Twelve Poems

by Dionysos Maskaleris

 

For Your Birth 

We walk in the soft rain of warm droplets opening fragrances of flowers 

Less then lovers more then friends

together our arms each other holding 

your birth touching this life caressing 

Written for my friend Elena

as we walked

on her 60th birthday

of the year 2000

*

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Many Ways

12 tribes, 12 disciples, 12 steps or are there 13? Or a greater number? 

As many ways as there are people - are the roads to salvation or serenity. 

As many ways as there are atoms - are the paths to find our truths and the source of all light. 

How to focus on the task at hand? 

Breathe and caress each moment.

An infinite number of moments or one? 

Aware all moments are connected to all others 

the one moment now is where each soul lives.

**

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Two Ways of God

The sins of the parents will be visited upon them...

Our longings, our mistakes, our struggles

our desires, our temptations, our pain

go back to our childhoods

go back to the birth of humanity and the first beginnings of life...

are with us now.

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The blessings of the children shall sustain us...

Our innate goodness, our compassion, our innocence

our tenderness, our simple wisdom, our kindness

go back to our childhoods

go back to the birth of humanity and the first beginnings of life...

are here with us now.

 

With thoughts and actions of healing and forgiveness we are transforming...

we are evolving into beings of Light. 

 ***

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Humanity and the Divine

Is humanity in a painting or in broken glass - in a caress or in an unkind word? 

Is the divine in the spreading tree or in the last of its kind?

In the light summer rain or in the winter storm? 

Is it all - is everything - is life and love - a miracle or an act of torture? 

How can in everything and in every moment we be guided and we be free? 

By gazing into and losing ourselves in flames and clouds. 

By knowing the divine in humanity. By knowing humanity in the divine. 

****

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I Sing to You of All Birds Singing

Some birds kiss flowers or wind borne grasses.

Some birds fly to great heights of trees and mountains.

Some birds stand bowing at the shore.

Some birds dance with the waves of the sea.

Some birds fly for years without ever landing - sleeping with one eye opening.

Ah! Birds of the mountains and birds of the seas!

Oh beloved! You are as all these birds! Your voice is of sadness and joy.

I Dion - unfolding my the wings of my soul - sing to you my song.

I sing to you of all birds singing

and of your beauty touching the world!

 ***** 

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The Real Jesus

Hello my name is Jesus and I am hungry.

Hello my name is Jesus and I am an addict. 

Hello my name is Jesus and I am resentful. 

Hello my name is Jesus and I am greedy. 

Hello my name is Jesus and I have fear. 

Hello my name is Jesus and I am lonely in love. 

As all this was lifted from me so can it be for you. 

My name is Jesus and I am you and you are me. 

The God in you is touched by and touches the God in everything. 

******

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On a Walk

There is a tree that fell in the forest. 

We saw it fall one day as we walked. 

You had never seen a tree fall before. 

The danger and impermanence of life was close to us – 

the danger and impermanence of close friendship also. 

From death comes life - where the tree fell grows new life. 

Friendships and relationships change form. 

Each person, each life unfolds from and into God's image. 

Wherever one walks

in nature or with people

there can be sadness or joy - ugliness or beauty.

God wants us to forgive the ugliness and the sadness and affirm the beauty and the joy. 

I would like us to walk together to see the fallen trees and the trees that still live. 

*******

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WHAT I LOVE

I love to walk in nature. 

The animals and trees and plants and waters and earth and sky sing to me.

I sigh in gratitude and reverence to all those miracles. 

I love the sound of the heavy rain. 

It as if the earth is crying with me in sadness and joy-

 we crying together – cleansing each other as I become warm under the blankets. 

I love to ride my bicycle. 

As my cells breathe in and out and the world flows by, I imagine my soul flying forever. 

I love to take the train to work. 

As the autos crawl we zoom past I look at the buildings and the sky and the people with me sitting. 

I observe their clothes and their habits and see the miracle of their faces and their voices. 

I love to dream by night and I love to live the waking dreams. 

The places I go and the swirling colors I see - what I learn and become

sometimes frightens me and sometimes moves me to bliss. 

********

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Rain on a San Francisco Street Corner 

Umbrella'd humanity walks to and fro. 

As the rain lightens, the sky opens and then darkens. 

The two street umbrella sellers meet at the corner fine tendrils of mist rising around them. 

As they talk of their wares I whistle my songs.

I whistle for more rain and for the umbrellas. 

I sing for the streams of light flowing through me and in all existence 

**********

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Hell and Heaven

In these rooms in all the houses on all the streets and roads of the world 

I look into every ones eyes 

I listen to each person's voice 

I see everyone's suffering and joy 

I am learning not to turn away or not see 

Everyone has Jesus' face of pain 

Everyone has Jesus' face of compassion 

There is hell on Earth – in the ugliness, pain and loneliness 

There is also heaven on Earth – in each person, in each life and in every moment 

Past every hell is a heaven in the making 

It is up to everyone of us which hell or heaven to choose for others or ourselves 

We have the power to create – our own and all – spiritual reality

**********

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Power Animals

Tigers and owls are powerful animals. 

Tigger and Owl are Winnie the Pooh animals that I relate to.

I can be overly energetic... like Tigger and I can think I am wise but be foolish... like Owl.

In a perhaps deeper more spiritual cosmology

two of my bird power animals are the Loon and the Marbled Merlet.

The Loon couple call out in sadness and commitment for each other for life.

My life is like the Loon's - lost in the mist - calling out for my lost beloved.

My life is like the Marbled Merlet - living way out to sea for years

only coming to land to an old growth forest to nest.

People ask me why have a endangered bird for a power animal?

I answer the obvious: power animals choose us.

And the less obvious:  

the Merlet is powerful because it is rare, ephemeral and precious - dancing with the waves 

far out to sea and rarely finding refuge within the heights of great trees like our wandering souls.

And more obvious: I am crazy as a Loon.

***********

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The Life in Me

My life is field of grasses and my life is a great energy field. 

At times I rest with my body on the Earth 

looking up at the mirroring sky field of expanses of blue and passing clouds and many suns moving towards the eternal night of the universe

always still above me an endless singing firmament of stars.

All that is above me and around me

-the mosaic of light and shadows of existence-

falls upon me and flows through me.

I am the Earth and the sky - the clouds and the Light.

​

Today is all clouds but not of despair for the rain cleanses me and the Earth.

I bicycle and walk and breathe in the rain and I feel joy.

The rain is of life and Light and in this moment I am free.

***

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and right doing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.

 

Rumi

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{I capitalize the words Earth, Stars and Light because I believe the planet Earth and the Stars are... and the Light is... more alive then we are and they have a consciousness that is more manifesting of love then carbon based life -Dion}

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“What is Matter? — Never mind.
“What is Mind? — No matter.”
(Punch, 1855)

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{All Dionysos Maskaleris writings copyright or copyright pending}

 

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