What We Have Felt

What We Have Felt

They touch us, don't they? 
So many things in different ways. 
And then those feelings can last for years
in varying degrees. 

Are not our days and hours 
our response to what we have felt? 
To what move us? 

We circle inside what we love,
what we fear, what we hate,
what we hope. 

                          Wow, this is such an amazing poem. Aren't we an amalgam of every thought, every feeling, every action, every hardship, every desire, every joy, and every triumph that we have ever faced, fought, conquered, won, endured, experienced? Indeed, these things make up the ingredients of life -  in various portions and amounts - and our response to these things encompasses (and ultimately, defines) our days and hours on this Earth. This is a deeply powerful poem.

Digital Art, Nebula Night Sky 

The Shape of Color

The Shape of Color

The shape of the night,
the shape of the day,
the shape of color, 
the shape os us.
What holds all this? 

Who made this miraculous mold
and then too, cast everything? 

Imagine the form that poured all forms,
that whittles from a single thought 
that took over the Inconceivable. 

What can entwine all this in his arms? 
The one some call God. 

          I love the song "Indescribable" by Chris Tomlin so much! It's just an incredibly energizing song about how great God is, but also how we should really marvel at creation, and that includes ourselves. As Rumi said, “Study me as much as you like, you will never know me, for I differ a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes, and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.”
         The song is below, but some of my favorite lyrics are:

"From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea

Creation's revealing Your majesty

From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring

Every creature unique in the song that it sings..,

Indescribable, uncontainable,

You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name...

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go

Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow

Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light..."

Indescribable, Chris Tomlin

Dropping Keys

Dropping Keys

The small man builds cages
for everyone he knows. 

The sage keeps 
dropping his keys
for Beauty to find. 

          Cute and clever, this poem has a point to it. Why not drop your keys across the universe and leave a way for Beauty to come find you and knock at your door? Here is a clever digital art illustration called "Pouring The Universe".

A Mime

A Mime

A mime stands upon a gallows 
for a crime he did not do.
When give a last chance to speak
he remains true to his art.

A crowd of hundreds has gathered 
to see his final performance,
knowing he will not talk. 

The mime takes from the sky 
many bright spheres,
lays them on a table,
expressing deep love for the companionship
and guidance they have given him 
for so many years. 

He brings the sea before our eyes.
Somehow, an emerald fin appears, splashes. 
Look, there is turquoise rain.

He removes his heart from his body 
and seems to arouse all life 
on this splendid earth.

He mounts his soul upon the body of Freedom.
The great breeze comes by.
The sun and the moon join hands. 

For a moment, an extraordinary moment,
everyone knows that God is real. 


         This poem reads more like a story and I would encourage you to read it that way, to let it speak to you as its intended, to impart someone's life story, their final moments lived in trueness to their own self. In Letters To A Young Poet, Rilke penned: "Most experiences are unsayable; they come to fullness in a realm that words do not inhabit. And most unsayable of all are works of art, which —alongside our transient lives— mysteriously endure.
        And so as the sun set, the mime gestured on, mysteriously enduring.

Listen To This Music

Listen To This Music

I am a hole in a flute that the Christ’s breath

moves through –

listen to this music.

I am the concert from the movement

of every creature singing

in myriad chords.

And every dancer, their foot I know and lift.

And every brush and hand, well,

that is me too,

who caresses any canvas or cheek.

How did I become all these things,

and beyond all things?

It was my destiny

as it is yours.

            Hafiz’s “music” is about destining towards the peak of life. Become who you are through every person or passion that has touched your life and added a fiber to your being; undoubtedly then you will harbor the orchestra he describes inside your soul. The following Billy Joel song, For The Longest Time, seems to reflect on the joy of finding someone who makes you very happy. This is a “truth” many people have experienced. Conversely, sometimes they forget that even though such encounters may end, if they’ve struck a chord within you, there will “still be music left to write”. As Billy Joel sings: “If you said goodbye to me tonight/There would still be music left to write/What else could I do/I’m so inspired by you”.

Sigh and Giggle

Sigh and Giggle

When was the last time you wallowed in
contentment,

maybe lay in bed for two days just making
your lover sigh and giggle, and she

and you talked silliness for hours and
joked at the sweet insignificance of most
all stuff?

Cuddle up with the stars more.

You will be able to do that
if you can start treating every human being
as sacred.

            The imagery of this poem makes me feel content, it also makes me yearn to spend a day cuddled up in bed with someone special. As I was contemplating what to post with it, I came across a relevant picture on Pinterest with a Carl Sagan quote on it (see below). This then reminded me of a beautiful love story I once read on NPR about him. You can read the full story here, but I've compiled excerpts that I believe summarize what an astounding story it is!

            "In 1977 NASA launched two spacecraft as part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission. On board each craft was a golden record that included, among other things, the sound of a kiss, a mother's first words to her newborn child, music from all over the world, and greetings in 59 different languages. The records on board were meant to survive for a billion years, in the hope that some day, against enormous odds, they might cross paths with an alien civilization.

     What do you include if you have one shot at describing humanity to an unknown life form? That was the charge of Carl Sagan and creative director of the project, Ann Druyan. It was during the Voyager project that Sagan and Druyan fell in love, which incidentally gave Druyan an idea for the record.

     They could measure the electrical impulses of a human brain and nervous system, turn it into sound, and put it on the record. Then maybe, 1,000 million years from now, some alien civilization might be able to turn that data back into thoughts.

      So, just a few days after she and Sagan declared their love for each other, Druyan went to Bellevue Hospital in New York City and meditated while the sounds of her brain and body were recorded. According to Druyan, part of what she was thinking during that meditation was about "the wonder of love, of being in love."

     And the gold records? They're still out there with their offer, to whomever might stumble across them, of a human body newly in love."