Want to learn to write poetry?

(Written Sunday, September 4^th in a solo at-home “meditation” retreat.)

Want to learn to write poetry?

Don’t marvel at the words of another.

Get in touch with your own passion.

The birthplace of your real voice.

That voice, heard before you were born

Before your heart started beating

And closing down

under life’s unending pressures.

No fine words will do

It’s passion herself

Scrolling her message

In script beyond language

Cutting deep grooves in your heart.

Cry fully,

Dance freely,

Jump off a cliff

Every chance you get.

Safety is for the dead

Who while alive

never taste the sweetness of fully living

Yes, tether your camel

But forget yourself

Give yourself fully

From places not known even to you

Be surprised

It’s there

Reaching deep won’t find it

Stillness might.

It shows up in whispers

Subtle moments that slip by unnoticed.

Quivering hearts find it.

Grief often holds it.

Joy surrounds it

Pay attention

Listen.

Speak your voice in every gesture.

Make your whole life

an unending poem.

Loneliness and celebration

Loneliness

Written 9/2/2011 at the start of a solo meditation retreat

None of us can escape loneliness

It is the fertile soil of re-cognition

The mind’s frantic search

Hitting the outer boundary of exhaustion

The stopping to listen

to the roar of the river of illusion

Seeing it for its pale evanescence

Like all of life’s arisings.

Relationships won’t shield us

To feel lonely is to live the paradox of connection

Even as we see the unique challenge of our lives.

Do not ask it anything

Listen.

Feel.

And let it have its way with you.

It will cut deep channels in your psyche

The same channels that allow life-giving insight

To flow

Bringing a flood of insight and connection.

Celebrate your grief

in the paradox of your humanness

Cry your unique cry.

It has been asked:

“If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?”

I say the sound echoes through the universe

shaking it, changing it

Its never ending resonance pulsing the web of life.

Seen, unseen, heard, unheard, perceived or not

We are its path.

Nothing to do but listen

And let the sounds of your spiritual vibration

broadcast out

and resonate to the returning echoes.

Make your own music

Through the instrument of your soul.

Sometimes sweet, sometimes discordant

All notes welcome here.

“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

another Koan

never answered at the level it was asked.

Who dares to throw out such a challenge?

It is the soul of the universe herself

Adding her voice

In the form of a question.

Nothing to do but listen

And celebrate your divinity.

Listening Spirit – why this blog

Listening Spirit is about my reflections, with an invitation to you to add the unique and special insights of your own experience.

We all make a difference – through our thoughts and intentions, our words and actions, and the lives that we touch. Together we create a symphony that affirms our power and touches the lives of others. And often we never know how deep that impact upon the lives of others can be.

So listen to your heart, speak your voice, travel your unique path, and express your power to make a difference.  I honor you in your evolution and your glorious expression.

Noel