Reflections,
Ripples in time,
Compressions,
Creases in the flow,
Voices,
Leaking like oil,
I am drowning in this love,
Head bobbing above the waves,
Waves of consciousness,
That lift and fall, lift and fall,
Leaving purple stains on my mind,
Revealing cave drawings, illiterate sounds, extinct smells,
I am drowning in this love,
Beyond loneliness, beyond boredom, beyond activity,
I am swept up on the shore of this natural habitat,
A stranger, a refugee, a stowaway,
Saved from salvation,
At least for now.
At least
for
now.
(This is a poem about consciousness. About the boundary between sleeping and dreaming and waking up. Each night we experience a shift in consciousness when we dream. Each night we 'drown' in our dreams and then we wake up. In our dreams we see things and feel things that appear real and then we wake up. Similarly, who knows what other levels of consciousness might exist and how we 'sleep/wake up' from these? The poem speculates on this theme using the boundary between air and water as the metaphor for a shift in consciousness. Can you imagine if you had never fallen asleep in your life and then it happened to you for the first time and you felt yourself 'nodding off'? Can you imagine how frightening this would be and how much faith it would require to trust that you would wake up again in the morning? :) And yet without sleep we could not function, could not survive. Similarly, without love we could not function, we could not survive. Yet to lose yourself in the consciousness of love is terrifying and requires great faith. Much better to fight this temptation and save ourselves form salvation don't you think?)
Monday, 22 March 2010
Thursday, 11 March 2010
The Morally Brave
Stand Up,
Not from arrogance or petulance,
Stand Up,
Though your legs tremble with innocent fear,
Stand Up,
You who step down, sink back, keep quiet,
Stand Up, Stand Up, Stand Up.
Sit Down,
You of the tumbled leadership elite,
Sit Down,
For your legs of clay are cracked clean through,
Sit Down,
You who think fight, fight think, win first,
Sit Down,Sit Down, Sit Down.
Shut Up,
You of the underbelly underground,
Shut Up,
For your legs are always kicking subversively,
Shut Up,
You who fight talk, talk fight, fist first,
Shut up, Shut up, Shut up.
(Thus decay,unrest and decadance,
Provides fertile ground for new seeds,
Nature's courage knows no bounds,
Brings forth from the famine,
A feast of untold delight,
Speaks to us with compelling truth,
'Stand Up, Sit Down, Shut Up',
Brings forth the meek who have waited long,
Those who hold the heart of the age,
That which has no physical might nor empirical proof,
Yet commands the lion and the lamb,
As it reaches into their common soul,
Lo, the meek will be the bravest,
When the flesh finally runs weak,
For in them the spirit burns brightest,
They carry that which does not know how to die,
That which always prevails with timeless ease,
The ark, the covenant, the grail,
The blueprint of our higher concsciousness.
Sow now,
Stand Up, Speak Up, Stand Up,
You of the highest moral ground.
Claim your inheritance, free us with your courage
As the master frees the slave.)
(This poem was inspired by a comment on a TV show where a lady exclaimed 'What we need in this country right now is morally brave leaders!'. Morally brave leaders.She was commenting on 'Broken Britain' and it made me think about the state of moral leadership in our society. On the one hand, you have the discredited leadership elite ( MP's, bank CEO's, Irish priests, etc.), those addicted to the power of winning whom the poem suggests should 'sit down'. On the other, you have the feckless folk who have given up caring and have opted out of any sense of collective responsibility, the poem refers to these as the 'underbelly underground' and suggest they should 'shut up' :) And then you have those in the 'middle ground', the average man or woman in the street, those who are not in positions of power but have not given up caring or taking personal responsibility. The poem suggest that it is the voice of these people that we need to hear right now. And these people are often held back by their fear of standing out in the crowd, their fear of their own power which they so often give away to those in the other two 'camps'. These are the meek people who the poem suggests need to have the courage to stand up and claim their power. The final passage in brackets is a statement of conviction and trust that nature always brings forth the right answer at the right time, or in this case the right people at the right time. It suggests that there is a spirit lying dormant in the morally brave. This spirit will know exactly when it is the right time to 'stand up' and 'speak up'. This is the point when that which is broken will start to heal. Is our society reaching that point right now? Are you one of the morally brave whom nature will ask to stand up and to speak up right now? Is it time for you to reclaim the power that is given away so cheaply in every day and in every hour?)
Not from arrogance or petulance,
Stand Up,
Though your legs tremble with innocent fear,
Stand Up,
You who step down, sink back, keep quiet,
Stand Up, Stand Up, Stand Up.
Sit Down,
You of the tumbled leadership elite,
Sit Down,
For your legs of clay are cracked clean through,
Sit Down,
You who think fight, fight think, win first,
Sit Down,Sit Down, Sit Down.
Shut Up,
You of the underbelly underground,
Shut Up,
For your legs are always kicking subversively,
Shut Up,
You who fight talk, talk fight, fist first,
Shut up, Shut up, Shut up.
(Thus decay,unrest and decadance,
Provides fertile ground for new seeds,
Nature's courage knows no bounds,
Brings forth from the famine,
A feast of untold delight,
Speaks to us with compelling truth,
'Stand Up, Sit Down, Shut Up',
Brings forth the meek who have waited long,
Those who hold the heart of the age,
That which has no physical might nor empirical proof,
Yet commands the lion and the lamb,
As it reaches into their common soul,
Lo, the meek will be the bravest,
When the flesh finally runs weak,
For in them the spirit burns brightest,
They carry that which does not know how to die,
That which always prevails with timeless ease,
The ark, the covenant, the grail,
The blueprint of our higher concsciousness.
Sow now,
Stand Up, Speak Up, Stand Up,
You of the highest moral ground.
Claim your inheritance, free us with your courage
As the master frees the slave.)
(This poem was inspired by a comment on a TV show where a lady exclaimed 'What we need in this country right now is morally brave leaders!'. Morally brave leaders.She was commenting on 'Broken Britain' and it made me think about the state of moral leadership in our society. On the one hand, you have the discredited leadership elite ( MP's, bank CEO's, Irish priests, etc.), those addicted to the power of winning whom the poem suggests should 'sit down'. On the other, you have the feckless folk who have given up caring and have opted out of any sense of collective responsibility, the poem refers to these as the 'underbelly underground' and suggest they should 'shut up' :) And then you have those in the 'middle ground', the average man or woman in the street, those who are not in positions of power but have not given up caring or taking personal responsibility. The poem suggest that it is the voice of these people that we need to hear right now. And these people are often held back by their fear of standing out in the crowd, their fear of their own power which they so often give away to those in the other two 'camps'. These are the meek people who the poem suggests need to have the courage to stand up and claim their power. The final passage in brackets is a statement of conviction and trust that nature always brings forth the right answer at the right time, or in this case the right people at the right time. It suggests that there is a spirit lying dormant in the morally brave. This spirit will know exactly when it is the right time to 'stand up' and 'speak up'. This is the point when that which is broken will start to heal. Is our society reaching that point right now? Are you one of the morally brave whom nature will ask to stand up and to speak up right now? Is it time for you to reclaim the power that is given away so cheaply in every day and in every hour?)
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