Mindfulness

Serendipity in a paradox 1. :

Feet are buried in the mud, enabling us

to peer closely at the lotus petals.

"If we are thinking only of the cup of tea that awaits us, we are incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink

-actually incapable of living one minute of life."

(-paraphrased from the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn) 

(photo: 2008, Mineral King backpack trip to glacial-fed Monarch Lakes

Time out of mind

Slam the car door, leave the house behind.

Leave the job filled with injured limbs.

Double and triple check

the odometer gauge and the second hands.

Push a safe pace through the fog,

to breach the clear coastal sky,

to bona fide, heart-pounding evidence:

I breathe, I have arrived.

I’ll hike a new trail, void of ravens,

under heavens, immensely blue.

Time out, silent with herons:

my sanctified time with the truth.

The glorious green and the changing wind

brought anew, the smell of the sea.

But I’ll give them away, to you this time,

today, it’s too much for me.

For when angels ride the skies

to uplift and give you peace,

they’ll show you heaven on earth, 

and pull you out of your shoes in pieces.

I’m falling down, just looking around.

I must be out of my mind.

Every step feels like I’m rushing in,

and I do fear what I’ll find.

I need a time-out

just for the day,

but it’s never out of my mind:

Time’s too short for all I want,

and I don’t know what I’ll find.



(This is an old poem, resurfacing for me as a priority.  I have a new goal, serious exploration of meditation.  Anyone know of  an authentic class near Central California?

Mind over matter. Inner Peace. Oneness with the Universal source of Love. Whatever you want to call it.....

what brings you peace?....)

Sea-ing You

Waves retreat, darkly deep, 

drawing me in, like eyes, 

beyond foam green 

beyond blue light

beyond churning life.

Silky soft voices

susurrant highs, like gulls,

blending undertones,

like resonating

waters turning sand.

Reassuring,

like rocking in cradling arms

or like hands reaching forth,

as recurring rows

of white, line upon line. 

Immersion

is a wave crashing gasp

of requisite awe.

Momentarily, a touch of an ocean

is enough.

Dianne Gross-Giese, 1-2010/7-2011

Briefly back to blogging, after a grueling work schedule, wrestling with the economic downturn.  A forced vacation after appendectomy had awakened my muses.

Chthonian Skin

If I could touch you now,

I’d touch your face,

find your cheek

pressed into a plum

when you smile

so softly.

The scent

the soft brush

the round curves

the raised coat

of your skin.

My skin crawls,

seeking touch.

To turn it off is futile.

Never turning the key - IS the key.

Mindfulness in the moment -Is the lock.

So lock it.

How can a hunger start so softly,

and reach so deeply,

through the surface of a well?

Foreign and unformed:

hidden

in chthonian skin.



But feeding or fasting,

will it abate,

negate

or satiate?


To live with crawling skin,

a hungry well,

takes an open heart:

Touch my heart, to quiet my head,

perhaps then I can think myself fed,

and lay my skin to rest

upon the memory of your chest.



.(Chthonic: of or relating to the underworld in pre-Apollonian religion, from earth-based religions.)

why write?

To bring darkness to light

and put to rest the night

to focus youth's might

to make beauty bright

to bring form to sight


to set a wrong right

to charge a fight



to propel flight

to seek a height

to burn a blight

to open insight

(Missing my Muse, I had to turn off the angry tapes running in my head.  One way I do this is to explore the wilderness.  How do you find your muse?)

Anger is only...

a momentum you feel

on the last straight spoke

of a broken wheel.

a tool to dispel

the rain hitting level

under the umbrella.



a pill to make you ill

when hard feelings

can’t get their fill.

an interim storm

of desert grit

to keep words warm.

an instant switch

to start a charge

with a hurl of spit.

a shocking drug

you shouldn’t share

off the chopping block.

How do you deal with anger?  What makes you incessantly angry?  hmmmmm.........I could go on and on and on, why don't you?

Wordless Weds. = Tuesday Toes

One foot in front of the other....     standing on rocky ground all we can do is move forward one step at a time.

Spring weather has hit central California!  Time to enjoy it, today!

Photo: H.G.Giese