Poetry for Bubble Photographs by John Searles
(Titles in blue have corresponding images - click on the title to see the image)
The morning of your first life:
You arise, awestruck by the dream.
The air is poignant with mystery and promise.
Golden Light floods your heart.
You are
Awakening.
Sappho strokes the warm water
Undulating around her thighs,
Her golden-brown skin a
Metaphor for Divinity.
"I love that which caresses me,"
She says, gasps, laughs,
White teeth flashing, pink tongue
Luscious, dripping with honey.
Droplets of bliss
Ignite the sea's presence
Revealing its inner
Aqualescence.
Upwards I soared
In the blue spiral
Enraptured with
The love of Hu.
Cool, Sweet and Delicious
Drink deep of Life.
Raise the bowl to your lips.
Every experience fills you, drains you.
You have become the juice of immortality -
Cool, Sweet and Delicious.
The Curvature of Love's Inner Grace
In the giving of love dazzles
The delight of Eternity;
In the receiving
The gentle warm glow of Now.
Thank you for showing me this joy -
The curvature of Love's inner grace.
Gentle Wave of Knowing
In the still blue calm of morning,
As the light floats on the water,
My heart opens to you.
I know,
As I count my loved ones
You are foremost among them.
Love gives all things meaning,
Of each moment makes a blessing
Guardian Angels Watch You Sleep
Your joy and your destiny
Call to you.
I hear them calling you.
You are ready.
The moment is now.
Step up the dais and
Receive your crown.
Everyone will help you.
I will help you.
Silky waters will part for you.
Blossomed cherry trees will carpet
The fragrant green grass for you.
Gentle antelopes will carry you
Faster than a child's wish for Christmas,
Faster than a foundling kitten's love.
Bold eagles will carry you aloft
Above the crazy darkening thunder,
Above the longing-filled Autumn moon.
I will tell you stories.
I will kiss your sweet forehead.
Embraced by happy dreams,
You will slumber, knowing,
Guardian angels watch you sleep.
The Line Between Past and Future
Basho awakens on the park bench and then,
Walking to the corner 7-Eleven, notices
Everything is gleaming!
Dew on the grass;
Tears on a child's face;
All sparkle like jewels!
He inhales deeply - wet asphalt,
Burning leaves, truck exhaust,
Geraniums in a window box -
Perfume of the Ancients!
Chocolate chip cookies are soma,
Coffee becomes ambrosia on his tongue!
Sitting on the curb,
Half-listening to the radio,
He reads the newspaper,
Laughing uproariously at
The human pageantry!
Later, in the library,
Five quarters richer,
He diagrams Divinity and Eternity
Both Here, Now, Yes! in
The line between past and future.
Lucky Fish Finds The Golden Realm
For lifetimes you followed the school
Growing a proud yet fearful tail,
fins of cynicism, jaded gills
Eating, fighting, mating, surviving.
Magnetized by strange impulses that
direct and compel you
Wondering about the moon's whispers
as you sip still waters
Sensing a new possibility, the glow
above-below, around-inside,
You wander off to lost, lonely,
insecure, unsafe.
Years pass. Defeated, humbled, tired of
Wanting things that leave you wanting,
You open your heart to its treasure and
Love pulls you near. Now
Lucky fish finds the golden realm.
Morning At The Edge Of The World
The teachers defined the method clearly:
If you believe you can fly, you will;
If you don't, you won't.
We love you and we care. But
This is your adventure,
your journey,
your life.
Now fear is a gentle breeze.
I'm floating in the blue and it's
Morning at the edge of the World.
Party Streamers
Pinched by tremendous forces
Common rock emits light.
I understand this process
and my destiny invite.
Now it's my birthday. Pinched by Time
and this born-again dreamer
The future unfolds before me, like
Party streamers.
Re-Discovery
I had lost you, forgotten you.
Now at my very center I have found you again,
Embracing me!
No, I was the lost one,
Alone in the mountains.
Then I looked and,
Where a trickle of water had
Oozed from the rock,
I saw you kiss forth a fountain!
It was night. I had no home.
I waited sleeplessly and then,
Where a dull spark
Slumbered in the migrant's coals,
I watched you breathe forth blazing joy!
I searched the past for answers.
I dug beneath ancient temples.
In paleolithic layers,
Within the most brittle fossils,
I heard your encouragement of me!
I raised horses for their swiftness.
I watched you help in the birthing.
Where one foal lay,
Motherless, weak and needy,
You lifted up a nation of proud stallions!
Desert winds cracked impoverished soil.
Withered crops hung dry and brittle.
I witnessed your touch transforming the earth
Into a garden, rich - beautiful - fertile.
I breathe your sweet breath gratefully;
Your lips are a heartbeat from mine.
How can your voice
Be so musical just with speaking?
How do you know exactly which words to say?
You touch me so deeply!
Could we have been
Two atoms together
In the One Flame?
Or within the still dewdrop
Two souls glistening?
I have never been so loved before -
Or felt so worthy of Love!
Buried by addictions,
Shrouded by anger, pride and
not-wanting-to-know,
Awareness germinates anyhow.
You were born for this purpose -
Rising to the light.
Depression fermenting
Staggering to despair
Rising up with courage
Intermixing with inspiration
Transforming to victorious, golden sound!
It's the Saxophone Solo -
transcending the blues.
Sentimental Memories
Auspices
Flames dance on wood
Smoke undulates, rising
Eaves drip staccato
Leaves resist the gusts
or let go
The pattern of the pear seeds
on the white plate
Life throws the runes
moment by moment.
I watch, I listen,
I hear again in the wind
The song of your name.
I remember your kiss
Your lilting laugh
The depth and meaning of
Your embrace,
The intense epistles from your eyes,
The musicality of your speaking.
In my dream I heard you say, and
I believed you completely -
"No matter what,
I will always love you."
I sort through our pictures -
A week on the coast.
Your stories, my stories,
Your poems, my poems,
A card, a note written in
a passion of love.
Do they make me
Strong or Weak?
Lost or Found?
these Sentimental memories.
Grass and Wind whisper secret stories.
White crane flaps wings and is gone.
Golden sunlight ripples on cool water.
I know you wait for me with love:
Serenity.
Swiftly through the bands of darkness,
Up into the realms of light,
Hand-in-hand with the Dream Master,
Secured to your resting body by
The silver cord.
Soul Is Dancing - Happy and Free!
You volunteered for this mission.
You agreed to have a body
That requires constant attention;
To struggle with time, causality,
karma and emotions;
To have limited awareness
limited mobility
limited expression
unlimited problems.
While living - know there is a plan and
You are part of it.
And know your true, eternal immortal Self -
Soul is Dancing - Happy and Free!
Leviathan booze devoured your father.
Octopus cancer consumed your mother.
Incest, hysteria, abuse and neglect
shipwrecked your childhood.
Yet here you now stand - smiling
as you pull me from the deep.
Who built the lighthouse within your heart?
You were resourceful and strong indeed
To have survived and thrived on that
Stormy Sea.
To love the rose
I embrace the thorn
Take it easy, you say, Relax
Enjoy life as it comes. But
I am filled with this
Strong Yearning.
Within The Heart
The grail is hidden.
No map marks the place.
The way is uncharted.
Alone, you make the journey.
Discover faith and find the compass -
Within your heart.