All around is illumination
Blazing with wisdom and joy
Open the doors wide to life
Inspired and at one with creation
The world needs your light
Let it shine
light
Growing ~ A Found Poem (Twitter scraps)
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I wait for the light, in my own fashion.
Have you seen? This room has grown.
On this day last year, the cost
of being wrong was nothing.
I am loving my poems more each day
What is so delicious about it is
stony limits cannot hold out.
Explore the magic toy shop with me
Undefeated
All windows locked, no door, no sanctuary,
no hopes, no kindness, all dreams your nightmares
in this world, of your creation, only you
spreading your despair
Locking loveliness away with bitter hate,
dread fate, you hover over me, a demon.
Is this the best that you can find to hurt me?
I have my own mask
Masked and silent, with my stomach clenched in fear
I fly a million miles away, never near.
You shut me in a darkened room, I vanish
I wear my own wings
You cannot reach inside my mind, never will.
There is a light you can’t extinguish. It burns,
buried under night, it glimmers softly still.
I have my own light
You mistook me long for one who cannot see.
I know you, I see you struggling in your hell.
I cannot help you, break the spell or reach you.
I can’t set you free
I will go from here one day. I’ll forget you.
You’ll remember how I tried to bring you light.
No doubt you’ll see that as a greater torment.
I won’t be haunted
When I escape, the sun will shine the brighter
in a world that’s new to me, reborn from dark,
clearer, stronger, its definitions sharper.
This is not defeat.
Now
don’t look back
may be sound advice
where should i look then
the door
the window
the floor
the keyboard?
there is nothing to see
here in this room
if i look back
i may find a new light
to shine on each moment
just passing
now
Starfish in the Sand
the starfish lay on the beach
as the tide swept in and out
it was left behind, abandoned,
small star in the vastness of sand
the pebbles spread out around
older than starfish or I
I cupped my hand in tenderness
and released a star to the sea
when the sun sank down I wandered
followed a winding trail
higher and higher I climbed
away from the rolling waves
until I felt above it all
with life spread out below
a giant on a solid rock
where nothing disturbed my peace
I rest on my back on granite
cold and hard against my spine
gazing up to the endless night sky
and a lattice of gleaming stars
where patterns move, intertwined
a fragment of infinity, greater, vaster by far
a tiny edge of the Universe
where all our short lives are
beneath me, i feel the earth turn
the silvered stars flash and shine
already dead, extinguished, aeons long ago
their twinkling lingers in time
i spread my hand to define them
measured against my palm
i am so small and they so vast
perspective loses its grip
strapped by gravities fragile belt
held fast to the slow turning earth
I feel myself begin to fly
inward and plunging out
there is no up and no down any more
no beginning, no end, only light
we’re an infinite variations of one
across the dream of night
amongst the rocks and the sand
Thanks for Poetry
thanks for the light on the walls and the taps
that light that shone through the kitchen window
when i was small and nothing was named
thanks for the lazy cat sleeping in sunshine
the cat i cared for as mine for a time
she gave me my first gentle knowledge of death
thanks to the brother dead before i was born
who taught me all a brother could be
a fantasy figure of unbroken virtues, Galahad vanished
thanks for daffodils that blazed in the garden,
giant hollyhocks, blood peonies, roses,
the gnarled apple tree branches and pears
thanks for the nursery school teacher
who tortured my mornings, her ice cold eyes
made me throw up at the approach to her door
thanks for the blackbird, the song-thrush, the night,
daisy chains, faery rings, the jackdaw in flight
the souls and spirits that danced in the garden
thanks for Arthur’s round table, Robins arrows,
my imaginary horse, all my hidden companions
who jumped out of old dusty leather-bound books
thanks for the love that i found here and there
and the help from unexpected places,
strangers, wise friends and wanderers all
and thanks for that mighty punch on the jaw
the blow that almost left me deaf in one ear
driving me inward to find myself in escaping
thanks for clouds, forests, mountains that rumble,
dogs that tumble in grass, running horses,
the endless crash of giant waves on the shore
ravens, seagulls, all things that fly,
the moments i saw true love shine in eyes,
the curve of a lip at the start of a smile
tangled limbs, sleeping faces, blessings,
grace, beauty, rivers that rush over stones,
my search for Excalibur out on the moors
daydreams, music, rhythms and words,
the strength of an oak, the willow that bends,
the magical, mystical weave of the world
i give thanks for will power, imagination and hope,
for knowing how to cope and survive
most of all i give thanks for being alive
Me and my Shadow
thoughts of Peter Pan
his shadow shut inside a drawer
poor fellow, incomplete
no old companion at his feet
and what if all the shadows went
not just your own
imagine a wooded glade
no contrasts there at all
sun shafts and no shade
no place to hide alone
in sweet repose and rest
and in a darkened room by firelight
no shadows dancing on the wall
by shadows we are blessed
where would imagination go
with no escape from endless bright
and crystal clear illumination
I recall a walk long ago
at full moon with my love
as my shadow played with hers
crossing and blending in our path
I wondered if my shadow
was as happy then as I
a childhood friend to play with
my shadow made me think
and wonder at the world
it’s a link to see ourselves
it shrinks and stretches, grows,
depending where we go
my shadow makes me
more aware of light
it connects me to the ground
when the sun is bright
I never see it in my dreams
I wonder what that means
leaving me to sleep
it disappears at night
I wonder where it goes
no-one knows that truth
I only know that when I die
my shadow wont exist
nor me, not I
perhaps we vanish into light
The World
the sun, the shine,
the shadows fall beneath the trees,
tranquil trance of leaves, triumphant,
leaning, lofty, lovely, light
the love, the lost, the found, the learning,
light of love, looping flight
flight to night, the moon, the stars,
stars that lead the navigator
star of wonder, star of hope
tent of sky, singing songs
sounds of battle, lullaby and funeral marches
swords and strangers, the strong, the mighty
might have been, may be still, morning comes,
comes with chimes, chime of bell,
bells of silver, shiver, shatter, shards,
sentinels of silence, stone
stones in water, stones in sea,
the rivers rush, rolling, waters rising into cloud,
rain and rainbow. what of us?
What of us? we were. we are.
walking, wandering, wondering why,
where and when, will it, wont it come again
the sun, the shine and is this all?
are we really all so small?
the sun, the shine, a burst of light,
burgeons, blossoms, blooms and grows,
glows and gladdens, glancing eyes,
eyes that see, the world, the life unfold,
enfold, enshrine, delightful,
dancing, woven in delicious dream,
the globe, the glow, eternal, bright,
entrances me – this glorious world
On the Edge, but not falling
was i pretending to myself again?
is it all illusion, fantasy, delusion, that life is beautiful?
am i walking in the dark, thinking there are lanterns?
are there angels in the trees? did I dream them?
can love be forever? is it ever?
will i drown in clear air for lack of hope?
when my heart leapt for joy was that all a lie?
can the world be empty darkness, as i saw it today?
where has all the glory gone that i saw yesterday?
perceptions, happiness, despondency,
the ebb and flow, what’s true, what isn’t,
no clarity, no balance, clouded vision
shadows dancing on the wall in firelight
music heard far off, the shade behind the waterfall,
a leaf turning in light, falling, landing rots to dust
the echo of a voice across a valley far away, sun sinking,
frost that silvers the hilltops, the cocks crow at dawn,
a sense that all is born to die, overpowered, as it must
light reflected in a lake, rainbows over cornfields,
swallows gliding on the high still air, above the wood,
the dark smell of mud, these are things i trust
joys, sorrows, melancholia, laugher, tears
bring what they may or go as they might
remembered or forgotten over tumbling years
a pattern, night into day, day into night,
underneath all this one beauty, shining bright,
burning light, conquering fruitless fear
a celestial light, strong and clear
thats illuminates true love
and a straight path
The Soul is King
As large as the universe,
as small as our individual hearts,
joined as one,
manifest in many parts,
the blood of every woman and man
rises in the trees sap
and on the birds wing,
held in the throne of water and air
we live and die,
the flames of a fire.
The Soul is King.
We in our tiny lives,
brush against each other in passing.
I know my brothers and sisters
by their smiles,
by the light that shines in their eyes
and their glances,
by the stories they pause to tell when we meet.
There is an older wisdom
that stir in our dreams,
unnameable,
unbreakable,
that which binds us,
passed as a torch,
hand to hand,
written in stars
and the shape of the land,
the land where the Soul is King.
The Dreaming Path 