This
poem is inspired by the famous meditation technique practiced by the great
Indian sage Sri Ramana Maharshi...
He practiced sitting in contemplation, asking
the question over and over: Who am I?
In
asking this question repeatedly, we start to understand what we are not – we
are not our bodies, we are not our minds, we are not the fleeting and transient
identities we form, and re-constitute, over time. The more we are capable of shedding the layers of these
comfortable senses of self (by looking at them directly, and rendering them
strange), the more gracefully we can approach what is most true: that we exist
in our hearts, from our hearts, and in a world arising in universal love.
With
this poem, I immerse myself in a line of questioning that speaks to a state of
confusion and longing, one of the many storms traversed in a life on the way to
the horizon of love that permeates us …
Who Am I?
by Tammy T. Stone
Who
wakes to the mountain morning
Bowing
before the day’s first sun?
Who
hears the crackle of twigs underfoot
And
who is the one listening?
Who
is praying for a softer heart,
Who
hears the cage-rattling fear?
Who
has combed the ocean floor
Exploring
its warmest blue echoes
And
who wades through the sand
Dreaming
in the mermaids’ mist?
Who
hides in life’s sweet interruptions
Yearning
to be jolted awake?
Who
smothers the love
That
has come along to find her?
Who
hears the long lost chant of sisterhood
Wailing
through the sea of Time,
And
who smiles in long lost memory?
Who
venerates in Indian ink
Who
inhales the wind?
Who
are we who have found each other,
Finally,
on Earth’s orchard grounds?
Who
am I who floods the world
With
hopes till faraway’s end?
Tammy T. Stone is a Canadian writer, photographer and chronicler of life as it passes through us. Always a wanderer, she's endlessly mesmerized by people, places and everything in between; the world is somehow so vast and so small. She feels so lucky to have been able to work, learn, live and travel far and wide, writing, photographing and wellness-practicing along the way. She invites you to see some of her recent photography here and to connect with her on her writer's page, twitter and her blog, There’s No War in World, here.
~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~
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