.

It is good sometimes for poetry to disenchant us.

Dance with me, dancer. Oh, I will.

Mountains, sky,
The aspen doing something in the wind.

“The Problem of Describing Trees” by Robert Hass

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into the mystery

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I
Do not
Want to step so quickly
Over a beautiful line on God’s palm
As I move through the earth’s
Marketplace
Today.

I do not want to touch any object in this world
Without my eyes testifying to the truth
That everything is
My Beloved.

Something has happened
To my understanding of existence
That now makes my heart always full of wonder
And kindness.

I do not
Want to step so quickly
Over this sacred place on God’s body
That is right beneath your
Own foot

As I
Dance with
Precious life
Today.

“Today” by Hafiz, from The Gift: Poems of Hafiz, the Great Sufi Master. Purported to be translated from the original Persian (Farsi) by Daniel Ladinsky. © Penguin Compass, 1999.

Please note that Ladinsky’s “translations” are controversial, considered by many to be less Hafiz than Ladinsky himself.

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She whose gaze is heaven
has gathered up earth
and kissed herself into it,
breathed life into the clay
and made you
into an altar
for her praise.

______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

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