Posted in Uncategorized, tagged awareness, being, consciousness, dawn, daybreak, expansion, landscape, moment, peace, Poetry, ravens, sitting, sky, time, timeless on February 4, 2015| 3 Comments »
UNDOING
Sitting without time,
Outwith its wild unheard roar.
Moments snowmelt vanishing,
Undoing forgiven, unknowing acquiesced.
Oh, Birds of dawn, the hills are laced with cold.
Blue air placid, blanket weighed.
A roll of mist is daybreak,
A disassembly of constellations.
Sky ceiling lifts and breathes out.
Two ravens sliding sideways blackly.
The simplest lessons hardwon:
To rest without time,
All hungers melted.
—
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged actions, before dawn, birds, consensus, cries, dissolution, emptiness, ephemera, hunger, hungry ghosts, individuality, morning, peace, Poetry, the machine, weightless on November 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »
PRETA
Are we cradled in this new, cold dawn
Or do we fall weightlessly,
Our feathered bones hollowed by the mighty?
It comes in waves and seems to say
You must remain, but I,
A majority of one,
A minority of millions,
See no way to please the chosen machine.
We weigh nothing,
Vaporous, without memory,
Vacated, echoing,
The inconvenient, avoided, disregarded,
Re-written.
What it is we seek has not been found
In this slow, death-quiet brightening.
This birdsong is not for us
Nor has been given us this breeze.
No blessings that are not earned,
No comfort not calculated.
To fall without sound, to fray
And neatly dissappear,
Not to whimper or moan,
Nor to cry out to the invisible.
I shall put on the wings of the crow,
His sharp eye.
I shall guiltless rise on storm
And consume the already dead.
Guiltless and open as the sky.
To accept nothing, to bless everything.
Our peace cannot be stolen:
It only lives within us,
And cannot be traded
Nor snuffed out.
Yet we tread the ruts of long war,
Futile, strive to best these dark passions
With muddy fires and sounds of ripping time.
Run, run, from silence,
Run from stillness.
The hounds of midnight mad for blood:
Their hunger is our failure to face
The white mirror of emptiness,
The fall,
The long fall,
With no end.
O ye birds of silent air,
Ye travellers before dawn.
—-
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Beltane, coolness, green, landscape, light, May, May-eve, nature, peace, Poetry, summer, sunlight, trees, warmth, woods on April 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »
print of ‘Light of Beltane’ created from tree and other plant spirit symbols
*****
THE COOL GREEN FIRES OF BELTANE
These wild mad-eyed men
Fire burning souls, heart-clawed:
Let them cool and rest
Under the dapple of trees,
Let them silent learn to smile,
Let them melt a little
Considering this fragrant air
sufficient, replete.
Breeze-filled, bird-filled,
A hammock for goodness.
Let them drop their hunger,
The carving of empires,
The bitter profits of belief,
The fierce ambitions for more.
Let them love their sons and daughters
And let them remember the open woods.
Let them not fear heaven nor hells
But let them halt and watch
The small things gather, delighted,
Learning the blessing of trees.
Let the heart melt in May,
Let the skin warm, flesh relax, soul unfurl.
For there is a glory to find beneath all things
And it shall shine through
Enough for any,
Enough for all.
Life under trees.
Let the mountains remain open
Let the valleys be all in green shade
Comforted, rocked, whispered.
For there are sufficient deserts,
Howling emptinesses we need no more of,
No more cleansings nor clearings
Nor impositions of sterile order.
Let the heart melt into May,
The cool green fires of Beltane.
Let the soul, with the souls of all, unfurl,
The branching year blossoming.
Beyond is the cool airs turning warm,
Beyond is a place to rest completed,
Beyond is the dream of violet shimmer
The hum of summer, the nest of light.
Under trees, cooled, dappled, blessed.
*****
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cats, challenge, haibun, house, night, peace, Poetics of space, Poetry, silence, wind on April 14, 2013| 16 Comments »
Here are a couple of haibun inspired by the Ligo haibun Challenge for this week
(http://yourligo.weebly.com/haibun.html)
PEACE
The rising wind scours the walls, all four. Swings down and sings in the chimney, brightening the small flames. It is late. The cats are attentive, but unwilling to stir. Content will the small silences of the house. If I wait, the tumble of the day will subside. Thoughts will scatter, settle, lilt into corners like leaves do in autumn. Perhaps one or two shall remain to keep the company.
afterglow of single malt
bees dozing in noon sun
something important, forgotten
PEACE 2
They turn so carefully, the cats. First one way, then, after some thought, the other. Winding up to relax. Taking just the right angle for air, for warmth, for watching. Not a hair out of place, their senses, too, sleek and flowing.
still rivers of wind-
inside the house
not silence, but listening
fire roars
sings and whispers
longing for wind’s freedom
slow, long voices
wind and rain-
dream language
soon the fire will falter
though the fast winds run
we turn, fall into dream
**
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged awareness, landscape, morning, nature, peace, Poetry on March 15, 2013| 4 Comments »
THREE BREATHS
This morning:
A broad, bright estuary.
I, little boat
Resting on reflected light.
With the rain,
Its sound between grass blades,
Fresh vapours
Savoured.
Grey and green
Laid out calm.
Sewed voices:
Harmonic doves.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cold, divergent action, ephemera, fulcrum, mind, moon, passing, peace, Poetry, spring, time, uncertain meaning on March 13, 2013| 3 Comments »
MOON SCREECH
Moon screeches across the sky-
Chalk on board,
Ice dust on the wind.
Layered circumspection
Is no wiser than
Reckless certainty.
Inside me
Scream a thousand
Small possibilities
Extirpated, snuffed out.
Inside me
A thousand more arise
Radiant effulgence,
Birth smiles.
It will take
No time at all.
It will take no time
To wipe all this away.
Swept clear,
So fragile
This dream.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged awareness, consciousness, everything, landscape, life, moon, night, peace, Poetry, seasons, stillness, the universe on March 2, 2013| 2 Comments »
BALM
I shall cool my mind
Upon the low golden moon
I shall drain my habitual sorrow
Letting it flow earthwards
And rest.
Rounded quietness
The clear roof
Of a star-filled night.
Everything is as it is.
Everything is moving
Towards
A dancing of its own nature.
Sleep and dream and waking,
The blink of day and night-
Vibrations on the rim of
Creation’s bowl.
The rippled liquid,
Concentric pools,
An eye-blink.
Breath from the wing
Of a passing owl.
Polish the mirror,
Breath and sleep.
Frost at dawn
And the new lamb’s
Thin cry.
In the dead elm
Two magpies
Are building a nest,
Ivy clad, bejewelled.
As long as it can
Life will fill
All voids,
Dancing heedless
Over the precipice
Of time,
Disregarding limits,
Floating
As if it were
A garland, a light,
Set adrift
As a blessing
As an asking
Upon one great river
Sedate, curving slow,
Seawards.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged chant, clarity, healing, peace, Poetry, protection, shamanism, silence, spirit, tree on January 20, 2012| 1 Comment »
SPIRIT OF ELM
Spirit of elm
Sky- ladder
Cloud-crowned
Abode of wings
Chamber of radiance
The eight winds arise from you
The seven oceans flow through you
Pibroch of intelligence
Silent teacher
Resonant tower
One tree is a forest
Traversing the three worlds
Delineator of starlight
Eloquent shaper
Invisible watcher
Guardian of memory
Lord of words
Wonderful councellor
Showerer of light
Uxlemitanos
High elm
Deep noted
Fountain of stillness
Road to clarity
Discomforter of confusion
Diameter of creation
Upholder
Enfolder
Elucidator
Beyond silence.
Each tree species manifests the unity of Creation in its unique energy dance, maintaining and sustaining the continual weaving of the world. They wait and offer endless paths to the contemplation and realisation of wholeness.
The Elm is particularly tuned to channelling silent clarity and wisdom. Brilliant, resonant silence overwhelms confusion and separation. Elm is an invaluable teacher and a protector of personal integrity at the deepest level.
Tao of Trees.
This world rests on trees: its dream is green.
Wherever we may be, in deserts or on oceans,
We are bathed in the consequence of forests.
We breathe because of trees, we eat through their blessing.
Their shadows fall and cool in every clime.
Their presence is a moderation of hurricanes,
A warming of winter, a shelter and a place of contemplation.
To be able to condense and hold that smooth unity
Is the purpose of Tree Spirit Healing.
It is an empty hand and a quiet voice.
It is hardly anything and yet,
It can make all the difference
Between suffering and joy,
Collapse and integration.
simonhlilly 