A Kaleidoscopic Life: a metamorphic poem

I have been a white albatross sailing the seas

Soaring in breezes, rarely touching ground

I have been a Portuguese Man O’War 

Floating on the ocean surface

My lengthy tentacles dangling underneath

It may be time to ground myself to Mother Earth

What form shall I inhabit?

A mama grizzly bear caring for her young or

A worm loosening the dry dirt

Assisting in the work of plants and trees

Nurturing the mycelial network

Why not a sprouting mushroom 

Transmuting death and decay

A bird or duck flying in the air

Rooting around in the ground 

Or diving into water for food

Nesting, always near flowing water

A pelican pure and simple

I have also burned brightly as fire in the past

And perhaps sometimes currently

Not so wild and incandescent as before

A softer burn, with syncopated sparks 

Wafting into the mystique

A dragon in a volcano or castle

A manatee in springs procreating

A hawk flying high up near osprey and buzzards

A giant slinking jaguar, cunning and ravenous

Oh, and I am a human being right now

A variety of elements supports me

I become part of the whole as they 

Nourish my body and soul

Wonder where I will be planted next?

Where will I rise up fresh and new?

Quantum Magic

Words of light
Bright white shining fields
Tasting delight, sipping naked nectar
Synchronistic aligning to
What is true

The cloudy becomes clear
The fog lifts to reveal
That which has not been burned away
By the fire of Spirit

Surrendering to the release of
Egocentrism and
Just being human
Contemplating or reflecting
The whole and the holy expanse
The peace of eternity
Right at our fingertips
Immortal as always

Rejoicing in the wave particles
That move within us
Outside and through us
Bodies showered in beauty
Starry words, twinkling phrases
Harmonies and melodies
Playing in the backdrop
Even when upstage suggests
So much chaos and noise

Ram Dass said:
Be Here Now
Be Love Now

Let’s let go of our clenching
Our holding onto the stones that
Weigh us down as we trudge
Up and around our mountains

Let’s throw off the cumbersome heaviness of
So much baggage we have carried around
Over and over again
Life after Life

Let’s allow the release of underlying and
All-encompassing grief
That has prompted our strong hold
Onto the past and its stories
The fears that we live with every day

Let’s fill with gleaming beams and star studded space
Pulling down the juicy joy that is available to all
Sharing these gifts with others
Who thirst for and dream of a better space
A worthier grounding in the stability of what
They cannot see, hear or touch
The field of miracles
Quantum Magic

Divine inspiration, Spirit conversation
Mathematical music and floating desire
Merge together not in unison but in
Differentness and excitement while we
Experience all of the colors
The textures and shapes of
Rainbows and clouds and life forms
Birds and beasts
Planets, moons, and a variety of
Realms and realities
Touching upon and engaging
With us all
In this very moment
At this very time

No Small Matters

Just got distracted by another school shooting

This one where I live, the second in two years

Governor, senators, and representatives say

“We pray for the families and students”

I do not hear them ever get serious about fostering

Bigger and better conversations about gun control

Perhaps enacting some new laws one day

To prevent the ease by which some kids kill

Nothing to be done

No changes to be made

How am I complicit?

How to make sense of such inaction?
Oh, the gun lobby and NRA and all those people

Who want to keep guns for protection

BUT allowing their young children to find them

And destroy themselves and others

Or better yet, the parents who buy guns

For adolescent sons whose brains aren’t

Fully formed and who often make deadly decisions

No small matters

VIcitmizing Myself

 New realization:

I hide from what I imagine is expected of me

Sleeping soundly and awaking gently

One of my favorite times

Slowly the dreams are fading and

I am noticing this other reality

My world in this life

In this body

Sometimes I luxuriate in that space

For quite some time

Half asleep, half awake

Thoroughly delighted

Honoring the dreams

Respecting the awakening

Unless for some reason

I feel the need to hide or avoid

Something coming up soon

Something I imagine I need to do

Or how I imagine I need to be

Truth is told

And, as I turn over to greet the day

I find it is nothing like what I feared

The dogs are nestled all snug in the bed

While I have facinating thoughts

Bouncing around in my head

Waking now

I release those

Harsh or demanding thoughts

Those perpetrating fears

Their turn to sleep for awhile

I am arising and 

Enjoying my day!

The Choices We Make

When did it start?

When does it end?

Evolution

Developmental process, flowing only forward

Or spiraling in between and through

Back and forth

Looping upon itself

Altogether now?

What comes first, chicken or egg?

Reaction, Renunciation

Rebellion, Repudiation

Reconciliation, Restoration?

In what order do we travel

From one to the other

Naive and immature at first

Innocent even

Something happens

REACT

No power or control

The child reacts in whatever ways

Can help the child survive

Those ways stick with the child 

Who grows older

Rebellion or renunciation, next

Or, both at the same time

Waving a flag, protesting

Joining a cultish crew

Community of those likeminded 

And resistant

To the status quo

To our parents and their generation

To our forefathers, foremothers

To our ancestors

Were there really the good ole days

The Golden Age when all was beautiful

Healthy and everyone happy?

Or have we always endured, nay always

Participated in such conflict as humans?

Hey, they think we are the rebels

We think they are!

We renounce their behaviors

They renounce ours

Each of us uses all these words 

That start with R's

When comes the revolution?
Early on as a baby, a child

Rotates, revolves around parents

Later, revolting against all 

The conditioning and programming

Behaviors that were cruel and unjust

Inflicted upon us, some without any

Harmful intention whatsoever

In fact, they thought they were 

Helping us

Resisting without violence

Repudiating without war

Revolting against and for what?

Back to reaction and maybe move

To reconciliation and restoration, perhaps

Oh, Holy Spirits, gods and goddesses

Let us reconcile and restore

In whatever ways we can 

Let us make our choices based on

Information, intuition and what may

Be best for the whole community

(But, there are so many different

Kinds of communities, full of diversity)

Maybe instead of all this hard work

Trying to extinguish the others

And rise to power ourselves

We will just stick with our tribes and 

Battle

All of the time

Ubiquitous and Ad Infinitum

That will work, right?

Let us find another

New contemporary and evolving way now

Full of Magic, Miracles, and Spirit

Channeling Some Things

Sometimes when wishing I could channel 

Divine wisdom, I realize

All of us human beings are channels of or 

For some things

And the somethings are important

If I talk about hearing spiritual guides or voices 

Tell me about the ways you experience life

Feeling guided or stunned by whatever you channel

Whatever you see or hear

Witness in your body

Smell or taste

What are some things you channel?

Sometimes we channel our conditioning, our

Programmed patterns from the past

(mostly unconsciously)

Believing some of the stories we tell ourselves about

Ourselves, about life, about others, about death

We channel the fears that we may have inherited

The fears that we have helped to create

The fears of some realities that are horrid and torturous

The fears of our nightmares and daymares

The fears of human life and suffering

We channel anxieties

As if they own us or control us

Arising unexpectedly, vociferously

During times of great stress or loss

Times of chaos and pain

What is channeling? 

What or who are we channeling?

Channeling needs a conduit

Channeling is something that comes 

Through us

Whether from outside, inside, all around us, or 

From some divine or evil or in-between spirits

(Life is not always so black and white)

Channeling can come in words, feelings

Thoughts, obsessions and images

Often artistic and creative

Moving through us and hopefully into

Our conscious minds and awareness

Maybe our channelings are somethings 

We intuit or just know to be true

We can challenge some of

Channelings at times

Do they bear any resemblance

To the realities in which we live, and if not

What other realities might we be channeling?

Can control our channelings

Our feelings, thoughts, experiences?

Probably not

Channelings may be like the weather

They come and go, sometimes

In predictable patterns

And sometimes not

We don’t control them

But, we can be open and willing 

To whatever comes our way

We can be curious about our channelings

With a sense of humor and humility, knowing

We aren’t always right, correct or accurate

About some things

Knowing ourselves better and more deeply helps us

Shine a loving light toward and around other

Humans and all living beings

Next time you hear someone talk about

Channeling some being that lived long ago

Smile to yourself and know that

You, too, are a channeler of

Some things and

The somethings matter