Poetry Pharmacy – Silence
“How still, how happy! Now I feel
Where silence dwells is sweeter far
Than laughing mirth’s most joyous swell
However pure its raptures are.”
Emily Brontë
Ahhhh this place of silence
Awaiting my arrival day and night
No appointments, no reservations
No declines, no rescheduling.
Premium seat guaranteed
Reception perfectly suited
To wash away the tarnishing mind
Silence with peaceful hum of breath
Music with depth greater than the heart
This the purest of joys!
The one thing I would redo…
At 58 I sit and ponder
What would I redo?
Would I redo the daisy chains made on my middle school fields
Would I redo the endless questions posed to my mother about the hows and what fors of nature
Would I redo the cooking explosions making pasties and cakes in my besties’ mom’s kitchen
Would I re do the pains of teen metamorphosis
Would I redo the fantasies of first love
Would I redo the dreams of who I wanted to be
Would I redo the endless tears struggling with health, the I’m not good enoughs
Would I redo the fears and doubts of immigrant life
Would I redo the losses of loved ones too dear to name
NO!!!
None would I redo
As they broke the mold
They blazed a furnace
And created the me today
With humility and gratitude
A serene peace
A most thankful heart
I am here today
As the grace of life continues to be gifted
With a knowing that prevails
All is just how it needs to be for me
Thankyou for all your lovely birthday wishes this 2025!
In secluded Teahouses,
Shrines surprising on any given dori,
Onsens, lakes and glistening stalactites;
Water everywhere is revered…
Quenching
Rejuvenating
Exhilarating
Purifying…
Immerse into Onsen waters,
Healing heat and minerals
Weightlessness teaches trust
Promise of nature’s caring protections.
Teahouses simmer waters ceremoniously,
With ‘Harmony’ between the articles and the environment
Utmost ‘Respect’ of the process
Precision and care for ‘Purification’
All with ‘Silence’ and concentration.
Passing though a Tori, shrine after shrine
Welcoming water wells and baths
Offer cleansing of the body,
Both inside and out.
Hosted by Hozu-gawa River
Floating along oar by oar,
Accompanied by scenic trains, birds
Along embankments and bridges alike
Until a squeezed passageway
Between silver grey boulders
Rocking and splashing,
Rapids, cool and drench…
What of this liquid
Colorless
Tasteless
Yet infinitely irreplaceable!
Unique to the Pale Blue Dot.
I hold you in my cupped hands,
You kiss my surrendering lips
You run through my veins
Synchronized to life itself.
Pain, pain go away
Come again another day
If you really have to!
What is pain
This feeling so disliked
With discomfort, anguish
Turmoil and more?
But wait…
Is it not ultimately a balancer?
A reminder?
That our painless moments
So easily forgotten,
Are so very priceless.
So letting this shower of pain,
Much like the rain,
Drench me right now
As my body defaults,
And my mind revolts,
Leaving me not knowing whether
To succumb to the noise,
Or smash out of the bubble
With neither quite possible.
I return to a stillness
Where there echos an ancient whisper
Where my breath becomes my umbrella.
This place is my solace,
My palace without
Walls, fortresses,
As no defense is necessary.
Simply boundless
Cosmic and ethereal,
Putting back into place
The futility of any fight.
Letting go
Unclenching
Relaxing
And with a flow of peace
The light of gratitude returns,
Darkness withdraws
And with clarity, pain can be understood
And even managed.
Fall time, fall years
Culmination of beauty
Wisdom
Perspective.
Immersed and surrounded
By a depth,
Only time can give.
Riches,
Only experience can gather.
Gratitude,
Only surrendering reveals.
The fine lines
The atrophy
The forgetfulness,
Ceases to grip
As anguish begins to melt.
What comes, will pass
What hurts, will fade
And peace is found,
As the cyclic natural of all
Comes to light.
And most of all,
A returning
To a consciousness.
Floating with a birds eye view
Disengagement from drama, trauma.
All that’s created here
To be left here
Returning to a neutral purity.
As we came, shall we return.
No baggage,
But definitely not empty handed.
As what was the purpose
Of this interlude
Between birth and death,
‘Life’ as we call it,
This opportunity, this experience.
To have take form of the ‘Source’.
And then to walk, to wander,
To wonder, to revel
In this creation
Beyond comprehension.
What minuscule chance
We have to exist
Where galaxies and universes reign.
Yet here we are.
Be sure to query and question,
To spark your thirst
To to find your why,
And finally ‘KNOW’ thyself.
As your ‘fall’ fades
And the winter will ensue
Be sure to have built
The one relation standing firm to the end.
Man’s greatest curse
Ignorance of who he is.
So what are we!?
We are dust that has come alive
Dust that is impregnated
By the ultimate
Giving movement, thought and spirit
Beyond imaginable incredibility.
If for a moment we dare to appreciate
That we are drops of water,
Chemicals and their reactions,
Unfathomable yet engineered
Into synchronicity and self regulation,
With nature’s bell curve
From infancy to geriatric demise,
Given the fortune of possibly seven decades or more.
Where in this timeframe
Did we give credence
To the liberty of life?
Too busy distracted
With fear, greed, and a presumed freedom
When all along
The ultimate has been bestowed,
Day after day
Each a renewed opportunity
To participate, to glorify
Existance.
For in a blink of an eye
And as your actual eyes close,
It will come to an end
And what will it have all meant?
Nothing!
For it was only for you alone
To enjoy, to unfold, to acknowledge
This relationship
You, your existence, your sustainer.
So don’t take lightly
Revel in your seasons,
Reflect and learn your lessons
Grow and reach towards the light within.
As only then
Will you beam and reflect
A truth for yourself and your community
Both.
Art by Catrin Welz-Stein
Poetry Pharmacy – Silence
“How still, how happy! Now I feel
Where silence dwells is sweeter far
Than laughing mirth’s most joyous swell
However pure its raptures are.”
Emily Brontë
Ahhhh this place of silence
Awaiting my arrival day and night
No appointments, no reservations
No declines, no rescheduling.
Premium seat guaranteed
Reception perfectly suited
To wash away the tarnishing mind
Silence with peaceful hum of breath
Music with depth greater than the heart
This the purest of joys!
The one thing I would redo…
At 58 I sit and ponder
What would I redo?
Would I redo the daisy chains made on my middle school fields
Would I redo the endless questions posed to my mother about the hows and what fors of nature
Would I redo the cooking explosions making pasties and cakes in my besties’ mom’s kitchen
Would I re do the pains of teen metamorphosis
Would I redo the fantasies of first love
Would I redo the dreams of who I wanted to be
Would I redo the endless tears struggling with health, the I’m not good enoughs
Would I redo the fears and doubts of immigrant life
Would I redo the losses of loved ones too dear to name
NO!!!
None would I redo
As they broke the mold
They blazed a furnace
And created the me today
With humility and gratitude
A serene peace
A most thankful heart
I am here today
As the grace of life continues to be gifted
With a knowing that prevails
All is just how it needs to be for me
Thankyou for all your lovely birthday wishes this 2025!
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.
Beyond the nursing
Diaper changing
Feeding, bathing
The endless list of verb-ing
A mother subliminally shares
The deepest bond
Where emotions are perceived
Dreams, aspirations are known
Fears and regrets are soothed
She is a super hero
Magical strength
Far reaching vision
Always recognizing
All you need
All she can do
And to do it
With an unshakable love.
How does the saying go?
Mothers are angels
Without wings
Sent by God
How fortunate
That each and everyone of us
Is-was blessed
Not without but with our very own angel.
And even when
No longer Earthly
She stays close to our heart
Whispering day and night
Sweetness second to none
Encouragement and praise showered as
Only a mother can and will.
So hold your child
Cherish your mother
As everyday’s a gift
And take not for granted
To mother or be mothered.
Hollow and deep
Bubbling and boiling
Brewing beneath the surface
Puffing, spewing, pouring
Mount Vesuvius, St.Helens, Kilimanjaro.
Eternally ignited
Sizzling globe
Furnace of power
Brighter than bright
Our greatest star the Sun.
Both ominously glorious
Nature’s universal creations
Gargantuously majestic
Purpose essential
To this ecosystem of life.
Qualities of both
The Sun
The volcanoes
Beholden in each and every human.
Some bright and glowing
Sharing their light
Impartial, inclusive
Rising above the nonsense.
Some are shy, reserved
Yet their depth can be sensed
As power resides
At the core of their being.
With the stroke of kindness
Peppering of understanding
The human can rise
From dormant volcano
To enigmatic candle.
Shared is this earth, this time
So realize, capture
The preciousness
Of this merciful gift of existence.
What an experience, this human life
From mundane and tiresome
To privileged and magical
As the switch so simple
When each breath, each moment
Is valued as priceless.
All that glitters is not gold
We’ve always known.
So what is glitter?
And what is gold?
In this life we are constantly striving,
Striving to add bows
Bows, certificates, accolades
This glitter is the distraction.
The more the merrier
Driving, fueling the adrenaline
From morning to night,
From day to year
Year to a lifetime
On goes the madness.
All the while the true gold
Is buried deeper and deeper,
With layer upon layer
Of all that’s gathered and acquired.
A temporary happiness
Fleeting feelings of fulfillment,
Come and go
Until an emptiness howls.
And then the, truest work
Of digging, unlayering
Must begin to uncover the forgotten gold.
Much like an onion
Each peel removes the debris
Bringing you closer
To an ancient knowingness
Here at your core
Laying in wait
Your treasures are found
A warmth, a love
A peace, a strength
A home, a union
At last
The gold!
So much weight,
On your shoulders
On your back.
Hunched over
Broken down
Beaten by your own mind.
For the love of God
For the love of life,
For it can only be for love.
Hang on by that nail
Or that thread,
But mostly, by each breath.
So generously delivered
Without request
Without any demands.
Let yourself receive
This love supreme,
That will never be understood, only felt.
For no matter
Any circumstance,
It is loyal
It is faithful
Just to you
Until the very end.
Anatoliy Misuik, Autumn Breath, 2022, Lviv Ukraine
The morning air
clean and slight crisp.
The golden orb
slower to rise.
This third season
closes what has been amassed
with a serene gratitude.
Gentle and as abundantly as the falling leaves.
Yet opens the door
to reflection and consolidation,
giving rise to fortitude
needed to step into the shorter darker days.
Maturing beauty surrounds
with swaying wheat bushels.
Rich solid gourds and pumpkins
adorning doorsteps and mantles.
Summer fruits dwindle,
as hearty fall veggies
gathered for soups and stews
await crusty bread dipping.
This the season
of closing in onto the self.
Comforting for some.
Frightful for others.
For your own autumn’s coming,
collect the savoring of memories
rich and robust for growing closer
to your inner core.
As this, your core, will never dwindle
decay and dissolve.
And as you await your winter
fear not the cold or isolation.
But welcome the comfort,
Companionship
of that which you has seen you through
each and all of your seasons.
Guilt, fear
Successes, failures
Right turns, wrong turns
This is the noise between the ears.
Always questioning your worthiness
To bask in your wholeness
Where divinity awaits you.
This is the very distraction
Obscuring your passage
Creating your barrier
To your inner self and awareness.
It is here that the infinite is united
With your mortality.
Here ‘now’ allows
The ultimate experience
The experience
The millennia took
In the creation of you.
So ask not of your worthiness
Your presence
Dictates your absolute claim.
Breathe in this life
It will take your breath away
Let it make you breathless.
By the most precious of realizations awaited
You are worthy
Be humbled by your opportunity
Be awed in your gratitude.
Grasp every moment
New as dew
Fresh and crisp
And just as transitory.
So capture and be focused
As night will come
And you’ll need
Your own light
To carry you without fear.
Only possible for having already
Met your creating divinity.
rhythmandthedancer 