My young niece,  she used sing in the church choir
But when she grew older she left the choir
She got her nose pierced,  became a Vegan and Social Justice warrior
Now it was all about the planet and everything having to be done a certain way ...or else LoL
When she'd come to visit, she used complain
Your house Uncle it's s so cluttered, all these little nick nacks and ornaments you have and all these books
You should get rid of half this stuff, bring it all down to the charity shop
I looked at her and said, said quite mysteriously "My world... my world is not your world"
I picked up an ornament and said "This world has a lot of ugliness in it, these things remind me that there's beauty too '
I pointed at the books up on the shelves
"I can tell you why I bought every one of those books, what they meant to me
I can tell you what I was going through at the time...
And how they helped keep me sane in this... this crazy world"
Then my niece she picked up a book, it was a children's book with pictures in it
You probably won't need this one she said, it's only a kid's book
I looked at her in horror, then suddenly said real dramatic like
"Stop! Don't move!! Stay very very still!"
What's wrong ! she said a bit concerned
"That book you're holding, it's... it's God !!"
What!! she said
"There's a picture of God in that book...or the God experience, the spiritual thing
That's why I bought it"
She looked a bit lost, even afraid
I smiled at her bewilderment and continued
When I was younger I used suffer from anxiety and from ideas that made no sense to me...I was plagued 
I got interested in meditation and self hypnosis various relaxation techniques
Quietening the mind, that sort of thing
I managed to train my mind to stay quiet for very long periods
It's a very hard thing to do but it is possible
One night I went to bed, I was lying there with my eyes closed when suddenly this strange feeling came over me
It was like something was happening, happening in my head, it was like there was suddenly something coming down upon me
And then... then I seen it even though my eyes they were closed
I seen...something I hadn't seen since I was a little child, an infant in my cot some thirty years before
I was...I was astonished
And I remembered... I could still remember
There were several stages in it and you'd pass from one stage into the next
I got so excited
I thought to myself "I remember this!  I remember this!!!
I used to get this when I was very young"
I was so excited I only managed to get through several of the stages before I opened my eyes I pulled out of it because I was just blown away by the whole experience...at seeing it again  (after all those years)
I lay there amazed at what I'd just seen"
Here I stopped and looked away rather sadly into the distance
"Unfortunately though around that time I'd also recently bought a book on Positive thinking, a bestseller, one that was very highly regarded
For some reason I can't think of now I chose to go with the Positive thinking book
Rather than to continue with my quiet mind meditation thing
Yea, I chose something from the world rather than that which I'd found within my own self...something that was wholly mine
It's something... something I've always regretted ... not continuing with my quiet mind meditation
One day a few years later I was in a bookshop browsing
I was looking in the bargain bin
And I seen that book, I was looking at the pictures
And there was this one picture that fascinated me
It reminded me of my experience that night
I had to buy it because of that".

I looked at my niece and said  
"In that book there's pictures, look through the pictures, take your time
Pick out the picture which you find the most interesting, the most fascinating ...the one that seems to speak to you the most
When you've made your choice, close the book and give it back to me
But don't tell me which picture you've chosen
Then I'll open the book and I'll show you yes!,  I'll show you the picture you've chosen ".
My niece said "OK" as if it were a challenge, she went away with the book, about half an hour later she came up to me
I asked her "Was there a picture that...that spoke to you, that you...you liked"
"There was...there was one yea, one that was very strange ", she answered
She handed the book back to me
I opened it and turned to the page which reminded me of my meditative experience
I turned the book around and pointing at the picture said "This is the picture you chose, isn't it"
My niece she smiled looking very surprised, as if it were some kind of trick  "How did you know...how did you know I'd pick that picture"
I replied "You're young, maybe you too still have a remembrance hidden somewhere...a memory...of that special time....long ago".

birdsong melodies
gentle wind caressing leaves
~ pleasing perfect pitch




© 2020 Mark Toney.  All rights reserved.

dear god, you humble me into quietude

she says it’s sunny and 75
nearing 3’o’clock, cooling,
let’s go for our usual constitutional,
for a lovely afternoon walk to Shell Beach

can’t can’t can’t walking now in
a bottomless pit, every handhold,
poems, newly commissioned, newborn,
broken off the wall, revealing a gleaming,
light of iron pyrite, really good fool’s gold,
cause only fools write good poetry, or even try

but tonight I’m gonna feed you bucatini bolognese
babe, you gotta walk, make some room for all the words
that will come tumbling free falling while I’m sleeping next,
you’re up prowling looking for rhymes, lines, unheard of before,
you’ll need energy to bite, write, and make loving poetry and then,
then, sleep late, my laddie-baddie, new ones on my nightstand,
for my perusal, my usual unusual man who gifts me them to
in quantities of ‘more galore,’ that I accept, adore...adore

so afterwards, I must say my morning prayer, as an atheist forgiven,
the one I commissioned, and you composed, for me:

Dear God: you humble me into quietude, with gratitude...

The Peripheries of Love
by Michael R. Burch

Through waning afternoons we glide
the watery peripheries of love.
A silence, a quietude falls.

Above us—the darkening pavilions of clouds.
Below us—rough pebbles slowly worn smooth
grate in the gentle turbulence
of yesterday’s forgotten rains.

Later, the moon like a ******
lifts her stricken white face
and the waters rise
toward some unfathomable shore.

We sway gently in the wake
of what stirs beneath us,
yet leaves us unmoved ...
curiously motionless,

as though twilight might blur
the effects of proximity and distance,
as though love might be near—

as near
as a single cupped tear of resilient dew
or a long-awaited face.

Published by Romantics Quarterly, Poetry Magazine, Boston Poetry Magazine, Triplopia, Shadows Ink, E Mobius Pi, Underground Poets, Emotions Literary Magazine, Grassroots Poetry, Poetry Webring, Poetically Speaking, The Poetic Muse, Poet’s Haven, Poetic Voices, Nutty Stories (South Africa) and Gostinaya (in a Russian translation by Yelena Dubrovin)

Keywords/Tags: Love, face, recognition, water, silence, quietude, quiet, turbulence, clouds, pavilions, moon, white, pale, stricken, ******, water, wake

consciously, willfully, I wish it

quietly the Sunday, the sun day, drifts toward,
in its natural game, set, overmatched,
the foregone conclusion, nightfall diminishment

the water songfully swishes,
as the tide departs for places unknown, this then, now
the only natural authorized aural apparition,
the power boats renounce their normal noisy conditioning,
honoring their silenced, under-sail brethren,
as well as admitting their noises disfigure
the fast approaching majesty of the end of
our summer seasoning of humanity

consciously, willfully, I wish it

once again, lush is the quietude,^
now given up, surrendered and surceased to wonder,
how come I to write of these moments so oft,
thenever-ending quest to re-inscribe it on my sensibilities,
in vainglorious hopes that this stamping will last, be the last,
see me through the turgid frigidity of my Lucifer life,
come the fall, the winter, the early dark,
the daylight's brevity, the hurricane season of the mind,
that...need I say more?

consciously, willfully, I wish it

the particular white cloud formation of the moment at hand,
shall stay in place,  be the capstone of my summer living vision,
become permanent part and parcel
of the sclera, the white of my eyes, and when
I will write, soon enough,
my vision white weeping clouded,
you will weep knowingly, sympathetically

consciously, willfully,
I wish for that as well*

8/27/17
6:35pm

I didn't read the news today
I just didn't care what it had to say
I rolled it up and put it away
I'm gonna keep the peace
I've got no reason to cry
I'm not gonna look for a reason why
Let the whole world pass me by
Cause I'm gonna keep the peace

There's enough to fear and dread
Without shoving more **** in your head
So, write it off and go back to bed
There'll be enough time to stress when we're dead.

The days are long and life is short
Facts are things that they all distort
Just gimme sports and the weather report
And I'm gonna keep the peace.
I hope you'll pardon my dismissive tone
As I turn off the TV and silence my phone
But all the ******* can leave me alone
Cause I'm gonna keep the peace

How slow the swan glides
down the darkening river
twisting its sleek, slithering neck
away from the sunshine-
saying nothing.
In the morning
only ducks drive through the water
only voles snake along the banks.