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I believe poetry can be a way of expressing the
unfathomable. It is a way of reaching into deeper levels of consciousness
in order to understand what inspires and impels our being. After
all there is a part of us that is in deep connection with the imagination
and creativity of the universe. Each one of us contains the universe
and with it allsymbols and forms and a knowing that we are part
of a deeply mysterious enigma which at times we can plumb into -
like a fisherman casting this line into the deep ocean to capture
incredible truths and realities. We are indeed on the edge of cusp
of change and withing the recesses of our lives we can capture the
essence of transformation which can lead to a new humanity more
in harmony with itself and the living universe. The motto of the
New Paradigm is to think cosmically and act globally. I hope these
poems express some of the mystery of the new global paradigm and
the shift that we need to make.
Michael
Ellis
(Click
on titles)
Call me by my true names
by Thich Nhat Hanh
From: Peace is Every Step:
The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh
This poem by Thich Nhat Hanh embodies the essence
of what he calls "interbeing," the innerconnectedness
of all things.
In
Plum Village, where I live in France, we receive many letters from
the refugee camps in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and
the Philippines, hundreds each week. It is very painful to read
them, but we have to do it, we have to be in contact. We try our
best to help, but the suffering is enormous, and sometimes we are
discouraged. It is said that half the boat people die in the ocean.
Only half arrive at the shores in Southeast Asia, and even then
they may not be safe.
There
are many young girls, boat people, who are raped by sea pirates.
Even though the United Nations and many countries try to help the
government of Thailand prevent that kind of piracy, sea pirates
continue to inflict much suffering on the refugees. One day we received
a letter telling us about a young girl on a small boat who was raped
by a Thai pirate. She was only twelve, and she jumped into the ocean
and drowned herself.
When
you first learn of something like that, you get angry at the pirate.
You naturally take the side of the girl. As you look more deeply
you will see it differently. If you take the side of the little
girl, then it is easy. You only have to take a gun and shoot the
pirate. But we cannot do that. In my meditation I saw that if I
had been born in the village of the pirate and raised in the same
conditions as he was, there is a great likelihood that I would become
a pirate. I saw that many babies are born along the Gulf of Siam,
hundreds every day, and if we educators, social workers, politicians,
and others do not do something about the situation, in twenty-five
years a number of them will become sea pirates. That is certain.
If you or I were born today in those fishing villages, we may become
sea pirates in twenty-five years. If you take a gun and shoot the
pirate, all of us are to some extent responsible for this state
of affairs.
After
a long meditation, I wrote this poem. In it, there are three people:
the twelve-year-old girl, the pirate, and me. Can we look at each
other and recognize ourselves in each other? The tide of the poem
is "Please Call Me by My True Names," because I have so
many names. When I hear one of the of these names, I have to say,
"Yes."
Do
not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.
Look
deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I
still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.
I
am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time
to eat the mayfly.
I
am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.
I
am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.
I
am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.
I
am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands,
and I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to,
my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.
My
joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks
of life.
My pain if like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.
Please
call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please
call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.
Thich
Nhat Hanh
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Ah
to this rationalist order
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Of
economy
I think of thee
And sigh
For golden palaces
And flags flying
And people dancing
Imagination romancing
Towards a better time
When word and verse
Constonant with rhyme
Did wring truth
From the heart
With nothing wasted
As all was Art
Michael
Ellis
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If
I could
But sort out
This game
And know
No judgment
And feel
But innocence
Despite avarice
And know
My dreams
Were of peace
Could we not
Meet in silence
And know
Purely existence
Michael
Ellis
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Sun
arising over Mt Sumeru
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Sun
arising over Sumeru
Casts gold on our shadows
And life is imbued with change
As that which was hidden
Is subtly revealed and arraigned
Michael
Ellis
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The
giant ocean
Heaves and breathes
In limitless extension
Containing all Buddhas
Conjoining all perception
And the minutiae of now
Conflicts and dissension
Are dissolved in tears
Of resolution and perfection
For your truth and beauty
Is impressed in unity
With the art and the Law
Which knows the cause
Of your being and source
And admits of you no error
And avails all resource
Michael
Ellis
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The
Mystic Element of the Soul
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THE LAW
Sounds in a city
Silent thoughts
Compassion, pity
Harvest moon
Darkening sky
Evanescent clouds
Passing by
Galactic colours
Electric storms
Murmurs of the deep
Child's sleep
Unseen paths
Birds in the sky
Morning sun
And fire flies
Priest's face
Silent prayer
Enfolding mind
Mystical sign
Deepest fusion
Uni—verse
Hidden treasure
Every life
Weaves the Law
Of Infinite sound
Ocean currents
Love and despair
Everything changes
Everywhere
Karmic signs
Human laughter
Meaning grows
As life unfolds
Michael
Ellis
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What is
hidden
In the depths
Of our lives
What strange inspirations
And dreams
And is all
What it seems?
Pure mundality
And routine
Or is there not
A wild gene
A joker in the pack
Which stirs and drives
Our souls
To dissemble facts
So we create our lives
Into rare priceless gems
Presenting themes
Of creativity and song
Which are from infinity
And
beyond
Michael
Ellis
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When is mystery
Really seen
Is it in the recesses
Of our dreams
Or in night images
Of hidden opaque themes
Do we reach out
To touch the hand
Of God expiring
And images
Of angels fleeing?
For the moon
Born on a different cusp
Rises to be viewed
With a different trust
The old beliefs
Have shattered our truth
And we seek for
Confirmation of the new
Where even the most mundane
Is imaged with change
That refreshes and enlivens
And takes on a new hue
Michael
Ellis
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
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Fire deep within my core.
Fire spinning round and safe inside.
Fire steaming through my veins and vents.
Alive.
On my surface are parallel universes.
Many mistakenly call my sacred core hell.
And hell it is to them when they seek to keep their crusts intact.
Heaven it is to them when they allow the fire to resonate and ignite
their own.
In syncopated breaths, fire breathing fire, alive, flowing, free,
creating and destroying.
Heaven…hell just concepts … I speak all languages.
My fire cuts through time and space … to the heart … to
the quickening.
Enlivening and transforming all in its paths.
I resonate with the moons and other planets.
Each planet still containing its sacred fires in the core like mine.
Their subtle emanations – magnetic, strong and clear –
are felt all around and through me.
How could I not be changed?
I resonate with the sun
Whose fire is not contained and emanates brilliantly
Splashing through space
warming my crust and subtly my core.
How could I not be changed?
Oh parallel universes who share this universe with me,
Awaken your cores!
Know your fire.
Let it move up through your dorsal spine awakening your centers.
Parallel universes we also share together when you awake.
In sleeping, wake.
In waking, do not sleep.
See me.
See my core of fire.
And therein realize your own.
Burn with me in syncopated time.
Pulsing inextinguishable.
Morning Star and Evening Star, my fire never slumbers.
It is always there.
Connect with it and awaken to it.
With heart, connect to its energies.
Travel with it and me through time and space.
You do this anyway, but do it consciously … alive.
O silly shells, you thought me dormant and not alive.
I am more alive than you’ve ever realized yourself to be.
Oh, parallel universes, travel through the veils of parallels with
me.
I am a conduit, example, nourisher, and guide for you.
Like you, I bask in your sun and blaze with its radiance.
At night, we slumber resting, but our fires always burn.
Connect to this energy and human once again you become.
As gods, hope begins again, as the new day dawns.
Ó
Kathy Windsong
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Beate Maria Anna Prang (now Kathy Windsong)
was born in Germany and grew up in New England. She has pioneered
since initial PC development and actively works in the Software
Quality Assurance field for many well known companies. Other fields
of work have included financial markets and international cultural
researcher for broadcast and print media. Her real interests include
being out in nature, writing, singing, hiking, star gazing, language
studies, metaphysical energy studies, and growing into the fully
human potential available to each of us.
Once there was an Atom,
and it had always been sleeping;
The Atom had never woken up,
and didn't know if it was even breathing;
Some day, some how, the Atom woke up,
it woke up and wondered Why?
It wondered and wondered and wondered again,
Say, who woke me up, How and Why?
The fury of the query tore it apart,
and split it into two,
The fire of the desire sealed the division,
and each half said' Who are you?"
The two halves called each other He and She,
and wondered and wondered together.
Who is our Father, Who is our Mother,
Or shouldn't one even bother?
Brother and Sister or Man and Wife,
what is to One make of this life?
They wondered and wondered and wondered again,
wonderingly they wandered and dated as fated;
Not to create nor to procreate,
but to be satiated they mated;
Divided by the experience they multiplied and grew,
from Atoms to Molecules to Cells;
Wonderingly they created the Seven Heavens,
and wandered in just as many Hells!
Cell to cell they created quality,
Elements and Compounds of every property!
So some could see and some could hear,
while some could even say;
Where did I come from and who am I
will no one tell me pray?
Driven by the need for an answer,
driven over million-billion years,
Driven through all joys and sorrows,
driven through all hopes and fears,
Driven through the atom, driven through the molecule,
driven through all smiles and tears,
Driven through the stars, driven through the galaxies,
driven through fire and water,
Driven through the oceans, driven through the mountains,
driven up Life's evolutionary ladder,
Driven through all time and space,
same question is now what we face,
What is the purpose of my life,
and who has woken me?
Who is my Maker and who is my Breaker,
will I ever truly see???
The poem's
original title was "Atom Story - Atum Stotra"
In Sanskrit, Atum means Self/Soul and Stotra means Paeans.
Mr Raj Shekhar Chandola, Head, CMS World
Unity and Peace Education Department (CMS-WUPED),
http://www.cmseducation.org/newworldorder/contact.htm
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