A Fragment

The more habitual and repetitive life becomes,

the more we lose the wonder, the awe.

The more we lose the openness we once had,

when the whole world was apparelled in celestial light*.

But let us honour and cultivate this wonder and awe.

And though we may never return to a true child-like state,

let us not become embittered and closed-off.

Let us remain open and supple.

Let us remain good-humoured and sensitive.

Let us revere each morning sunrise, a miracle beyond words.

Let us cherish each passing season, each blade of grass, each gnarled tree.

Let us always be grateful for the wonder of life. 

 * Wordsworth

A Fragment

A poem can be a reminder of how things really are

A shock, a jolt, a lightning strike cutting through ignorance and amnesia

Perhaps a poem is also like morse code or a telegram signal, encoding a message but never fully revealing the soure

A poem is a collection of letters and words, abstract units that come together and form a cathedral, a sweeping murmuration, bristling with meaning, insight and truth

Particles coalesce and form beings

Musical notes collaborate and form symphonies

One becomes two, two become three, and the world dances in relational ecstacy

A Fragment

When I wake up, when I think, when I move about in the daylight, I see multiplicity

I see fields, rivers, birds, trees, flowers and people

Every individual thing going about its business, living by its nature, and eventually dying

I see all of this, the whole drama of life and death, unfolding before me in a beautiful yet tragic way

But at night, I am given new eyes

Within the bewildering multiplicity of the world, there is an eternality and oneness

There is a bedrock, a foundation of unbounded love, ageless and timeless

Everything emerges from this bedrock and returns to it, everything takes part in this endless dance

My words fall short here

Words are limited and conceptual whereas unbounded love is ineffable, limitless and beyond thought

The One enfolds the Many, the Many enfold the One

A Fragment

Did you know that we held each other’s hands even before we met?

Before time, all hands were joined

We have always known each other - did you recognise me when you first looked into my eyes?

But when we are born into the earthly world, we come to feel isolated

We forget where we come from, our true home

We become amnesiacs and somnambulists

We get entangled in our individual lives

Through our misguided feeling of separateness, we are plagued by anxieties and pains

And yet, when I look into your eyes, when I feel this love between us, I no longer feel separate and fearful

Through you, I am reminded of my true home

A Fragment

Every now and then

moments emerge which bring about profound newness. 

 

Imagine when you first encounter crocuses and hyacinths,

after a long winter,

arising from the cold ground.

Imagine the way an epiphany springs into your mind,

a momentous realisation,

forever altering the course of your life.

Imagine that unconscious arrest of inspiration,

when involved in a creative project,

miraculously bringing it all together.

 

It is as though a secret force is at work in the world,

steering these events on.

And though this force is eternally present,

it is made more apparent

in these auspicious moments of change,

when a seismic shift is felt within.

 

The evening we first met, an unassuming evening of gentle conversation,

held one such moment.

Saying goodbye, I stood on a precipice of decision,

and something akin to destiny took over my body.

A deeper force carried me along

when I kissed you for the first time.

 

I cherish this moment, the moment my life wildly shifted,

and our evening of gentle conversation.