Author: distilledvoice

A Bright New Day

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Chittering wrens

Pick from the larder of cones

Clutched in the pine-brush

And absorb the awakening light.

Beneath, I sit and ponder

On the nature of being.

Some would speak of mankind

Separate from reality,

Somehow living above it all.

Yet, I am moved

Upon the turning of the world

In season’s gentle shift

Of early beginnings

And day pushed into night.

Surely this body,

As all walking free,

Feels the thrust of life

In the burst of the bud,

Unopened but profoundly expectant.

Surely all are moved

By the first warm breeze

Tickling the pine needles above.

Who is really alone

When life thrums

Through the body’s instrument,

When the very moon

Sways the water of our moods

And the constitution of our minds,

And new light shines,

Drawing us out

To sit absorbing

Like the first insect

Roused from hibernation’s

Torpid sleep?

Morning Stillness

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Stillness settled with the night

And did not leave,

And now a windless, blue sky

Brims with spaciousness.

Birds, twittering in the skeletal trees

Dissect the quiet, but not the stillness,

Their tongue’s music

Is the sharp edge

Of reality.

I lean against a wall

Bathed in fresh light.

Things happen in the stillness:

A car passes,

A faraway motorbike on a faraway road,

Blunter than the birds,

A squeal of a refuse truck, ever hungry.

But the stillness remains,

Deeper and more broad

Than the mind can conceive,

Deeper and more broad,

And deeper still.

The tree, standing elegantly tall

Knows the stillness intimately.

It stands beside me, thrumming

With a soundless resonance.

In the patch of sunlight

I lean against the wall,

Listening to the birds,

Knowing that stillness.

Sharing Love

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At first

There is an arm around your shoulder

As you realise

Your mind has spiralled in fear,

But then love

Hugs to your being

As if you were lifted,

Buoyed upon the heart’s

Opening up.

And now in the eyes

And in the body

Warmth flows,

And to look upon the world

Is to look in love,

For love loves

To all else’s detriment.

And even to look upon fear

With love is to understand:

It’s to offer a hand

To what seemed unloveable

And know it inert,

Know it powerless,

Know it wholly loved,

For fear is but a thought

Held shadowy,

Fear is the mind shunning

It’s greater nature,

Fear is the heartless mind

Mired in calculation,

Holding out

Yet awaiting its moment;

The inevitable cascade of love,

The overwhelming truth of God,

The totality asserting itself

Over separateness

And the illusion

That love is not the all of it.

Sometimes The Storm

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Sometimes the storm

Is turbulent

But when the gusts calm,

When the fearful thoughts

Settle down,

The love we find is serene,

Bright-eyed and beautiful.

All that was tumultuous

And all that raged

Was but a movement

In love’s dream,

A squall playing on the surface,

A temporary disturbance

On the facade of our lives,

Fleeting and momentary

But unable to touch the depth of us.

Truth

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These days the truth seems elusive:

The certainties we took for granted

Are dissolving into a mix of twisted

And frightening realities.

Who to trust now

When all around are pushing

Agendas and fake news?

–

Trust in the inner truth of self

For there is a wellspring of energy

Beyond the realms of ‘not enough’.

Always and ever present

The heart’s voice speaks

In fearlessness:

The now in which we live

Is safe,

A flow of abundance

And ever-giving wealth.

–

Know this as being

Know this being as yourself,

For in being

The noise of fractious multitudes

Quietens and ebbs,

Even their voices

Are imbued with love.

–

The truth is never elusive

When we dissolve

And trust in trust,

–

The truth is always,

Always in love.

I Look Into Your Eyes

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I look into your eyes

And find my joy brimming,

For I could fall inside

The clarity of your seeing

And swim free

In nothing,

Buoyant in the being we share.

You told me of a Tuscan life

Picking olives,

A world where obstacles

Had dissolved

And all that evolved

Was the beautifully self

Looking at the same time

Both inward and out.

I tasted the olive of happiness

And lived your life

As my life

Dwelling in kinship

With you,

Where you were nothing but myself

Looking kindly from another perspective.

Acknowledge Life

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Do not attend

To the negative mind

With its litany of faults

And endless tribulations,

For there is only calculation there

And the ceaseless multiplication

Of a seemingly separate

And beleaguered self.

–

Instead,

Acknowledge the life-giving principle,

For there is life in life,

Rich abundance

And love’s infinity

In the looking to it,

The looking in it,

The abiding in the self

That knows.

–

Acknowledge its presence

And like magic,

Be in presence

For the acknowledging

And being

Are the very same thing.

The one looking at truth

Is the truth looking;

And in this

The ‘so called’ negative mind

Is offered the most exquisite kindness,

A forever home inside the self

And the gift

That it need not be other than it is.

Chopping Winter Wood

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Last night

Brought a frost,

A coating of crystalline white

Drying the air, stiffening every leaf,

Crisping every damp thing,

Stilling all life

But for the sparrows.

Into this

Plooms my breath,

Brought momentarily

From the invisible;

I feel wonder at the breadth

And reach

Of the ether if my being.

I select a log,

Choosing one with flawless grain,

Straight lines, unknotted,

Placing it upright.

I lift the axe, aim

Half heft and half let it fall.

If it is true

My kindling spilts with a snap

Akin to the most beautiful synchronicity,

The grain parting

As if only a thought’s worth

Cleaved it separate

And clean.

I cut more,

And while I swing my axe

And watch my basket fill

With rough cut pieces,

I listen to the sparrows

And the stillness,

Enjoying my breath

Realising wintery all about me.

It Need Only Be you

~ distilledvoice ~ 2 Comments

No matter how the world evolves,

Whether true to life

Or spiralling in madness,

The life principle

Remains pure and untouched.

–

Invest your life

In its sweetness

And disregard the rest,

However seductive and convincing,

For only in love

–

Is sweetness manifest.

And if the world descends

Wholly into madness,

Still, life’s truth

Holds fast.

–

And if all obey the call to anger,

But your mind left last

And abiding in love,

It will not matter

And will surely be enough.