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.

An Autumnal Fragment

falling, still falling

I’ve forgotten who I am presently

I wish people were a little more present, presently present

Anyway, I just love the shapes of these trees, the grooves, crannies and textures of their bark

I love being surrounded by all this mud and all these leaves

I can smell the earth, the soil, I inhale the soul of the season

I feel autumn in my body, in my blood, I feel the transition

The flow of time is manifest as leaves release their dying gasps

Sprinkling the ground, the leaves are of many colours, mustardyellow, burntorange, winered, coffeebrown

I see fungi emerging from the ground and decaying pieces of wood

This feels like home

Others don’t seem to like Winter, or the decay of Autumn, but I’ve never had these feelings

I embrace every season, within every experience I try to see every other experience

As I wander the forest, pondering, I notice a proud horse-chestnut tree dominating the leaf-covered glade

Some of its leaves are

A Fragment

Did you know that you are radiant?

No matter how low, shameful or guilt-ridden you feel, you have always been miraculous and precious 

You have always been capable of giving and receiving love

It seems easy to numb and distract ourselves

Sometimes we do this our whole lives, we think this makes things more bearable

It seems easy to bury our heads, to surround ourselves with noise, to avoid the paradoxical plenitude of silence

But within every moment of your life, within every droll, mundane, commonplace event, there is a sacredness

Within every pain, every base desire, every longing, there is something wondrous and mysterious

So open your doors, step outside, and bathe in the warm sunlight

A Fragment

My home is darkness 

This is where I live and thrive

My winding tendrils stretch and curl through the earth

I seek the low places, the depths, the places people ignore and neglect

This is where I am most content

It is quiet here

I often hear rumblings but mostly I live in silence

In silence, touch becomes essential and sacred, I learn an infinite amount through vibrations alone

My dark home is built of soil and dirt

I am friends with the worms and mycelial threads

Yet I know that the world of light needs me and I need it

Although this dark, fecund, tactile world is my home and my preference, I know that the world of light, sound and sight is just as necessary

In essence, we exist as one

A majestic tree needs deep roots