Archive
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – All our Relations
I dug in the archives for this one – back to 2010. I think the Full Moon and eclipse Wednesday morning (I got a good glimpse of it as the Moon was setting) shifted a few things. I am feeling more connected. And this poem is about that. When the Native Americans use this expression, “and All our Relations” they are offering prayers for everyone and everything; they feel connected because they are. And whether we feel it or not we are!
All our Relations
Connections, Relations,
There is a difference.
Sure, we are all connected.
The air you breathe, I breathe.
The atoms of Adam’s body
Are in your body, my body.
We are of the Earth;
These are connections.
We are all connected.
And your DNA is my DNA.
Your Mother is my Mother
A thousand generations back.
Your Father is my Father’s cousin
Not so long ago.
The blood of the Buddha,
Blood of Christ
Flows in your veins, my veins,
And all our Relations’.
©2010 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Conflicted Poet
There is a Full Moon coming up this week on Wednesday, 6:51 AM Eastern time. As the moon swells it is good to tune into her energy and all the energies around and within. Just notice how you feel. Go out and view the moon and tune in. Observe everyone around you, the driving (also Mercury is retrograde now), the attention span of the people you encounter. This is a good “noticing” time.
It can also be a time of conflict, inner and outer. Here’s a poem for this time:
Conflicted Poet
What does a conflicted poet write?
What bubbles up from below?
What trickles down from above?
Love. A poet writes of love
For all the world to read
And understand this Queen.
Low. A poet sinks so low
To find the deepest part
And understand this King.
Light. A poet merges with Light
To sing of the highest peaks
And understand this God.
A poet writes of highs and lows.
He writes of light and sings above.
And most of all he writes of Love!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude
I wrote today’s poem in early 2013 as a way to live that year, life. There is a cycling about this poem of circles, hinges and turnings. And with faith there is a spiraling that powers the evolution of consciousness. There may be other acts that we, as humans, need to live by, but for me these are three of the most important ones:
Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude
Three acts to live by:
Love, where it all begins
And ends.
The circle of everything
Turns with the tides
As the Moon loves down.
Forgiveness, in the middle,
The hinge.
It all turns on this act,
Swinging ‘round and ‘round
As a gateless gate for passage.
Gratitude, the end,
No end.
Turning about the center
Where it All rests
As we give thanks and praise.
Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude:
Grace.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AMD CYCLES” – Meet Tristan
Running on California time today (I guess this is more like “Saturday’s Poem”) where Rosemary and I are visiting our newest grandson, Tristan Wallace Bredeson. It is my joy to introduce him to you! This “image poem” certainly belongs in Rhythms and Cycles. He is the first son of a first son going back 5 generations!
MONDAY’S POEM: Old Grandmother
The Moon is old; can you feel it? Go inside and get in touch with her, with your own feelings. Experience her. I wrote today’s poem just a day or two ago as we are approaching the new Moon (Wednesday, September 24 at 2:14 AM EDT); approaching the new Moon means experiencing the old Moon. Also we are just moving into equinox which means we are moving into the Sun sign of Libra – balance in light and dark, balance in Libra. Find your balance.
Old Grandmother
Grandmother Moon
is whispering, sinking
fast into Sun’s arms!
Let go.
Release negativity.
Forgive.
Allow others
their space and lessons.
Let their lessons reflect
back to your own.
Find patience.
Breathe into the space
of expanding light.
Add gratitude.
Fill the releasing heart
with thanksgiving.
Embrace beauty.
It is all beautiful;
Sun and Moon together!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – The Chamber of Time
One of my favorite teachers, Martín Prechtel, is a master of languages, among many things. He teaches that the Tzutujil Mayan language has no verb form of “to be.” This makes it very interesting to speak of the past or future; in fact the Mayan peoples don’t seem to mind this “missing” grammatical component and are quite happy living in the present! Would Western civilization be a bit more content if we stopped using “to be.”
Imagine the possibilities!
With this in mind I riffed off one of Martín’s teachings about living in the middle of time for today’s poem:
The Chamber of Time
What if reality is nothing more
than a huge echo chamber?
Time in this reality is nothing more
than an echo returning.
The Holy, Goddesses, Gods
are nothing more than our
reflection in this chamber.
And we, nothing more than theirs.
To be sure the rhythms, ebb
and flow, dynamic play of
Light and Shadow in this
Hologram are a multidimensional mix.
The chaotic complexity settles
into karmic patterns, polyphonic,
kaleidoscopic interplay of
a multivalence array, to be sure.
And the echoes, like the breath of the
Holy, like our own rhythms,
beats, breaths, reverberate
Through this panoply of reality in time.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Breaking Free
The theme of the week is “possibilities.” This is the week of Rosemary’s Possibilities Playshop scheduled for Saturday, September 20, 2014. To pursue possibilities requires change. Change requires breaks. I wrote today’s poem almost 5 years ago but it seems to pertain well to the theme of the week!
Breaking Free
Who of us knows
how to break free
with grace, with ease,
with a light heart?
Break; the very word
has a jolt to it.
There’s a stopping to brake,
but an ending to break.
Yet, there’s an essential
to breaking which can’t
be ignored. Without it
there is nothing new, nothing free.
Every movement requires a break.
Every freedom requires an ending.
There is a grace to the slow dance
And a leap of heart in the advance.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: If you are in the Annapolis, Maryland area join us for the Possibilities Playshop!
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – The Future is Now
Today’s poem is a reprise from a few months ago. It comes to mind as we look toward Rosemary’s Possibilities Playshop next week. In this event we use our intuitive skills to “plan forward” toward our “bodacious wish” for the future. How does the future and all our planning (we in the west or so good about planning!) relate to the practice of being present, living now? This poem gets at that cycle and enigma of time.
The Future is Now
If the future is now
Dreams are now.
This is Dream Time.
And is the past now?
Forgiveness is now.
This is the lesson.
Now is only now,
Past time, Dream Time,
All one now.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: If you are in the vicinity of Annapolis, Maryland, check out the Playshop opportunity: Here’s the Link
MONDAY’S POEM: The Moon Grows Swiftly
There’s a full moon tonight, 9:38 East Coast time. Have you ever watched the moon rise in the east as the sun sets in the west? It’s a lovely dance and inspired today’s poem. Enjoy!
The Moon Grows Swiftly
The Moon grows swiftly now,
Swelling to fullness in the next moments.
Her laughing face puffs to the edges
As Sun peaks over the horizon to see
We get the joke.
In her relief she feels no shame,
But jumps up to live her glory.
She gazes whole-heartedly toward
Her husband who sinks quickly out of sight,
Avoiding her glee.
And we are caught up in the juggling act,
Between these mighty space beings;
The wife standing at one end of the world,
Rising sharply; the husband sheepish
In his disappearance.
Sky of blue hues and brilliant reds and golds
Fades and darkens to blackness.
And the yellow Mother shifts her happy face
Through shades of cream to milky-white,
To steady, more serious light.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – Light and Dark
I love this time of year; fall is my favorite season. For me the season actually begins with Lammas, that special cross-quarter day in early August when the harvest begins (and it is my birthday!). Now as we move deeper into September and toward the Autumnal Equinox the light begins to play tricks with our eyes. It’s as if the ripe crops of gold are reflected in the light itself, that golden quality that speaks of rest and peace.
This week’s blogs have been about the light, we humans as “the Light of the World.” But let’s not forget Father Sun, Grandmother Moon and all the Celestial Lights to show us the way!
Light and Dark
The Moon waxes to fullness and light.
The days wane to deeper darkness.
The lush green begins to dry and fade.
The shade of Sun’s shine turns gold.
Shadows shrink with the rising Sun.
At noon, high light, they disappear.
With the onset of evening they grow
Long again blending with the dark of night.
Moods wax and wane with cycles and seasons.
Blood ebbs and flows with the pulsingThree Lights.
Choices are many, path forks lie ahead.
Seek light to illuminate those less shadowed.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 