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Derrick Jones Aug 2020
Going with the flow
Yet you do not know
That the flow goes all directions

The natural lines that blind your mind
These barriers of glass
Create channels, rivers, currents
Patterns
Where the water
The flow
Simply goes

When you are always in the rapids
When your point of view is rabid
Only reacting
Not responding
So swept up in the current
You flail, flounder, following
Helplessly

Yet little do you know
The flow goes all directions
You are never alone
You are a node
You are the ocean
Not a current
You are everything
You’re worth it
You are the moment
You are worship
You are attention pointed out
Barriers are but illusions
Your life is lilting, tilting fusions
But becoming the ocean is not always easy
It’s massive, the motion makes us queasy
Most of the time we are in our own streams
Funneled by barriers as real as our dreams
But funneled nonetheless
Carried away

The process of growth
Is slowly raising yourself out of the stream
Slowly
Gradually
Adding moments of response
Instead of reaction
In that act
We find branches
In the stream
And therefore choice
We can paddle
Change our course

The world opens up
We are not the ocean yet
But on our way
As you lift yourself higher
Out of the stream
You do begin to see
The flow goes all directions
Flowing into the sea
Not only are you the ocean
But you are every stream

You float above this aquatic landscape
Coursing rivers like veins across the living earth
And, here is the magical part:
You can choose where to swim

You dive in
Headfirst
You are birthed
This is divinity
Infinity
Each moment of consciousness
A fateful flux
Between ocean and stream
Between finite and infinite
The macrocosm above
The microcosm below
The cosm in between

You are
Here
Now
The barrier between the mundane and the divine
The band of fluctuation
You are the frame
In which
This artwork unfolds

That is what happens when you can choose
When you lift out of the stream

On one level, you choose the next moment

On another level, you choose any of the infinite realities that your mind can imagine

On yet another, you are consciousness, the great ocean of light
Choosing which point to dive into the universe
Which river to course through

To enter a life of conscious experience
To sing the body electric
Be born and live and die
Be born
Live
Die
From ocean to stream and ocean again

The stream will be your entire experience
While you are underwater

But never forget:
This is Water

David Foster
This is Wallace

Meditation is learning how to swim
To realize this is water
And dryness is within
Then you learn to rise
Float above the water
Ascend
Transcend
Fly
So high
Then choose your stream
Dive in
Up and down
In and out
Like a dolphin merrily moving through the ocean
A smiling sine wave
Flowing seamlessly, dreamily
No wonder they are smiling
As free as one can be
They are the ocean and the stream
A realization that is probably easy
When one is born under the sea

We are the water in the stream
And the sea
Stretching across infinity
We are the force flowing through the tree
Splitting, branching
Diverging from the whole
But connected at the soul

In actuality
We are fractality
This poem was originally published on Medium with some pictures to accompany it to help illustrate the vision I'm trying to communicate, please check it out if you're interested! https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts/the-stream-and-the-ocean-d4a34c9f1a
Jammit Janet Aug 2020
#42
It'll flow when it flows,
Like a babbling brook,
Giggling through meadows,
Of creativity,
And mental banks,
Full of books,

Stimulation,
Free from frustration,
Exaltation,
Intoxication,

Full of life,
Full of love,

To nurture your being,
Cuddle your feelings,
Revive,
Your sense of meaning.
Hear me read it to you here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fg1E-oNWylfib4sqqQLQ6OF2NA8qIJHT/view?usp=sharing
Farheen Khan Aug 2020
And here my words have stopped
Flowing
Everything seems still
And the way I feel
Is just through trails of
Sadness from my eyes
Flowing
And here my world stands still

Often times is just my mind
Whenever I try
To hold and control
My heart breaks flows
All its stored emotions
But now it's just teary eyes
And a pillow to soak

And all I have left to say is that my words have stopped flowing
Again my overthinking mind
Derrick Jones Aug 2020
Inside of every line there is a meaning hard to find
A moment of the mind
A breath of sacred life
A body not to bind
A sharpness like a knife
Pure attention
Not a weapon, but slicing through each second
Severing summoned notions
With smooth motions
Leaving only seamless being
Flowing like an ocean
Coming and going
The ebb and flow
Of life under the light
No longer lost in night
Now caught in perfect sight
For but a moment
Where the flow went
Before returning to the sea
To effervescent infinity
With equanimity
You are here with me
Flowing
Like the ocean
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
SiouxF Aug 2020
A leaf floating
on the water
has no effect
on its future.
It drifts passively
on the pond,
In an hour,
a day,
or a week,
it may land on the shore across the pond,
or remain floating on the water,
or even sink to the bottom forevermore,
Without ever knowing why.  

Are you drifting in your own small pond?
Floating oblivious,
Unsure, uncertain, unmade?
Going wherever the waters take you?
Watching the world pass and fade?
Or sinking and drowning?

Or have you set the sail in your boat
And know the direction
you’re headed,
Your purpose, your vision, your mission,
Sitting back and enjoying the flow,
The tumultuous journey with its ups and downs,
As you watch the world unfold within and around you.  
From calm sweet waters,
To crashing and crushing high rise waves.
It’s all about the journey,
The lessons and the pain,
The joy and the excitement,
The highs and the lows,
That will take you to your destination,
The lessons and the pain.
And better than whence you came
The first part of this poem was taken from something I read about employees returning to work after Covid that inspired me to ponder
Tryniti Aug 2020
I drive myself to the cafe
Cracking a smile as I let my fear fade
Let the music in my ears take me away
It may have been cold, but I was living in the shade

Working up the courage to drink alone
Never allowing myself to enjoy what I love
Freezing in fear, I turn to stone
But today I drive myself to rise above

To a place with voices, fresh pastries, warm coffee, smiling faces
Swirling, twirling, I'm surrounded by choices
Wood and marble, rough wool and soft laces

Pouring a cup into the depth of my soul
I breath out and finally remember how to let go
Can't I find my own way to be whole?
Filled with coffee and music, I can finally flow ~
Derrick Jones Aug 2020
Beauty and sorrow
Splendor and misery
Fruity but hollow
No center in history
No end to this mystery

Into the unknown, I tumble down the road
Stumble and fumble but forward I’m towed
So full of life-force, this energy flowed
It may run its course until I explode
Or implode
Or decode
Or decide not to hide
Not divide, not denied
Come ride, come inside
Flow with me
Life’s easy
With blinders removed
With the surface un-grooved
We flow we flood we spread together
Never severed, sometimes channeled
By the forces of reality
Shared nature, humanity
And once we accept this perpetual motion
No longer a drop we become the ocean

Friction is a fiction
Resistance an illusion
Transcend confused delusion
Escape into this fusion
Of you, me, and reality
Wavelets in the sea
Floating, flowing, free
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jessie Taylor H Aug 2020
A poet never really stops writing,
only sometimes, we lose the strength to write it all down.

But when we write,
we spill our hearts upon the pages.
Every ink filled line,
giving full access to our minds,
for whoever dares to read them.

I apologize for the tears and blood stains,
sometimes my pen reveals too much.
As I close my eyes,
and my hand glides across the page,
my soul speaks to me in the best possible way.
10/16/2018
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