ONE ANGEL

.

I

 

Her body lies beneath the ground,

Beside his, where he lay so long,

Without her– as though fallen sound

Asleep, while she stayed up till dawn.

 

I wandered in their empty house

That brimmed so full of memories,

And groped upon a closet shelf

To seek her birthday gift from me.

 

I found the book where once she read

That under Heaven’s cloudless sun,

A man among the risen dead

Rejoins his wife to live as one.

 

An Angel in a mansion there,

Communing in that sacred Love

Which can but faintly be compared

With that which they arose above.

 

 

Such thought have I these summer hours,

As lone before their graves I muse;

But sleep restores my wasted powers,

Untangling what has grown confused.

 

II

 

Now let me tell you what I dreamed

The night before she passed away,

Before they brought her back to seem

Still with us for a few more days-

 

Enough of that for now. I stood

Beside her in the nursing home

She sat upon the gurney bed

And waited while we packed her clothes.

 

My father, dead for thirty years,

Had come to take her home with him

I waited calmly, without fear-

She too. The light was very dim.

 

But when I woke I lost the sense,

Which bit by bit came back to me;

And when she died the second time,

It crystallized in memory.

 

III

 

Where they have come from, they have gone;

And where they always were, they are.

Through Time’s dimensions I am drawn

To where our family history starts.

 

Because my Mind was pregnant then is one,

When I was born, they came to life

Through me, as much as I through them—

And all the World evolved its strife

And harmony, through what I was:

For it employed my eyes to see,

My ears to hear, and formed its laws

Within my Mind accordingly.

 

And now I rise, and walk again;

And with me rise all who have died,

And all who live, One Angel then,

We shall at last to Heaven arrive.

 

 Lee Evans @ 2009

 

 

 

Haiku

Unrhymed Japanese verse usually containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. Haiku often relies on natural images and themes. Believed to have originated in the 17th century founded on the Zen Buddhist philosophy of simplicity, and achieving perfection through omitting the superfluous.

 

The old rice field;
a frog gets devoured -
the silence of the water

 

Katrina Larsen © 2009

 

Without Warning
Without warning
as a whirlwind
swoops on an oak
Love shakes my heart

Sappho

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Great Mystery Publishing

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Photograph by Sarina Damen

© 2009

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"Spake with naked hearts together,
Pondering much and much contriving
How the tribes of men might prosper. " Wordsworth

The Poetic Heart

Mysticism, Spirituality & Haiku

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Great Mystery Publishing

The Poetic Heart

Click here for poetry submission details.

What is your DEEPEST fear?
In her unique voice, Marianne Williamson offers uncanny insight into the world of the modern woman.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - excerpt from A Return To Love

'Give me glory by rising as high as you can.' Never regret a day in your life. Good days give you Happiness. Bad days give you Experiences. Both are essential to life. Happiness keeps you Sweet, Trials keep you Strong, Sorrows keep you Human, Failures keep you Humble, Success keeps You Glowing, But Only God keeps You Going! Have a great day! The Sun is shining!!

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Photograph by Sarina Damen © 2009

The Comfort Zone

by unknown

I used to have a Comfort Zone
Where I knew I couldn't fail.
The same four walls of busy work,
Were really more like jail.
I longed so much to do the things,
I'd never done before.
But I stayed inside my Comfort Zone,
And paced the same old floor.
I said it didn't matter,
That I wasn't doing much.
I said I didn't care for things
Like diamonds, furs and such.
I claimed to be so busy,
With the things inside my zone.
But deep inside I longed for
Something special of my own.
I couldn't let my life go by,
Just watching others win.
I held my breath and stepped outside
To let the change begin.
I took a step and with new strength
I'd never felt before,
I kissed my Comfort Zone "goodbye"
And closed and locked the door.
If you are in a Comfort Zone,
Afraid to venture out,
Remember that all winners were
At one time filled with doubt.
A step or two and words of praise,
Can make your dreams come true.
Greet your future with a smile,
Success is there for you!

Celestial Love
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

(Part of Ode I)

Higher far,
Upward, into the pure realm,
Over sun or star,
Over the flickering Daemon film,
Thou must mount for love,
Into vision which all form
In one only form dissolves;
In a region where the wheel,
On which all beings ride,
Visibly revolves;
Where the starred eternal worm
Girds the world with bound and term;
Where unlike things are like,
When good and ill,
And joy and moan,
Melt into one.
There Past, Present, Future, shoot
Triple blossoms from one root
Substances at base divided
In their summits are united,
There the holy Essence rolls,
One through separated souls,
And the sunny Aeon sleeps
Folding nature in its deeps,
And every fair and every good
Known in part or known impure
To men below,
In their archetypes endure.

The race of gods,
Or those we erring own,
Are shadows flitting up and down
In the still abodes.
The circles of that sea are laws,
Which publish and which hide the Cause.
Pray for a beam
Out of that sphere
Thee to guide and to redeem.
O what a load
Of care and toil
By lying Use bestowed,
From his shoulders falls, who sees
The true astronomy,
The period of peace!
Counsel which the ages kept,
Shall the well-born soul accept.
As the overhanging trees
Fill the lake with images,
As garment draws the garment's hem
Men their fortunes bring with them;
By right or wrong,
Lands and goods go to the strong;
Property will brutely draw
Still to the proprietor,
Silver to silver creep and wind,
And kind to kind,
Nor less the eternal poles
Of tendency distribute souls.
There need no vows to bind
Whom not each other seek but find.
They give and take no pledge or oath,
Nature is the bond of both.
No prayer persuades, no flattery fawns,
Their noble meanings are their pawns.
Plain and cold is their address,
Power have they for tenderness,
And so thoroughly is known
Each others' purpose by his own,
They can parley without meeting,
Need is none of forms of greeting,
They can well communicate
In their innermost estate;
When each the other shall avoid,
Shall each by each be most enjoyed.
Not with scarfs or perfumed gloves
Do these celebrate their loves,
Not by jewels, feasts, and savors,
Not by ribbons or by favors,
But by the sun-spark on the sea,
And the cloud-shadow on the lea,
The soothing lapse of morn to mirk,
And the cheerful round of work.
Their cords of love so public are,
They intertwine the farthest star.
The throbbing sea, the quaking earth,
Yield sympathy and signs of mirth;
Is none so high, so mean is none,
But feels and seals this union.
Even the tell Furies are appeased,
The good applaud, the lost are eased.

Love's hearts are faithful, but not fond,
Bound for the just, but not beyond;
Not glad, as the low-loving herd,
Of self in others still preferred,
But they have heartily designed
The benefit of broad mankind.
And they serve men austerely,
After their own genius, clearly,
Without a false humility;
For this is love's nobility,
Not to scatter bread and gold,
Goods and raiment bought and sold,
But to hold fast his simple sense,
And speak the speech of innocence,
And with hand, and body, and blood,
To make his bosom-counsel good:
For he that feeds men, serveth few,
He serves all, who dares be true.

Daffodils

 by William Wordsworth

 

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

 

 

For beauty being the best of all we know
 by Robert Bridges

 

For beauty being the best of all we know 
Sums up the unsearchable and secret aims 
Of nature, and on joys whose earthly names 
Were never told can form and sense bestow; 
And man has sped his instinct to outgo 
The step of science; and against her shames
Imagination stakes out heavenly claims, 
Building a tower above the head of woe. 
Nor is there fairer work for beauty found 
Than that she win in nature her release 
From all the woes that in the world abound; 
Nay with his sorrow may his love increase, 
If from man's greater need beauty redound, 
And claim his tears for homage of his peace.

The Flea

by John Donne

 

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deny'st me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that, self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself, nor me the weaker now;
'Tis true, then learn how false fears be:
Just so much honor, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee

Before The Altar

by Amy Lowell 

 

.Before the Altar, bowed, he stands
With empty hands;
Upon it perfumed offerings burn
Wreathing with smoke the sacrificial urn.
Not one of all these has he given,
No flame of his has leapt to Heaven
Firesouled, vermilion-hearted,
Forked, and darted,
Consuming what a few spare pence
Have cheaply bought, to fling from hence
In idly-asked petition. 

His sole condition
Love and poverty.
And while the moon
Swings slow across the sky,
Athwart a waving pine tree,
And soon

Tips all the needles there
With silver sparkles, bitterly
He gazes, while his soul
Grows hard with thinking of the poorness of his dole. 

"Shining and distant Goddess, hear my prayer
Where you swim in the high air!
With charity look down on me,
Under this tree,
Tending the gifts I have not brought,
The rare and goodly things
I have not sought.
Instead, take from me all my life!.

"Upon the wings
Of shimmering moonbeams
I pack my poet's dreams
For you.
My wearying strife,
My courage, my loss,
Into the night I toss
For you.
Golden Divinity,
Deign to look down on me
Who so unworthily
Offers to you:
All life has known,
Seeds withered unsown,
Hopes turning quick to fears,
Laughter which dies in tears.
The shredded remnant of a man
Is all the span
And compass of my offering to you. 

"Empty and silent, I
Kneel before your pure, calm majesty.
On this stone, in this urn
I pour my heart and watch it burn,
Myself the sacrifice; but be
Still unmoved: Divinity." 

From the altar, bathed in moonlight,
The smoke rose straight in the quiet night.   

Life by Sir Walter Raleigh

 

Life

What is our life? A play of passion, 
Our mirth the music of division, 
Our mother's wombs the tiring-houses be, 
Where we are dressed for this short comedy. 
Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is, 
That sits and marks still who doth act amiss. 
Our graves that hide us from the setting sun 
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done. 
Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest, 
Only we die in earnest, that's no jest. 

 

 

 

The Worlds Need
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 

O many gods, so many creeds, 
So many paths that wind and wind, 
While just the art of being kind 
Is all the sad world needs.

“Cosmology has always been -- and will by definition always remain -- a borderland between science and philosophy -- some would say a religion...if we admit the Universe to be inhabited by a vast number of purposeful components then the thought cannot be far away that perhaps the Universe itself might be purposive...”

- Richard Michael Pasichnyk

 

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”

- Carl Jung (psychologist) "Memories, Dreams, Reflections".

 

“Solitude is strength; to depend on the presence of the crowd is weakness. The man who needs a mob to nerve him is much more alone than he imagines.”

- Paul Brunton (Author and mystic)

 

“The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for. “

- Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.”

- Toni Morrison

 

“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.”

- Victor Hugo

 

“Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.”

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

“The chief problem about death, incidentally, is the  fear there may be no afterlife—a depressing thought, particularly for those who have bothered to shave. Also, there is a fear that there is an afterlife but no one will know where it’s being held.”

- Woody Allen

 

“We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of  waking from a troubled dream; it may also be so the moment after death.”

- Nathaniel Hawthorne

NAVAJO PRAYER

In the house made of dawn.
In the story made of dawn.
On the trail of dawn.
I, Talking God.
His feet, my feet, restore.
His limbs, my limbs, restore.
His body, my body, restore.
His mind, my mind, restore.
His voice, my voice, restore.
His plumes, my plumes, restore.
With beauty before him, with beauty before me.
With beauty behind him, with beauty behind me.
With beauty above him ,with beauty above me.
With beauty below him, with beauty below me.
With beauty around him, with beauty around me.
With pollen beautiful in his voice, with pollen beautiful in my voice.

It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.
In the house of evening light.
On the trail of evening light.

TESTAMENT

There is one Great Spirit
which Creates
and silently pervades
its own Creation
of which I am a part

I address my prayer
to this Spirit
most Wise
most Compassionate
most Powerful.

I surrender my small self
to the Great Spirit
most Wise

most Compassionate
most Powerful.

I seek my Greater Self
in the All-encompassing Spirit
most Wise
most Compassionate
most Powerful.

That I may be filled with
Wisdom
Compassion
Power
Like unto the Spirit
Who creates the Universe
And fills us all with Life.

THEOLYN CORTENS

 

THE GREAT INVOCATION

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let Love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men -
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre, which we call the race of men,
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth

 

BORN TO MANIFEST THE GLORY

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our present automatically liberates others.

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

 

PRAYER TO COSMIC BIRTHER

O Cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration, soften the ground of our
being and carve out a space within us where your presence can abide.
Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear
The fruit of your mission.
Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desires.
Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share
what each being needs to grow and flourish.
Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us
as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes
Do no let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true
purpose
Rather, illuminate the opportunities of the present moment
For you are the ground and the fruitful vision
The birth, power and fulfilment,
As all is gathered and made whole once again

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