Just for fun! Some of my favorite poems and prose.
Click on one below or scroll the page!
Robert Frost "The Road Not Taken"
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler,
Long I stood and looked down one as far as I could,
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Marianne Williamson "Our Deepest Fear"
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.
We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking So that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; It's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
James Kavanaugh "Little Boy, I Miss You"
Little boy I miss you, with your sudden smile and your ignorance of pain.
You walked through life and devoured it with nothing but misty goals to keep you company.
You wandered through quiet woods with friends and were startled by a shuffling porcupine.
Your heart beat mightily when you chased frogs and caught one too big for a single hand.
There was no time for meaning... a marshmallow gave it on a sharpened stick.
A jack knife in your pocket gave you comfort when your friends were gone.
A flower hidden in the woods, behind an aging shriveled log.
A dog who licked at your fingers and chewed at your jeans.
A game of football that you didn't expect, a glass of cider, a crickets cry.
When did you lose your eyes and ears?
When did taste buds cease to tremble?
Whence this mounting fear, this quarrel with life, demanding meaning?
That mounting fear is leisure's bonus and it's the pain that forbids you to be a boy. Be a girl
Abraham Lincoln "Oh Captain, My Captain"
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain!
Rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! Dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult Oh shores, and ring Oh bells! But I with mournful tread.
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
John Denver "For Bobbi"
I'll walk in the rain by your side
I'll cling to the warmth of your tiny hand.
I'll do anything to help you understand I'll love you more than anybody can.
And the wind will whisper your name to me
Little birds will sing along in time
The leaves will bow down when you walk by
And morning bells will chime
I'll be there when you're feeling down.
To kiss away the tears if you cry.
I'll share with you all the happiness I've found
A reflection of the love in your eyes
And I'll sing you the songs of the rainbow.
Whisper all the joy that is mine.
The leaves will bow down when you walk by
And morning bells will chime I'll walk in the rain by your side
I'll cling to the warmth of your tiny hand.
I'll do anything to help you understand.
I'll love you more than anybody can.
The leaves will bow down when you walk by
And morning bells will chime
JRR Tolkein "The Road Goes Ever On and On"
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone.
And I must follow if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then?
I cannot say.
The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone.
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.
Amy Wharton "Lotus Pocus"
This life is a prayer spiraling across time and space patiently waiting for you to press play discovering its melody along the way a mystical, alchemical ballet but we've forgotten that we chose this golden opportunity where awareness is the key and reality is beauty truly... not what you see on the screen not your exhausting routine but the infinity of in between each conscious breath the precious dance of life and death, the threshold of dawn, the miracles we call on, the marathon of our heart song.
So let the light trickle down into the deepest cells of your darkest night softening the rough edges of your mind. Recycling stagnation into inspiration. Trust the descent, free-fall into the whirlwinds of experience to learn the laws of consequence. Honor the leaps of faith it takes to taste the full spectrum of bliss and pain and let the flames of grace devour all your false power long before the final hour. The sword of truth she wields will destroy the fields of mediocrity you cannot see and compost your uncertainty.
Justice is an enchantress a fierce and loyal mantis praying weighing our hearts upon her scales while we carry on chasing our tails as greed derails our best intentions for ascension into selfish incomprehension. Let's suspend our adolescence our collective acquiescence perpetuating the same old lessons and lift the weight of karmic impressions radically forgive every transgression discern and detach from the wanton tangle of wanting that holds us back stop consuming and start blooming! Break the habit of being ourselves let our yesterdays die and recognize we are here to rise we are born to fly gravity is just a frequency, the dolphins told me.
So no more apologizing to your higher self for still believing you have to prove that you are worthy for still choosing to refuse this rebirthing trade your seeking for finding and surrender to the blinding clarity of becoming all that you are - destiny is knocking, stop running from your pole star.
Dance with your despair sweat out your sorrow whatever it takes be here now, not tomorrow you won't believe what's the other side of your grief there is no warranty because the parts are faulty only wholeness is true and you must break down to break through making space for the new the u-nity of you, perfect and complete satisfaction guaranteed.
It's not meant to be easy but keep going, get free adversity will polish and astonish you revealing your supreme fortitude you don't need to be rescued. The guru is you, steeped in wonder and gratitude. Your knight in shining armor is the farmer who can help you grow and harvest what you sow the teacher who asks, what makes you come alive, not what do you know? The answers are dead live the questions instead with a lover who will hold you accountable and when your fear seems insurmountable and for no reason throughout the changing seasons this life is the canvas of creation unfolding paint your radiance with reverence as shadows succumb to their planned obsolescence offer the art you create as medicine a breath-taking testament, a truth self-evident a place to belong beyond right and wrong, and still understood become the fire growing, the embers glowing, and the wood the careful reason and wild sentiment, the crucible and the atonement. transcendent trust and deepest doubt, violence and silence, equally devout the joy and the rage, the fool and the sage a delicate flower with a lion's might, the darkness is always equal to the light and we are the vessel where they unite.
So can we invite our denial to be reconciled, coax our vulnerability out from exile? The pain of being born, the agony of form the losses we all mourn, the betrayal of our greatness, how can we integrate this? We'll never win by digging our heels in to a shore that's surely sterile the water's edge is full of peril as waves of doubt collide with broken paradigms begging to be redefined.
So let go and trust the current to carry you gently down the stream get intimate with the deep merrily marrying wisdom and love as below, so above. We are the jewel within the lotus, and the mud. the driest drought and the monsoon flood. the last breath and the first blood, and the clarity to truly see that I am you and you are me and we are not two, but three. Body, mind, and spark of divine love, that holiest of holies, expanding throughout eternity resurrecting beauty, and planting sacred seeds of peace.
Water them with your story fertilize the mystery and cultivate spaciousness with courageous playfulness to blossom through you and all that you do. Take responsibility for installing your own updates elevate your inner state and resonate with less particle, more wave reclaim your multi-dimensionality connect with the song you carry.
Earth is hiring life is waiting a quantum awakening pulses at your core start settling for more become the one you most adore.
A soul that heals is the one who feels so feel your way through the dark to the inner chamber of your heart make this your greatest work of art open soften be reborn into tender warmth melt into the golden, velvet sweetness taste the purity that's ceaseless and weave your big dreams into the web of the unseen may all beings be free. May we stop playing small and dissolve the walls. May grace surround our hearts unbound and attune us to the unstruck sound. 🙏
John Barry and Don Black "Born Free"
Born free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your heart
Live free and beauty surrounds you
The world still astounds you
Each time you look at a star
Stay free where no walls divide you
You're free as the roaring tide
So there's no need to hide
Born free and life is worth living
But only worth living
'Cause you're born free
Stay free where no walls divide you
You're free as the roaring tide
So there's no need to hide
Born free and life is worth living
But only worth living
'Cause you're born free
Philip Gardner "Awakening"
Why did all those demons arrive at my birth?
Why did they tell me I had so little worth?
Why did they point so viciously at the dirt covering my soul?
Why did they tell me that I wasn’t part of the whole?
One night, when I was struggling with life more than usual,
and my mind was psychotic and my sight delusional,
one of those demons came to me in darkness,
turned on the light and I saw with true sharpness.
This was not the demon of shadow and dark,
but the friend and companion that I held in my heart.
Though they held a different form,
a different part,
they were drawn from the same brush, the same art.
And what they were pointing at, that I thought was me,
was simply the spots,
the dirt and debris,
that has been carried for ten thousand years
the source of all fears and many of our tears.
I attracted them here,
this old soul friend,
to remind me of me so I could transcend that which my ancestors have carried aloft,
so that future humans don’t suffer the cost.
And I saw in that moment,
an enemy become friend,
their scales shed,
and their horns descend,
love replaced fear and fangs became smiles,
as my nemesis became companion on my journey of trials.
Wendell Berry "The Peace of Wild Things"
When despair for the world grows in me
And I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water,
And the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
Who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
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