Archive
MONDAY’S POEM: Devotion
Last week I wrote about our experience with Sri Karunamayi, Amma, and the Guru Purnima celebration we participated in during the July Full Moon, July 21. Her charge for the coming months is offered in her 2013 Guru Purnima message. She urges us to Bhakti, or true devotion to our Guru and the Truth. She suggests that rather than ask our Guru for favors, boons and blessings, we are to offer our Guru bhakti and seek our own Truth within, to seek the Self. With this energy in my heart I wrote the following:
Devotion
In India it is Bhakti,
Another word for worship.
What is this Heart-swell,
This sense of surrender?
Amma calls all to Bhakti!
The Holy Mother awaits response.
Hearts open out to Her,
Compel feet a step closer.
Her Lotus Feet walk a thousand.
Her surrender is complete.
What is one more step for now and
One more lesson to be learned?
There is no there to step beyond.
The path leads all within.
There is no outer self to worship.
Devotion to the Self is All.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: You can watch Amma deliver her Guru Purnima message for 2013 here!
MONDAY’S POEM: The Heart of Perfection
Following up on my musings of late last week I wrote this:
The Heart of Perfection
If all the little mistakes
Are lessons,
And all the little lessons
Add up to a whole
Are the mistakes
At the Heart of Perfection?
If there is a plan to the Universe,
And that Plan
Is a Plan of Perfection,
Then all the little mistakes
Add up to a whole
At the Heart of Perfection.
Let the Plan of Love and Light
Work out!
Every error, every mistake, every sin
Is a lesson;
Learned lessons add up
To the Heart of Perfection!
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: Happy 30th Anniversary, Rosemary! I love you!
MONDAY’S POEM: Vital Force
The feeling of Qigong:
Vital Force
Formlessness
Empty force
Breathing in
Deep down
Belly out
Rootedness
Feet connect
Bubbling spring
Qi rises
Radiating upward
Earth offers.
Root chakra seals
Lower Tan T’ien stores
Energy forms
Prana expands
Heart opens
Expression flows
Mind merges
Vision extends
Crown reaches
Heavenly Love.
Humans link
Heaven and Earth
Form and formless
Eternally One.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Heart-Mind
On June 13 Rosemary held a Conversation with The Other Side. I have the honor of attending most of these conversations and the privilege of receiving one or more messages whenever I am present. The June Conversation was no different; and the messages were powerful! One message was from a poet of the future. This poet, a muse for me, suggested I write “poetry of the heart.” And he said he would guide me in this effort.
As you can imagine, I usually work to follow this “other worldly” guidance I receive. Today’s poem is one such effort, from the heart! And if you want to hear my messages from The Other Side they are posted on Rosemary’s Website: Click Here to View
Heart-Mind
Open your center, this vital
New Mind.
It is in your chest,
Between heart and throat.
Speak from here.
Write from here.
Be right from here.
Here is where you must dwell!
Heart-Mind:
Brain cells, neural nets
In the heart
Connecting thought and Love.
This is the future:
Think in your heart,
Love in your mind;
Dwell in the present.
And lose yourself in All Time!
Find your Self now…
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: Rosemary’s next Conversation with The Other Side is scheduled for this Saturday, July 13. It promises to be another great evening. For a sample of the depth and detail of the messages you can expect to hear, she has posted some samples on her website: Sample Messages. Go to the link to hear and see how this works and how you can benefit with messages from The Other Side! Attendance is easy from any where in the world! Get the details here
A FRIDAY POEM FOR THIS 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND: Love and Freedom
I normally post poems on Mondays. But this is a special Friday following our celebration of the 4th yesterday. And my somewhat dark and challenging post here on the 4th needs a bit of light for the end of the week. So, I am posting a poem to celebrate our freedom; it’s my opportunity to “speak” to recent events and certain rulings by the Supreme Court!
So, take this opportunity to enjoy your freedom and “love the one you’re with!”
Love and Freedom
Freedom to Love is everything.
When we love we are free.
When we are free we can love.
Choice is everything.
Love is not always a choice.
Some are not free to choose.
Freedom is a matter of mind.
Love is a matter of heart.
Others believe they control minds.
There is no control of hearts.
When we are free in our hearts
No one controls Love in our minds.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Awareness and Action
Last Friday I posted a musing on the subject of “awareness.” I’ve been practicing all weekend; have you? It’s not an easy thing. We are bombarded with so much information that it is difficult to be “fully aware” at all times. But how else are we to be positioned for “right action” if we are not fully aware? My poem today is about that:
Awareness and Action
A million bits of information
Streaming from a thousand sources.
Are you aware of seven or nine?
Your unconscious mind
Absorbs it all!
Awareness is a nebulous thing:
Seven, nine, ten-thousand things
Add to consciousness moment
To moment even as we sleep.
Absorb it all?
Nan-in asks Tenno: “Umbrella to clogs,
Left or right?” Ten-thousand bits
Lost in unconsciousness. Ten more
Years of Awareness practice;
Absorb it all!
Practice in Action. It is all
Practice! For what you ask:
How will you ever know
Bliss if you don’t
Absorb it All?
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Hello Grandpa
Last Monday I posted my poem “The Journey” about a trip I often take. On that trip I almost always see my grandfather’s skull. Sometimes we talk. This is one conversation:
Hello Grandpa
I see him on the sandy
Floor of the cave I visit.
He is nothing but bones now,
Just a skull, really,
Grinning there, guarding.
“Hello, Grandpa. I love you.
And, thanks for being here.”
He laughs through that grinning
Maw, hollow eyes alight with fire.
I can almost hear his whisper:
“No place to go! I am everywhere.
Good to see you too!” Eyes flare.
“You are grandpa too!
How’s that going?
Are you getting the hang of it?”
I stumble and look back.
These are no idle questions.
“It could be better. You are a
Perfect model. It starts with
Loving me as you loved me!”
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: The Journey
The Journey
It begins with rhythm,
Vibrational experience
Animating all existence.
Follow the rhythm
In and down, through
Openings to the cave.
Heart-ground, warm,
Shadowed red tomb
Holding skull, eggs.
The far edge opens,
A window to a
New world, lush, green.
The ledge is high
Offering vistas, yet
No clear way down.
It takes a leap to
Fly on Eagle wings;
On him, in him, him.
The vistas from the ledge
Are nothing to what is
Seen from Eagle’s Aerie.
Vision cascades over
Distant vision, layers
Deep in detailed waves.
The seeing takes away breath
Even for the seer.
Distance is nothing to Eagle eyes.
The ground rushes up;
The dead pine, host to nest,
Reaches and closes in to hold.
The climb down to ground
Is easy, dead branches
Forming natural ladder-rungs.
Mossy, grassy soft lushness
Connects coolly with clay feet,
Absorbing weight, responding.
The round shadow lumbers
Toward the trees from
Shimmering stream, deep pool.
She nuzzles close for a scratch,
Always gentle with a fierce love,
So protectively peaceful.
Her power is unquestioned.
It flows through her body
As she moves, radiating strength.
It flows from her and into
All she encounters, empowering
Those who trust, whom she trusts.
Mother Bear’s energy and power
Comes from her motivation
To protect and nurture.
It is her nature, her purpose.
She knows her purpose and
Embraces it unconditionally.
This grounded sense of beingness
Emanates from her and
Touches all whom she encounters.
Distant echoes of
The calling drum
Reverberate to consciousness.
Thank you, Bear
For your grace and power.
It ebbs and flows.
It lifts carrying upward.
Thank you, Eagle
For flight and sight.
Rock ledge landing,
The cave alight with a
Red glow, cooling embers.
Three eggs rest
Alive with dragon power,
Almost humming with potential.
Grandfather’s skull grins
Upward, always on guard
Watching, waiting, loving.
The insistent drum
Vibrates rapidly home,
The journey done.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Butterfly Maiden
When I was a kid growing up in Wisconsin we used to plant corn when the oak leaves were as big as squirrel ears. I loved this way of letting nature guide the farming cycles. Nature knows more about how to grow things than we will ever know with all our weather predicting technology and modern methods. This reminds me that we are patiently waiting for the first delivery of spring harvest from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm here in Maryland. But with the cool, wet spring things are late and we are probably still a couple of weeks away from first delivery. For a farmer from Wisconsin there should be no surprise here!
I wrote this thinking about corn planting and growing – the old-fashioned way! And I hope Butterfly Maiden is watching over our CSA vegetables!
Butterfly Maiden
The corn is planted;
The spring rains have come.
The holy ground is rich;
The loam warms the seed.
Soon there will be a splitting;
Soon the full moon will shine.
Soon the earth will feed that seed;
Soon the sprout will reach for sun.
Moon watches through the night;
Moon wanes through a fortnight.
Moon withers toward rising sun;
Moon winks out as the sprout sees dawn.
Butterfly Maiden sheds her cocoon;
Butterfly Maiden warms in the sun.
Butterfly Maiden grins at the grinning moon;
Butterfly Maiden guards growing corn.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: Qigong starts this evening, Monday, June 3 at 7:00 pm. If you are in the area of Annapolis/Severna Park please join me: Details here.
MONDAY’S POEM: Shadows
I wrote this in anticipation of the Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse we experienced early Saturday morning here on the East Coast. Unfortunately it was cloudy here and we didn’t “see” the eclipse, but all other senses were engaged as the earth’s shadow shrouded the Moon in a dark veil. Did you feel it?
I love the Moon; I have since I was a kid and would watch the moon follow our car as my Dad drove along the country roads of Wisconsin. I’ve been fortunate to see many eclipses; so, while I did not see this Sagittarius Moon eclipse with my normal eyes, I certainly know what it “looked” like!
Shadows
They loom large
Cast by the rising Moon
Full up in the East.
What’s this? Shadows
Dim as the light fades
Swallowed up too soon.
Gone but for a blood
Red rim and rusty face,
Smoke and a faint glow.
But, wait; there’s more:
A grin begins to crack
The dusty rim.
Shadows brighten
And recede walking
Toward the rising Moon.
Alone, the path lies
Dark with shadows
Cast by the rising Moon.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 