Poetry
Saturday, 22 February 2025
From A Trance in the Rocky Mountains Somewhere
I found this little musical poem in a notebook I took to a writing retreat recently. Here’s a little poem I guess I happened to write during musical trance writing to Pachelbel’s Canon in D.
So here you go, from a music-and-camaraderie-induced trance in a room full of writers on an old ranch in the Rocky Mountains somewhere.
Accept as the world approaches you
Do not create
Boxes and limitations
That you may become stuck inside
Be open
Allow
Prosperity
Love
Opportunity
Sunshine
To flow in
Notice how you feel
Yes, notice how you feel
Instead of expectations
That create disappointment
With the open eyes of an accepting child,
You find speckles of joy in everything that approaches you.
In evey panoramic view, there is something good.
Focus on that
Not on the absence of… anything
Just focus on what is there.
Begin with here
Begin with now
See what is there
And from what exists
Find the next place
Find the next path
What was before
Is no more
And gives you no good bearing.
Trust it not.
Trust here.
Trust now.
And open your eyes to actual conditions on the road ahead.
Instead of leaving the ripeness of your mind on yesterday’s worries.
Friday, 31 January 2025
Saturday, 14 September 2024
I came home at lunch
I came home at lunch
I put my table in the sun
Poured some wine
Ate some lunch
Thought of you.
I came home at lunch
and put my hands upon my face
The Sun beat warm upon my skin
The Sun upon my skin
Is warm like you.
Just like you
The Sun smiled
And I tilted my face
To receive
The Sun’s kiss
It’s like your kiss
That first kiss
Crazy kiss
In your sister’s hallway.
Maybe shouldn’t have
But
Couldn’t wait.
Too soon but
Not soon enough.
I came home at lunch
And put my hands upon my face
And felt the Sun
And thought of you.
Thursday, 23 November 2023
How do you measure your achievements?
A productivity guru on LinkedIn just asked how we plan to measure our achievements in 2024.
Hm. I thought about it. I don't need an app for that. I'll do this:
How about you? Do you have measuring and goal-making plans for 2024? I feel I've just lost that plot, never to return.
I will measure the joy I can wring out of every day
I will measure the gratitude I remember to have
And the friends I remember to thank
I will count the people I love,
The people I like
The people who choose to help me, to write me, to love me.
The unexamined life is not worth living, but maybe the measurement most important
Is the light we choose to shine
The light we produce with our choices
The praises we sing with our voices.
The measure of joy is not in the actual achievements
But in the counting up of every healthy step.
Every step on the path I take that helps another, is worth it.
Every word I speak that lifts a heart, is worth it.
Every time I rejoice in the health and good feelings of my body, my activity, my meditations, is worth it.
Those "wasted" little words of praise for each individual,
the hours I spend writing that I'll never publish... they cast light.
They enable the receiver.
They lift hearts.
Those little words I write are doing their tiny butterfly-wing part to make the world a better place, because each person who receives that seed passes it to another.
We are a relay of light, or we are a relay of dark.
How shall I measure my accomplishments?
By the light cast
along the path
where I have passed.
What else is even worth counting?
Tuesday, 29 August 2023
The Fool
Fools wear bright colours
and dance erratically
Serious folk
Think Fools don't know where we're going.
In Tarot, they're card zero.
Unlike the grown-up cards
The Fool can not be contained or defined
by a number.
Zero, like Infinity
Is impossible to grasp.
We love it
We're fascinated
We hate it.
In a playing deck, the Joker
Is anything.
Often left out
But when needed, all-powerful.
By being nothing
Indefinable
Hard to Catch
The Fool is Greater than the rest.
Fools are temporarily popular
When the mood is good.
They're the first to burn
When the crowd needs to blame.
Different.
Indefinable.
Scary.
Do you dare to be the Fool?
If not, if you're afraid –
Take a number. Be anything else.
Be easier to tame.
Be safe.
Do not go out naked, naive, innocent
on a mal-informed adventure.
wise men say that
fools rush in
where angels fear to tread
But indecision is more foolish!
Do Something,
And if you hate that,
Do Something Else.
That is wisdom
The wisdom of innocence.
Of rushing in
And carrying on
Go with a pure clear heart
See, adapt
Climb, continue
Believe. Try.
And keep trying.
Don't listen to the numbered folks.
The rules folks
The "you can't" folks.
You can. If you will.
The Fool will.
The Fool always will.
Because the Fool has not heard
that she can't.
So she will.
Ignorance is bliss is possibility.
Sunday, 18 June 2023
I am a cat
I follow the sunbeams around the house all day.
I'll follow them outside rather than be in a shadow.
People think I appear and disappear like the mist.
I'm made for adventure.
I am intolerant of noisy people and likely to leave the room when noise starts.
I love to be petted... by the right hand, but don't tolerate the wrong one.
I love to stretch luxuriously and just sit there gazing at people I love.
I love to snuggle and be cozy and warm.
I don't need you for food... I can hunt my own.
... But I'll gladly share a meal and company if the meal and company are good.
I'm loyal to people who are worthy of it.
I don't follow rules that don't make sense to me.
I can't be caged.
But I'm symbiotically beneficial when the conditions are right.
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From A Trance in the Rocky Mountains Somewhere
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