Happy Poetry Month!
So, this was fun: Laura Di Franco, to celebrate National Poetry Month, is hosting a series for her authors, especially those of her compilation, “100 Poems and Possibilities for Healing” to read a poem from the collection. Here’s my recording with her where I read “A Speculation on Perfection”
A Saturday Poem for February 17, 2024
Hello, Friends! I’ve missed being here with you. I’m back for a bit, who knows how long. Today’s poem touches on this.
Yesterday was my Dad’s birthday; he would have been 103. And I visited a dear friend who is in a rehab center and in hospice care. He seems to be slowly slipping away not unlike how my Dad left the earth plane. I wrote in my journal when I returned from that visit and this poem kind of fell out as I reviewed the day and thoughts and lives I touched. Don’t worry, it’s not melancholy. See if you can slip into a sweet place with this:
Long Life
The comings and goings,
The rises and falls
Are endless–
Part of the pattern of the flow
Of consciousness.
And the flow is just now,
And only now.
Just this: the slow,
Long vibration
of All and Nothing.
Just this: It is an
Infinitely long and
Infinitely short vibration
Of Empty Allness.
It is so slow it seems
To be fully at rest.
It is so fast it seems
To disappear into that
Emptiness from which it
Arises now.
It is the quick “hello”
And the long “goodbye”
All wrapped in the
Blessed bliss of
This.
©2024 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
I AM a published poet!
January 9, 2024
The book is live today. You may purchase an ebook version (kindle or otherwise) for the low introductory price of just $1.99. But act soon as this price is only available for about a week. Order here on Amazon:
I’ll be a published poet in January 2024!
In September I and 30 other author/poets began collaborating on a new book: “100 Poems & Possibilities for Healing.” It will be published soon by Laura Di Franco and her company, Brave Healer Productions: https://www.facebook.com/BraveHealerbyLaura/
I look forward to sharing with you the excitement around this book! To begin here is a video interview with me and three of my co-authors from earlier this week. Enjoy and please share!
Remembrance: a poem about surrender
I’ve been in a soft place lately pondering my resistance to a chant that Deva Premal and Miten offer frequently during their Gayatri Sangha gatherings on Saturdays. The chant is one Miten wrote: “Into your hands I lay my spirit, Into your hands I lay my life…” When Miten wrote this years ago he did not realize these were basically the final words attributed to Jesus as he was dying on the cross.
So, my resistance is partly a result of my Christian background and my own negative reactions to the conditioning I am working through and beyond. And a piece (peace) of the “beyond” is to soften if not release the resistance.
As I contemplated this yesterday the Sufi chant, the Zikr (Remembrance) came to mind; I learned this during my seminary days and have often embraced it as a comforting prayer: “La Ilaha Illa Allah.” And then it finally hit me: if there is no reality but God, then anything I chant or recite is part of that godliness!
Here’s a poem to explore this:
Remembrance
I feel a distance that is not there,
separating, carving an empty gulf
that’s not real, only imagined in a
foolish mind.
As the distance narrows, disappears,
I sense resistance pressing hard to
release the powerful pull of a
longing heart.
As the resistance softens, collapses,
remembrance grabs my wandering
soul. The Sufi Zikr lights the way
showing all I need to know.
Mergence is that simple way, no distance,
no resistance, only remembering:
There’s no reality but God;
There is only God.
©2023 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
New Year poem: “New Year”
I received two great books for Christmas: “Cosmogenesis, An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe” by Brian Swimme, and “The Dao De Jing, A Qigong Interpretation” by Dr. Yang, Jwing Ming. They are both excellent and have my mind swirling around the center-point of “being/not-being.” What is this life, this consciousness, this reflection of the material, manifest creation back on itself, all about?
So here’s my reflection on time as it slips through our consciousness at an ever, seemingly, faster pace. Happy 2023 to you all!
New Year
They say it all began with a bang.
Somehow the ISST blew up:
What Hawkings named, inelegantly,
The Initial Singularity of Space-Time.
Out of nothing, Sunyata, Wuji, Dao,
Came something, Rupa, De.
All manifest reality—boom!
And we were there.
One outward pulse pushed the Universe
Through the black hole of emptiness.
Echoes of that birth reverberate
In every birth, breath, beat, death.
Every twitch, tick, ebb, flow, cycle
Marks a memory of that first pulse.
Every calendar change by sun or moon,
Reminds us it is always a New Year.
©2022 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Old Moon poem: “Heart Sutra Vibe”
I’ve been absent from this blog for too long. My muse has been asleep. Although I write nearly every day there hasn’t been much to stir the creative sap in this old tree. But here we are in old moon energy and somehow that dying moon stimulated something; it feels like an itch. So I scratched it!
The background on this is the Gene Key we find ourselves in with this old moon energy, it’s #52 which Richard Rudd calls “The Sill Point.” This whole system of “Human Design” is based on the I Ching, which you may recall from a number of entries in this blog I refer to for guidance and deeper understanding. The 52nd gate in Human Design, or Gene Key in Richard’s The Gene Keys corresponds to Hexagram 52 in the I Ching; the Gua for 52 is Mountain over Mountain (Gen) which translates to “keeping still.”
So, enjoying this image of stillness, keeping still, the still point, this is the verse that came to me:
Heart Sutra Vibe
Picture a plucked string:
See it vibrate to invisibility,
Moving from something to nothing:
Beyond sound,
Silent stillness.
Picture a still string:
See it stretched to stillness,
Its potential waiting, surrendered:
Beyond sound,
Silent stillness.
There is something in that stillness:
A waiting note not yet heard,
An emptiness filled with hope.
There is nothing in that high vibe:
A note beyond hearing ear,
A form, a new song of hope!
©2022 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A Poem for Saturday, and the times: “What Might Have Been”
I’ve been quiet for a while during our shutdown, shut-in, staying much more within. Maybe my muse has gone inward as well to reflect. And while it might be tempting to begin to emerge from the inner work, to venture into the wide world again, I’m not sure it is time yet. We remain cautious, immune systems strong but not over-taxed. We remain comfortable and well on the inside!
But there are other ways to reach out; my muse is beginning to rise and wonder what it’s all about. Richard shrugs with concern, some frustration, deeply puzzled about the meaning of so much foolishness. Perhaps the muse has a bit of an answer:
What Might Have Been
The passing of a friend, a brother, a lover
Leads deeply to a pondering:
What might have been.
Wars ending in retreat, defeat, chaos
Demand the heart/mind to question:
What might have been?
Sickness, disease, pandemics
Force reflection on community;
What might have been!
Separation, polarization, fear of other
Rend the heart and soul; I wonder
What might have been…
Anger, resentment, frustration with what is
Soften in contemplation:
What might yet be!
©2021 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A Winter Solstice Poem: My Life as a Poem (revised)
Revision: As I reviewed this post sorting through my word docs and rereading the poem (reviewing my life!) I realized I had left off the last verse (a cut and paste error)! So I have added that verse back in. How could I forget “love”? The poem (my life) is now complete.
In October I wrote “My Prayer” in the form of a poem. These words have stuck with me; they pop into my mind frequently during the day as I practice life. So I’m not surprised at this reprisal, an echo of that prayer as I wrote this poem on the Solstice and Conjunction.
My Life as a Poem
Waking to my day, a new page,
The threads of a dream drift away
On the winds of another life,
A poem gone now, glimpsed, forgotten.
Today a new dream begins, a new
Story of my own creating,
Speaking to the future, trusting in
The worthiness of these words.
Practice, it all begins and ends there.
Story is practice, a moving toward
Perfection, evolving with a rhythm;
Sometimes involving a rhyme.
With repetition the story evolves
Into a poem: my life as a poem.
For slips and slights I practice
Forgiveness – changing my perception.
Sometimes the words don’t come,
Resisting the page refusing to flow.
For the hesitance, the lurches I practice
Patience – waiting on the muse.
Regretting all that I have lost, resenting
What has been taken or misplaced;
For the destruction and death I practice
Praise – remembering life is ecstatic!
The suffering millions weigh heavily on my heart;
Stafford got it right when he said:
“The darkness around us is deep.” I practice
Compassion – wanting to save with my words.
These words may not be worthy as those of
The Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon. Yet, I read
And weep and rejoice and sing. And I practice
Wisdom – moving toward the light.
For all the grace, the wisdom, the compassion
I reach for words to reflect the deep.
I look up at the moon and practice
Gratitude – knowing they’ll appear complete.
At the end of the day, practice done
I realize I have one more line to
Write, one from my heart; and I practice
Love – the Love Poem of My Life.
©2020 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A Friday Poem: My Prayer
A few weeks ago I enjoyed several offerings by the Shift Network during their Global Summit. One of the most profound talks was by Andrew Harvey, a “modern mystic” for our times. His talk was an impassioned call to address the five crises humanity faces, and the five responses that are required to bring about a new paradigm for our survival on the planet.
I’ve been working on my responses. One of them is a prayer to bring about the new paradigm, the new way for humans to evolve and thrive on Mother Earth, a New Vision for Humanity. Here is my prayer:
My Prayer
Sitting in the midst of chaos,
Anger bubbling beneath the waves,
I practice: Forgiveness!
Wondering at the edge of time,
Anxiety rising to the surface,
I practice: Patience!
Feeling the loss of all that’s dear,
Grief hanging heavy all around,
I practice: Praise!
Witnessing the suffering everywhere,
Greed holding power in the world,
I practice: Compassion!
Knowing humanity is evolving now, with
Ignorance still shading the light,
I practice: Wisdom!
Realizing there is a greater good at work,
Trust breaking through to ignite souls,
I practice: Gratitude!
Awakening to a New World together,
Love shattering these old patterns,
I practice: Love!
©2020 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 