Archive
Happy? Friday: today’s poem, “Absurdity and Misery”
Rosemary held another Conversation with The Other Side last evening. The theme for everyone was to get creating! Mine from the guides, as it often is, goes like this: “I know you’re a poet, but it feels like there needs to be more of a concentration on that, Richard. No, it won’t happen until you see yourself as a poet first.”
As I was writing my daily (I try to make it daily) pages today, I did attempt to see myself as a poet. This is what I wrote out, thinking as a poet:
Absurdity and Misery
This is going to require more smiling,
More laughter.
It’s going to require looking at
The absurdity of the world,
Of life,
Of the prisons we build
For ourselves,
Then break free of them.
Laughter is the key.
A smile is a beginning:
Smile at yourself in the mirror.
Lighten up, loosen up, free up,
Sing, dance, skip and hop
On the walk.
Think silly thoughts,
Make up crazy rhymes,
Find the joy in everything.
No, this is not about hiding
From the misery;
It’s about looking deeper at it,
Realizing the absurd nature of life.
Yes, there is sadness.
There will always be sadness,
Loss, grief.
But it is all temporary;
All fades away to be replaced
With some things new.
Find the joy in the new
As the old, the sick, the dying fade.
Take the long view.
All is impermanent.
Sadness shifts to gladness
And back again.
Comfort shades to misery
Soon enough,
And fades back again.
See the smile in that.
Smile through the tears.
Shed tears of laughter
At the absurdity.
So much better to see
Laugh lines in the mirror.
Frown lines compound
The misery and bring
Other people down.
Your job is to find the joy,
And share it.
©2024 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A Tuesday Poem: “By the Shore”
Rosemary and I are on a mini-retreat at the ocean, Rehoboth Beach, DE. This is one of our comfort places; we return often to soak up ocean and beach energy. We enjoy off-seasons when it is quiet. We get recharged here and reconnected as we take time from our busy-ness to BE together.
This came this morning as I was writing, another form of reconnecting with myself:
By the Shore
It is empowering to sit
Here by the open slider
Leading to the balcony
Overlooking the sea
As it continuously
Rolls and roars to the shore,
The heartbeat of Gaia!
I take both strength and solace
From this constancy:
Strength comes from the depth
And breadth of the heaving sea.
Solace comes from soothing rhythm,
Ocean’s deep song of presence.
I am here to hear and feel,
To merge with the deep,
Tuning my own heart-rhythm
To that of the Mother.
I am in the womb:
Wet, nurtured, warm, protected,
At one with inner and outer peace.
©2024 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A Poem for post-election Friday
So, that happened on Tuesday. My feelings are still all over the place; I continue to feel them, process both thoughts and feelings, do my inner work, discuss thoughts and feelings, even prayers, with close associates. I do my Qigong and breathing practices…deep breaths!
And I write. Here’s what came today:
Dig down for the joy!
We must go on and see this through.
“This” may turn out to be ugly.
Maybe we must dig down through the ugly
To find the beauty.
There will be joy in that beauty.
Maybe we need to go through the crumbling systems,
The pillars we believed so strong and tall,
To reach the other side,
To discover the new, better way.
There will be joy in that way.
Maybe we need to let go of the old ways, old beliefs,
Old models and “shoulds.”
There is clarity at the end of chaos.
There will be peace and joy in that clarity.
©2024 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 