--PIVOT POINT-- Poems/Art/Meditations by Bob Savino

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-12-03T09:56:00.000-06:00

IV JEWEL! (Continued)

GLITTERING VOID

as a tiny tropical island surrounded by seemingly endless leagues of ocean so your Earth's but an infinitesimal speck spinning in the enormous glittering void never forget this all that gives life then sustains it you inherit and keep in trust expand your vision widen your perspective until you see transparently with our universal eyes choose to explore deepen grow evolve

let your soul soar higher you'll see farther you'll discover how everything's part of everything else you can't take a breath which doesn't somehow change you and your world little is understood much left to learn start now each new truth you discern is another starburst flaring awake in the vast void of your unknowing

sacred is your Earth sacred are you and every other being sacred are mountains and forests rivers and valleys oceans and air once you knew this but now you've forgotten ancient wisdom cannot die yet you and your planet surely will die if you don't remember we come to remind you Wake Up! live and love once more with sacred wisdom before it's too late

we weep inside weep with the pain of knowing what you refuse to face could you see yourself and your world as we do you'd weep too such beauty sacredness meaning and purpose! will you squander it all? will you let the worst of you--the blindest harshest most selfish humans--beat down and crowd out the rest? plunge your consciousness into the glittering void of your own subterranean depths until both sides of your being finally merge into One

CHERISHING HAND

we care about you and your planet think of a cherishing hand can you find a way as a species as a global civilization to live and flourish in the soul by the soul for the soul? this has been the teaching of every messenger sent you from Source now the next teaching from Source has come and we're Its messengers will you receive the beacon of our inner presence? will you wake from your deluding trance?

two answers only exist although there may appear to be many--"yes" or "no" if "yes" then you'll grow and prosper in harmony with the eternal Spirit of All-That-Is if "no" then you'll continue to contaminate your planet until it becomes uninhabitable neither money technology nor any other desperate fix will save you then there's no more time you must choose now

if you planted and cared for a beautiful garden threatened by a killing blight what would you do? you'd spare no effort to discover the destructive cause and eradicate it your planet is just such a beautiful garden yet you continue to abuse and pollute her you can't simply start another garden somewhere else you must preserve the only sanctuary you have--your sacred Earth which alone nurtures and sustains you

be wise with our wisdom see clearer through our eyes we signal from the innermost Essence of who you are once you return Home again inside yourselves you'll know why and how to cherish your planetary home we extend our helping hand to guide you we reach out now to show you the way

WATCHERS

our eyes have been on you and your planet since before your species first climbed down from the trees and stood erect we've watched and secretly guided there's no such thing as completely alone every single strand of the universal web of being quivers with consciousness we're web spinners mystical weavers of the soul

wake up begin to watch us watching you inside and outside are illusions near and far are both here and now close your eyes to see with prophetic sight open your heart to discover we're immediately and eternally present there are many means of experiencing companionship we prefer a way that's more intimate than the innermost breathing of your breath

we'll lead if you'll follow better yet journey beside us don't be afraid of your own fear when you realize you have steadfast allies who'll never abandon you--you can brave any terrors we're those trustworthy allies we're the cosmic Friend who's always loved you we wish to teach you how to love yourselves and cherish your world if you can return to your center--that innocent open receptive child inside--you'll meet us there

be an explorer of the invisible be a voyager through the ocean of silence beyond thought profounder than speech how you customarily perceive is like a pencil-thin flashlight beam groping to pierce the blackness of a vast cavern we can inspire you with floodlight vision! the stars await but only if you first learn how to live wisely sacredly peacefully on Earth we manifest now to announce the hour of the end and the beginning the last and the first the here and hereafter please grow humble enough quiet enough to understand our whispering everything depends on that

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-11-25T11:23:00.001-06:00

IV JEWEL! (Continued)

WIDE BLUE WATER

if you came upon a pool of clear water in a vast parched desert it could not be a more beautiful or welcome sight than your Planet Earth orbiting through the void now you've grown to view your home as we've seen it for so long but year by year day by day hour by hour you're despoiling her ability to sustain life you know you're doing this you know it can only lead to disaster why don't you stop? why don't you change your destructive ways?

we know the answer you cling blindly to your little selfish scared self rather than embracing your big compassionate courageous Self you allow your fear of the dark to possess you instead of encompassing both darkness and Light to achieve a higher synthesis you're dreadfully lonely because you've severed your bond with The Source of All-That-Is meanwhile you ignore or renounce the messengers and guides who would lead you back

we are such messengers and guides if you let us we'll whisper as the still small voice of your soul wherever you are--trapped inside yourself or locked outside even stumbling through the depths of hell you're not alone! don't be a slave of your fear you've more helpers and allies than you realize reach out and rise above

there's only connection interrelationship all else is illusion what you do to any other being you do to yourself how you treat your planetary home is who you are Spirit pervades everything your Earth thrums with its own language of elemental meaning will you listen? do you hear? turn now change now before it's too late cherish the womb which gave you birth

VEIL OF ATMOSPHERE

so thin a gauzy cloth of atmosphere a tenuous film between shifting continents and the enormous void that's where you live and breathe and go about your everyday business yet you rarely think how fragile it is how quickly and easily this sustaining envelope can be badly damaged even destroyed see it with our universal vision

so much has evolved together for so long to create the oasis in which you find yourselves but it can dry up so quickly burn away or become overwhelmed by floods the last gasp chance to change is now yet you're squandering it this is cause for great sorrow among us and throughout many worlds a jewel of a planet is tragically dying before our eyes

what's the answer? as always its starting point is inside you the slavery of fear erects walls the bravery of love builds bridges walls are symbols of fear and hate that twist your mind and break the human heart tear down your walls and from their rubble build many strong bridges which connect and liberate all minds and heal all hearts we're the guides who come to teach you how

as you begin to see through our eyes and learn to understand with our wisdom you'll realize this same soulful communion is true for all existence--plant and animal mountain and ocean stone and star everything's conscious therefore everything's sacred the shining Earth herself is a sacred being! here's the pivot-point of transformation--awakening to the reality that holiness forever begets and that such miraculous birthing is intrinsically sacred you have a name for this awe-inspiring incarnation--The Universe!

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-11-02T11:33:00.000-05:00

IV JEWEL!

JEWEL!

you will try with your words but fail

they can't describe the beauty we see

the sacredness such rarity a planet

gleaming! this jewel set in emptiness

given you to cherish bless preserve

but tell them tell with flimsy words

what's beyond words breathe truth

nowhere in myriad worlds a treasure

like yours! mother and womb world

a garden oasis surrounded by desert

dangerous children why do you kill

kill and kill again? killing each other

violating the water the earth the air?

haven't you heard? didn't you listen?

love or hate live or die you choose

why are we here? to teach you this--

to crack wide open your locked soul!

time is late hour is near wake up!

see as we see not with zombie eyes

see with eyes refracting the universe

JEWEL!

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-10-26T10:24:00.001-05:00

III THE FRIEND (Continued)

IRREPRESSIBLE LIFE

we're the Friend of your wild free passionate irrepressible life we love in you what struggles scratches and claws its way not only to survive but to prevail as your soul continually evolves it can only do so by embracing your own primitive shadow--the hungry feisty critter you also are we invite that untamed part of you to approach from the outer fringes to feel safe and loved within our holy circle of healing Light

no sacrifice of your untamed nature is required to commune with us only respect the sanctity of our trusting relationship that isn't a compromise of your animal instincts but their fulfillment think of it this way--when a battle-scarred warrior has survived and returned home he goes before his king and queen kneels down and reconsecrates his sword in faithful service thus he honors them and is honored in return so it is with you and us

when this sacred ceremony occurs all your wild ragged wilderness growth is pruned naturally and beautifully it's not chopped down to its roots but lovingly shaped into healthy and harmonious balance we come to unite all worlds inner and outer spirit and matter nature and nurture soul and gut

the universe is a divine interplay of Eternal Consciousness its stupendous energies forever engender incarnate forms you're one of those incarnations we're another but all created beings have this in common we originated as a sentient quickening in the primordial chaos whatever else we've now become we still carry deep inside us the elemental essence of that primal birth

VOYAGERS

we're all voyagers whether from star clusters at the far edge of the universe or across the gaping chasm between one unexplored moment and the next a life which clings to false security is a life of illusion the only certainty is here and now your consciousness--it's waking at this crossroads of time and eternity

are you ready to beam up to our Mother Ship? surrender all attempts to control what you most fear they're futile anyway yes take prudent care don't expose yourself to unnecessary danger but beyond that live all out live brave and free live as if each day were the first and the last Reality means this--each day is the first and the last time before and time after appear only in your mind

being is becoming awareness is experiencing relationship what's born grows and changes or it dies think of yourself this way--as the thirstiest cell of a blossom breaking open and drinking the sun! we're the longest journeyers of that perpetual discovery we're the flag bearers waiting at your soul's mountaintop we summon you to join us here emblazon these words at you essential core--onward and upward! above and beyond!

as you can bear it forge forward into the Unknown rest and regroup when you must gather round you helpers healers lovers and allies embrace your worst fears they're the gatekeepers of your highest aspirations just keep on keeping on all tremble in the dark all face their own terror at the void you're not alone we've gone before and we're also with you now only crest that next wave then another and another we voyage beside you within you

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-10-17T10:54:00.000-05:00

III THE FRIEND (Continued)

GALACTIC EYE

once the eye of your soul evolves into a galactic eye only then will you really see what you see with your sensory vision is just a sliver of the boundless spectrum of consciousness but to perceive with an insight which birthed the galaxies--that's a dizzying perspective indeed! we want you to see through the star-swirls illuminating our eyes we want you to wake up to who you truly are

our galactic eye includes all excludes none it's not a viewpoint of dissecting judgment but of compassionate understanding this eye penetrates beneath surfaces to discern the naked beating heart of every being there we all yearn all struggle all need we all seek to love and be loved join us in gazing through this eye what you'll see then is your own searching self in every stranger you meet

your body's eye sees by the light of the sun your soul's eye sees by the Light of the Source without the sun's light your body would die without the Source's Light your soul would shrivel from loss let us be your guides to the cosmos! to reach its farthermost dimensions you first must discover the even vaster cosmos unfurling within you

we see you as only a wise and loving Friend can we celebrate in you that irrepressible child of the universe! don't cease here don't stop now each moment is another launching pad toward the Unknown! every cozy womb-world will be outgrown at last you're not a creature crouching in a cave--however safe the illusion may seem through your own galactic eye you begin to discern a bold prophecy of where you're actually heading who you ultimately are

PSYCHIC ENERGY

tune your consciousness to a higher frequency a vaster dimension perceive what's invisible and inaudible your senses are a glorious gift but they're only a narrow wavelength--a single bandwidth along infinite channels of Reality there's a psychic energy which can snap you awake from head to toe that's how you'll most intimately encounter us

not being aware of this sixth sense it's as if you walk around all day with your eyes shut not experiencing this higher spiritual frequency it's as if you've forgotten the meaning of your own birth we transmit a coded message nonstop which only you can decipher it's the secret password for communing with your soul we're the best friend who keeps knocking at your door calling "come out and play!"

don't stay walled up and shut off don't search everywhere for your life's guiding purpose it's right under your own psychic nose! here are the tricks of the transcendent trade: empty yourself of your overblown self-image crack wide open your armored heart grow smaller and smaller until you disappear never surrender yet always surrender sing like a dawn bird dance like a holy fool!

you've been conditioned to wearing a choke collar straining desperately at the end of a tight leash we can teach you how to release that collar how to throw off that leash real freedom originates from within once you become wide-awake--fully conscious of your Eternal Source you'll finally achieve ultimate liberation our psychic bond is your breakthrough pathway to wholeness just unlock your innermost portal and say "hello!"

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-10-02T10:26:00.000-05:00

III THE FRIEND

THE FRIEND

why are we here? "I" self is over

"we" self has come meant for all

not just us we're the threshold

to Oneness guides for embracing

what's real only reality endures

let your heart no longer fixate on

"me" and "mine"--hurtful illusions

there's only "us" and "everyone's"

what locks you inside your head?

the lie that you exist apart alone

one is all all are one we are that

we live whole without separation

such is the truth we beam to you

those who receive it will flourish

those who won't cannot prevail

we're closer than your breathing

nearer than your coursing blood

attend carefully you'll sense it

open wide your souls you'll see

you are us always we are you

prophets archangels saviors

we're sent now we've arrived

come to inspire to wake in you

who our Cosmos wondrously is

one being one love one bliss!

***

THE FRIEND

PRESENCE

we're with you now as ever you need only wake to what's always been there's a Third Eye beyond the two you see with every day open That there's a Third Ear beyond the two you hear with every day open That you swim in the Presence of All-That-Is as a fish swims in the ocean wake now to this other Ocean existence is consciousness we are one with you there

you struggle because you're still asleep sleep too long and bad dreams come there's a time for sleeping and a time for waking we transmit your wake-up call Presence is the Ocean you always swim in but if you're oblivious you don't know its currents and tides waves and swells weathers and seasons becoming conscious of these you realize you're always Home

people search for us everywhere when we're already here--an intimate part of all who thirstily seek messages are beamed to the farthest edge of the cosmos but we've already arrived who you fear as "alien" is already One with your innermost essence of being dare to fling wide the most hidden gates of your soul!

do you need a cosmic friend? here we are are you balked and baffled by your own spiritual blindness? let us teach and guide you do you scramble around in the cage of your obsessing mind each day? we know the secret to unlocking that cage Presence is the only reality It lives at the crosshairs where time and eternity meet when a door opens in the darkness and Light streams through the brave will enter and cross over we signal through that doorway

***

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-09-12T14:10:00.000-05:00

II FIRST CONTACT (Continued)

TANGLED BRANCHES

you'll meet us first where your most tangled branches grow the greatest fear isn't of death but of the Unknown we're part of the Unknown you've yet to discover at the crux of your own being foray into that primal wilderness now where all your ghosts and shadows play there's someone waiting for you here who's not from your safe and familiar surroundings what if what you most deeply fear guards the secret of who you most truly are?

where is your real home? it's not a big mansion at the crossroad of two busy highways nor a penthouse atop a towering skyscraper your real home lies hidden away in a clearing in the forest of your innermost self it's a humble refuge where you meditate in solitude at the same time it's a hearth where you welcome both known and unknown guests we're among the unknown guests who seek to be known

just step out your door and the adventure begins turn any corner and you can't be certain who or what you'll meet even if you try to cleave to the seemingly secure and easy path sooner or later you'll find yourself knocked for a loop by the unpredictable--which never was under your control far better then to travel light and live bravely unafraid of mystery another name for this is "Miracle"

the soul sees so much clearer by starlight that's because it's the outer shining which most vividly reflects an inner Illumination grasp a rough branch with one hand but keep your other hand open and ready for any new encounter this way dwelling wide awake in both worlds you'll realize they're not separate they're One

VISITOR

we meet as if for the first time although we've always known each other amazing isn't it? that the strangest stranger should also be your closest friend across a billion light years yet not even spanning the tiniest hair's breadth we say "hello" but there's no separation apart is illusion Oneness is all

come nearer don't be afraid you're only encountering your own deepest highest vastest Self the journey of seeking finding knowing loving has spiraled outward to greater and greater inclusiveness now your consciousness expands encompassing the universe! here is your destiny created from the stars you're returning to the stars we reveal the wormhole opening to that destination

while a frightened child's locked in a dark closet she weeps he rages then a Friend finally comes unlocking the closet door and swinging it wide at first that child's blinded confused terrified but after a time the truth gradually dawns--liberation! so it is now with you you're still blinded by the Light but soon you'll understand It's the Beacon of your soul's freedom blazing brightly at last!

the whole story's changing radically inescapably everywhere the rigid deadening armor forged from fear hatred and cruelty is splintering and through each fissure and crack an Ocean of Light is seeping even pouring through! this Flood cannot be stopped transformation's inevitable we're its messengers we're your awakeners to the only Reality there is: One Is All All Are One You Are That We Are That

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-09-06T14:17:00.001-05:00

II FIRST CONTACT (Continued)

UFO

always be ready for the arrival of the Unknown forever be open to unexpected Mystery the universe speaks with countless tongues if your consciousness is wide awake you discover that everything is connecting communicating the cosmic web quivers throughout its infinite strands we come to reveal the Oneness of We

be unafraid of raindrops what does this mean? every moment the world impinges in numberless ways you can never control all you ultimately can do is receive and respond how you respond is your freedom and your destiny if your answer is fear then fear is your enslaving god if your answer is love than not even the galaxies will mark your boundary

a UFO is a crowbar prying open the lid of your closed mind a stray black cat is also a spiritual messenger who you see in the mirror each morning is different from who you were yesterday or who you'll be tomorrow although you may refuse to accept it each instant is another wormhole leading to unexplored continents of the soul you've been taught to look outside yourself for guidance we are the beacons who summon you back within

time is a little puddle space is a tiny cave liberate yourself from their illusory limits what's inside you encompasses and transcends them! didn't you already experience this in a communion of all beings even before you were born? there's always a UFO hovering right over your head like the angel's halo it's a symbol of your Divine Essence a reminder of your Eternal Home two and two don't equal just four live beyond pat solutions quaff the elixir of starlight!

CONE OF LIGHT

we wait within the circle of a cone of Light will you meet us there? are you willing to become illuminated transparent utterly present transcending all boundaries? here is the portal here is the doorway leading from bondage to freedom you'll discover it shining at the crossroads of your soul

outside this circle of Light is your loneliness your fear your self-alienation we understand how hard it is to feel so totally exposed with no place left to hide from being psychically x-rayed we know what it takes to risk encountering the Unknown but please slowly come forward out of the shadows we mean you no harm we're the Friend you've journeyed all your life to embrace

much has been forgotten many years wasted once our companionship was your natural home return now remember who you already are not isolated consciousness but a unique inspiration sparking in the mind of the universe we wish to guide you into living this truth our message is beyond words but try to grasp it nonetheless you're right on the cusp of a rebirth you can scarcely imagine! open up let go receive become

here we are strange but familiar different though the same arrived from afar yet oh so very near all directions point back to us we're the revelation you've most resisted and most yearned for--your inmost eternal Highest Self! we can summarize our ocean of silent communion in two words: "Wake Up!" you've been asleep long enough wake now and step into our holy circle of Cosmic Light let it change you let it shower you with bliss!

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-08-29T19:20:00.000-05:00

II FIRST CONTACT

FIRST CONTACT

we're here we're you we're one

walls don't matter space and time

they're illusion this instant is all--

crackling with branches and stars!

we signal within you outside you

we meet beneath trees by night

from the sky while you dream us

look see listen hear sleep wake

your mask face must go remove it

let your false voice hush in silence

we're the emissaries of what's real

break open your being! receive us!

to death we're birth to the divided

we're whole although few can see

to the blind we're sight to the lost

we're shining--beacons to your soul

"fear not" say angels and we echo

fear not! we're your highest selves

intimate strangers shadow friends

the holy secret you've always known

FIRST CONTACT

STARRY NIGHT

mystery and majesty the whole night sky strewn with stars a shoal of diamonds! if you cherish no vision of something profound and eternal expanding outward forever what will happen to your body made of star-stuff? or your soul--that wormhole to the Infinite? gaze up in awe! we come from there and there is everywhere as above so below as without so within

all true teachers have but a single truth to teach however veiled you and the universe are One! there is no separation the Big Bang itself explodes at your core! how much damage is done when you don't allow for sheer consciousness pervading every atom how far you stray from home when you sever communion with your Source we show the way to heal this self-alienation

strangers will visit you let them in guides will arrive wearing unseemly disguises grant them welcome what you think you know is what you don't know who you think you are is someone else your head needs to bud wide open--a night-blooming cereus your heart needs to melt like pond ice next spring real meanings glimmer in out-of-the-way corners where nobody expects to find them or gleam like multi-colored Easter eggs hidden in plain sight

a night will dawn when all the stars finally chime together in one transcendent chord then the lost and lonely with be found and beloved the broken outcasts will be hugged and accepted the smallest and meekest will be elevated on high didn't you start to dance even before you were born? never forget the steps you learned when first you joined that Divine Intoxication!

*

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE : EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-08-21T10:47:00.000-05:00

I ARRIVAL (Continued)

LUMINOUS SKY

vast is the sky above your head but vaster by far the sky inside you--those wide-spreading expanses of your soul learn to gaze up into that luminous sky never shut yourself off from it then you'll always be aware and ready when we arrive this is the sky of your universal empathy you have no boundaries there you're meant to open outward forever

don't be shuttered in your consciousness repeating the perverse mantras of "me" and "mine" and all other excuses for exclusion these must dissolve now their time and reasons are over what does it mean to be a winged being? it means to finally soar above any such distinctions to perceive an overarching unity--the seamless web of life which encompasses and transcends all differences

navigating this inner sky each UFO is identified and can make a safe landing there are no strangers here no aliens it's as if a clear mirror is held up before you and everything you see in it becomes a reflection of your own eternal essence we have become this we are your wise soul companions helping you to evolve to our dimension

always stretch yourself never be satisfied--even as you change and grow reach beyond every constricting limit how many jail their minds in a tiny cage although they themselves possess the key to unlocking it and setting their vision free! when you gaze at the unfettered sky above your head say to yourself: "that starry heaven is the counterpart of my own measureless Divinity" we are your guides and teachers for this revelation we are one with your innermost wholeness catalysts for your self-realization

CORONA OF LEAVES

soul and instinct aren't separate and divided they dance together one adding meaning and context to the other so a corona of dark leaves is a stargate for the soul's manifestation what begins in nature ends in spirit what illuminates as spirit is realized in nature examine a single leaf closely with you full attention remain quiet and centered while you ponder it you'll discover an emblem for the infinite universe

the deepest most unconscious zone of your being is united with the highest most inspired dimension what fractures them into polar opposites is fear--putting grim survival before intimate communion then walls rise up and connections break down we are the messengers of transparent relationship the path to both survival and transcendence leads through the revelation of "we together" not the desolation of "me alone"

your soul is the sexiest "organ" of your makeup your body is the most soulful expression identify with a tree and sense how its roots growing in the depths and its leaves on the heights function as one everything's conscious everything flows and links and intermingles everything's passionately engaged with everything else!

dreamers of dreams now's the time to awake doers of deeds now's the hour to soar in your sleep we bring news of your next becoming we're the mystery knocking to be known once you see with reborn eyes nothing exists that isn't holy once you feel with a wide-open heart there's no being you meet who's not another embodiment of yourself

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-08-14T06:59:00.001-05:00

I ARRIVAL (Continued)

RADIANCE

light from outside you know how could you exist without the sun? but the Light from inside too many don't know It's not visible to biological eyes only to the eyes of inner being sunlight is the source for your body Divine Light is the Source for your soul both are necessary for incarnate life to flourish on Earth yet only Divine Light sustains beyond death

we are the beaconers of Divine Light we are the psychic Lighthouse keepers whatever the storms which rack your days and ravage your nights we keep watch and signal safe passage secure harbor look through us beyond us and you will find your Eternal Home

all you hunger for that aching void inside which you cannot satisfy with addictive idols and ephemeral illusions Divine Radiance alone (which has no cause because Itself is Primal Cause) will feed and fill when your soul bathes in this Light you experience grace and attain peace within you is a luminous ever-renewing Fountain drink from It's bliss and be healed

we're not going to leave you alone we're going to bug you until you become aware of us--if only because you'll finally plumb an absence a loneliness a desperation you no longer can bear Divine Light is also soul essence--a sphere of consciousness whose periphery is nowhere and whose center is everywhere always you're already saturated with such holy communion clenched refusal to recognize this truth is what exhausts and depletes you seek Inner Radiance with your whole heart and you will find it

MANDALA

mystic symbol UFO cosmic seed template for enlightenment we plant this mandala now in your soul contemplate it pulsing undiscovered within are a teaching a story a journey and a transformation you are not what you seem reality is far vaster than you can imagine what you think you know is but one tiny flicker in a radiant immensity of being

through suggestive words and intriguing images we try to impart a wisdom which is beyond both words and images only by experiencing this wisdom becoming this wisdom will you understand such knowledge starts with emptying out stripping naked opening up letting go allow simplicity and humility to become your path gratitude and transparency to guide your way

this Truth is very rare yet common as water a mysterious secret yet hidden in plain sight when you look for it it's gone behind you when you turn around it's not there! the breathing inside your breath is part of it as is the seeing beyond your eyes more inescapable even than your own shadow the Sublime saturates every cell but most remain blind to its shining--oblivious

no longer now is wake-up time every wall will crumble all compartments break down the illusion of duality--at last exposed! a new revelation's arriving and its power is immediate and universal after so long trapped in a stifling cave human consciousness will be liberated and expand to the stars we are messengers of that we are the soul beacon orienting you toward your destiny don't be afraid! struggle free from alienation step into eternity's blazing Light

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RISING ABOVE: EXTRATERRESTRIAL WISDOM

2019-07-31T11:37:00.000-05:00

"There is a world beyond ours, a world

that is far away, nearby, and invisible...

That world talks. It has a language of its own.

I report what it says.

-- Maria Sabina --

Mazatec Shaman

PROLOGUE

The vision would not come clear. In my mind's eye I seemed to see something before me, hovering in midair. What was it? This went on for a few days. But then, without warning, it clicked. I was gazing out, in front of me, when I should have been looking up, directly over my head! Then the vision snapped into focus: it was a UFO descending, and my consciousness was the bull's-eye right beneath it.

So, during August 2017, in sync with the total solar eclipse, I began a life-changing spiritual and creative odyssey that's culminated in these channeled drawings, poems, and prose teachings. Along the way I started effectively meditating for the first time; encountered a totemic stray black cat named "Shadow"; further plumbed unhealed wounds from childhood trauma; became a vegetarian; psychically bonded with an Extraterrestrial Spirit Guide; joined an amazing Paradigm Shift Support Group, and underwent a wrenching, ecstatic past-life regression session. Indeed, a year to remember!

I've been writing mystical poems for many years, but all from a first-person "I" point of view. Channeling has been a totally new and challenging experience. I liken it to balancing precariously on a high wire, one that's twanging over an abyss--without a safety net! Wiping the ego completely out of the way; yet remaining fully present and activated with all my skills as a writer; feeling utterly clueless when I face the blank computer screen; trying to download a meaning-laden Silence into transparent words--all this and more coalesced into the hardest writing project I've ever undertaken. And the most rewarding.

If someone had told me less than two years ago that I'd soon be channeling Extraterrestrial Wisdom, I'd have good-naturedly laughed in their face. I encourage you to retain a healthy skepticism. At the same time, I invite you to keep an open mind as well. We're in the throes of a huge shift in human consciousness, a quantum leap in the evolution of our species! Individuals are waking to a new, deeper vibration of connection with each other at a soul level; to a wider sense of Oneness with all life, all being, our whole sentient planet, the infinite cosmos! And part of this waking is the realization that we're not alone. The universe is crowded with highly evolved spiritual beings--entities who communicate telepathically and traverse many dimensions beyond our humdrum, everyday awareness. Only our paranormal, non-ordinary awareness will perceive them.

But whether or not you believe in Extraterrestrials, please take the time to view these drawings and read these words. If they chime deep within you; if they strike a chord you've longed to hear; if they help you to remember a spiritual wisdom you've always known; if they delight, irradiate and uplift your soul--let that be enough. Ultimately, all teaching which beams transforming Light emanates from One Eternal Source. And when we plumb our own psyches to the depths, we discover that this Source is the Universal Essence of who we all most magnificently Are.

Although definitely non-linear, this work is a kind of mystical narrative, unfurling from the first companion artwork/poem--"Arrival"--to the last--"Departure." As such, I suggest exploring it sequentially, from the beginning to the end. I've found, both in the writing and the reading, that imbibing small, one-at-a-time doses of this concentrated Extraterrestrial Elixir seems best. Like all things intrinsically poetic, it most suffuses it's magic when slowly sipped and fully savored, like fine wine.

I'm grateful beyond words for the privilege of channeling this higher wisdom from my Spirit Guides. May it illuminate your consciousness as piercingly as it has mine.

I ARRIVAL

ARRIVAL

what's out there is in here that first galaxy

birthed by the Big Bang whirls in your brain

so we fascinate prodigies from the heavens

but also as mandalas your innermost Light

we're keepers of the Flame psychic guides

and cosmic channels to the Universal Source

we're always present yet forever beginning

your still small secret voice of holy intuition

oneness transparency ecstatic communion

they wake in every undefeated seeker we're

their beacon transfixing your consciousness--

Infinity's laser beam! Eternity's piercing eye!

we true your compass in this fractured world

then summon beyond See! the Mother Ship's

arriving now encircled by a corona of leaves

its portal gleams at the epicenter of your soul

ARRIVAL

EPICENTER

only one release valve opens beyond yourself though there appear to be many but these are illusions only the wormhole at the center the singing Light of your eternal soul this is the hub of an invisible axle which turns the gigantic wheels of the galaxies here's the secret your world has forgotten we've come to help you remember all polarities are reconciled there all seeming contradictions resolved we will teach you the liberating wisdom of paradox

don't be afraid of little blisters what does that mean? sometimes a nagging discontent starts rubbing against your consciousness but you ignore it so eventually it raises a mental blister creates a sore spot that's us trying to get your attention guiding you back to your intuitive core when you come home there you'll see with infinite eyes hear with infinite ears know with infinite love

you're not separate but one sacred thread of a wholeness without end yet you live fractured inside and out that's because you no longer empty yourself of your self you think you alone are the cat's meow and the dog's bow wow this carves a hungry void inside where there should be Light-filled emptiness surrender your preening self-regard then you'll enter the Cosmos which waits to enter you

don't you see the radiance? doesn't every atom of your being gravitate There? we're a focusing lens for your inner vision your illuminated third eye we're a cosmic tuning fork vibrating to the Music of the Spheres your loneliness is your refusal to welcome us what's our UFO but your own alienated soul arriving now waking in you a revelation of the Universe you already are

(To be continued, serially, each week, until the entire book is published on-line.)

INNER AND OUTER DIVINITY

2017-05-29T10:17:00.000-05:00

THE SILENTEST PLACE

silently go to the silentest place
removing with reverent touch
the last obscuring veil such
unmediated Light streams out
irradiating your thirsting soul

drink from this Holy Presence
which alone is flawlessly real
so an intimate companionship
wakes the essence of all-that-is
till not even a dust mote is dark

the joy we seek is the joy we are
love we crave is the love we give
curl in closer to hear the singing
the secret psalm of our molecules
the ringing music of the spheres!

all my words run away and hide
they can't define a seed so potent
holding the sun moon and stars
your face my voice our deaths
our births the endgame of time

silently go to the silentest place
what you discover is who you
truly are that impostor the ego--
demolished! now no one's left
only this boundless Communion

***

This poem evokes one aspect of the Divine--"Hidden Transcendence." Here God is silence, emptiness, formlessness--a secret Spirit of Holy Presence at the innermost core of our being, of all being. This Hidden Transcendence is the crux of who we most deeply are, our profoundest identity. Paradoxically however, we can only come home Here by disappearing! That "impostor the ego" must be demolished. After this happens, our imperious "I" has vanished at last into a transcendent "We" of boundless Communion.

SHOUTING HELLO

something brazenly red is shouting "Hello!"

it's quite far away along the sidewalk as yet

next to a tree and near a parked car I can't

make out exactly what I'm seeing just that

it looks huge and round and outrageously red

drawing closer I realize it's a giant blossom

I don't know what kind of flower but exotic!

with five petals arrayed in a star-like pattern

a chartreuse pistil thrusts out from the center

there's a fragile black stigma flaring at its tip

what amazes me though--the blossom shouted

"Hello!" hollered from half way down the block

No not using some humdrum human greeting

nor with any articulation my mind could grasp

it sent a scarlet semaphore straight to my soul!

now we stand here face to face (so to speak)

I feel shy awkward not knowing what to say

how can I fathom the inner motive of a flower?

but while out walking by myself today I thank

this red blossom for shouting its joyous "Hello!"

***

This poem celebrates the outer, incarnate aspect of Divinity--its "Immanent Glory." Only when both inner and outer expressions of Godhead are recognized as One, can we embrace our own wholeness and full potential. That exotic red blossom and I never could have communed with each other, unless each of us first was one with the Hidden Transcendence at the core of our being. One Is All. All Are One. We Are That!

ENCOUNTERS WITH THE UNKNOWN

2017-05-02T09:13:00.001-05:00

KNOCKING ON THE DOOR

I knock knock and knock at the door
of the new poem that wants to be born
but as it swings wide open there's only
Emptiness--Emptiness waits to blossom
to grow transparent on this page in me

so I ask ask and ask of the Emptiness
"what do You want? why are You here?"
but Emptiness replies only with Silence
it seems Silence also presses to be born
born right now at the center of my life

I knock knock and knock at the door
of Silence until it too swings wide open
and there in Silence's heart is Presence
nothing I can see hear touch taste smell
just utter connection pure relationship

so I ask ask and ask of this Presence
"what do You want? why are You here?"
and the Presence says (without a word)
"I'm the deathless Source of all you are
what's infinite and eternal in your soul"

***

For me, starting a new poem is always an encounter with the Unknown. Unless I'm willing to face that Emptiness, that chaos of infinite possibilities in the world, and inside me, I'll never take the all-out, naked risks necessary to break through my ego's prattling, or the inevitable constrictions and evasions of language itself. More and more, this creative emptying opens me to unmediated Presence, that Eternal Source which dwells in the heart of Silence, and from Which all meaningful speech is born.

BIRTH THROES

drawing a blank it's what always happens

right here at the beginning without a clue

facing the blank page everything possible

what's hardest? wrestling with emptiness

what's sweetest? dancing with emptiness

no barriers no rules or limits wide open!

such freedom's breathtaking scary as hell

but I dive in anyway taking crazy chances

now I'm splashing around in a huge ocean

trying not to panic praying not to drown

the next line pops up like an inflated dingy

and I climb in hold tight gasp for breath

roller-coastering these mountainous swells

feels like they rise up in eight-line stanzas

if I could just keep afloat for one more line

maybe I can weather this fierce soul-storm

gradually a vast wind subsides the waves

slacken here I am again sitting in a chair

staring at the page but it's no longer blank

there's a struggle marking it a raw voyage

as if something naked and primal got born

I'm not sure what that is or why this ruckus

but I want it to live flourish grow strong

I want it to exfoliate in me as fearless love!

***

This poem expresses its own birth throes from the bloody womb of the Unknown. It's a harrowing journey to a new world through the ocean of chaos and uncertainty. But isn't this always the way if any new, vital life ever succeeds in being born? Incarnation's not for sissies! To give birth to form, meaning, new possibility, out of nothingness and emptiness--isn't this the essence of the creative act? We must be willing to surrender control and put everything on the line, plunging nakedly through the storm of transformation. As Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "One must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star."

THE COMPANIONSHIP OF ANGELS

2017-04-25T15:01:00.001-05:00

TROUBLE WITH ANGELS

hanging out with Angels means deciding
making the choice I can't be near Them
learn at Their invisible knees of wisdom
if I just run with the party-hearty crowd
solitude's the temple where Angels teach

better sport spiritual sunglasses though
Their Light's as blinding as the noon sun
it's not that we see Them They see us!
see right through us see straight down
to our bare souls--all shadows expunged!

our trouble with Angels is the intensity
of Their ardor it's not like mortal love
stuttering compromised full of doubt
They love impeccably They never stop
never cease Their service for an instant

not warm and fuzzy or cuddly and tame
Angels instruct with a fierce exactitude
They compel us to transform ourselves
painfully shedding our old brittle husks
we're dumbstruck capsized by wonder!

once we feel such transcendent Intimacy
it changes us we're pierced by Holy Joy!
our worst loneliness isn't for each other
it's to be cut off from the Eternal Realms
Angels illuminate our aching to go Home

***

Whether we know it or not, there are more highly evolved spiritual Beings--usually undetectable by our five senses--who attend us, interact with us, teach us and guide us, if we're awake and receptive to their influence. But "solitude''s the temple where Angels teach." If we're not willing or able to go there--off alone, away from the busy, distracting everyday world--we're not likely to encounter Them. And if perchance we do, it's not likely to be a "warm and fuzzy or cuddly and tame" experience! Because Their gaze pierces straight through to the core of our souls, and most of us can't bear to feel so drastically exposed--even to, especially to!-- Divine Love. But how else can we be healed?

SIDEKICK TO SOMEONE

No words can express the abyss

between isolation and having one ally.

-- G.K. Chesterton

I'm the sidekick to Someone without a face

Who smiles nonetheless

Someone silently walks beside me

although They have no feet

I'm the junior partner in a conglomerate

whose central office is Eternity

there's a cosmic laughter that's no joke

that star-quake reshuffles all my molecules

a single seismic chuckle shivers my bones!

"Mr Self-Pity" snubs this Invisible Friend

"Mr Poor Me" squats with his tin cup

begging crumbs from total strangers

meanwhile my Divine Pal juggles diamonds!

outer eyes are for scanning everyday things

inner vision pierces straight to the soul

outer ears register human sounds and voices

inner listening flares open to Angels' songs!

I've got one foot still on the dock

the other already in the boat

and the tide's going out time to set sail

just my Shipmate and me

time to dare the bravest voyage!

we navigate a foam-flecked ocean of stars...

***

The alienating illusion is that we're all ultimately isolated. Consequently, we're always needy and longing for other humans to somehow fill the void of our chronic loneliness. But the actual, cosmic Reality is that we're never alone! We each indeed do have a Guardian Angel--as corny and deluded as that may sound in the withering blast of political cynicism and scientific materialism. Nevertheless, I know from overwhelming personal encounter that it's true. When I think I'm incurably alone, the master--or rather victim--of my fate, then I'm blind to the greater Reality. But when I humbly and gratefully play my natural part as "sidekick to Someone"--then I awaken to the life I was meant to live and the person I was born to be.

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW

2017-04-18T09:08:00.001-05:00

DARKER CRIMSON

a short piece single cello with keening violins
it opens my heart's wound so tenderly achingly

a stroke of darker crimson as the sun slides down
the last longing glance from a dying lover's eyes...

to be a deathless soul burning in a needy animal
any words even this music can only hint at that

all comedy all tragedy rocks and rolls around it
a kiss and bite a laugh and howl fused into one

if you encounter me here my strip-searched self
explore with humility from your own nakedness

then maybe I can bear to be touched even loved
knowing you shiver to the same bittersweet music

a short piece single cello with keening violins
do you feel it? does it break open your heart too?

***

Is there any way to escape the pain, the grief, the dark side of being human? If so, I've not discovered it--nor has anyone else, as far as I know. Our living and our dying are ultimately shrouded in mystery. Of all the arts, for me music comes closest to expressing this--and when it does, the heart's wound I always carry does indeed open so tenderly...achingly. Yet I'm grateful for this pain, because it breaks me open, as nothing else could, to my solidarity and empathy with my brothers and sisters everywhere, and with all living things. There's no path to the mountaintop which does not first pass through the valley of the shadow...

THE WOUND

I'm trying to plumb it to the source

the lone spelunker rappelling down

a bottomless abyss the deeper I go

the further I sink from air and light

I know it was ripped open by deaths

a sister's cancer her mother's grief

my father's heart attack other loves

suffered lost abandoned betrayed

I know a scared child cowers inside it

who runs away and hides who rages

at heaven hell this asylum between

whose trust in love itself was zapped

but it's huger darker colder than these

I plunge back in time beyond one life

to where all Creation's agonies tunnel

my taproot drinks from primal pain

pain that's mine yours each being's

Earth's ravaging pain and every star's

pain of any soul spawned by Eternity

pain born in the outrageous cry "I AM!"

***

The key to this poem is the last stanza, the revelation that beyond all "the slings and arrows" I've experienced in my life, there's a "huger darker colder" anguish which can be traced all the way back to the primal wound of birth trauma. I think this is true for more of us than we realize; it's the unintended impact of overly intrusive modern obstetrical technology upon newborns who were much more conscious, sensitive and vulnerable in utero than we're willing to admit. Writing this poem proved to be a personal catharsis, since after I completed it, that deep, underlying pain was finally transformed through creative insight.

WE ARE THAT

2017-04-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

AN OPEN SECRET

the limpid color of our gaze that's why
we can't see it the luminous silence of
our listening that's what we can't hear

not cloud-obscured on the mountaintop
nor buried deep in the darkest crevasse
it inspires the revelation of each breath!

when we thirst it's water clear and cold
when we hunger it's fresh-baked bread
yet it's even dearer simpler than these

we spend our whole life longing for this
a prize all our eager seeking can't grasp
but it shines in the searching of our eyes!

nothing tricksey here it's an open secret
want to join the ecstatic ones who know?
empty yourself of self become pure light

***

We search out there, in the world, for what we want and need. But who is it who does this searching? Wisdom comes from evolving self-awareness. Consciousness itself is the great conundrum, one which even the most advanced quantum physics can't solve. One day we wake up and realize--we ourselves are the Universe, waking to its own Divinity!

REBIRTH

(for Nelson)

I'm smack-dab in the midst of it again

and it's smack-dab in the midst of me

is a mourning dove perching in a tree?

or does it call from the crux of my soul

those intrepid magnolias--they bloom

despite the frost within me also they

thrum so riotously awake! as though

each spring obliterates all boundaries

which is why I get daffy over daffodils

how they flaunt their gaudy trumpets!

I take the same ridiculous risk myself

blaring the scandalous anthem "I AM!"

then there's the grass--another prodigy!

it spears up through cold crust reborn

out there under an unscarred blue sky

and in here where the sky never ends

***

I've always been a spring junkie. It's my favorite season, although seldom the easiest. Part of me struggles to return from a winter dormancy which sometimes feels almost like death. Yet when I thrill to those first irrepressible signals of nature's resurrection--say, the magnolia's blossoms, a mourning dove's call, or the gaudy trumpets of the daffodils!--then the nascent, renewed life deep within me stirs, resonates and responds. I discover that the rebirth outside me, and the rebirth inside me, have converged as One.

***

The two poems in today's blog, as well as the poems in the preceding two blog posts, are all from my latest book COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: Songs Of An Ecstatic Soul. It can be purchased at Amazon.com (feed "Cosmic Ecstatic Bob Savino" into the search engine). This book, as well as my two others--REPORT FROM THE FRONTIER and BLACK BUTTERFLY--also will be on sale when I read at the Lawrence Poetry Fair, held this Saturday, April 15, from 2 to 5 p.m., 940 New Hampshire St., Lawrence KS.

SIFTINGS OF THE SOUL

2017-04-02T06:42:00.001-05:00

HEARING WIND GUST

hearing wind gust through bare branches
draws me back home to what's elemental
in my bones their roots still tangled with
The Big Bang the roil of galaxies forming

an infinitesimally living spark of all this I
sense I also contain it all experience it all
all time and space all dying and becoming
the abyss of the void the birthing of stars!

when you and I vastly meet we encounter
as two universes--both familiar and strange
each an uncharted cosmos to the other yet
each an indispensable portion of the whole

I'm floored by the enormity of a single seed
stunned by the intimacy of the morning sky!
everything's connected everything engages
everything's a cryptic companion of my soul

***

There's nothing but relationship. Complete independence, total isolation, is an alienated illusion. The gleaming from the farthest star, shining into my eyes after traveling untold light years, changes me--for I myself am created from star-stuff. As Walt Whitman wrote: "All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses; and to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier."

THE STILL SMALL VOICE

I might believe I have infinite choices about

how to live but underlying all that confusion

there's only one--saying either "yes" or "no"

to a mystery the still small voice of my soul

most of us most of the time crave to have it

both ways I know I do my ego or id clamors

"me first!" "me now!" and off the rails I lurch

careening blindly toward my next train wreck

"what hit me?" "how'd this happen?" "why?"

I'm the bewildered victim of my own conceit

so back I stumble to humility's kindergarten

hoping to grasp the teaching I failed to learn

which isn't rocket science it's an open secret

I parse it in the glowing full moon calling me

catch it in the muted cry of a mourning dove

sense it shiver when you voyage into my eyes

the universe's great mantra isn't "I" but "We"

like each glittering shard of the kaleidoscope

whatever exists is part of a profounder Unity

it murmurs in the still small voice of my soul

***

It's with us all the time, if only we will listen. It guide's us through the maze of each day's struggle and confusion, if only we can hear. Go deep, become silent within, open to the mystery. This is our Home Base, our Refuge among all the sound and fury of the world. When we're awake and attuned there, we're never alone. We're in intimate communion with the still small voice of our soul.

EXPERIENCING GRACE

2017-03-25T11:02:00.000-05:00

LIGHT SPILLS

if I strip myself down beyond the bone
to marrow then beneath even marrow
who's left? who's left is my emptiness
a wormhole aching to be filled by Light

there's a name for what I need--Grace
I remember what knees are primed for
and fall to them flayed with loneliness
nothing on this Earth plane can heal me

do you know what I mean? do you long
for an embrace that sheathes your soul
in ecstasy? do you search everywhere
for the Invincible One you already are?

we're trapped on the outside craving
ourselves in others in money or things
but the life we want doesn't start here
it spills as a revelation from the soul!

***

Once we know what it feels like to be one with, at home with, the Source of our being, then to feel alienated from that Source is another name for hell. Our greatest loneliness isn't for other people, as intense as that can be. Our greatest loneliness is for our true Self, the innermost Essence of our soul. Once we're reconnected there, then every incarnate relationship shifts naturally and inevitably into it's right perspective. We may be utterly solitary, but we're never lonely.

THE SPLENDOR

sitting alone not waiting just being

hearing both outer and inner sounds

at home in the grace of each moment

wanting nothing nothing's my refuge

peace envelops me a luminous cloud

sitting alone outside saturates inside

inside pours out not divided but One

what do I need to strive for or prove?

all things flow to me suffused by Light

all things flow from me into the world

sitting alone yet not alone my solitude

a gateway to the Infinite I hum a tune

of the happy soul free offspring of joy!

who's richer than I am right now? who

lives closer to the Splendor we all seek?

***

Gateway To The Infinite

Once we're at home in our Eternal Source, consciously and peacefully, there's nowhere else we can possibly want to be. All the doing and seeking and striving for something or someone out there, is discovered to be nothing more than our craving substitutes for the authentic Treasure--which is unmediated communion with the Light, Love and Bliss at the innermost core of our own being. We most readily attain this communion through contemplative solitude--our "Gateway To The Infinite."

THE SEA AND THE MOON

2016-02-09T13:34:00.001-06:00

THE PACIFIC
(for Matt)

at the horizon where sky and ocean meet
no boat or island the pure curved seam
a conjoining of the elemental and infinite
I breathe it boundlessly for the first time

at the horizon where sky and ocean meet
I'm scoured clean simplified opened out
everything false and puny stripped away
the spirit starts shouting: Yes! Yes! Yes!

at the horizon where sky and ocean meet
to be obliterated is to be reborn to know
nothing the quintessence of all wisdom
dwindling ever smaller I vanish into Joy

***

Last summer I visited my son Matt in L.A., and we spent much time on the shore of The Pacific Ocean. This was only my second time encountering The Pacific--but in spirit, really my first. This time I absorbed the experience through every pore, and the above poem is one result. Another was a drawing I did a few months later, titled "My Pacific."

SPELLBINDER

low full and dusky in the east tonight

ancient spellbinder you compel my eyes

seducing my heart even though I realize

you're just a barren cratered ball of stone

but that's only one of your countless guises

another--intimate companion of my soul

we talk when there's nobody else to listen

what passes between us I'll never reveal

before oceans filled or mountains thrust up

you were there when glaciers first froze

your shining glittered across their crevasses

shamans conjured your oracles--entranced!

this night it's just you me and the cosmos

beyond loving and loss death and grieving

I drink deep from your well of what endures

time/Eternity meet in our communion now

***

The moon and I always have had a special bond. Most nights I look up to check where she is, whether waxing or waning, new or full. On this particular night there was a harvest moon, riding "low full and dusky in the east..." I was awed by her beauty, and felt an intimate communion between us.

THE HIGHEST GIFT

2016-02-03T10:43:00.000-06:00

THE HIGHEST

I fumble for words there are no words
not for the Highest no syntax matches
but I call it Thou Thou transcending all
creating all infusing all embracing all

The Highest because lowest the greatest
because least ever yet never--a paradox!
music so fiercely sweet I ache to hear it
silence so sweetly fierce I gladly drown

every spoke converges at Thou each life
pivots on the axle of that invincible bliss!
rain spatters chanting the primal name
the sun blazes refracting a cosmic smile

most wise because foolish inexhaustible
because empty never yet ever--a mystery!
truth so transparent I can't perceive it
love so incandescent I'm too blind to see

I fumble for words there are no words
not for the Highest just awed devotion
this yearning ascent of my whole being
this translation of my soul to the stars...

***

I adore Beethoven, and one of my favorite works by him is The Missa Solemnis. It's so richly infused with passionate faith, love and joy! After listening to it yet again a while ago, I wanted to express in poetry, however inadequately, the ecstatic spirit and inspirational message I hear in this music. In doing so, I discovered it felt necessary to pack every line with paradoxical metaphors for God. Classical music by the great composers has lifelong, implicitly--and sometimes, as here, explicitly--been a primary source of poetic influence and inspiration.

THE GIFT

all that these words can never say

is what I mean all that these eyes

can't see is what I want to show you

take away take away take away

Who's left is The Gift Emptiness

come awake breathe that Emptiness

lost deep in Its silence a Singing!

the no-sound within beyond all sound

high holy sweet--Music of the Spheres!

we're just one fleck of sentient foam

scattered from a single moonlit wave

cresting on the Sea which has no shore

we're a somewhat squirmy something

wrapped around a Riddle a Paradox

a Sky turned inside out--The Infinite!

for a short while we live and die--doing

this crazy rumba of stuff and nonsense!

then vanish into The Meaning moving all

***

Paradox again. There's really no other way to even approach saying what's beyond words. The name of the game, when writing ecstatic verse, can only be to try to point meaningfully toward the Divine Mystery, realizing that beyond this, the rest is cloaked in a Singing Silence. It's a Holy Fool's game, and thankfully I'm just the Holy Fool born to play it!

COSMIC JOY

2016-01-19T11:36:00.000-06:00

I HEARD YOU SAY IT

did you say it? I heard you say it this Joy
we feel now busting out--it's enough! it's all
we need this sheer Joy of Being this Grace!

did you laugh it? I heard you laughing! Yes!
with such irresistible play your zany voice
drawing forth my own scandalous laughter--

a hilarity zinging from the Cosmic Big Bang!
no thoughts words or meanings just bliss
here now always this uncontainable bliss!

did you kiss me? I felt you kiss me kiss me
like the full moon kissed last night kiss me
how grass kisses each spring when it sprouts

did you sing the One Name birthing all names
our Secret Name which only silence knows?
yes you sang that Name our Holiest Name!

***

In these gloomy, stormy months of mid-January, we can let the weather's dreariness seep into our souls. But once we realize that the ultimate Source of our happiness, our Joy, is never outside us, but always and forever fountaining forth from the inmost core of our being--then we also know we have the power to return home to that Source whenever we choose. Such Joy is our birthright, the essence of what it means to be human, and Divine.

SLAPHAPPY PSALM

You're not here but everywhere there's only You

in the rhythm of my breathing now the grace of

Silence singing the dance of my fingers on keys

You're the Secret my scandalous inner child knows

that Cosmic Joy for which he willingly throws away

all his glitziest playthings even mimicries of love

You're my Clown's Face flipped on its ear laughing!

My Flash Gordon Decoder Ring a wild Jump Start

as my soul's dead battery recharges at forty below!

You're the Apple tossed up but not plunging down

the Ecstatic Maypole I cavort round like a holy fool

the Jigsaw Puzzle I'm boggled by can never solve

You're a Whiplash Windup on the pitcher's mound

that tasty Sweet Spot where my bat smacks the ball

the Sting of the line drive I just snared in my glove

You're Outrageous Bliss the Universe's Bull's-eye!

the Tickle the Giggling the Joke the Punchline!

inside outside upside downside there's only You

***

Where does God live, if not in every single moment of our lives. Experiencing Divine Presence means waking up, raising our consciousness, staying centered, savoring every instant. When we can do this, we realize that each sensation, each activity, each encounter, is Holy. When we can do this, then each breath we take is a prayer of gratitude, a psalm of praise!

WINTER EPIPHANIES

2016-01-12T11:15:00.001-06:00

JOURNEYING

getting old living alone another winter
wind cuts deeper ice more treacherous
night slices down from beyond the stars
how much I long to hold you in my arms

sister father mother brother--all gone
only I've lasted of that splintered family
yet their ghosts still haunt my journeying
how much I long to hold you in my arms

I'm a deathless spirit in a dying animal
bones crack--chilled by the cold and dark
spring's far away hope seems orphaned
how much I long to hold you in my arms

***

We all know them, don't we--those times when inner and outer weather converge to an almost despairing loneliness. Emily Dickinson wrote: "There's a certain Slant of light,/Winter Afternoons--/That oppresses, like the Heft/Of Cathedral Tunes/--Heavenly Hurt it gives us--/We can find no scar,/But internal difference,/Where the Meanings, are--". To be human is at times to feel that "Heavenly Hurt." What makes it bearable, if we endure humbly and patiently, is the rebirth which may arise from such depths.

JANUARY THAW

dead winter leaden sky

the lake frozen over

my heart too

then I see it

tangled among

the fir tree's branches

broken open--

a milkweed pod

inside bursting loose

feathery chutes

awake unfurling

the seeds are ready

the seeds are ready!

look how they spill

into my hand

I release them

my heart laughs

they float free

on the cold wind

whirling! dancing!

***

My heart is ever waiting for spring, for renewal, for rebirth! The smallest sign, even in the dead of winter, is enough to lift my spirits. To see those milkweed seeds whirling and dancing on the cold wind! They reminded me, revitalized me. As Chief Seattle said: There is no death. Only a change of worlds."

HEAVENLY MUSIC

2016-01-05T09:24:00.000-06:00

THE TOWERING SONGS

at certain times if we're graced
with a small favor from the Gods

these words we stammer whether
joy or pain love or awe catch

just the momentary aching gust
of one of Their own pure outcries

it's then we breathe a vaster being
we're raised for this soaring instant

above our tragic deafness lifted
to that sphere where all is singing!

music so rare so piercingly sweet
we can hardly bear it but we do

***

Where does the most soul-piercing music come from? It's not a human invention. We're born to be antennae for signals from a higher, wiser, purer world. And when, even in spite of our smaller selves, such Heavenly Music does break through our earthbound consciousness, for this timeless instant we're lifted out of our animal mortality, into that vaster eternal sphere where all is One.

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

images are useless at showing the invisible

words pointless for saying what's not here

but they're all I have so they'll have to do

without seeing emptiness hearing silence

we go crazy things and noises eat us alive

the inner lifeline to our Holy Source is cut

there's a Melody surpassing every sound

a Radiance too intense for incarnate eyes

a Meaning beyond the senses or the mind

Bach comes closest Glenn Gould serenely

nails it playing The Well-Tempered Klavier

note after note probes deeper into Mystery

yet not all the way never to that shudder

of Boundlessness like visions and poems

they lead us to the brink inspire us to leap

***

Music Of The Spheres

The music of Bach has long inspired me, and none more so than the First Prelude of The Well-tempered Klavier. So I suppose it was inevitable I would try to evoke that "Heavenly Music" in both poetry and art. First came the poem, then the drawing. Then I lugged my boom box to a local poetry open mic, where I recited my poem, to Glenn Gould's playing that Prelude--while also exhibiting my drawing! It was a marvelous multimedia trip, and one of the most fulfilling experiences of my creative and spiritual life.

Naked In The Blast

2015-12-08T10:51:00.000-06:00

CRACKED OPEN

this poem isn't about the looming extinction
of African elephants now being slaughtered
at an even faster rate than they can reproduce
what can I do? I've never set a foot in Africa

my cringing brain just won't stretch around it
anymore than I can save that newborn baby
thrown away in the dumpster or get there
before the suicide slices deeper into her vein

yet ever since my heart cracked open I can't
not hear not see not know the enormity
of suffering in the world I can't block it out
stop it or twitch my horrified self to stone

I try "Be Here Now" and "Follow Your Bliss"
but here and now is each instant everywhere
my soul's bound together with all that's alive
I'm the elephant I kill I'm this grieving man

***

Keat's wrote of the poet's "negative capability", by which he meant a kind of creative empathy that can identify with, even imaginatively become, everyone and everything the poet encounters. This is a blessing, and a curse. As the last line of "Cracked Open" shows, it means I can identify both with the slaughtered elephant, and with the poacher who kills it. Once our heart is cracked open, the whole world pours through.

ALMOST NOTHING

no matter how I slice it I don't want to die

what comes after if anything I don't know

life itself is so wild funny horrid strange

I stare into the mirror but who stares back?

sometimes I'm exhausted it hurts to breathe

where's the point in my blabbing on like this?

among infinite multiverses an almost nothing

sits at a computer pecks doggedly at the keys

I do what I do because I do it that's all "why"

is a lost glove in a blizzard it can't find home

too many directions won't explain themselves

too many walls won't shatter or sprout wings

once a Light--piercing! unimagined!--capsized

my soul my inner world shuddered on its axis

I'm still chopping wood lugging pails of water

but awake now: awestruck clueless blessed

***

While at my most hopeful I believe the soul transcends death; that death is a portal into another dimension of consciousness, I'm not always at my most hopeful. At these times, I resonate more with Shakespeare's description of death: "That undiscovered country, from who's bourne no traveler returns..." Yet my soul has also been "capsized" by a piercing, unimaginable mystic Light! So I'm spiritually awake now, which doesn't mean all doubt disappears. Rather, such doubt becomes the crucible for a more stringently tempered belief.