This discussion is a place for adding and talking about "Metaphysical Poems", a genre widely understood as including any poem that alludes to metaphysics, gods and goddesses, the human existential situation or philosophy that takes one beyond the ordinary. Here is one to be going on with...
If darkness comes, I'm cautious in the gloom,
feeling my way by whatever sense I have
step by step I know not who or why,
but yet sometimes I enter in a room
so grand
I know that i can fly.
If shadows fall upon the path ahead
I trust they have a meaning for
the deepest silhouette
belongs not to the dead,
but does portend
something of import not yet met.
If I go far or if I idle
chasing rabbits who are always late
or pass a season all obscure
or sidle
through the gate of fate
the motive's neither black nor clearly pure.
If the minute's unforgiving, as they say,
yet the world and all that's in it is my gift
then I'll rejoice in all that comes before me,
I, the unforgiven, who's yet happily at play:
I'll be
content to be a sailor lost at sea.
If I am asked to be the master
of a fate I did not undertake:
I'll laugh and muddle the prescription
for such hubris is disaster:
the Powers, well i know,
by demonstration sharp, brook no restriction.
If I were asked to go another mile
to have revealed the secret of my being
and know all
I'd smile
and start again at the beginning,
bite the apple and allow myself to fall.
Replies
glad you like it... it is a bit bigger than i thougt....
Especially if you haven't learned to trust it before you travel
You must align it bravely against the familiar horizon and follow it into the unknown
Into foreign lands
Into dark forests
Into caves
until
your eyes adjust
and you can begin to
follow the light itself
Then you will become like some beautiful dancing creature
leaving footprints in the sand and rivers of
dreams behind you
You will be a boat that sails
into the wind without tacking
and enters that narrow channel; the entrance
to all the tributaries of light
That northward route to the river's source
in the high lush mountains
of this everyday life
I WANT TO GO
I want to look down on the stars again
from the dark dark arc
of the super-terrain
where constellations are rearranged
and the Milky Way is merely a spark.
I want to soar through the outer sea
in my bright bright ark
sailing into the lee
of the shadow of God, or gods aplenty,
where the plenum void is never empty
And all the beasts that ever were,
those that hiss, or bark,
or purr, and all the others in their fur
or scales or feather-wraps concur
that this is what we're all here for.
Yes, I want to look down from that other place
where up and down have no foot nor face
where east and west can only be guessed
and as two by two they're going forth
the land in the south is north of north.
I want to be there, freer than birds,
higher than heaven,
south west of absurd,
for once in that place I encountered a herd
of speakers of the Holy Word.
Very nice. Thank you.
True ... at times I observe my tendency to seek the 'truth' as if something concrete that could be recognised and found. I can be very focussed but I am slowly appreciating this attitude is not always helpful and can be quite aggressive. I guess it is driven by the fear of losing control. I tend to look for control through understanding (which now seem very foolish)! I am learning a good starting point could be to know that my perspective and ability to get to the heart of things will despite my best efforts continue to be incomplete. So rather then approach life as a problem to be solved I have recognised a shift, an opening towards the unfolding mystery of what is. I feel a growing gratefulness tot witness this often crazy process of which I am strangely part of. Think I have given up on my ability to figure it out! I am letting go and letting life be.
I am life
today rolling stream
tomorrow stormy sea
yesterday gathering clouds
tonight a single tear
reminding us of home
If I were shown a riddle in a maze
I'd want to know the secret that was in it
impetuous, with heart on sleeve
agog for what's beyond the haze
I'd go
far past the end of what I yet believe,
And yet, if all that secret lore were final,
absolute, complete as from Olympus seen
I would then tremble and be shy
for such a throne so regal
's not reserved
for mortals such as I
Thank you, Juline.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next