We are at peace
when we stop wanting
We are happy
when we accept ourselves

Maybe we went wrong
when we thought we should be trying
to achieve anything else.

No doubt
there are many people hurting
And we hear about
many people getting hurt

Maybe we went wrong
when we thought life had a purpose
to struggle for.

Or is it life
can't contain true peace and happiness
Or not unles...

Read and leave comments (6)

Whatever my body, my soul is beautiful
Whatever my wealth, my soul is rich
Whatever the chaos, my soul is tranquil

Whatever the burden, my soul supports me
Whatever I lose, my soul will stay
 

Read and leave comments (5)

Fear is such a desperate thing
It tells you many lies
It tells you that you are not strong enough
It says you shall not win, cannot survive.

Fear claims you will not cope
Feeds you despair
It tells you words that you should never trust
It says that you will break beyond repair.

But if you've ever been afraid and heard
It whispering or shrieking in your ear
Then learn from your own pa...

Read and leave comments (6)

(This breathing technique turned into a meditation practice masquerades as a poem.)

< In In In In In
> Out Out Out Out Out Out Out

< In In In In In
> Out Out Out Out Out Out Out

< In In In In In
> Out Out Out Out Out Out Out

Calm In In In In In
Stress Out Out Out Out Out Out Out

Joy In In In In In
Sad Out Out Out Out Out Out Out

Hope In In In In In
Fear Out Out Out Out...

Read and leave comments (1)

Imagine all the paths that we
Might take from where we are.
Those that keep us local.
Those that take us far.

Imagine going round in circles
Or off tangentially.
Think of trekking to a mountain
Or travelling overseas.

Imagine all the sights and sounds,
The people we might find.
The things we haven't done yet.
The places left behind.

Imagine now the path of air
From breathing in ...

Read and leave comments (5)

For the successes that we have
Are as the land,
And all our hopes and plans
As trees and flowers,
But our failings are the droplets
Of the sea and rain
And all our fears and worries - 
Winds and storms.

And I am so adrift, so far, so floundering
Though there's most a lifetime learning how to swim,
Till I have thought me too far gone
Or that the raging sky and sea might never ease agai...

Read and leave comments (4)

She goes through waves
She is swimming for days
Through the ebb and the flow

She is always surrounded
She is often floundering
There is far to go.

How we try to reach her
Hope for skills we could teach her
As she makes her way

But there's not a notion
That can take this ocean
Away.

We are making swimming motions
We are signalling directions
With our flapping hands

But it f...

Read and leave comments (3)

The person that I want to be
dies every day.
I never know exactly when, or how.
Sometimes it is sudden,
Sometimes lingering,
I often struggle, I often cling,
Sometimes, fatalistically, I just give in
But the person I want to be dies every day
Sometimes many times.
 

Read and leave comments (4)

They say hope is such a wonderful thing
Keeps us strong against anything
But be careful what you hope for
Or it will do you in.

So many times I thought I understood
Who people were, and what was good
Only to find, what's left behind
Is broken dreams.

And they say grief is a natural thing
As we get used to what's missing
And find out how to do without
What we used to need.

But the...

Read and leave comments (2)

And so what if I'm empty inside!
Happiness still has a place here
There's certainly plenty of space here
for Joy to reside
That's what, if I'm empty inside.

And so what if I've nothing to lose!
With little worth keeping
There's more time for sleeping
Or whatever I choose
That's what if I've nothing to lose.

And so what if I've nothing to gain!
That's hardly an onus
Seems more like ...

Read and leave comments (1)

The roads where we walk, the houses and cars
Are hiding this planet
We forget who we are.

The shops and possessions, our jobs and our greed
Are hiding our purpose
We forget what we need

It all happens so quickly, there’s no time to think
But where are we rushing
At such a great speed?
 

Read and leave comments (5)

How come it can be this hard
To climb these mountains in my path
And just a small mistake 
Is all it takes to slide back down?

How come it can be this tough
To climb the steps in this building?
And just a little fail
Brings me straight back down.

How come it's never quite enough
And the journey's never easy?
Could it be because
Joy keeps falling out of reach?

How come although I ...

Read and leave comments (4)

Still practicing life
Determined. Will get it right
Given enough time.
 

Read and leave comments (4)

They some expecting happy times.
They some only hoping.
They some o' them writing rhymes.
They some barely coping.

They some doing very well.
They some not too badly.
They some wonderin' how to tell.
They some struggling sadly.

They some joyful where they are.
They some not delighted.
They some long to travel far.
They some trapped and frightened.

They some goin' to change the ...

Read and leave comments (8)

1 
 What we have may be decided by many things
 But we alone control what we will be.
 We are how we act.
 If the power to affect what we are and what we do exists at all
 It comes from us alone, and is given and taken wherever we choose.

2
 I am not magnetic, 
 Money shall have no power over me.

 I am not eternal. 
 Time shall have no power over me.

 I am not blind to the wo...

Read and leave comments (1)

Sometimes the safest questions to ask ourselves 
are about other times, other places, and other people. 
It is so much more pleasant to guess what might have been, 
how things might have felt, what people might have wished for,
and what might have lain ahead along unspotlighted
corridors of time.
Rather than dwell where we are, with ourselves,
Feeling far less happy to not know the answers.

Read and leave comments (4)

It is going to come
 as some surprise
To those who think
 that I am wise

But I hardly know
 what's right to do
And I've probably done
 far less than you

I'm nothing much
 make nothing different
I'm usually stuck
 so much for wisdom

It makes me sad
 to fall so short
Not what I hoped
 I'd be at all.

But this is not
 the final me
I can be more
 than what I've been

And in...

Read and leave comments (1)

The winds of chance blow harsh
The sands of time run fast
Caress it whilst you can
While life is in your grasp.
 

Read and leave comments (1)

I am
so much
in the middle
of being
on the edge
of things.

I am 
I am so much
so much
so much in the middle
the middle of being
of being on the edge
the edge of things.

And I think
These are the worst
places to be
The middle and the edge
Or is it?
Or is it 
knowing where we are
is the wrong kind of knowing?

I am
so much
in the middle
of being alive
on the edge
...

Read and leave comments (1)

Now that all my dreams are gone
There's nothing to do 
but carry on?
Dreams are as necessary to the mind
as blood is to the heart.
And what do we do if we are short of blood?
Surely I need a transfusion of dreams!

Read and leave comments (3)

I have rebuilt myself before
Because life often pulls me down.
I get gradually unhinged
I end up scattered on the ground.

I have rebuilt myself before
Well enough to carry on
Only to find
   Never firm against everything.
   Never resilient as I'd need,
But life has taught me many things,

So rather than be afraid
That this world might leave me battered,
Or this world might leave me...

Read and leave comments (5)

You'd be surprised
How far your sorry goes
It floats out through the air
To where, nobody knows.
(One moment spoken, and in another moment gone)

You'd be surprised
How far your sorry goes
So many times
It never even leaves your throat.
(And its those you've never said
That last the longest in my head)

But most of all,
You'd be surprised
How far your sorry goes
If it were meant
...

Read and leave comments (6)

Today's blog is another in which there are two versions of the same poem. This time we have a short and a long version. If I were to keep only one I would probably keep the long version but since they are meditations I feel like it is OK for there to be two versions of the poem. 

Version 1 – Long

In Death I cannot cling to who I am or was,
I will not know or see or hear or think,
...

Read and leave comments (4)

Whatever I have done 
I might have done worse, and might have done better.
Whatever I have chosen 
I might have chosen worse, and might have chosen better.

Whatever I have tried to say, 
I might have said worse, and might have said better.
Whatever I might be, 
I might have been worse, and might have been better.

But maybe judgement at all isn’t necessary
For better or worse, perhaps ...

Read and leave comments (6)

The words that tell my story
To the depth it should be told
Have buried deep inside of me
And spread through flesh and bone.

I cannot catch a single thread
That isn't so firmly tied
Around my mind and lungs and heart
That if I pulled it out I'd die.

That's why forming sentences
Is ripping me apart
And as for explaining anything
Will I ever get the chance?

But just as does the lio...

Read and leave comments (5)

Today's blog is a poem (well, two poems actually) where there are two versions of the poem and I have not yet been able to settle my feelings about which version 'wins'. I feel like there should stay two versions of it.

Version 1 – Personal

If Life will be what it has to be,
And Death will come when it comes,
And all the moments that I breathe
Happiness still is mine to give myself...

Read and leave comments (10)

It's been some time, too many years
Since the cause of so many tears
Since a set of people and their shoddy work
Caused so much injustice and so much hurt.

And it's still unfolding, as it always would
Until I close the chapter in the way I should
And it drags me backward, and I can't move on
And it will wear me out until the job is done.

Because I love my children, and I love myself
A...

Read and leave comments (1)

Oh......     another day  .... thrown away
                another pain .... nothing gained

       Stride on - to the sunlight
       Stride on - through the shadows
       Stride on - even though it's night
       Stride on - to the 'morrow  
              (to the sunlight)

    
But Oh..    another day  .... thrown away
                 another pain .... nothing changed

 
     ...

Read and leave comments (3)