friends ~
a new favorite poem to share. this one from Rainer Maria Rilke. please read and enjoy. short comment follows ~j

Quiet friend who has come so far,

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.

Let this darkness be a bell tower

and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.

Move back and forth into the change.

What is it like, such intensity of pain?

If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,

be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,

the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,

say to the silent earth: I flow.

To the rushing water, speak: I am.
Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29
by Rainer Maria Rilke

as the Buddhist scholar and environmentalist, Joanna Macy, has said about this poem – each of us can claim this. each of us was born from the web of life. take joy in this. no room for self-pity.

just because…

May 6, 2015 ~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment

Just because

you feel certain,

doesn’t mean you are in the right.

Just because

you have heard the song of truth,

doesn’t mean you’ve got the only moves.

All of us can dance

and the floor is open to everyone.

Take a deep breath,

then another,

and sit down here

at this table of

communion and humility.

All you need to bring with you,

is your beautiful,

wounded heart

and
the willingness to listen…

lotus…

November 30, 2014November 30, 2014 ~ jaysen ~ Leave a comment

Lotus

remember

don’t despair, do grow
here is your life blossoming
called forth from the mud

remember
remember

~j
11.30.14

For Warmth, a poem by Thich Nhat Hanh…

November 25, 2014 ~ jaysen ~ 1 Comment

I hold my face in my two hands.
No, I am not crying.
I hold my face in my two hands
to keep the loneliness warm –
two hands protecting,
two hands nourishing,
two hands preventing
my soul from leaving me
in anger.