Guided Meditation

Bring your thoughts here, now. Be here in this place, right now. Be awake in each moment.
Begin to follow your in and yyour out breaths'.  Bring attention back to your true home: your breath.
Your home is not the corner house nor the sidewalk or the city or town in which you reside; your breath is your true home.

Your happiness is here in this very present moment. Not at another time with a new circumstance,
a changed body, a new location and not in different relationships, it is here now.

You have and can keep peace. Your happiness is in your true home, find your true peace in every moment. Follow and focus on  your in breath, your out breath reserving happiness. Quiet the mind,
rest the mind. Let your thoughts come but don't hang on to them, let them go.  Go back to your breath. 
a deep inhalation --In, and a slower, longer exhalation--out. In, I am Calm,  and out, I am at Ease.



.

poems

windows and doors
metaphors
soul images
 words with
tone and color
beats and putrid
stench
or tantilizing aromas
vomited in words
or sprinkles of bullshit
injected
while praying
 for food.
Some get it
some don't
authors don't
pander to the shallow.

Silent Rain Chain Meditation

Rhythmic sound
 an affirming powerful
dance, metal and water
sing.
Maples and sweet pine
in nature
ground my roaming
thoughts.
A small river
organizes
letting in and letting go.
My breath is natural
allowing me
to accept and let go.
With the sound
and the smell
 in breath
out breath
I cling only to
calm and soothing
affirmations.
Mindful of
Lovingkindness,
I repeat
"May we be at ease"
for the world.
 Breaths in and out, a flowing thought:
"Impermanence is a welcome thief,
but it steals
being here now."
Listening to the movement
of water
clink down the
rain chain
I focus on impermanence with
each breath
in and out. I am at ease,
I am here now, I am here now
 feeding a calm chain of thought
throughout the world
in each moment.
.

Lines of Thought

Poetry pours a drink of pictures
and laughs
while you wonder.
A paintbrush decides what
an image will become
as a pen moves over
paper to remark
only about the blank places
where your lines of thought
take respite only in the
maddening
colorful emptiness
that gives creation its opportunity.

She said,

She was chronically sick and spoke
with a smile. ( I can hear her labored breathing)
She kept her hands; thus her mind
busy.

She said, get the cards, help
put this puzzle together,
come visit. I need to clean this,
launder that, iron this.

She said, what would I do without you?
(You'll never have to know, I told her).
As I placed a meal I cooked before her
Oh this looks delicious
she said. Tasting it, she'd blink and
swallow a small bite and say, "Delicious!"

I'd shower her and she'd be embarrassed and say,
 I can't believe my child has to shower me.
(I'd say " Someday, Mom, I'll be in the same situation; we all need help.).

Reading the newspaper, watching the news,
or when trying to navigate
Voice prompts
which were difficult to follow with bad hearing.
She said "its time to go because
the world no longer makes sense to me".

Everything lost its taste
No more smiles
She is no more
here; but she resides with me.
I picture her clearly and I remember all
she said.

Paralysis Analysis

what if?
because of this most likely that.
maybe...
speculation!
perhaps what was said isn't what is meant.
I bet...
don't you see??
What it is it isn't!

Analysis creates chaos in the mind
don't ask the questions
don't drive yourself crazy.
Don't cross a bridge before it comes
be calm
Don't encourage suffering
Let it be.

Nuances

Everyone has a different experience
even in the same place.
The wind blew from a different direction,
it was overcast; or sunny.
One had enough money to indulge
the other did not.
Both were married and divorced
but usually not to the same guy
of course...
So even if you say "been there
and think you've done that,"
its just not exactly alike.
 Even if the clips reel holds
the same pictures its just
not the same.

Self

Mindfully, I explore my self-control
trying to lay aside an alluring friend
bad company.
I keep busy
grooming
laying plans
entertained by TV
the computer
writing.
This is what depravement is?
Guess it can be a yearning
for something good
or bad.
If I don't buy, carry or hold them..
what happens when I smell and see others
sharing the company I kept..
Will I keep my self control?
Look through pictures, drink water, read blogs,
stay away from eating to replace
your old friend.
Look out the window
throw them out a door...how strong is self?

Post-it

Post it:
on the doors and windows
on the faces of people we see
the animals and the bees
the flowers and the trees
the shacks and the mansions
the races and ethnicities
the earth and the galaxy
"COMPASSION:
Because all are just like me".

Date Night

Silently he lands
on the tough, brown,
softly,swaying palm branch.
His yellow legs are strong
and accented by heavy, black
razor sharp talons.
Feeling my admiration,
his yellow eyes find me and then
they begin to observe the area
around the palm. 
Statue still,  his feet stay
locked on one spot.
I tried not to swallow or
 move a muscle,
as he occasionally glared at me; I didn't want him to leave.
Not before I wondered when he would fly off,
he quietly sunk downward
barely scratching the tough, green grass
with his sharp forks ahead of him.
I watched as he decided to pick up
 a shiny black snake
to take the creature on a swinging blind date.
An unexpected, magical,
winged ride to dinner.