Contemplatively Sweet

ISBN: 1-4184-4231-3

Contemplatively Sweet; Slow Down Poems to Ponder. These poems coax the reader to mull and muse and savor. Contemplation is not only good for the soul but eminently practical, adding quality and caring to our work and relationships. 151 pages.

Enough to Give Me Pause

If I have to keep breathing to keep existing,
then air must be part of my identity,
my "I am" must transcend my skin
to include the very atmosphere.
But then what about the sun I'm warmed by,
Earth I stand on,
plants and flesh I eat,
humans without whose love I couldn't live?
Are not all integral to my being,
of necessity included when I say "I am"?
Maybe there's only one great I AM
the immortal divinity of which each mortal thing incarnates.
It's enough to give me pause
when I pause to take a breath
and say "I am."

September 1990

Portal of the Moment

I've been rising to this moment
all my life.
This moment has been rising to me
since the Original Light.
The entire sweep of the extravagant universe
rises through the portal of this threshold moment
to its only future.
Mystics know it,
poets sing it,
flowers and cats, mountains and trees,
live it.

July 1994

A Taoist's View

There is only Tao.
My wave in the flow is perfect,
my unique wave fed by ten thousand unique waves
in this moment of universal convergence
is perfect.
A Taoist view to widen the road,
to open the way and lighten the load.

December 1988

Now Here

Travel light years through space
and never find God--
conceived, that is, as somewhere out there.
Moving beyond spatial notion to grounded experience
marks religion's maturing.
No where equals now here.
Meet the moment that greets you
and find God.

July 1987