Journey of the Heart

It is so wonderful to have a close friend you can talk about everything with... I am lucky to have several friends like this. One of them, Joan May, has been my Monday walking partner for several years, and on our Monday walks we talk about mundane things, like what to feed our children. But also the biggest questions, such as "Who am I really?" and "What is happiness?"  With Joan, there's never a sense that we need to actually answer the question. Our discussions often dissolve into a sense of wonder and openness, even delight in not knowing. I wrote this poem after one such Monday excursion up toward Briday Veil Falls outside of Telluride. No Hurry to Find Out 
 Joan asks me what happens after we die, and I don’t know, but I do know how to stand beside the river and see a shrine in every rock I find, which is how I spent the day yesterday. And I know that walking today in the sno...

Poetry is a mystical process for me.... When I fully surrender myself unto it, I find myself immersed in a creative process that engages my entire being- my mind, body, and spirit. The mystery of this practice is that while a poem may come from me, it is also simultaneously independent of me. There is an unknown, otherworldly aspect that also lends and injects itself into this dance with words.   I sometimes experience this creative energy as a mysterious personality who has many different moods and faces, who sweeps me away on adventures and transformational journeys. She, for I have given her a feminine persona, takes on the essence of whatever it is I need. Thus, she is powerful, comforting, seductive, graceful, and so much more.  How variegated is the wide range that can be found in the human experience- from the agonizing depths of deep despair to the dizzying high of great heights, and everything in between.  It is precisely this abil...

  I have felt like a nomad, a gypsy all my life – always searching, never finding.  An outsider wherever I went... It manifested as a constant movement, first from one country to another during my teenage years, and then as a constant searching for something out there, in the world, that would complete me, that would end this existential angst. The poem “The Tree” is a metaphor for the One who has manifested the multiplicity of forms and has remained centered and grounded within Its Absolute Knowingness and Beingness. The trunk of a tree is solidly rooted in the ground and yet its branches are looking heavenly into the sky.   This is the longing, the yearning to know the Self while living in this body. The Tree I sit unwavering The trunk of a tree Nothing touches me I am unbound Centered and free I am the tree The giver of life That grows to give solace Water and food To every soul That wanders by I am the tree That...

  Although I was brought up as a Christian and have embraced my Christian heritage, I can't - and never want to - stop wondering and wandering! There are so many questions - so many ideas to explore, so many perspectives on truth and beauty and so many places where they can be discovered. Jesus said, "Seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you." I feel as though it is in the seeking - actually through the seeking and exploring, not at some potential destination - that it is possible to find a spiritual path. That the questions and the exploration and the path itself is where I should be, not at some place where I finally know all the answers.  "The Wonderer" reflects this journey and also references the idea that death and resurrection, a core part of the Christian narrative, is a daily thing - in this case, the death of arrogance and certainty in one's own assumed answers and the dawn of new life in discoveri...

This poem came as I was wondering at something my teacher had said in one of his recent lectures… My teacher said that we shouldn't be afraid to approach the guru with all of our questions. In fact, we should come to the guru and "sit and doubt."  I found this attitude so wonderful and freeing. There is so much space and humility, and room for growth in asking questions. In thinking that you have all the answers if you have read a religious book or follow a certain philosophy is very limiting and, frankly, boring.  The bhakti tradition of Caitanya has an unique theological position that claims that even God doubts himself and asks questions about the nature love and that was the inspiration behind this poem as well. When Even God Asks Questions I take a few deep thoughts and question this discussing philosophy and religion If the answers we have always remain the same and in their solidness become  Books and Opini...