Death

Anniversaries

Dates that come around

Reminding of happy times,

Times we commemorate 

Births, milestones

Achievements

And then there is death.

The time span of existance 

This we have made the measure of life,

A beginning and an end.

But the mess in the middle 

The delicious filling 

Between two slices of bread,

Of what endless choices we have 

What pleasure it brings,

What surprises we have.

So this day, today

I celebrate not commiserate,

The life of a man, the life of my Dad.

If he taught one thing,

It was to get up and go

For there was always much to be done

Always much to be had.

So in his memory

Sisters let wake. 

Let’s get up and go

Go in life, with his push forever behind us

But on our path, of our making.

For finding our zest and zeal 

Lies not with and through those we have and those we’ve lost 

But deep within ourselves

As we make the choices, 

To grow and connect 

With the source 

That cannot leave,

Will not abandon

Is always waiting

To catch,

To promote

To praise

With each little gifted

Moment,

Breath

Presence.

Hiroshima

Countless children at school

Workmen at construction sites,

All unknowingly said a final goodbye that morning…

A white to grey plumage rose to the sky

As crimson red flames scorched the ground

Soon a black radioactive rain showered down.

The range of pain that ensued 

Completely breaks the heart

Churns the stomach

Depresses the mind to non-functional.

This the feeling 80yrs later 

Viewing the Children’s memorial

The Atomic Bomb Dome

Names, endless names…..

Reading the personal stories, 

Mothers’ searching for their children

Orphaned children housed by strangers,

All burnt, scarred, mammed, or with post exposure sickness.

City, housing, families, lives

Destroyed or left unrecognizable.

Mass destruction followed by 

Prolonged suffering and ugly painful deaths.

A truth known by the rest of us from history class 

This 3D evidence 

Even when second hand, 

Screams volumes 

Lessons learnt but easily forgotten 

Time, distance 

Poor excuses.

Are we not at a precipice 

Where so easily 

We could repeat history?

Only with greater

Far reaching force and destruction?

Our power is limitless 

As darkness and light.

Now is the time for unity 

To prevent another Hiroshima.

Acknowledge the pains of past atrocities, 

Claim the light, kindness and understanding from within

Let today’s children never have to learn and visit further new memorial sites.

Angelic Presence

Thank you Diane, holding this ornament has given me a beautiful moment in time to feel the lost physical contact with Dipak, my precious brother.

Light as a feather 
You must have become 
 
As mostly I smile 
When I think of you
Mostly I feel
Comforted, when I am reminded of you
 
Is this what it means
When you know 
Your beloved departed ones
Have grown their wings
 
Brother dear
I feel a gentle breeze
As I know I feel you 
Looking over me
 
With your visits, your presence
Through memories
Of laughter 
And love and more
 
And now our souls 
Have found a new dimension 
So never are we to be lost again
As the love I feel is deep, true and resilient 
 
May you rest with peace
May I live with a grace
May we share the knowledge of true bliss
In both life with and without wings

Name that vase: Natronia

Produced and posted by The Alchemist’s Studio, http://rakupottery.ca/2019/01/08/name-that-vase/ with request for naming and writings.

The inspiration for naming your #44 comes from its immediate ability to draw me back to Tanzania where i experienced Lake Natron, a mineral-rich soda lake which sits below the ‘Mountain of God’, Ol Dionyo Lengai, an active volcano that spews a dark silvery carbonatite ‘cold’ lava at 500-550 celsius.
Your vase reminds me of the colors, textures and unlikely combination of life and death at this lake. The story is real but your vase is the mythical symbolization, Natronia, to me!

Natronia

Oh ‘Golden’ one
Think yourself so mighty,
Robbing me of my waters
Running me dry to the bed.

My visiting flamingoes may flee
And the fish eagle saved
As my alkaline petrifying
and volcanic waters vanish.

But perhaps you leave
Behind, my most renown
Beauty of all,
My crystaline core.

Varied hues of ruby
Azure and seagreen,
All mingle and run in and over
My contours, cracks and crevices.

See my form now!
Matched by none,
As I am the one and only
Lake, Lake Natron.

With me you will find
Life and death
On and in me,
Both like nowhere else.

When waters swell
My salts are savored,
My ruby red
Never feared.

Yet with pH high
I cannot help
To immortalize those poor creatures
Who know not what is wise.

I lay witness to mighty God,
Ol Dionya Lengai.
Beauty is my nature
Protect those that come to my shore.

Pictures curtesy of Nick Brandt and Depositphoto.com.

Law is law!

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A law is a law
Is a law
Is a law!

Or is it?!

‘Every law has an exception’
Has it not?!
Or is it just a loophole?
A smart ass lawyer?
A way not to comply?!

But wait!
There is one law
Undeniable
Irrefutable
Just damned unbreakable!

Here name is Morticia
She readies herself
As soon as you arrive,
As she knows one day
She can sweep by
And swoop you away!

Or can she?!

Taught by the saints
The pandits, the mystics
The lot!
‘The day you came
Seals the deal
To the day
You must go!’

Infusing the fear
The concepts
The traps.
The great dichotomies
Of there is heaven and hell
There is life
There is death!

But wait!
Is there not the ‘circle’
The ‘circle of life’!
Just as the sun rises, it too sets
And as it sets so it rises.
The tide flows and then ebbs
And ebbs so it flows.
The moon waxes and then wanes
To wane, then wax.

Is Man, this human life, the exception
With such finality as death!
Is this all the greatness
That the mind
Can give?!

Death, disappearance of form
Leaving corpse, leaving dust.
Are we to trust these eyes?
Just because
They see me no longer,
Means no longer am I ?!
Does the earth get lighter
With every departed soul?
Heavier with every
Arriving babe?!

What nonsense is death!
Given mighty stature
Given mighty rule,
Making you cower and crawl
Leaving you shallow and small.

Death is merely opposite to birth
In this circle of life.
As roses are to mulch
Mulch is to roses.
Great icebergs to water
Water to ice.
Mountainous cliff sides to sand
Sand to cliffs.
Think a little further
What happens to Man!

‘The departed never leave,
They live in your remembrance, your soul’
This energy of life
Is omnipresent for all.

Like it or not
Understand it or not
We are all but one,
And of the grandest of One!

No law to defy
No law to prove
Ask of yourself the answer
And truth shall be yours.

Gone but not Lost

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Number of days shorten
A shining light begins to fade.
Bearers assembled
Eulogies sing out.

Absence marked
At dining tables,
End of text and phone lines.
Keys, cars and clothes
All untouched.

Cried and uncried tears
All await their turns.
Triggers.
Simple stories and songs
Photographs and jokes.

Oh my lovely!
Where art thou now?
Among the stars?
Flying with the angels?
Watching over me?

Something tells me
My yearn
My memories
Of what we’ve shared,
Is my solace.

Your presence
No longer physical,
But still remains
Warm, charming
Undeniably lovable.

You live on, my dear.
Maybe not as I once knew.
But now, in a new phase
Here for me to face.

I learn anew
Life always goes on
Presence changes form
True love never ends,
And you and I
Will always be one.