Poem by John.

February 2005

The Isa Upanishad - First Verse

All is perfect, so perfectly perfect!
Whatever being lives, moves
And breathes on Earth
At every level from atom
To galaxy is absolutely perfect in its place
Precise and choreographed,
Because "That" flows from the Glory of God,
The Lord,
The Self,
Consciousness,
The Source,
Awareness, Peace and Love,
And is therefore perfect.
When you have surrendered your ego
To "That"
You will find true happiness.
Never ever envy the place of
Any other man or woman.

A freeverse transcreation by Alan Jacobs from his book The Principal Upanishads published in 2003 by O Books.

March - April 2005

Your Real Mother

 for Sophia

You wake for a moment
and look at me,
as if you do not know me.

This sweet game we play,
where I am the mother
and you are the child,
is only good while we're awake.

For as soon as your head is heavy
I can hear your real Mother
calling you home.

Poem by Jeannie Zandi

May 2005

Doorstep

It is best to experience this without thought.
Directly, like unvarnished wood,
its scent uncovered . . .
still allowed to grow
and to die.

You see,
    it is only what is naked -
still able to die,
that has life.

You see,
    it is only what is naked -
still able to die,
that has life.

So look deeply into who and what you love.
If you find not Death camped on their doorstep,
run for the hills
      for their embrace
          will take you dancing on the shoreline,
              while your heart,
                  a lonely dolphin,
                  cries only for you
                  only for you
                        to drown in the deep.

Poem by Chaitanya Neuhaus

June 2005

Untitled

Exultation is the going
Of an island soul to sea, --
Past the houses, past the headlands,
Into deep eternity!

Bred as we, among the mountains,
Can the sailor understand
The divine intoxication
Of the first league out from land?

Poem by Emily Dickinson

July 2005

The Pulley

   When God at first made man,
   Having a glass of blessings standing by --
Let us (said He) pour on him all we can;
Let the world's riches, which dispersèd lie,
   Contract into a span.

   So strength first made a way,
Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that, alone of all His treasure,
   Rest in the bottom lay.

   For if I should (said He)
Bestow this jewel also on My creature,
He would adore My gifts instead of Me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:
   So both should losers be.

   Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness;
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
   May toss him to My breast.

Poem by George Herbert (1593 - 1633)

August 2005

God Says Yes To Me

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

Poem by Kaylin Haught

September 2005

Spiritual Alchemy

Lead does turn into gold
and chance has been uprooted
when I with God, through God,
am into God transmuted.

Poem by Johann Scheffler (1624-1677), also known as Angelus Silesius, translated by Walter Hettich.

October 2005

Night Bird

I cannot say
I was not expecting you

Sometimes we can smell the rain
In a cloudless sky

And there are so many paths
Through these woods

That your approach
Drifted in and out of my windows

With the birdsong
And the lilacs

So I was never sure
It was not the fickle breeze

Turning my head
And touching my heart

But when you did appear
Silently bearing gifts

Like a night bird
Come with snow

Beauty and abundance
Fell from your wings

And covered the land

Poem by Tony Kendrew

November 2005

A Song of Joys (opening stanzas)

O to make the most jubilant song!
Full of music - full of manhood, womanhood, infancy!
Full of common employments - full of grain and trees.

O for the voices of animals - O for the swiftness and balance of fishes!
O for the dropping of raindrops in a song!
O for the sunshine and motion of waves in a song!

O the joy of my spirit - it is uncaged - it darts like lightning!
It is not enough to have this globe or a certain time,
I will have thousands of globes and all time.


Poem by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

December 2005

Birth

It was an error,
Thinking love a choice I could make,
An action I could take,
Given the proper object.
Making equations of "I LOVE YOU",
Spending lives trying to solve it.
Seeking lovers, children and pets,
As reasons for that which already IS,
Without reason.

Love, explode me!
Dissolve this I and its objects,
Till nothing's left which loves,
Nothing's left to love,
Nothing remains but Love,
And Love's become a wild stallion.

Poem by Paul Chubbuck

January 2006

from Sonnets to Orpheus

A rising tree. O pure ascension!
Orpheus sings! O regal tree of song!
And stillness reigned. Yet in the silence
sprang forth beginning and rebirth.

Animals from quiet nests and lairs
emerged into the clear woods
transformed by song. And their silence
did not arise from fright or cunning,

but from listening. Bellows and cries
appeared small in their hearts. And where
a mere opening had existed to receive it -

a place of need and darkest wanting
with trembling entrance - you created
a pure temple in their ears.

Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), translated by Walter Hettich.

February 2006

A Vast Wardrobe

Look how this nakedness shows its vast wardrobe!
Here it dresses as a rose;
there it dresses as a car;
here the suit is Mother;
there the suit is Daughter.
Spirit does not inhabit these things.
Nothingness does not climb in and out.
The rose grows thorns
and does not bloom in winter;
the mother will one day sleep without waking
and her daughter will weep.

Poem by Dorothy Hunt

©  2004 by Dorothy S. Hunt Only This!

March 2006

A Noiseless Patient Spider

A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever reeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

Poem by Walt Whitman

April 2006

I hear the melody of His flute, and I cannot contain myself:
The flower blooms, though it is not spring; and already the bee has received its invitation.
The sky roars and the lightning flashes, the waves rise in my heart,
The rain falls; and my heart longs for my Lord.
Where the rhythm of the world rises and falls, thither my heart has reached:
There the hidden banners are fluttering in the air.
Kabir says: "My heart is dying, though it lives."

Poem by Kabir (1440? - 1518?), translated by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)

May 2006

Maple Bowl

Skilled in
the tracing
of the maple's
muted voice

he shaped
the block of wood
to willing roundness
open to receive

the promised burden
and to let it rest
in summer dark

and memories
of vanished colors
before snow.

Poem by Walter Hettich

June 2006

"Hohlied" (High Song), attributed to Meister Eckhart, final stanza.

O soul of mine
go out, then god is in
sink all mine I
into god's nothingness
sink into groundless flood
as I do flee from you
you come to me
as I do lose myself
then you are found
O treasure beyond all that is.

Translated from medieval German by Walter Hettich

August 2006

An exchange of poems by Pamela Wilson and Walter Hettich

To Hanuman

Leaves barely rustle,
only grace reveals your presence.
Joy, its aftermath.

Take me with you please
into your fresh and gentle heart.
I am saddened by human harshness.

My friends have always been the innocent,
my home too, the forest.
Where only kindness reveals my footsteps.

~   Pamela

Long ago
elephants walked
on Siva's green hill.

Ramana heard
their vanished voices
the dancing thunder
of their feet.

O Hanuman
in this ever changing world
where does harshness end
and kindness begin?

Unending love
flows from the heart
that needs no healing.

~   Walter