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CharlesC Aug 2018
despair lodges raw in the body
which is deemed separate..alone
a contracting pain of
a weighty thing..
a darkness which admits
no suggestion of hope..
but hope seems to persist..
armed now with discovery
of new identification
of a white field which
surrounds and penetrates
the weighty thing..
allowing resistance to resist
the white foothold gently
is placed..hope enlarges into
knowing and seeping into
an emerging surrender...
CharlesC Dec 2012
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Working on a poem, "Feathers" suggested by this one by ED....  Any suggestions?
CharlesC Mar 2016
How to address this biblical bit
which has meant the future
enduring and waiting
hope against hope
repeating the reading..
But no..
We need experiencing
what is not thought
recognizing I am
that eternal Self
experienced only Now..
But then the amazement:
experiencing the suffering
as hiding the wake-up
prompting and pushing
at last perceiving
suffering is made
of Self..
Hope now finds itself
as Remembering...!
CharlesC Sep 2015
Hospitality as open space
allowing what is here now
That open space is consciousness
it is grace
and knowing this we see
that the boundaries and lines
are as waves in the ocean
all Hospitality...!
prompting quotes at:  polarityinplay.blogspot.com
CharlesC Apr 2015
Out there and away
expansion is accelerating
so we speculate
when does expansion
accelerate to light..?
Light which can now
be understood as
both far out and in close
with vibrating variations
seeming as
entering and exiting
heavy blackness..
And new realizing:
It's all right
It's all light..!
background information:  polarityinplay.blogspot.com
CharlesC May 2012
remembering
memorial day just days away
now a special celebration
drenched from over-soul pondering
greeting emerson this eve
his 209th year

poor richards
a place for welcoming
many memories disjoined
all gleaned from our
decades of living
a seeming descent
as we spoke and we
listened

antique autos remembered
youthful power and speed
swimwear two-piece and worn
shock and awe
by our nun
a dog shady by name
departure left questions
of lingering life

youthful dark deeds
some expressed some
in silence remained
memories with colors
some of an evil hue
deceased birds and a snake
regret and sorrow
thickening memories
some weighing still

then a reversal
recent memory brought forth
an injured slight bird
poor richards
again our place of recall
a hummingbird wounded
a new life endangered
dim prospects trapped
our darkened concern

clumsy intention then
unexpectedly blessed
a young woman appeared
joining intention with
her joyful acceptance
a bird found home
revival and rest

this memory of rescue
brought spirits ascending
with the bird our recovery
celebration resumed
glasses now lifted
new beginning
emerson 209 soon

("We sink to rise."  RWE)
CharlesC Sep 2017
The rest of us
were not interrupted..
But an entire state
was interrupted..
Living there once
we were cautioned:
residence here is living
with the hurricane
not if..but when..
When arrived early
Sunday morning..

A wish for those there:
May the peace of the eye
be found in your hearts
and may the eye expand
calming your winds
and your waves
for a lasting peace
coming ashore on this
Hurricane Sunday...
I
CharlesC Nov 2018
I
This
if you haven't noticed
is everyone's name..
And to find our own truth
all that is needed is to
consider our name..
Why do each of us
have the same name..?
after all..we all seem
so different..
Does I really mean I..?
We must take notice:
I seems vast
but also seems limited
and located
and moving to and fro..
And with this notion
we seem to forget
our name..
That's about it..!

(All religions are formed
after someone notices..)
"I"
CharlesC Mar 2020
"I"
Is our sacred name
Which each of us
Without deviation
Call ourselves..
Life's solitary aim
Is to discover what
We mean..by "I"..
Unease as Grace
Creeps in when we
Constrict our meaning
As most of us are
Wont to do..as we
Burden ourselves to
Locate out there the
Why of our unease..
Unending it seems
Until the moment
We unravel as our
Peace...

"I have called you by name; you are Mine!"
(Isaiah 43:1)
CharlesC Feb 2020
"I" ...

This is your name
And mine..
With reflection
We might see that
The fullness which
Seems to fill us
With sorrows and joys
Does not exceed the
Endless extensions of

"I" ...
CharlesC May 2016
This is the name
he proudly savored..
Coaxing new pattern from
places hidden in wood..
His singing lathe
persuading the grain
to reveal what
has never been seen..
If the forest might speak
it would say of
this good man:
by  his gentle turning
he has transfigured
our branches and scraps
into beauty and love...
Remembering a friend, Steve DeJong...
CharlesC Mar 2013
and I am fine..
she speaks first
this her report
each Monday noon
when our group
Soup Salad Scripture
convenes to her
weekly de-light..
Visiting her home we
met precision and grace..
a white decor reflects
her sun-lightened hair..
in her elevated space
we imagined the Peak
closer than before..
her walls portray
her art fascination
a loving life partner
all in this Moment
times in Alaska
and the wide world..
with all this
she served us wine..
we know now
she is Bette
and she is fine...
A tribute to a ninety-one year young friend.....
CharlesC Mar 2018
Consciousness shapes and acts
and becomes I..the doer..
I complete my doing
and my doing recedes
and returns..I rest
as Consciousness...
CharlesC Dec 2013
A simple
Declaration..
Yet it contains
Hidden gold..
Freedom lives
In I am..
New dimension
No modifiers
Limits cancelled
For this moment..
Enough stands
Against fences..
I am
Breathes in
New clarity
Fresh air
From a center
Found
Everywhere…
CharlesC Dec 2016
First we believe we are something
something among all of those somethings..
After suffering as separated something
we are uplifted in discovering we are nothing
not a thing..
We have then transcended our separation
but find that everything we left behind
still calls out for our attention..
Then the sensation:
everything shines ..Peace attends...
CharlesC Oct 2016
This arriving finally
with understanding
a perceiving up close
proceeds from this moment..
A moment of release
from captive bars
and a knowing now
of the brilliance alone
singing in the moment
as Everything...
CharlesC Oct 2020
I Am Everything..

Most simply put:

The "I" explodes

In a vast expansion

Leaving "Am"

Colored by Everything...
CharlesC Jun 2020
These simple words
Mark the nexus between
East and West..
This is the universal gospel
Burdened sometimes with
Too much commentary..
This gospel is available
To everyone everywhere
At all times..
Just sitting quietly.. proceed
Directly to recognition of
The vastness of..I Am
Without all of the
Encumbrances which usually
Attend...
CharlesC Jun 2016
ELIZABETH:  John, it come to naught that I
should forgive you, if you'll not forgive yourself.

We struggle as did John
to find an identity
that is not shrouded:
a most persistent persuasion
of our separation..


ELIZABETH:  There be no higher judge under
Heaven than Proctor is!  Forgive me, forgive me
John--I never knew such goodness in the world!

PROCTOR:  God in Heaven, what is John Proctor,
what is John Proctor?

Our self inquiry comes:
Who am I..?
What am I..?
I am..?


PROCTOR:  You will not use me!
I am John Proctor!
You have made your magic now,
for now I do think I see some shred
of goodness in John Proctor.

**His discovery appeared
on his horizon
as does our own:
Freedom!
Identity!
Peace!
I am...
see Arthur Miller's "The Crucible."
CharlesC Dec 2016
Might it all
come   to    this..
What do we
mean when
we say:
"I" ?
Listen
in a cafe
marketplace
church
TV and web
and we find an
"i"
attached to
so many things
things of joy
entertainment
things of
thought and
contemplation..
Life as "i"
finds:
weariness
loneliness
apprehension
searching
yes..peace­..
Then..
a searing question:
that small "i"
might "i" really
be "I" ?
CharlesC Jan 2015
I love all beginnings, despite their anxiousness and their uncertainty, which belong to every commencement. If I have earned a pleasure or a reward, or if I wish that something had not happened; if I doubt the worth of an experience and remain in my past--then I choose to begin at this very second.
     Begin what? I begin. I have already thus begun a thousand lives.

Rainer Maria Rilke  (Early Journals)
Happy New Year, everyone...!!!
CharlesC Jan 2020
Life for most of us
Seems to be founded
On an unquestioned
Assumption:  "I Am"
Must be modified
By thoughts and
Perceptions..

Standing back we
Recognize
Our real Identity
By erasure of
Of all these mods...
CharlesC Dec 2013
This is our
reset to clear
the clutter..
A new start now
from blank..
But a blank
With heaving
possibilities..
Then we allow
a flow
in freedom
to blemish
the blank..
quite simple
then complex..
Remembering
for sure that
reset switch…
CharlesC Dec 2016
As information explodes in our awareness
for which Google names the metaphor..
An image of factual filling of a sea
a sea brim with the stuff of mind..
This modern imprisonment
cries out for freedom..
Might we soon recognize
that ignorance of our true nature
resulted in such storminess
a mind overwhelmed and drowning
as we swim and grasp
at the flotsam of knowledge..
Satisfaction is fleeting within this
creation of ignorance..
Our life raft arrives with our focus
on the ignorance we chose
casting us into an unforgiving sea...*

Knowledge of the world is ignorance.
~Rumi
CharlesC Nov 2019
Made in the image
The Book says..
Then arises our
Dilemma of conditioning:
We look for God in
Our body-image..
And our mind exclaims:
Why not..? What's next..?
But of conditioning beware..!
The Book also says: I Am
With nothing beside..
Bringing shock and awakening:
Our body-image dances
Within and As
I am...
CharlesC Dec 2012
our marching time
holds sway today
and wraps a gift
given long ago..
especially harsh
life's departures now..
the gift unopened
except for children
and artists few..
we await unwrapping
startled to find
separations and strangeness
sudden dancing
in a time
renewed...
CharlesC Aug 2013
Oft maligned in
our Newton homes
Where out there
is what Is..
But this Is
is darkening as
our days prolong..
Cries for connection
are arousing
desire for dawn..
a gift forgotten
this lifeline
cord...
CharlesC Feb 2019
wanting
unease
a sense of lack
contentment on hold
until we find..
once found
separation dissolves
and reveals
that lack we held
was all along
already
fulfilled as an
inner treasure..

however..
apparently..as
the journey repeats
and repeats
the contentment
we need and seek
thru failure and pain
must also fuel
the engine of
creation...

Yes...?
CharlesC Jan 2017
In my more youthful past
in that memory as thought now rising
a philosopher in my reading
used a wax impression to gain
understanding of thought formation..
Which philosopher?
The name has escaped
a coming and going as
impermanent thoughts come and go..
I am awaiting a re-qcquaintance..
But let us proceed..
Did that philosopher ask about the wax?
Might he have said:  You are the wax
out of which your thought takes form..
Wax as a faithful metaphor
for Consciousness..our true Self..
Thoughts arising as small self
and projecting a world..
Oneness so speaks...*

(if you know that philosopher,
I would be indebted if...}
CharlesC Jul 2019
Perhaps there are types..
inventions of mousetraps that
catch with compassion..
celebrating the inventiveness
of the finite mind..

but what of those appearances
of brushstrokes or words
which seem from afar..
as from the whiteness of
this page..
or the sudden juxtaposing
of nature's dissimilarities..

those sudden types
seem available to all..
do not depend on our
diligent preparation in
schooling or craft..
or culture or beliefs
but only upon a
recognition of ourselves
without  the opaqueness
of a masking resistance...
CharlesC Apr 2020
In a darkened crevice
Between rugged rocks
We sometimes find
An emerging voice..
Light and shadow
With fragile connection
Seem to claim the
Story of difference..
And if we stay with
The story..as we depart
Walking away from the
Crevice..we may be
Hailed to return..
Return to an inner place
Which dissolves the
Difference..and reveals
The Beauty we missed
As we walked away...
CharlesC Jan 2021
A preliminary message

Ignited the chaos..featuring

Sharpness and compression and

Macabre hilarity.. penetrating our

Heart of Democracy..the wounding

Was not out there on the steps and rooms..

Those horrors seemed to harbor.. in the

Moment..dark facades of fascism..

Until a mirror revealed our darkness

With a glimpse.. inaugurating a new

Bend on our homeward road...
CharlesC Nov 2013
re-incarnation
speaks of re-peating
getting things right..
better it seems
each is unique
in collective whole:
each is new
first time arrival
new beginning
new image
and Whole…
CharlesC Jan 2014
Such simplicity
midst clouds of
dispute and claim..
Despite all that
this solitary word
the Name for
many and one..
Each unique
arrival..
Never before
never again..
Containing
the fire..
Projected
Reflecting
Planted in
this garden
of time…
CharlesC Jul 2013
of our poem..
intent is first
then a clearing
a sweeping for
quiet space..
now the paradox:
quiet is marked
made darker
finding room
for the verses
to come..
quiet returns
voiding yet joining..
female and male
twilight and dawn
and our poem
is conceived...
using Kabbalah vision
of Creation on a
new level...
CharlesC Sep 2012
let us consider
declarations of independence
as remedies
for election ills..
democracy has been
deadened
by flows of money
reaching ego ends..
competing parties mirroring
yet exaggerating differences
knowing one and all
precious power is the prize..

independence
allows consciousness to
arise at last..
good then is found
in left and right
shadow enclosing both..
paradox rules oppositions
and detachment soothes
the din of boisterous claims..
new freedom
brings new strength..
money flows
lose direction when
feedback polls confuse..
and democracy then
may deliver promise
once again...
image @ polarityinplay.blogspot.com
CharlesC Jul 2016
In this political season
with harsh volleys filling our screens..
Independence allows the screen's perspective..
As the movie characters castigate and exaggerate
the independent screen..our real Identity
experiences itself..and those rapidly
exiting colorations...
CharlesC Oct 2013
Each summer
we celebrate
that which many
celebrate all year..
Yet there remains
that longing
a painful wish
for a friendship
more intimate..
A wish so often
in these days
lies unsatisfied..
Friendship finds
a joining of souls
one then not two
out of which
each does flow..
Independence as
flow we might
all days celebrate...
Inspired by
Richard Ford's
Independence Day
CharlesC Jun 2019
First we identify thoughts
as thoughts..perceptions as
perceptions..
we observe these experiences
as though from a distance..noting
with interest and indifference
the temporary shaping of ourself
in which all experience arises..
Thereby..we recognize ourselves
as constant meditators
whether in quiet or turmoil..
Not what
we do this morning
again on the morrow..
CharlesC Feb 2019
Indifference

the word has the connotation
of not caring..but there is more..
when "I" is known
there is a knowing that recognizes
the departure of limits
and a recognition that appearances
are fleeting and simply made
of that which is not limited..
appearances..then..are a matter of
indifference in our recognized
"I"...
CharlesC Jan 2020
An instant truth
Shines and departs..
And then is expressed as
Subject and object..
Which falls short in
Capturing the shining..
But this glimpse
Without words
Lingers and lightens...
CharlesC Jun 2017
We were taught many things
and we believed from the start..
A cultural dogma we inherited..
A truth assumed obvious
for all of those years..
Seeming never to have attended to
our inner teacher..
This teacher avoids books and Google
allowing experience to grip in clarity..
In lesson #1
we find the perennial error:
of mind and matter separated
as our years expected..
Other lessons follow with
Teacher-realization
Self-realization..
Education's new beginning...
CharlesC Apr 2012
each of life's moments
are formed by shadow
and light..
rare moments of light connect
lingering shadows of habit..

a claimed experience of
light draws
objection and challenge..
challenger not aware
light is linked
with secluded shadow..
there keys are found
unexpectedly
opening doors to
experienced light..

humanity streams from
a hidden source..
experienced only with
keys connecting darkly..
awakening to
the unmentioned
..innuendo..

(this poem inspired by
the first paragraph of Emerson's
Over-Soul)
CharlesC Oct 2013
We find inspiration
In another's poem..
That expression
Another owns..
But the inspiration
And our words
Which flow
Are ours alone...
Is this true..?
CharlesC Jun 2020
the words will come is
the biblical promise..
a promise which beliefs
lodged in appearances
often block..
there is trust that must
come from experience:
lingering as already Now..
what of words..?
Now..which we are
stands ready to Express...
For the poet..!
CharlesC Oct 2017
Viewing outside we see some-things
and viewing inside we see
other more subtle some-things..
But..we ask
who is the viewer of these some-things
and..alas..we might say..we find no-thing..
And perhaps unexpectedly
we also find Joy...!
CharlesC Feb 2014
A most
delightful day
when our constricts
our restricting fences
are drawn inside
and dissolve
in merge with
liquid space..
This is life
experienced
with uplifting
days and hours..
Repeatings
strengthen inner
flow and channels..
Readier acceptance
lubricating
Welcome...
a KMae tangent...
CharlesC Dec 2013
Often in discomfort
We meet divergence..
An awe-ful choice
We imagine then
Choice is comfort..
Patience is pushing
Let's get on..
Tho' standing between
Becoming the tension
Our choices pulsate
As the heart..
Yet choose we must
Bringing the shadow
This our creation
Creation our choice
Now we dance
With the shadow…
CharlesC May 2012
sandwich and bananas
shopping chore
wondering how
intention arose
CharlesC Jan 2012
Keep it silent
wish to observe
Beware the background
watch the Waves
break on the shore
The birds
quick motions
eating and watching
Depart the iceberg tip
for the huge and below
An awareness lingers
with joyous glow...
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