April: Words – Pictures – Ideas

WORDS
Here are a couple of April poems from the Wild Writing program and community I’ve been in since December. I’m really loving this creative, cathartic, healing outlet. Another form of Beauty as Medicine!

I Thought I Was Going Somewhere
I thought I was going somewhere in my youth
Somewhere, anywhere but where I was.
Running away from home as it were.
From memories, failed attempts at love.
And as each decade passed, I ran a little faster and a little farther,
burning the candle at both ends.

I thought I was going somewhere to make it big.
The money, the house, the company, the relationship.
Time and space caught me up, stopping my body almost dead in its tracks,
so that my Spirit could come to life.
All the going, going, going, climbing mountains, beating the odds,
only to learn that total surrender is required to fully blossom.

I thought I was going to my best friend’s 50^th birthday party.
Instead, I wound up in a hospital bed for a month,
cut open from stem to stern, recovering from where I was going.
What was SO big that I needed to almost die to release?
What is that space meant for now?
The ego, literally gutted,
replaced by an ineffable lightness of being
that I still aspire to live into.
That feeling of my soul being way too expansive
to be contained in this earthly body,
this vehicle which will decay and die.
There must be time and space to simply BE.
Nowhere to go, nothing to do.
Time and space to dwell in the inner sanctum of the heart,
to witness the heart expand,
bringing light to the shadowy depths left by the vacancy of ego.
LjW 04/04/23

Poems I Still Want to Write
The poems I still want to write
are full of beauty and joy, the kind of joy that makes your heart sing,
that’s in such short supply these days.
Colors and textures will jump off the page with flavors you can taste.
Flowers will dance past your hungry eyes, to hug you,
Their laughter settling softly on your ears.

The poems I still want to write
Will touch your heart in such a way as to unlock and release
any pent-up love looking for a place to land,
will rock away your grief into the quiet night.
A prophetic voice will usher in the wisdom of the cosmos,
once realized by ancient Rishis and Lamas.

The poems I still want to write
Will transport you to a space that feels more real
than the feels of the moment. More real than each breath we take.
Buried deep inside, patiently waiting for my armor to fall away
and my vulnerability to awaken, the words will trickle gently onto the page,
in a light-language that needs no sound to be heard.
LjW 04/10/23

What I’m reading:

How We Live is How We die by Pema Chodron – I’ve read most if not all of Pema Chodron’s books. This one is fodder for our monthly Death Café conversations. What I love about Pema’s writing is that she makes Buddhist teachings easily understood. I’m about 1/2 through the book and some nuggets that are sticking with me in the moment include, feeling your feelings is a practice. This is a good one for those of us who were brought up to stuff our feelings. And, that we can use our destructive emotions (kleshas) of aggression, pride, craving, jealousy, ignorance, as a path to awakening, because they are co-emergent with aspects of wisdom that we can learn to embody, thereby transmuting them. All of this as training for living the full scope of life, with its challenges, impermanence and groundlessness, so that we can lean into our death with less fear.

The Half Life of Angels by Mark Nepo – Mark is a spiritual writer, poet, philosopher with over a dozen books published. This is a beautiful collection of poetry, his first in a series of seven volumes, to simply open up to a random page each morning for a read and contemplation. It was a profound honor and delight to be in the same Zoom room with Mark in early April, when he visited the Wild Writing community for a conversation, which became a generous and powerful dharma talk. He said something that really resonated with our writing group: “I write about what I don’t know, rather than what I do know.” That’s cause for a pause. I have read and refer to two of his other books, Drinking From the River of Light and The Book of Awakening. I’m a fan.

PICTURES
I have almost 700 images on PEXELS now and have tallied 2 million views so far. Just a reminder that you can peruse my collections and choose any to download free. Of course credit lines and donations are always welcome should you use an image publicly.  Here are some pics from my April meanderings.
Click on any image to see gallery view.

IDEAS
I’ve finally made all of my photography books available for sale on BLURB. They are digitally printed one at a time on high quality photo paper, so they are more expensive than if they were mass produced and sold at retail. I hope you’ll take a look.

Until next month… ❤️✨🙏🏻