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Daniel's Writings

Daniel
December 04, 2007 08:07PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

From the experience of walking in the UBC endownment lands
===================================

DARK FOREST

It is the place of dreams
Where the light gives way to night
Treading softly on moist ground
All sounds are amplified
The imagination works wondrous wild
Manifesting visions of all kinds
Creating illusions of fear to nip at the heels
Animals, men and spirits all clamor to grab hold
But none grasp tighter than the mind

Dante Alighieri stepped into the woods
Not knowing what he would find

In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell,
It were no easy task, how savage wild
That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
Which to remember only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.

He was met by Virgil and was guided through hell, purgatory and paradise.
They stopped along the way to witness all kinds of suffering and joy.

This is the journey we take every time we risk the unknowable
It takes us through the shadows of the mind
To the salvation of our own presence
The willingness to go through that which we fear most
Will bring us closer to the source of our own truth
The truth of who we are

Tonight I stepped in the woods
Not knowing
Allowing my feet to carry me
Letting my mind wander along the path
Until I could barely see
Relaxing into the unknowable, un-seeable
Trusting my senses, allowing my mind to run wild
Observing fear and relinquishing its grip on my heart
Breathing and walking through what is

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:42PM
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Daniel
December 04, 2007 08:10PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

This speaks to the multigenerational alcoholism in Eastern Europe and the world for that matter.
written in the style of turn of the century Bolshevik manifesto.
===============================================

RUSSIAN VODKA

Red noses, cold hands and flaming livers
Grimy men guzzle caustic antiseptic from paper bags
This petrol handsomely dressed up as a cocktail

It is the birthright beverage of a civilization
This sacred Russian vodka

The lubricant of violence
The poison water of hatred
It is a slow, degenerative suicide for mind, body and soul
It is disguised as a tradition
It is the opposite of salvation
It is the holy water of misery
It is death and it keeps smiling at us
As we hit ourselves in the head with it
Again and again

Families blown to bits
Children violated
Wives beaten
Men in shackles
Lying cold and alone in the street
Wetting themselves
Spinning into the black whole of delusion
Rotting from the inside out
Just to avoid the truth of what is

The Russian tradition is not to feel the pain, of pain
The cure to the pain isn’t found in distilled grain
We must relinquish this spirit of insanity!
We must break the shackles of this white death!
Instead embracing life and the goodness of the people!

Smash your bottles on the cobblestone once and for all!
It has caused enough death and misery!
Long live life without vodka!
Free Mother Russia from this scourge!

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:42PM
Alizarin
December 04, 2007 10:04PM
Group Member
Posts: 10

What can say? Your writing is always incredible to me.

Deep, exquisite and inquisitive.
Full of cutting edge truths and treasures of insights.

Daniel
December 05, 2007 08:24AM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

Thank you Alazarin! Thank you for posting!

Daniel
December 05, 2007 08:24AM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

iPOD HAIKU

Tune in and tune out
White cord zombies with deaf ears
The streets are lonely

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:56PM
Kenneth
December 06, 2007 02:16PM
Group Member
Posts: 5

Very impressed with the Russian Vodka poem especially. Some great imagery and wordplay. ” Spinning into the black whole of delusion”; Great! I can relate to a similar tradition of drunkenness in Ireland and the British Military. Thanks for sharing.

Daniel
December 07, 2007 05:18PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

DIWALI

In a cul de sac in Surrey
I found what I hadn’t experienced in the holiday homes of America
That it was more comfortable on the hard Hindu floor
Then on any overstuffed Christian couches
I walked out the door that night wondering why I didn’t feel bad
Sadly I had been trained to expect the worst

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:56PM
Daniel
December 07, 2007 05:19PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

LAST NIGHT

The best parts of last night were the ones with no words
Deep presence moments
A kind knowing gaze
Emotional synergy
Physical resonance
Sweet understanding
Sensual articulation
Elegant form and formlessness

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:56PM
Daniel
December 07, 2007 05:19PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

Here is something I wrote after the evening that we discovered the power of “transparency”
==============================================================

TRANSPARENCY

Standing on the porch tonight
Looking down at the wet green ground below
I thought my eyes were going bad
The earth was morphing, moving and dancing
I caught what I perceived was a true glimpse of ever present manifesation
Interconnected force of nature was swirling in light
Magnificent wholeness was breathing in and out
Appearing as one moment of universal creation
My eyes were clear
I could see the trees and the ground pulsating with life in unison

The moon was nearly full
On this magical oddly warm autumn night
Looking at the ground
I was blessed with fresh clear vision
Finally seeing what is always already happening
Overwhelmed with gratitude
I walked over to the hundred year old mighty pine
Just to see if what I was sensing was a mirage
Touching it I connected to the strength of its treeness
Formless, I was immediately pulled into the trunk
Through the bark
I shot up past the branches to the tip top
Spreading out I went down to the roots
Surging together as one energy
Being one as a tree, not two forms, just one not two or three
The mighty trunk was eight feet around and still growing
I was growing with it in shape and wisdom
Energy exploded hundreds of feel tall and yards deep
I stood transfixed holding on to the power of existense

Not for one moment did I feel like the “I” mattered
There was no reference point to point to
Or from

I had finally done it
I disappeared
And it felt really good

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:56PM
Szu-chi
December 09, 2007 11:21PM
Group Member
Posts: 4

Delicious.

Daniel
December 10, 2007 12:40AM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

A response to long distance love.
=================================

THE SAME PAGE

A Frustrated cry in the night
Have you come up with anything romantic?
Show me your love!

Passion fizzing out of a magic alabaster bottle
The one that is corked with the memory of fond caress
Passions packaged with patience
Tiny fire fills the envelope of intent
Put a stamp on it my love and wish it farewell

I can’t see it
I can’t feel it
It’s not the same
Something changed
The idea of who we were
Melted in the light of now

We can remember the dream
We can create a dream
But dreams are not what is
This is, what is

Life is here in what is
It is where we live
Like it or not
You are here in here
I am here in here
This is, what is
It is the “there” that causes so much confusion

You wanted to be an ocean of space away
You have the ocean of space
This is, what is

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:49PM
Patty
December 10, 2007 10:59AM
Group Member
Posts: 13

As I read this poem I can place myself right in with this story. Its easy to let go into the words you write
Patty

Patty
December 10, 2007 11:09AM
Group Member
Posts: 13

What I wrote for ‘Same Page’ was meant for ‘Dark forrest’
All your writing is good. This paticular piece resonates with me right through to my psyshie.

Gordon
December 10, 2007 03:21PM
Group Member
Posts: 4

(in the vain of the iPod haiku)
cell phone haiku:

crowded talking streets
blinded head smiles turned inward
do you feel the sun?

Daniel
December 13, 2007 10:09PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

RESISTANCE

Held up by scaffolding
Secured with duct tape
Pushing against myself
I can feel the tangled threads of the web
Wrapped around my arms and legs
I am a struggling puppet swearing at God

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:50PM
Daniel
December 13, 2007 10:10PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

this one was inspried from a Zen retreat this fall.
=================================

OPENING

Open eyes just in time to see a golden leaf float to the ground.
Open eyes into the darkness, behind the veil of eyelid.

Open ears to hear the meditation bell sound at the end of another sitting.
Open ears to hear the teacher speak the words that sink the deepest.

Open senses aware that the one who is watching, may not be looking.
Open senses to the truth that this intense feeling is not real.

Open mind to discover that it is so noisy in here that there is nothing to hear.
Open mind to the possibility of allowing no mind to spontaneously occur.

Open heart, beating, glowing, feeling and expanding with each breath.
Open heart energy from the chest, pouring through the arms and into the world.

I
I am
Open
Opening
Openness
Openfulllessness
Openness
Opening
Open
I am
I

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:50PM
Daniel
December 13, 2007 10:14PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

GEESE COMING HOME

Where are my poems?
Where are the poems I set free into the world?
None of them have returned
They were born and nurtured until they were strong enough to fly
Then what happened
They flew away
Far away
I can’t find them anymore
They are on the page but they are somehow missing
Released into the ether of spirit

I wait at my window with a deep longing
Trying hard not to want them to come back
I am all choked up inside
I take another breath
It’s OK I tell myself
They are gone
I can write more
There is no end to them
There is always beginning

Words manifest in formations
Geese fly overhead
In points of awareness
So do these words
They fly across the page
Words of perfect awareness, not perfected
Unfolding and released into being
Hatching and crawling out of embryonic shells
Covered birthing fluid
Breathing the first grasps of air
Seeing the first rays of light
Making the first sounds of life
Facing the intensity of form
Arriving home
Here

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:55PM
Daniel
December 13, 2007 10:14PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

ILLUSIONS CALL

Illusion calls to me
I answer

Illusion says my name
I answer

Illusion invites me to dine
I eat

Illusion drives me over the edge
I continue

Illusion lets me know that the ideas and images
That illusion has been showing me
Are references to an endless cycle that isn’t real

And I believe it

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:51PM
Daniel
December 13, 2007 10:15PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

CALL FOR LOVE

Entice me to love you
Call me and I will answer
Be here and I will love you
Can you hear my call for love?
I just want you to answer
There is nothing more than that
To answer quietly
That’s what I need to hear
Longing to touch and be touched
Through tenderness
Touching grace
Beauty transcending form
Merging as two illusions into swans
Floating along unaware of the goings on
Feeling the synergy and connection
Wing on wing intertwined in union
Breathing in unison merged life force
Unified consciousness of love

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:50PM
Daniel
December 13, 2007 10:16PM
Group Manager
Posts: 77

This was inspired by a weekend Kirtan chanting workshop led by Gina Sala.
=====================================

MY BELOVED

I threw a million pebbles
Into a thousand ponds
And it didn’t change a thing

Here you are in front of me
Singing Love
Reflecting stillness
My beloved

Edited: December 18, 2007 11:50PM
Sarah
December 15, 2007 11:15PM
Group Member
Posts: 7

I have enjoyed reading and rereading your words! Thank you for bringing this group together.


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