Understanding life as a journey embarks us upon an apt metaphor for the adventures, twists, and turns that lives take. Sailors of old always navigated by the North Star, trusting its sturdy light to bring them safely home. And when even that star was obscured by tumultuous storms, as dawn approached, they would keep their eyes on the horizon to welcome sunrise.
May these poems ignite an alchemy in you, fire your consciousness into gold, and then cool and sail you home.
Introduction
When we consciously experience life as a journey, we are privileged to embark upon a life-long adventure full of twists, turns, and surprises through which we have the opportunity to develop trust, purpose, and meaning. Though passages from one phase of life to another are seldom easy, they carry cargoes of depth and character. By squarely facing that which daunts us, we voyage into a soulful wisdom gleaned from navigating rough waters. Sailors of old always navigated by the North Star, trusting its sturdy light to bring them safely home. And when even that star was obscured by tumultuous storms, as dawn approached, they would keep their eyes on the horizon to welcome sunrise.
The poems in this collection seek to assist you in navigating your own life journey. As you allow your fears to surface into consciousness, you give them the chance to alchemize into something more elastic, of greater value, and of a finer energy. Whether or not you benefit from that chance depends on your willingness to jump into the boiling waters of transformation. As the metaphor of “The Journey” implies, you will need provisions of help, courage, and tenacity. By staying awake to even the subtlest nuances that your psyche and spirit offer, you will develop greater alacrity and confidence on your path, learn the art of navigating the unknown, and enjoy increasing fulfillment with all of your relations: humans, animals, plants, and the elements themselves.
As we enter into a more conscious relationship with the ever-changing movement of our own unfolding lives, we discover divine assistance, courage, and hope as journey-mates; they steer us towards our own true north while we steadily fasten our eyes on sunrise. May these poems do their small part to ignite an alchemy in you, fire your consciousness into gold, then cool and sail you home.
Sample Poems
Thresholds
Thresholds arrive when we least expect them
Offering minimal light, yet glow with redolent chances.
They stand invisible to our daily minds
Yet live awakened in deeper consciousness.
Thresholds invite temerity to come forth
And show itself, and tremble,
And stand naked in a shiver of holy glimpses-
Those next steps lead to everything.
Years spent in comfort
Make it more difficult
To willingly arc towards the unknown
Yet the unknown is exactly
Where your life is taking you anyway.
The great unknown of death is enough, you argue.
Why enter it now?
Because to ignore this threshold is death before death.
Because some place in you knows this call is a choiceless choice.
Because you cannot really live without the passion it will bring.
Look deeper into that quiet urging,
Pack it with you, the garment you cannot do without,
And, taking your last deep breath,
Step onto the beckoning road
Follow the faint light swinging in the darkness,
And listen for the echoed call that
Sounds your name down the canyon beyond the bend
The turn you can’t even yet see in the gathering gloom.
This next poem was written post-Breathwork trainings. Hopefully readers will find it relatable to their own lives, post-retreat or after a time of great insight. It is really about transformation and the call of consciousness in our lives to move us forward.
Coming Home
Sometimes the gift of sudden contrast
Between meaning and sheer emptiness
Delivers a birth of purpose.
Returning to live in that which dies
Even as you enter the old threshold
Allows one last glance
One more breath
To assure that nothing here
Is to be lived any longer.
The calm hands of death
Wrap themselves around your old life
While you nimbly slip out, just so
Your heart, newly awakened
To universal alignment with all that matters now
Gathers freed energy
Watching, waiting
For others who will join you
In this unmapped dance
Trembling and sure
