life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Passion”

communication Β 

  the bright, glowing world opens my heart in beauty –

 there’s this summer song

of cool wind on my skin, 

playing sweet, soft percussion through the tall, lush marsh grass

gentle water laps at the sand

invisible birds singing in surround sound

visible ones splash and dive for breakfast

patient, yet very aware

my heart resonates with the language we have spoken

the songs we have sung

the rich vibrations of our connection

over the past months…

over the past two days…

today’s fresh sun warms my back

my shadow sits large

writing poems

this morning

this day

this moment

in silence birthing 

my gratitude

my pleasure

 my gift

my life

thank you 

for being you,

for reaching out,

for holding my hand 

and my heart πŸ’ž

AL

 

  
Listen to John Legend sing All of Me http://youtu.be/Mk7-GRWq7wA 
πŸ’ž

find photo sources @ www.pinterest.com/al513

mediocrity…never…the battle is on! Β Β 

 

 Feeling empty and unstrung
I wake from my dream 

warnings of being unwilling to change

of being stuck in one place

unwilling to do things different

I sit at my desk 

afraid 

because this dream was not about you

it was about me

and it scares the hell outta me

that it is what I will allow. 
I know 

the tractor beam of mediocrity is on –

will my shields hold?

Will I stay out of the pig pen, 

or just give up and wallow in the stinky mud?

The comfortable parking space calls me..
All this,

and the glaring monotony,

the forced prison,

of my day 

stares at me. 

how will I break this day open?

how will I know I have 

reached beyond my need for security?

how will I battle my own resistance?

how will I stay focused on my own need,

and not distract myself with yours?

I open poems by Mary Oliver

The Moths is all it takes!

I feel the door of freedom swing open wide. 

I write

I post

I say ‘thank you’

for these, and all the other words. 

Within the hour I get a comment from Oriah, whose poem,

 The Invitation, 

was a life changer

and I know life

has answered my need to know

that I am connected to the whole

I feast 

on bacon 

with a side of strawberries n cream & passion fruit Godiva truffles

knowing there is always 

more goodness

than I could ever eat up

my cup is overfull and sticky 

from all that honey 

from all those 

beauti-ous bees. 

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

AL (Oct 2013)

   
  

Listen to Willie Nelson sing This Face http://youtu.be/_79LW9_OIUA 
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Find photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513

The mind must

set itself up

wherever it goes

and it would be

most convenient

to impose its

old roomsβ€”just

tack them up

like an interior

tent. Oh but

the new holes 

aren’t where 

the windows

went. 

🏑🏠🏠🏑🏠🏑🏠🏑

New Rooms by Kay Ryan

water ditty’s

 

 Sit and be still
until in the time

of no rain you hear

beneath the dry wind’s

commotion in the trees

the sound of flowing

water among the rocks,

a stream unheard before,

and you are where

breathing is prayer.

VI: Sabbaths 2001 [Sit and be still] by Wendell Berry

  

There is only one way, aging beauties,

to go down this river,

to hear the water’s music over the rocks,

to find a loving I, Thou, Who.

I say, spring out of the boat,

jump in naked, tender,

with your ferocious heart torn open.

πŸ’§πŸ’§πŸ’§πŸ’§πŸ’§πŸ’§πŸ’§πŸ’¦

Hear the Water’s Music by Tere Sievers

 

 Listen to Keb Mo sing I’ll Be Your Water http://youtu.be/jTvsHvd0Mkk

days of…Β 

  
Days of wine and focus

of hanging on

of staying strong

of keeping faith

of sitting still

of being silent

of thinking in beautiful 

of standing in my own shoes

of letting go 

of loving you through the distance

of letting you lead

of feeling the passion

of attempting not to burn up

of recognizing the spectacular

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 love

of helping in time of need

of following my own path

of obedience rather than selfishness

of love and love and love

of all things love
AL

  

  Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

  

what will you choose?

 

 Just like everyone alive
Your days will be full of events – 

threads, as it were,

weaving your life into a tapestry 

There will be days of great joy and ones of overwhelming sorrow

Good days 

Bad days

Medium days

Average days

Snow days

Hazy days

day after day after day

until they end

and you move on

All your days you will have circumstances to accept and embrace

or reject and avoid

to stay or leave

to fly or fear

Some to let go 

some to overcome

some to enjoy

some to live through

Life is not about being fair

Life is about winning with the cards you hold

Winning doesn’t mean being rich, famous

or being born with a pedigree

Winning means living up to your own very unique, personal best 

Winning means experiencing and inhabiting 

love, peace and joy 

You’ll be as happy as you decide to be

You will be as healthy as is possible based on what you decide to do

and the genes you were born with

You’ll choose to accept or reject what is offered

You’ll do what you want to do

Go where you want to go

Keep holding on to what is most important to you 

– no matter if it makes you better –

or if it destroys you –

You’ll love who you love

Be who you are 

You will be worth as much as you decide you are

You will judge others based on your own insecurities,

and your unchallenged beliefs

You will have as much love as you allow inside you

You will have as much of God as you seek to find

You will inhabit your life – 

    or not

All this will have nothing to do with your circumstances 

It won’t matter how much money you have,

your gender,

or the color of your skin

It will all be about your choices

Always,

and only, 

about your choices
AL

 

Listen to Misty Edwards sing Soul Cry http://youtu.be/b-IDAqxCZ7I 
πŸ˜‡πŸ˜ˆπŸ˜‡πŸ˜ˆπŸ˜‡πŸ˜ˆ

Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

dancing…Β 

 

 Music is playing, 
music with an aim, produced,

music of collusion and desire,

insistent and sexual.

Hard not to move with the music.

Hard not to fall into the rhythm,

seduce and be seduced.

But don’t slip on the blood 

on the floor.
Other music plays,

silent, within.

Different feel, different band.

Music of a beating heart,

melody of tumbling water,

lullaby whispered for a lifetime,

song of hearts set free.

The Beloved cuts in.

β€œMay I have this one?”
No one to impress, only to offend.

No one to dance for, only with.

Dance.

Let joy move you,

even in the face of evil,

let love move you.

Before the guns, 

behind the prison bars,

on the gallows, dance.

Dance on your own grave.

When they threaten you, dance

the other dance that at last

will consume them as well.
Unseen, though you know within,

the Beloved takes you in steady arms.

Dance.
__________________ 

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»

 

 the story of your name is written in my book, your beginning, the moment where you felt you ended and I begin. That is your beginning, child. 
 

You begin where you end and I begin. 

 

And the story keeps writing, child. After beginning there is adventure. After beginning there is trust and falling and catching and believing and choosing and waiting. There is much waiting and beginning again. 

 

Your story running right off the page with Me.      – Loop Devotional from Gather Ministries 

πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»

Listen to Lee Ann Womack sing I Hppe You Dance  http://youtu.be/RV-Z1YwaOiw
πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»πŸ’ƒπŸ»

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

  

interesting conversations (grade: C-)

  
HAMLET: To be, or not to be–that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep–

No more–and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep–

To sleep–perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprise of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action. — Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia! — Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

πŸ™€πŸ™€πŸ™€πŸ™€πŸ™€

Read more at http://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_001.html#q445B8QYR85jGYt2.99

 

 I think of difficult days
Days I struggle to stay alive

To keep my head above water

To put one foot in front of the other

To stay hydrated in the middle of my water works
I think of days of joy

When everything sparkles

When I say hello to the bright-eyed me in the mirror

When I am so glad I’m alive

So connected to the whole
I think about the moods of nature

The sunny days

The gray days

Days of angry storms

or gentle raindrops

Days of extreme
Just like me

Extreme weather

caused by my energy

the energy around me 

environmental and

relational factors
personal forecast

Todays weather calls for

Sunny outlook

with occasional clouds

a few showers through out the day

wine at sunset

moon full tonight  

with a dream or two of your kisses

 still warm on my lips

floating through

Waking to a great day tomorrow 

until I see you again

  😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

AL

  
Listen to Amos Lee sing Soul Suckers http://youtu.be/zqidM_U9rgU

β˜”οΈβ˜€οΈβ˜”οΈβ˜€οΈβ˜”οΈβ˜€οΈ

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

   
  

picture thisΒ 

 

 a photograph 

a memory

a poem 

a song

a kiss

a touch

a slap

a smile

a frown

a gift

a breath

a pause

a word – 

of love or hate or truth or lie 

   all vivid pictures 

memorials in a lifetime

of moments never to be forgotten

snapshots of a single frame in time

just a shutter-length

a stutter-length

an eye-lash blink

never to be here again –

yet never to be gone –

always within us

they live forever

we live forward 

becoming the collective 

of all these moments

 as we grow

with each opportunity

we choose to become –

more or less –

we gain courage 

we live with integrity

with truth. 

or we remain hidden 

afraid to let go of what’s gone. 

we make these choices every instant we live – 

every moment ours to decide:

to be,

or not to be? 

yes, Mr. Shakespeare, 

that, is still, the question. 

AL 

  

Listen to Rosemary Clooney sing Sway http://youtu.be/eWI5tyS_sTg πŸ˜˜πŸ˜˜πŸ˜˜πŸ˜˜πŸ˜˜πŸ˜˜πŸ˜˜πŸ˜˜πŸ˜˜πŸ˜˜

Top photo by Fisherman Dan @ Branford CT

bottom photo source @ www.pinterest.com/al513

πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™

There was nothing there when I heard a voice.

Haven’t you had a strangeness like this?

I did not respond right away, ignoring it,

and its restlessness increased.

I chucked it off as imagination.

Haven’t you ignored queasy feelings?

Perhaps it was from the empty fields,

but there was stillness in the grass and air.

This uneasiness followed me into the car

and went with me.

When stillness is so quiet, nothing is heard.

There was nothing in my house.

Nothing in the sky. Nothing in the isolated miles.

The voice persisted.

Ever ignore something that refused to be ignored?

It was telling me to enjoy and love.

The message was everywhere it needed to be.

All I had to do was listenβ€”then it was everywhere.

πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™πŸ’™

When Stillness Is Heard by Martin Willitts, Jr.

nothing is worth more than this day! Β Β 

  
Your life isn’t behind you; your memories are behind you. Your life is ALWAYS ahead of you. Today is a new day. Seize it!       – Steve Maraboli

  
  

Listen to Frank Sinatra sing The Best Is Yet to Come http://youtu.be/TOyeyOEmFtE

πŸ’πŸ“πŸŽπŸ‰πŸŠπŸπŸ‘πŸŒπŸ‡πŸ‹πŸ

Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

  

We must hold each other with tender care, so as not to bend a soul away from its truth. Β Β  Β  – from The Endless Practice Β 

 

 Over and over we break

open, we break and

we break and we open.

For a while, we try to fix

the vesselβ€”as if

to be broken is bad.

As if with glue and tape

and a steady hand we

might bring things to perfect

again. As if they were ever

perfect. As if to be broken is not

also perfect. As if to be open

is not the path toward joy.
The vase that’s been shattered

and cracked will never

hold water. Eventually

it will leak. And at some

point, perhaps, we decide

that we’re done with picking

our flowers anyway, and no

longer need a place to contain them

We watch them grow just

as wildflowers doβ€”unfenced,

unmanaged, blossoming only

when they’re readyβ€”and mygod,

how beautiful they are amidst

the mounting pile of shards.

πŸ’πŸ’πŸ’πŸ’πŸ’πŸ’πŸ’πŸ’πŸ’πŸ’

The Way It Is by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

   

  

   

 

  

   

  Listen to Norah Jones sing The Long Way Home http://youtu.be/tpeIePQpSuU

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

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