Hi Everyone,

I'd like to share three of my poems and a writing exercise with you this month. Writing poetry is a psychospiritual practice for me that helps me access and express the heights and depths of Being. As author Roger Housden says, "Poetry is the language of the spirit and the soul, not of the discursive mind."

Faces

Every face the divine.

Every day one hundred times

we miss our chance.

Eyes cast downward,  

we shuffle along the sidewalk

as if we are alone,

alone,  

on this crowded street of angels.

How to Find Poems

Open wide to the unseen

Crawl inside dark holes and wet tunnels

Let yourself be scared

Get lost

Be found

Walk. Pause often. See with your feet

Be willing to hear the earth cry, and sob with her

Cease cherishing ordinary time

Listen to the pen

Pray to the page

Praise often

Celebrate what is left on this planet

Love stillness

Dissolve

Forget who you were

Forget who you think you are

Let life reconfigure you

Let yourself cross over before you die

Love everything you feel

Paint your soul

Remember: the flat stones in the riverbed have secrets

Remember: there is no end to you

One Leaf

Life

Constant

Swirls    

Waves

Tidal waves

Sound waves

Brain waves

Grampa waves good-bye

There is death all around

And snow is glistening on the ground

In spite of me     my     mine

Buried bulbs burst

Into purple plumes    

Some do not

My grandson's hand becomes a man's  

My daughter's heart a woman's

Turning    

Wildly now

Then softly

Petals on silk

You think this earth is solid?

Feel again  

Body/mind  

Bargains

Pleads    

Asserts

To no avail (thank goodness)

Turning at ITS speed

In ITS right ways  

When I watch one leaf  

Closely    

I understand

Try this "Deep Writing" practice

Choose a line or phrase from one of the poems that speaks to you. Then free write for 5-8 minutes in response to that. Write anything that comes to you without censoring or analyzing what you're writing. Relax and let the writing happen. Then select a sentence or phrase from this freewrite and write again for 5-8 minutes with an invitation to yourself to drop into deeper layers of your psyche. This process can connect you deeply to yourself, helping you sink beneath your conscious mind to the heart of something meaningful to you.