Summer has finished its time
Autumn takes over
Silent leaf fall muffles change
Category: poetry
Haiku
Pretend it doesn’t matter
Stop expecting more
Avoid the disappointment
The Courage of Autumn
Swift summer snuck in,
Greening up from the edges, shading the forest floor.
It came complete with lovely summer evenings
Where warm breezes filled the night,
And a blanket of starts twinkled in the
Dark humid haze.
The August thunder filled my soul
With its power and its wildness renewed me.
My garden produced produce from the earth
Feeding my soul as richly as it fed my body.
This summer was a season of energy and rapid growth.
There was no time to waste, “bloom now, don’t be afraid” was its message.
But now, without warning, the days begin to shorten,
The afternoon shadows grow longer.
Late night mists form as the heart of summer
Makes its escape back to the sky from where it came.
The golden sunglow fades from my skin as it
Has from the fields.
A summer season of riotous beginnings looses its energy and
Fades into the arms of autumn.
As the seasons change, so must I.
I need to return to the safety and warmth of my home and
Gather my growings to feed my body as I gather my loves
To sustain my soul through the cold, dark time to come.
Autumn is the time to return to what was, to what came before
Summer’s brief and beautiful interruption.
Fearlessly and with a final burst of thanks in colors of red and gold,
The earth has gently shed its past with its leaves.
If only I could shed mine with such courage and beauty.
Love is Not for The Faint of Heart
He taught me to sit in mystical darkness,
And watch the floating pin points of light in my soul.
They were at once familiar and strange, a one sighted following,
A place where songs were sung backwards.
The sitting itself was an empty solitude,
But only on the surface.
Although years have passed, the echoing sadness still seeps in.
Thankfully, time and focus have helped to remove its sting.
But even time cannot erase the unanswered questions that linger,
They are still shouting in my ear to be heard.
My continuing faith in Sri helps to remove my doubts while
His quiet presence replaces my pain.
He has made me realize there is no more time for seeping sadness,
Its time has finally passed and his death has lost its drowning sorrow.
Now my teacher’s essence speaks to me in thoughts not words, but his message is still the same.
He tells me to be open, still, and fearless.
He promises that if I take it all in and have faith, I will receive what I need.
I will be held and loved – sunlit wrinkles and all.
I will never lose the sound of his voice as it is written on my soul and
Held close to my heart.
Sri’s wisdom is as profound now as it was then as
He tells me once again that my love for the other is right and good.
It is a love that was meant to be. There is nothing greater,
Nothing less, nothing more to need.
My teacher asks me to reside within that love, and feel the power
And strength that comes from knowing that it is right and good.
Sri understands that my love for the other is whole and simple, kind and generous,
Is light and darkness together,
He can see into my heart and
Feel how this love fills me with warmth and joy.
His words encourage me to never to give up for as his love has shown me,
It is not always easy to love but to love for love’s sake is in and of itself its own reward.
He taught me that it takes strength to love unconditionally, and
To hold another’s heart in your hands and not be afraid takes courage and commitment.
Love is not for the faint of heart.
September Morning (Sarah’s Birthday)
In morning’s stillness, the owl sings to me of days gone by.
Soft darkness surrounds my heart and brings me back in time.
Back to a small building, a small town,
36 years in the past to an empty waiting room and dimly lit corridors.
To a quiet hospital’s artificial twilight while the world sleeps on,
Unaware of the new life signaling its time to begin.
It was just us, waiting together, physically connected as one
But for only a few hours more.
Your birth was the beginning of our separate journeys but as
A physical separation only, we remained together in heart and mind.
In that early September morning mist, as a tiny girl, you took your place beside me,
And changed my life with your smile.
You left the temporary shelter of my body,
And joined the permanent shelter of my heart.
Your presence in this world begin on that beautiful morning but
Your soul was already here, waiting for you to come back.
Right from the beginning your wisdom and light shown through your tiny eyes.
Your smile contagious, your grace and love profound.
You are an eternal soul born to bring a spark of goodness and light back to this world,
Your simple presence making the world and my life a better place.
You are now a woman, holding the little hand of the next embodiment of profound sprit and wisdom.
Your light is strong in your daughter and so the cycle continues.
From mother to daughter, sister to sister,
Woman to woman.
Together we are strong, loving, grace filled and eternal and build on each other’s strengths.
The time has come for us to take our rightful place in this universe.
Our life-force will change the world and the heavens and bring them back into balance.
And as it was in the beginning, the hands that rock the cradle will hold the hearts of the world and all will be at peace once more.
The change has begun.
September 3, 2015
MC
Turn the Page
My soul sister posted a quote recently which read,
“There comes a time when you have to choose between
turning the page and closing the book”
An interesting concept, which choice will I make?
To do both is not possible; to do neither is not responsible.
The book cover is heavy, hard and cold but like the inside of the story,
The page is light, fragile, and forgiving.
The cover traps the future and the past within, between the front and the back while
The spine, the soul of the book, holds it all together in silence.
Once the book is closed, there is no turning back, anything left unfinished is buried,
It is too late, no recourse, just the blank stare of the title looking back from the cover.
And what if there is no title, does it mean there was no book,
No story told?
The other choice, to turn the page, is a gentler action, one done with softness
And kindness, an action of action but not of finality.
No demands or judgment, just the presence of mind to acknowledge that a change is due,
A new way to see, a deeper way to love, physically and emotionally.
An ending of sorts, but not really,
More a shift in perspective, a new beginning together.
The book cover is heavy, cold and dead but turning
The page allows change, nothing need be left undone or unspoken and no one left unloved.
I have made a choice. I am not ready for the heavy cover,
I will not close the book, end the story; bury him away between the beginning and the end.
No, my heart won’t allow it;
My soul won’t accept it, so instead
I will gently turn the page, I will rewrite, edit and proofread the lines. I will work on developing the characters and plot, but I will always keep the subject and love intact,
Because the story of my heart cannot be rewritten,
And the song of my soul can only be sung by him.
When the Clouds are Loud
Molly says, “The clouds are loud”
And she is so afraid!
Are you afraid when the clouds are loud?
And the lightening flickers across the sky and lights up the night?
And when the flashes come, do you see
Scary things in the shadows?
Are you afraid when the clouds are loud and
The wind howls and shakes the house and the rain falls in sheets and makes a pond of the field?
Are you afraid when the clouds are loud and the trees shake
And bend in fear
And the flowers cower and crows call and
The garden rolls up her skirt and hides behind the barn?
Are you afraid when the clouds are loud and the sky turns dark and
Thunder shakes the ground, rattles the windows and
The windmill blades spin in terror and
Birds hide in the cellar window wells?
And when the clouds return to silence and the world is washed fresh, does your fear wash away with the rain water?
Molly’s does.
Noble Silence
This silence, a noble silence of
Candles and Buddha.
Three nights, three days
Hours of silence, hours of sitting.
Heaven in bowls of homemade soup and crusty breads.
Food to nourish our bodies as this place nourishes our souls.
The bells welcome morning and
Breakfast nourishes in silence.
A retreat from ordinary life,
No jobs to do, no one to take care of except ourselves.
A beautiful place surrounded by
Beautiful people, soul sisters and brothers.
We are like-minded, but are on our own journeys.
As Shawn so rightly said, “no one can do your path better than you”.
New friends with old ideas,
Each their own but each the same.
And so I sit, just sit and be
I try to keep my mind still.
Sometimes it is,
Sometimes not.
A sinking feeling, sinking into my soul
Into that space behind my eyes that truly sees
I see it in fleeting moments of bliss
Nothing to hold onto, nothing to catch.
Hours pass by in seconds, other times
Seconds are hours.
Bells signal the beginning and ending
Three to start, three to stop.
Sometimes the end comes too quickly,
Sometimes too slowly
A moment can last forever
Or disappear in a heartbeat.
It has left a lasting, life changing impression
Am I brave enough to take these steps?
Do I know which way to go? I think I do and
If I am honest with myself, I will.
I have to take this chance, nothing will change
Until I make the choice.
If I do, in six months I’ll be fine
If I don’t, in six months it will still be the same.
Seems so wrong to have to pay this price again,
So wrong to have already lost before I even started.
So I will sit, alone in my mind, alone in my heart
And ultimately alone in my soul.
I need to return to the place of Noble Silence
And let the stillness dry my tears and harden my heart.
It is the only way to survive,
The only way to be.
Who I Am
I am a woman,
A real woman.
Finally one with who I am
Not who anyone else wants me to be.
Mother, daughter, grandmother, friend, sister, lover
All aspects of the same me.
I know what I can take and
When to say “Enough!”
When to be still, when to move
When to love, when to protect.
They are my choices to make, mine alone and
My chances to take as well.
I have enough love for the whole world and
Dreams to match.
I am wise in so many new ways,
Ways I never knew existed.
The transition from girl to young woman
To the me of now has been a hard journey.
I no longer need, now I know and feel and treasure what and who is.
This recent shift in perspective has been life changing.
I know what I don’t want and what I
Will not put up with ever again.
I am a mother to everyone and
A servant to none but God.
I am a sister to my friends and will stand by
And with them for all time.
It takes a special man to handle the love of a real woman,
A woman of strength and passion.
I am thankful to have finally met such a man, I am his lover and his alone.
My love for him is not controlling or imposing, it is freeing and glorious, as is he.
“Come my love, come share in my journey, as I will share in yours.
Take my hand and walk with me, I will not let you down, I promise.”
It has taken me 60 years to find this place in myself and now with him.
I can finally shut off the voices in my head that would deny me this joy.
They are self-defeating voices carrying left over pains from the past, a past
Best left behind, not ignored and stifled but learned from and then put to rest.
I can now assert and live my right to be who I am, who I’ve always been,
From the beginning of time and now, thankfully, for all time to come.
This Moment
This moment, this one
Precious moment.
Like no other,
Only you and me.
At this second, no one
And nothing else matters.
All sound is blocked from my mind,
All I can hear is your voice.
My eyes can focus only on you; my body feels only your touch,
All else fades away.
My soul fills with your presence
Your strength and your love. Nothing can compare.
In this moment, we are all that exists,
We have no need for anything else.
Space shrinks to the size of your room
And the universe is contained in the pupils of your eyes.
The eternal truth resides in your touch and
I can hear the harmony of the heavens in your sighs.
In this moment we are aware and know that there is no heaven
No hell, no past, no future,
Just now, just you, just me.
Timeless, all consuming, beautiful and right.
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