Harp Song of the Danish Women

What is a woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,
To go with the old grey Widow-maker?

She has no house to lay a guest in—
But one chill bed for all to rest in,
That the pale suns and the stray bergs nest in.

She has no strong white arms to fold you,
But the ten-times-fingering weed to hold you—
Out on the rocks where the tide has rolled you.

Yet, when the signs of summer thicken,
And the ice breaks, and the birch-buds quicken,
Yearly you turn from our side, and sicken—

Sicken again for the shouts and the slaughters.
You steal away to the lapping waters,
And look at your ship in her winter-quarters.

You forget our mirth, and talk at the tables,
The kine in the shed and the horse in the stables—
To pitch her sides and go over her cables.

Then you drive out where the storm-clouds swallow,
And the sound of your oar-blades, falling hollow,
Is all we have left through the months to follow.

Ah, what is Woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,
To go with the old grey Widow-maker ?

Classic poem shared on the Harp List by Jon Murphy

Worship

I met the Beloved today,

under a drowsy Ent (‘tis autumn),

in the cool morning twilight,

in the pre-dawn silence.

Selah.

agd 11.8.2015

Shepherd's Retreat Ctr.

From My Bed

The earth spins …

through narrow slats

and stars float

thru the sky.

I spin …

and my world becomes

a snow globe.

The galaxy spins …

And who gives a shit?

Hafiz!

Make me a sandwich …

Please.

agd

11.8.2015

Retreat

Grateful

Grateful time

to be ---

No cats,

No students,

No planning,

No cooking,

No mowing,

No cldaning.

Just grateful --- to be.

Thanks.

Harp Retreat

Shepherd’s Spring Retreat Center

Sharpsburg, MD

 agd 11.8.2015

Changes

Changes

Summer yawns deeply,

And the sun dims.

Yet in the waning light

the fires of autumn burn brightly –

in reds, oranges, yellows and greens.

Day to day,

the fires delight

‘til frost and cold

steal the fire’s glow,

leaving the landscape

dotted with browns and ash

‘til winter’s icy winds

bare the branches naked,

readied for the snow and ice

to grace their limbs

‘til the sun burns brighter once more

to wake the sleeping earth.

agd 10.31.2015

Tradition

Tradition

“Anyone who tells you

they were born good is lying –

We’re just born and we are dying.”*

We learn to love,

and we learn to hate.

We learn to live, and we learn to try.

Our fleshly heritage burns

with the fears and hurts of ages past

we never knew,

but perpetuate

so to “belong”,

too afraid to break

the chain of “tradition.”

Tradition can be sacred;

Tradition can be evil – it’s a choice,

a judgment of culture and “tradition.”

Who’s “tradition” will win?        

And at what cost?

And why bother?

But we who animate this bag of molecules

belong to a greater tradition

hidden in the glowing folds

of the One and Myriad Spirit.

I, me, here. 

I, me, there,

– only One am I.

This is a grand production,

movie, theater.

As below, so above.

So, get over it.

That heritage of fear

is only a cloak -

so let it fall,

and shine the light of your being.           

You are a star, made of stars.

Choose Life!

Conquer the fear.

Connect the Love.

agd 10.1.2015

*Noah Gundersen, “Empty From The Start”

Moonshadow

Moonshadow

Moonbeams from that glowing sentinel,

so grand tonight!

Hide, hide away, silvery moon

as you play,

coyly slipping into the shadows,

peeking beyond Mother Earth

to trick Father sun!

Like the cat,

who, hiding her face

believes her furry tail

cannot be seen.

No! You can’t see me now!!

Tee-hee!

Peek-a-boo!

Oh, you caught me!

Her burning cheeks glow red…

Did you catch my blue thong?

LOL!

Then, beaming anew,

she brightly kisses the shadows.

agd 

Sept. 27, 2015  

Super Moon, Blood Moon, Total Eclipse

August morning walk.

August morn,
No august moon,
Small eyes peer with fear
Through sun-drenched leaves
And cellophane grass,
       stiil green,
soon to be robbed of its Chi,
Turning to paper
In various shades of clay.

agd

Universalism

"... I believe all will be saved in that I believe that all lives are part of who or what God is. I have become convinced that individualism is more of a mirage than it is a reality. It would take a book to say more than that."  Bishop John Shelby Spong.
Thank you, John.

Revelation

Revelation is not written in a book ---

It is an experience –

Actually, Revelation is already written

in every human heart.

It is a gift waiting

to be opened,

to be experienced,

to be reveled in,

to be shared.

You are One –

You are not man, or woman,

not fish nor fowl,

nor angel or devil.

You are Me ---

and I am You.

You are One.

Each of you is indispensable

to the Whole of Reality,

for you are conceived with purpose,

fulfilling a role.

You mistakenly judge the importance of your role ---

that is an illusion ---

Work to express the depth of your urge,

to be, to act, to see, to feel, to wonder,

to love.

No one can be you,

so your purpose is necessary

to the success of the whole,

no matter what you are,

or what you do.

Just do it --- Be --- You are One.

                                                                agd 

Only One

There is no deafening silence ---
I don't "need" background sounds
to affirm I am alive ---

I hear your voice
in the hollow of my mind ---
one voice,
only one.

It's in the ringing ---
Or is it the ringing?


agd

Midsummer's Dress

Splayed white galaxies

   and electric blue faces ---

Queen Anne’s Lace
   and chicory ---

Midsummer’s new dress.

agd

Reflections from the sands 2

“Show Me”

My Beloved ---

Show me,

Guide me,

Sweep me off my feet

So I can fly into the sun.

agd 7.14.15  OC. Md.

“The Shell”

The shell is in the sea,

The shell is from the sea,

The sea is in the shell.

I hear it, so it must be.

agd 7.14.15  OC, Md.

“Harplay”

I play my harp

   for my Beloved,

And my Beloved plays me

  for the world.

Selah.

agd 7.15.15  OC, Md.

Reflections from the sands - 1

"Why?"

Why so many?

Why do you need

all these variations

of manifestation?

“Because.”

Um, that’s it?

agd 7.14.15  OC, Md.

“What Am I?"

What’s the sense of this charade?

Peering out from this childhood icon,

hot and sweating ---

Some stare,

  Some frown,

    Some laugh.

And one little munchkin’s eyes

suddenly light up,

and her little body shakes with delight.

The charade for her is reality,

and I am justified.

agd 7.14.15  OC, Md.

“Ah!”

So many gulls,

so few fries.

agd 7.14.15 OC, Md.

The Boardwalk

“The Boardwalk”

A thousand people

A thousand cooks,

A thousand lights,

A thousand seagulls

                  performing for

A thousand fries.

A thousand smells

assail the senses,

weaving in the mind

a tapestry of

A thousand memories.

And even now,

my clothes still smell of it all,

and I remember.

agd 7.14.15 OC, Md.

Reclaimed

Mother  called –

I stood on the edge

of each new wave –

I felt her gentle, salty kisses –

and their power dredged

the pummeled shells

from under my feet.

My feet sank,

another wave rolled in,

more sand dredged,

I sank more.

Over and over,

I relished her repeated kisses.

Sinking deeper into the sand –

I could no longer see my toes,

nor my feet –

Will she reclaim all of me?

agd 7.14.15 – OC, Md.

DecOrations

June Morning

The damp, early air,
full of honeysuckle dew,
while buntings praise morn.

agd

It's so simple...

"Jesus reveals the God of life, calling us to live, the God of love freeing us to love and the Ground of Being giving us the courage to be all that we can be. That is what Christianity is about."

John Shelby Spong

Prejudice

​

   “ Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. ”

― Maya Angelou 

Divinity vs. Humanity

 "In my opinion the pathway into divinity comes in being fully human, that is in the understanding that God and human life are not two separate categories, but the divine is the ultimate and depth dimension of the human and that the pathway into the divine is found when each of us becomes deeply and fully human.

Christianity is a journey into God. Jesus reveals the divine in the human, but the two are never separate, so the divine can never finally “invade” the human since it is already there."

--- Bishop John Shelby Spong

Who did it?

Did God invent humanity?
                   yes.

Did we create God?
                   yes.

Will we become God?
                   yes, that's the idea....
evolving toward that Eureka moment,
individually,
then collectively.

Only One --- I Am.

Now, pass me a beer
and let's screw.


agd

ESOL class party 2015, Winchester VA.

ESOL class, Winchester VA 2015.

The Meaning of Life

   “ Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning. ”

― Joseph Campbell 

  

Life is experience. The Matrix creates your vehicle, and you, unique as you are, experience Life in the way only YOU can. This makes the variety of material experience infinitesimally diverse. And it is as diverse in every other dimension. This also makes your unique perspective and experience as necessary as a star or a bacterium feeding on offal.  
-- agd

Sexuality Complex

Why should we trudge through life in bodies which seem sometimes foreign to the individual? 
The premise is reincarnation. I believe that before coming into a body, we agree to live in a particular form for the experience of it. The variety of human experience gives any one soul a plethora of possibilities. Our inner being often "remembers" the last life lived, or perhaps many lives lived, which could have been the opposite sex and an identifiable experience. The strength of that memory plays on the present mind and sometimes is in opposition to the outward vehicle (body). This is not the only life you or I have lived, and in the grand scheme of things, is a drop in the bucket. What needs to be learned, and through all the revealing stories of so many transgendered persons (a label created to define sexual "anomalies"), is that we ought not to demonize those who do not fit into the "normal" human category of male or female. Again, the variety of human experience is incredibly diverse, and we must learn to respect that - this fabulous Life (in all its dimensions) is God's drama, and God has allowed/created this diversity to the glory of the Divine Mind. We truly have to ask the question: "What is normal?" And normal is not a divine absolute, it is what we humans, in our various cultures, define as a community/society. It morphs with increasing knowledge of the human/material condition.

Pay Attention!

The morphing seasons,

confused as they are,

will tempt the wondering eye

to not be anxious.

But Wind and Howl

will batter the brain

and force a retreat

to the Cave and Bowel.

When Trees cry out,

and Creatures cower,

and Men wonder in awe,

Then the Force will cause

the planet to reclaim

its balance,

its own,

its peace.

agd

Healing Power of Art - Shaw TV Nanaimo

What Is Truth?

"Life is a mystery which we are called to engage. What we think of as obvious truth today may look like mythology to our descendants in the 23rd or 24th century. Truth may not be relative, but our perception of truth always is. The experience of God may be real and eternal, but our attempt to explain that experience in a Bible, the creeds, our doctrines, dogmas and liturgies is never eternal. That is a fine line to walk. Organized religion constantly falls into idolatry. (emphasis is mine) By that I mean that we relate to things we have created, e.g. the Bible and human creeds, as if they are the truth to which they only point."

John Shelby Spong 

Just play it!

A wonderful harper wrote this poem, and it speaks volumes to all who have performance "jitters."

Recital Poem

Oh, just play it.
Play it. Play it. Play it!
I am the audience
I want to hear you,
Your carefully crafted
Agonizingly wonderful
- or not-
Notes, however they are.
You have worked hard for them
So let them sound
Let them out
Let them sound out
No longer trapped in your fearful hands.
Play it!
                        Sue Richards

What more?

How do I know
when I'm done?

I am a gardener,
a teacher,
a priest,
a preacher,
a contemplative,
a poet,
a church musician,
a music teacher,
a composer of music,
a writer,
a harpist,
an artist.

I entertained people,
counseled people,
inspired people,
helped people,
consoled people,
worked with people,
taught people,
guided people,
and probably misguided some.
(No one's perfect)

Now I see others -
teaching,
preaching,
writing beautiful poetry,
making music,
writing music,
performing music,
entertaining people,
counseling people,
helping people,
consoling people,
working with people,
teaching people,
guiding people
and gathering people.
I empathize,
and I still go
where I am called
to be.

But when do
I let go and say:
"I'm done -
now it's YOUR turn?"

How deep is your ocean?

You see, most people live on the surface of reality =
I have not seen my friend in a week,
I MUST get together with him -
Thus I plan to meet him or talk with him
in order to reconfirm his existence,
and my need to contact him, physically/aurally.
-or -
Oh, that cheesecake was so good! -
I want another piece -
to reinforce the reality of the cheesecake.
So I have to make or buy the cheesecake
in order to confirm its existence
and to reinforce the pleasure of
eating it.

Consciousness (Reality)
is like an ocean.
The deeper one dives,
the more one realizes
the vastness of it -
the Infinity of Consciousness.
In the Infinity of Consciousness,
everything, EVERYTHING  exists -
and is connected,
and time dissolves into the Now.

In the depths of consciousness,
my friend is always there,
and I can visit with him - any time.
I can experience the cheesecake
- any time.
The flourless chocolate cake
tastes as good as if
I had it melting in my mouth.

On the surface of Consciousness
exists the individuality of separateness.
In the depths of Consciousness
exists the Union of Being - where
Everything is Connected.

As Above, So Below - God and Social Media

As Above, So Below

The digital age has more to teach us about God than you might think. We have created a "virtual world" which mirrors and creatively transcends this "real" material world. The possibilities are endless, as it is in God.
Social Media becomes a mode to connect, to network. The contemplative has already discovered that we are all connected, that the universe is a network of living matter, infused with a cloud of knowing which infuses every particle. Life surges within Life. Everything is connected. God is, which connects everything.
Humanity is intimately connected at the center of being. It is only on the surface of Life that we appear to exist separately, individually, an illusion to entertain the One who Is All. This idea may offend some and confuse others, but it is what it is. Yet, what a mind-blowing thought it is - the complexity of Being - creating, maintaining, renewing every particle of Life which forms the larger beings of the universe - from stars to sentient beings - from moment to moment - for an eternal day. This is God's Nirvana, God's Ecstatic Joy. This material universe, these material universes, these quantum material universes, are the virtual realities of God's digital world.
Social media is helping humanity to reconnect, to network again, after a period of time in which we have prized our individuality and uniqueness. But we are unique for one purpose - to excite each others' senses - to wonder at the individuality of life and the plethora of creative expression.
The wonders of this life teach us about God and Reality, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. Computer technology and social media teach us about the reality of God, too. If you have ears to hear and eyes to see, your heart will understand - Everything really is --- Connected. Everything is One.

Not Enough Tears

I have not enough tears
to shed over this
latest atrocity in Kenya.
I am becoming numb.

Fundamentalism pollutes
every religion, every senate.

So-called religious "leaders" -
who are only doing their "job"
mislead and guide astray
the lambs -
have any of them touched
the hem of the divine?
and Jesus warned us -
Beware the false shepherds, and
the wolves in sheep's clothing,

Fundamentalism pollutes
every religion, every senate.

Judaism has not saved the
human heart -
neither has Christianity -
and neither has Islam -
neither Hinduism,
nor Shintu,
nor Confucianism,
nor any religion
in the name of any god.
(There really is only one,
and the One is nameless)

If Islam takes over this country,
I shall quietly disappear -
and you can pick up the pieces.

Ignorance pollutes
every religion, every senate.

You can only save yourself.

agd

Why do artists create?

Why do we do what we do?

We do it for love of the Universe! The creation is an end in itself. When we get a little acknowledgement from others, that's a bonus.

                                  Jan Faires, harper and entrepreneur.

Ideas Are Forever...

I believe that even if we don't produce our ideas physically, every idea is still recorded in the Book of Life - even Jesus intimated that thoughts are real and have an impact. So then, every idea is available, if we have eyes to see, and ears to hear. How wonderful is THAT?!! And it would take an eternity to peruse them all!

Nothing is lost, 

no one is ever forgotten, 

and everything has value.

agd

The Whole Truth

"Within us is 
the soul of the whole, 
the wise silence, 
the universal beauty, 
the eternal One."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Snowday

Covered in white -
not color,
but brilliance,
like sparkling sand
the sugary ice
muffles life.

So quiet it is,
so peaceful the world
right now
in the morning light -
not a wheel turning
on the road or in my head -
just listening -
to the sunny silence --

And Absalom purrs relentlessly.

agd 2.17.2015

Shifting Snow

The shifting snow
swirls behind
the horseless carriage
I follow,
moving too fast
for me to appreciate
each moment's new pattern.

And even if each moment
were captured in pixels,
I could not live long enough
to view them all.

agd 2.16.15

Send Off

The Dalai Llama has said that dying is just getting a new set of clothes. Here’s an interesting take on what it may be like for the newly departed, casting off their burdens and moving with enthusiasm into the next world. Kathleen Aguero lives in Massachusetts. 




Send Off 

The dead are having a party without us.

They’ve left our worries behind.

What a bore we’ve become

with our resentment and sorrow,

like former lovers united

for once by our common complaints.

Meanwhile the dead, shedding pilled sweaters,

annoying habits, have become

glamorous Western celebrities

gone off to learn meditation.

We trudge home through snow

to a burst pipe,

broken furnace, looking

up at the sky where we imagine

they journey to wish them bon voyage,

waving till the jet on which they travel

first class is out of sight—

only the code of its vapor trail left behind.

Kathleen Aguero

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2013 by Kathleen Aguero from her most recent book of poems, After That, (Tiger Bark Press, 2013). 

Valentine's Day

You have never told me,
"I love you"
in words I can hear.

But you have provided for me,
protected me,
inspired me,
embraced me,
sent angels to help me,
and have given me
vision to see.

You are ever present,
ever loving,
and what more can I do
but love you in return? ....

when I help you in my brother,
give you freedom to roam the field (meow),
smile at you on the street,
when I show compassion,
when I play my harp for you
when you are sick or dying,
when I pass up a penny in the parking lot
so you, as a child
will be thrilled to have found money -
what luck!

Thank you, my love ... for everything.

agd

Thanks

So many passing minutes,

busy days,

and fleeting years -

But all we need is 

a moment in time

to remember

the good people

on our journey

and to bless them

on their way.

agd 2.13.2015 

Burning Skies

Today,
The burning rose
   Of evening mirrors
The fiery rose of dawn -
   Sun singeing the edges
Of night and morn -
   Bookends of fire
For a bland day.

agd

A reminder to those who call themselves Christian

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

A Franciscan Prayer (not written by St. Francis of Assisi) Explanation