Tanzania 🇹🇿

Irreplaceable
One of a kind
The stars aligned
And our time came to fruition
The apprehensions
Anxieties, dreams and expectations
All surpassed
Even the best author
Could not have written
At first glance
Came a knowing
‘Unfold what may’
As I stood in your hands
And walked as if with a friend
Pockets of people
In towns to villages
Children to men of the Maasai
All smiles and welcomes
Hospitality endearing
Leaving warmth
Down to my core
With spectrum of adventure
Wide, wild and of wonderment
Yet secured by the guides
With rifle, machete and spear!
The call of the wild
From lion to elephants
With splashes and scurries
By hippos and gazelle
Terrain of diversity
With rubbles roads to wild bush
The crunch of dried salt beds
Even great whirls of red sand
Monumental forms
With Kilimanjaro and Meru
To Oldionyo Lengai; mountain of Gods
All footed by plains and lakes
No less than the great Natron
Just a piece of this planet
Yet you’ve left me awe
Stirred me deep
And revived me well
They call you Tanzania
I shall call you the soul
For all you are
Has always been just so
Live long, Tanzania
Be fruitful
Your survival is the legacy
That Mother Nature
This Universe
Is strongest of all

Man of Maasai

 

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Standard 6 foot 3 inches
Draped in colored shuka
Spear and machete unconcealed
No mistaking your identity.
Footprint invisible
True to your ancient ways
Treading soft on your red earth.
As one with your land
You live side by side
Beast, bush and Man.
Boma-home, simplistic
Matted or bricked
Domed or steepled
Housing your family and livestock.
Your community ways
Protect the elderly
And teach your young.
What men of honor
Trust once gained impeccable
Unity undeniable.
Accepting of right and wrong
No law keepers required
Justice served from within your circles.
With tolerance to political and western tyranny
You have accommodated ‘globalization’
By being inched out of your land.
Of the ‘worldly’ new ways
Not all is needed
For human existence
Nor this great planet.
Much we can learn from you
As you sustain yourself
Your families, your communities
My prayers for your survival.
I shall never forget
Our precious time
Meeting at rock mountain bed
Guided through adventured lands
Dancing by light of campfire.
Thankyou
Nameste
Kwa heri
May we meet again.

Wild Awakening

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Photograph compliments of Erin Elizabeth Young

Wild Awakening African Safari : Spear headed by abstract artist, Erin Elizabeth Young and founding member of Olasiti Orphanage and community center, Shelly Wolfe.

I am one of 4 excited San Joaquin women embarking on an adventure of yoga, art, Safari and community service.
Hope to bring you back writings from another continent! Leave you with my inner voice as I begin the journey.
Wild Awakening
Blazing sunlight
Thunderous wildebeest
Endless landscapes
Passive or passionate
Absent or present
Believing or knowing
Which is it to be?!
Inhaling deep
Exhale gratuitous delight
Reverberating life
Knowing my time, my existence, my gift
With thumping heart
Pulsating veins
Flushed and vibrant in face
See me alive, engaged and impassioned
Drawing the line
Striving to acknowledge the infinite
Embracing the finite
Do you know of the ‘coming’?
It is here
It is in you, in me!
No waiting
No deliverance
Opening the eyes
For the first time
To see
To look
To understand
No room for the half hearted
No room for the faint hearted
Coming emboldened
Coming impassioned
This day awaits
This life is here
Let’s not miss our time

Thanks for Giving

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At the end of each day
Before the eyes close.
And as the dawn breaks

Before the eyes open.
You’re marketed.
Drawn by the glitter
The glamour, the clatter.

You’re hounded like prey
Trapped like the stray!
Heart beat races as if by a thrill.
But poorly differentiated
Is this pleasure and pain.

Are you the consumer?
Are you the consumed!
Are you falling or climbing?
Finding goal or demise?

Yet confused at the summit
As oblivious to this play!

Look, listen and learn
The way of the world,
And rote cloned you’ll be churned
Like manufactured humanoid!

Upon the pages of your heart
Your mind, your soul.
Erase, erase the messages
Allowed in by the gull.

The self talk,
The ego
Reinforce the convictions.
Drown out the pound
Of your screaming heart,
Gateway
To the tethered soul.

To escape the cycles
The conformity, the pressures.
Takes a presence pristine
A perspective reborn.

Slow, to feel the calm
So breaking the chains.
Shift the focus
Perspectives can change.

Challenge the noise makers
For phantoms they are.
True joy is no acquisition
It’s a gift of the Divine.

Weave in your kindness
Your currency of love.
Such priceless commodities
Stock market left dumb founded!

Let the changing light
Take you deep to your rest.
So fully, you can embrace
The quiet of the night.

Then rise each dawn
With the voice of your heart,
Saying,
“Thanks for Giving”
The wholesomely completeness
Of your being
Upon this earth.

 

Embrace Time

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In this cavern of time
Seconds tick
Hours slip
Days merge
And years fly

‘Tis human nature
To grapple and look
Ask,
‘What happened in all these years?!’

True wonder
Laid in tiny seconds

Just as every raindrop
Yields a forging river
As every sun ray
Sprouts fields of grain
So does each second
Culminate to those years

Capture the magnificence
Look no further

Raindrops fall to your feet
Sun rays beam on your face
Moments delivered as breath

Tune into this finite time
The song and dance is on

No vocals needed
No taps shoes required
Once tuned in
The music is on

Yet midnight will strike
When magic runs out
The carriage disappears
So be forewarned

Do not procrastinate
Quiet yourself
Listen for the song
Feel the dance
Be in your present
Let melody and rhythm unfold

 

 

Lover?

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Lover?
Mate?
Soul mate?

Dancing with life
A song is played
It attracts
It calls
A warmth is felt
Perhaps contentment
Closing my eyes
I’m overwhelmed

I know
I feel
The well within
Digging for the spring
The release has begun

Now I know
Such beauty
Such clarity
With letting go
Brings more of the unimaginable

Worthiness
No question
The gift
Always there
Unwrapping
Layer by layer
Depth unending

My lover
My mate
My soul mate
All within

Apple cart upset!

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Life’s milestones and achievements
Chronological and geometrically
Predictably livable
Despite being boring
Suffocating and imprisoning

All is fine
So long you follow
Societal norms.

This is how it’s suppose to be
This is what we’ve been condition
To believe.

Due to apparent successes
Fallacies repeated
Failing model denied.

Causal factors
Consistently appear
Inherent in basic human nature.

Aspirations for potential,
Desire
Passion
Growth;
Turn up unexpected at any given time.
Apple cart upset!

Membranes broken
Barriers busted
Cries for freedom.

Now labeled
Wild
Unruly
Lost.
Apple cart upset!

Can I let them roll?
My apples?
Of pain
Regret
Neglect
Sorrow
Passion
Desire
Growth

Or just pick them back up
Assemble
Square up
And box….

Happy 19th Birthday

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Young lady!
Who are you?
Big brown eyes
Spirit of the stars
Beaming power and light…

Young lady!
Where are you?
Skipping little steps
Spirit of the adventurer
Inviting intrigue and wonder…

Young lady!
What are you?
Precious wise soul
Gift from God
Showing love and kindness

Young lady!
Why are you???
Find your reason
Ultimate opportunity of life bestowed
We wish you all

so you can unfold…

Poof!

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What used to upset
Rock, overturn my boat,
No longer controls
The sway of my day

No matter the shock waves
My steel rod nerves
Come from my heart’s
Tranquil waters

The ripple and waves
Grow and threaten,
But I’ve learn no fight
Is quite the answer

Steer instead
With kindness and faith
And strength will arrive
To save the day

A little focus
A lot of love
And oh by golly
The demons have gone!