LIKE HEAVEN
A Then-and-There Oral Poem
March 30, 2021
Frost on the grass
gives us a gift.
Sunshine on a coat
can carry our hope
and happiness
as we stroll for hours,
like heaven.
* scenes along my like-heaven morning walk today *
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with what I’m calling ‘poems in ink’ – poems written instantly, here-and-now, spur-of-the-moment, and in ink, so I can’t revise. I’m trying to capture the immediacy of thoughts and words as they freely flow. Here’s a poem-in-ink I ‘dashed off’ this morning.
FINDING COMFORTAn Oral Poem on the Trail
March 30, 2021
7:38 a.m.
Bird songs and traffic sounds
can set your life free,
and help you find comfort
that's found
in leaves and stones
and old trees so tired
they fell asleep.
On our frosty and fulfilling walk this morning at the Coogan Preserve, we saw these special scenes ..
Ah, the first shoots of skunk cabbage!!There’s Delycia up ahead, leading the way.
WALKING AT BONNIE'S
March 29, 2021
7:18 a.m.
(an oral poem)
Birds are singing.
Highway traffic is talking.
I am breathing,
bringing life inside,
and silence is everywhere,
as always.
HUFFING AND PUFFING
an on-the-spot, unrevised oral poem
spoken on a trail in the Peace Sanctuary, Mystic, CT
8:50 a.m., March 26, 2021
Huffing and puffing on a hill
can help you be prepared
for the powers of this world -
a wide wall of stone,
a limb looking down at us,
a lonesome song of a bird,
the belief
in the looseness and loveliness
of life.
JUST LIKE WALKING
(an on-the-spot oral poem,
spoken on River Road, Mystic, CT,
8:05 a.m. March 25, 2021)
He heard the birds singing,
so he started singing himself,
because singing showed him
which street to take on his walk,
and he wondered
why he was walking,
why the sky sits so peacefully,
why winter has waved goodbye,
why living is not work,
but just like walking.
Sitting at a table in a mall one winter morning several years ago, I recall watching the various movements surrounding me. There was the steady up and down stream of the escalators, with people standing and moving on them or sometimes stepping vigorously to increase the speed. There were people walking here and there around me, some almost skipping with speed, some seeming to move stylishly along, some studying cell phones as they moseyed here and there. Sometimes people stopped or turned, for some reason, and their stopping and turning seemed graceful, almost silky. As I watched, it started me thinking about the smooth and mellifluous movements that surround us all, extending out to the planets and stars. Cars on roads move among each other, for the most part, with ease and gracefulness, rivers run along their channels with marvelous suppleness, and, above us, planes fluidly proceed on their paths, while higher still, the planets and stars effortlessly swing along their paths. Indeed, the earth upon which the mall and I were sitting was spinning and sailing along with felicity – and so, I thought, it’s no surprise that gracefulness in movement existed in a shopping mall on a frozen winter day.
Yesterday, Delycia and I spend a wonderful few hours with some good friends in the Boston area. We took a 3-mile walk walk through a beautiful nature preserve near their home, and then spent some quality time at their house, where our friends enjoyed showing us all the features of the house – which they had designed from top to bottom. A beautiful home – and a beautiful visit for us.
Below, some lovely early hellebores in Delycia’s garden …
LOVING THE BLENDING
(about Bernice D., 61, Blessings, CT, USA)
When she turned 60,
she suddenly saw
that there are no separate ends -
no isolated stops
for this person or that,
for this activity or that,
since everything, it suddenly seemed,
was totally together,
entirely blended,
quietly cohesive,
and everlastingly flowing.
Her cares and worries
were not just hers,
she saw,
but the whole world's,
and her fear
was the same fear felt by
her millions of brothers and sisters.
She now felt, for sure,
that there was no finish for anything,
just an infinite flowing
and reshuffling and revising,
just Bernice and beautiful billions
of winds and skies and squirrels
and simple, astonishing people
blending
and loving the blending.
And here’s my hard-working partner and wife Delycia, for whom the good work of life never ends …
And here’s a slide-show of some scenes from our recent walks in beautiful Mystic. Swipe across and enjoy the show.
One of the best habits I can develop in the future is being non-judgmental, but it won’t be easy. I have been an incorrigible judge on a daily, hourly, and moment-by-moment basis for my entire life. I constantly assess every aspect of my life as to whether it is good or bad, helpful or not helpful, harmless or dangerous. The way I continually pass judgment, I may as well go around in judge’s attire with a gavel in my hand. It’s truly remarkable that I would set myself up as a judge, given the fact that I have no particular wisdom with which to pass judgment on whether a present moment is good for me or not. How can one isolated individual in this boundless universe possibly know enough to assess the value of a given moment? Since there are an incalculable number of possible ramifications for every occurrence in my life, how can I, a mere mortal, pretend to be able to decide which occurrences will be good for me, and which will be bad? It’s actually shocking to me to think I have spent so much time – most of my waking hours – sitting in judgment on everything from people to events to situations. It’s shocking because it tells me I have missed an enormous amount of the wonder of life by being so focused on handing down judgments. While I was deciding if the moments in my life were good or bad for me, these astonishing moments were flashing right past me. What I need to do is develop another habit – that of being, as much as possible, completely non-judgmental. I need to realize that each and every moment this universe creates is somehow appropriate and useful. Instead of judging, I need to accept. Instead of being opinionated about everything that happens, I need to practice being constantly amazed.
It was easy to be thoroughly amazed during our sunrise walk along the river this morning. Here is some of what we luckily saw. Swipe across to enjoy the slide-show …
A shadow on the pavement
was what he saw
while searching for truth.
It lay there
like it loved that place.
The resting sky, too,
had folded its clouds comfortably,
and the cruising cars
were in the lanes they loved,
while he was searching for truth.
‘Abound’ is a word that isn’t often used in writings and conversations these days, but yesterday morning, it seemed surprisingly suitable. From our sunroom, where Delycia and I were doing some quiet thinking and reading before breakfast, I could see a sky abounding in blue and gold, seemingly overflowing with those colors’ various shades. The trees around the house, too, abounded in soft early light, seeming almost crowded with it, as though the sun’s light was packing the trees as fully as possible. And I might add that, a few minutes later, as we enjoyed our simple breakfasts, I was abounding in feelings of good fortune. My life these days is brimful of satisfaction. The hours seem stuffed with fulfillment. Like all of us, I do sometimes face difficulties, but they are usually neutralized by the sustaining quietness that plentifully fills my days and nights.
And here are some scenes from my morning walk in Elm Grove Cemetery, a place that abounds in quietness and grandeur…
EVERYDAY MIRACLES: An Occasional Journal of a Life Lived in Wonder 