Tag: Poems

As my grandfather’s son lay dying this is the story I whispered in his ear.
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My father was my grandfather’s son.
The grandfather said to his son,
“I need to see that son of yours.”
My father’s son went with his father
to see his grandfather as he lay dying.
The grandfather said to the boy
as his father stood by his side,
“I see greatness in you. You can do something great.
I want you to know that.”

Emotionally and physically and in many ways of being in this world
My father’s son saw in his father the goodness and the foibles as only a son can see.
My father’s son learned hard work and respect and decorum.
My father’s son stepped back and stepped aside as time and distance and detachment proved more powerful than blood and expectations.

The years moved on and the greatness may have emerged.
My father’s son also lived the heritage of a people who did not express emotion easily.
Precision and accuracy, and even humility, were manifest.
However, emotional honesty was masked by words, or, no words.

My father’s son knew of the father’s good deeds.
And time showed the power of prayer.
Yet personal access drifted away and connectedness was lost.
My father’s son saw his father try too hard to reconnect.
The father could not admit to judgment or misdeeds.

My father’s son lost his connectedness to his father;
not his love or appreciation of his father’s goodness,
but a connection was lost,
perhaps given up by both these men.

My father’s son mourns his father’s loss and honors him.
My father’s son regrets his father missed some unspoken thing,
because he could not say it, or did not know how.
My father’s son would be genuine in saying, “I will still strive for that greatness.”

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/16/12

Somewhere in California
A night bird sings in the middle of the day
Like a prayer on the wind
The song flies up to heaven

Somewhere in California
A butterfly struggles
To pass through time
To a distant land

Somewhere a love
Which is long and deep
Breathes a sigh
As the loved one sleeps

Somewhere there are the last steps of a long journey
To reach where the power of prayer
Is not obscured
By the limits of the body and mind

A soul’s journey
To lift and give and strive
To join the goodness
Which is the birthright
Of all men and women

Somewhere my father dies
Somewhere my mother cries
And prays
Somewhere my sisters and brothers stand by

Somewhere I sit
Somewhere I cry
Somewhere in California

Somewhere in California
The mountains rise
And the mountains break down

Somewhere on the western shore
The rivers flow down to the sea
The people move and live
And struggle

Somewhere in California
A man moves on
To join the world of spirit
Somewhere in California
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/27/12

In the end all the dreams just scatter
Like a kaleidoscope that lost its symmetry
Across time and space no matter what humans think
In the end potential flows every which way

What might have been and what had to be
Blend in memory like history
The truth or the perception matters not to me
Now has passed into the past
That neither grief nor sorrow nor wishes nor prayers can renew

In the end all the dreams just scatter
So vivid in our sleep, or the days of youth,
As time and distance mix together
To form imagined dreams and foggy memory

The past has flown down past the shore
Though no one is standing there
All are in the river of scattered light
Moving on like a kaleidoscope
That was never meant to have symmetry

Time swirls in eddies mixing hopes and dreams
The light of deep pools of thoughts gathered once
Evaporate as some relationships do.
Upstream gathered together
Then downstream mists of thought

Down to the sea of being flow our dreams
Some complete; some unfulfilled
As water distorts the light
so time or thought erodes our dreams together
In the end all the dreams have scattered

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 07/17/12

The grace of the Creator finds the souls
The father who did the best he could
May his soul rest in peace
The young woman who struggled and strived and fell to evil
May her soul rest in peace
The child who lost her life from the death brought by war
May her soul rest in peace
The son, the daughter, the child, the adult
The joy and the sorrow that will not be known
Because their souls rest in peace
May their souls rest in peace
May their life’s lessons be made clear to the souls yet to find peace

[All Souls’ mass at St. Rose]

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 11/04/12

For I am certain of this: neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power nor heights, nor depths, not any created thing whatever will be able to come between us and the love of God. Romans 8:39
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/21/14

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/21/14

Our mountain
Our choice
More mountains
More choices
Gifts of love and understanding
Flowing down like rivers

The hint of a breeze,
The breathe of the Creator
Blowing across our lives
As the rivers were flowing o’er our rapids

We languished in the calm pools
Of joy and contentment
Brought by the wonders of our children
In them we shared the excitement
of growing and becoming

They traveled our mountains with us
Their discoveries flowed
Together with ours
In this river of life

Waiting for a sign
That such goodness and acceptance of life
Still flows in these mountains
And brings the water of our lives
Inspiration forevermore

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/21/14

Oh, life
Oh, death
Overwhelmed with quiet courage.
You showed us.
You gave us quiet courage.
Struggles through time.
You gave us more than we know
In sharing all that was within you.
Hold our hearts
As we hold you
In the place we reserve
For our love that is true.
Each of us
In a different way
Have gratitude
Which we can barely say.
Know this now,
In this place,
We know that ultimately
What we got from you
Is grace.
We love you now
As we always did.
Love doesn’t leave us,
As you had to.
For evermore you stay within us
Giving us grace
Only you can bring us.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/21/14

Here you are. Here I am.
Wind
Sky
Trees
Mountains
Rocks
Meadow
Here you move
As the wind will move you.
Here you shine
As the sunlight glows.
Your spirit glows
And the wind arises
Spirit soft
Spirit strong

Here I am.
The happiest person I know
Awaiting inside me.
Waiting, but not waiting, for the
Wind
Sky
Trees
Mountains
Rocks
Meadow

Here you move. Here I am.
You in me,
And I in you.
The pages of this book
Are blown
Flipping forward
As if to move on
Moving forward
With you
And without you

I drink a toast to you
You’ve made your mark.
Tears can’t obscure
What I know I’ve lost
What I know I have gained
Gratitude and grace fill my heart
And move my soul
As you do.
In this meadow where you chose to be
The wind rises
The Creator responds
With the reminder of spirit movement
All through the universe

The sun blazes
Warming boulders
To hold the depth of spirit movement
In the ancient stone
On this single spot
In the universe

The grasses ripple in the wind
Transient movement
Of transient things
Like life, not love.
Flowers blooming like star clusters
In distant edges of this universe

Sky will change
And earth will move
Seeds will blow
And the earth will turn,
Not love
Incomprehensible
In being beyond all these things

Ants will walk
Birds will fly
Hawks will soar on distant winds
Babies born will discover this,
The incomprehensible,
Not knowing yet that distant stars
Also form
In this universe
Of
Being.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/22/14

I want the warmth of this boulder
To stay in me
I want the sound of this wind to resonate in my dreams
I want our love to glow forever more
I want to move forward.
I want the depth of devotion to never leave me.
I want this thing that we shared,
This love,
This connection,
This devotion,
I want it.
I love it.
I know it makes me better than I might have been.
And you too.
In a thousand years this is where I will be.
Here and now.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/22/14

I toast all our dreams
We lived them here completely
Just by being here
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 06/22/14