Archive
MONDAY’S POEM: Echoes 1
My newest grandson, Tristan Wallace Bredeson, is here for a visit from California. He is just over three months old now, and beginning to show a delightful personality. He has been just about the most perfect baby I can imagine; he only fusses a little when he is hungry or needs a change! We are having a delightful time with him!
A new generation of Bredesons leads me to the poem today. I wrote it two years ago, but it seems to apply even more as the next generation, the next echo sounds forth. And with my son and grandson with me now, I do catch myself using expressions and words from my past, my parents. Are we learning lessons and moving on to new ones or are we just echoing within the chamber of time? Maybe the answer to this question is “yes”!
Echoes 1
Dad’s voice moved from
My ear to my throat
At breakfast. I heard
Him clearly: A non-sensical
Expression of his.
Mom’s voice jumped out of
My mouth with no thought
Or control behind it. It
Was clear, critical; some
Rule was broken.
Where is my voice? Has it
Been silenced by the tides
Of Time; lost in the returning
Ripples from the
Wall of Beyond?
Is the Wall of Time moving?
Is the sphere expanding?
The already learned lessons
Echo from the cold surface
Teaching, preaching.
Will we ever learn?
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: BALANCE
Today’s poem is a reprise. But it helps me remember this key to life and how to practice. And it is an echo of an experience Rosemary and I shared last evening; and that experience, too, was an echo of an earlier experience two years ago! Echoes within echoes, the cycle of time!
We helped sponsor, organize and share Ashana here in Annapolis for a concert Saturday night and an Activation Sunday evening. The Activation was powerful, a Kundalini Yoga experience of profound depth accompanied by Ashana’s amazing crystal bowls and angelic voice. For four hours we worked on opening and balancing our lower three chakras. This in turn helps open the upper three, all centered around the heart chakra. It was both deeply grounding helping us get in touch with the Earth, our Mother, and soaringly uplifting as we sailed and sang with the Angels!
And I reread this poem and remembered again that all is in balance; we all just need to remember!
Balance
Breathe in freshness,
The power of life in the Universe.
Breathe out love,
The acceptance of All in the Universe.
Consume deliciousness,
Every dish alive with energy.
Purge the waste without grief;
It is a meal for another.
Bring into the Universe all of You;
Your unique gifts are essential.
Let go of everything that is not yours;
There are others ready to serve.
Live your Life Purpose;
Your karmic journey is open.
Die as a Natural Human,
Fully embracing your sense of place.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Cosmic Aura
In case you hadn’t noticed, dear reader, I love the Fall. For many reasons it is my favorite season. One thing I particularly enjoy is watching the changing qualities of the light. Every day seems different, but the underlying quality is gold. My last couple of poems posted here are recent ones as I relish these shortening days filled with wonderful light, color, sounds, smells, all those sumptuous “flavors” of late harvest (so full and sweet) and the coming cold!
Cosmic Aura
Bright day follows cool morning rain.
That tale lingers in the glisten on the deck,
The scattering gray at the eastward edge.
Now is a fine day dawning.
There is gold lighting the canopy.
The trees reflect the Cosmic Aura.
That radiant light begins within,
Extends outward to fill
The entire known Universe –
And beyond (we don’t know much!).
It is a deep light, endless,
Dancing ecstatically at the edge,
Holding boundless love
In the gossamer fingers of God,
Arms of Goddess holding Cosmos to her breast.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: No-place
Today’s poem is a bookend to Friday’s. Our Autumn weather here in Maryland is wonderful. Now all we need is a frost to bring out the colors!
No-place
It is a beautiful day with mild air and brilliant sky;
The trees, their light branches and leaves still so green,
Dancing in the breeze,
Doing their Qigong practice with the breath of Nature.
It is a high-pitched light vibration
That whispers joy, peace and surrender,
Echoes through the bubble that is time eternal.
It is a gentle kiss flirting with my light mood.
It tickles me with the chuckle of baby boy,
The chiree of high-flying hawk.
Then it settles, relaxing into a still space;
I exhale to rest in this no-place.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – The Fall
We’ve had some gloomy days lately here in Maryland and the warm weather continues into our deepening fall. How much longer can winter hold off? Everyone is talking about a hard winter and the signs for one are there. Yet we wait. Today’s poem has this same mood about it:
The Fall
The predicted rain
Remains suspended.
A light breeze plays
In the mostly green trees
Just beginning to show signs
Of age.
There is a waiting quality to
This Presence.
It’s as if something momentous
Is about to happen,
Yet it holds, a bit longer
Building anticipation
For the Fall.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Cool Autumn Mist
I have always enjoyed Haiku. I haven’t written any for a long while but need to dust off an old volume I have floating somewhere in the house. Here’s a new one for today:
Cool autumn mist
Drips from the leaden sky
Becomes real rain.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Haiku are fun to write. Write your own and send it to me as a comment!
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.
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.
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.
Men and The Goddess 