Responding to a Basic Tune Under the Varied Noise

Responding to a Basic Tune Under the Varied Noise

Treading tones

Along stones

Tread, tread, tread, tread,

Rhythm led

As all flashes by

In the sky

I can spy

And tread, tread, tread, tread,

Gives a rhythm to my

Heart, head, feet

The part and path

I go

Watching the flow

And in the end

All is beauty.

All is beautiful.

Simon C.J Falk  9 May 2024

When Will It All End?

For those who live with chronic pain.

Mary Oliver Had That Way

Mary Oliver Had That Way

Mary Oliver had that way

To feel underfoot

That dew damp grass

And the scent of the morning air

Before the grainy shore

As she saw swans swimming

Sunning themselves

As the light pierced the mist.

 

And she showed up

Was present and

Saw the scene.

Because of her witness

We now see.

 

Simon C.J Falk 6 January 2024

Nothing Stirred

Nothing Stirred

Nothing Stirred

From the dormancy

Instead

A life lived out

Frantic and frenetic

From this to that and

That to this and

Never minding

Or looking

Or listening

For the poetry

Of life.

Simon C.J. Falk               5 January 2024

John O’Donohue’s Accompaniment

For a number of us the late poet and philosopher-theologian, John O’Donohue, has articulated for us when we seek words. He crafts a vessel that has carried, or, is carrying, some of us across the waves of grief to safe shores. The words are a companion in loneliness and a gentle sound to punctuate silence. I’ve written of him before in That Worthy Wordsmith is Our Anam Cara.

This is but a taste of his words once more, praising our wonder in creation and landscape from Anam Cara:

“LANDSCAPE IS THE FIRST-BORN OF creation. It was here hundreds of millions of years before the flowers, the animals or the people appeared. Landscape was here on its own. It is the most ancient presence in the world though it needs a human presence to acknowledge it.”

— Anam Cara: 25th Anniversary Edition by John O’Donohue
https://amzn.asia/7GZHREa

He sends us to our search for discovery in Eternal Echoes:

“IDEALLY, A HUMAN LIFE SHOULD BE A constant pilgrimage of discovery. The most exciting discoveries happen at the frontiers. When you come to know something new, you come closer to yourself and to the world. Discovery enlarges and refines your sensibility. When you discover something, you transfigure some of the forsakenness of the world. Nature comes to know itself anew in your discoveries. Creative human thought adds to the brightness of the world. Yet there is a strong seam of thought which has always de-animated nature and reduced the earth to a mere playground for the worst fantasies of human greed.”

— Eternal Echoes: Exploring Our Hunger To Belong by John O’Donohue
https://amzn.asia/7bbpPbJ

He has words for us when we are spent and drag our feet to the end of the day in ” For One Who is Exhausted” from Benedictus:

He goes on to advise us…

This but a morsel of the banquet O’Donohue offers. As he says in his poem “Beannacht”, may his words…

come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

Stop and Listen

It’s been a while since my last post here. Inspiration comes when it does. Things have been bubbling away for some of us and here it is.

Stop and Listen

Stop and listen

To the sound

Of the noise beneath the noise.

Noise from outside

Expecting, driving, urging, coming

Ruptures in

Tumultuous transference

Reverberating and grating and agitating

It fires and wires

Shaking and convulsing.

Turn down the volume.

Too late

Amp’s blown.

Simon C.J. Falk 24 September 2023

Please Do Not Suppose

Please Do Not Suppose

Please do not suppose

That you need

To be

Alone

In our experience.

Although some is

Especial to you

Others may know

Something

Of the tides that

Come ashore

Upon us.

At times the tide feels

Low

Others it comes a buffeting

Flattening us

Beached.

The insidious underground

Of hormones

Burrow the recesses of

Our being

We feel the change

And the energy

Ebb and flow.

But know

It’s not your fault

We too

In our own way

Feel the waves.

You are still

loved and loveable

desired by

others to connect

and share

in the fireside

of stories and dreams

delighting in your

eyes aglow

before the firelight

a sign

your spark has not

gone out.

Simon C.J. Falk 13 May 2023

Not This Time

Not This Time

Not this time

Will car and foot

Traverse

The driveway

Seasoned

All seasons

With lines of

Pepper corn trees

Harbouring bees and

Birds and shade.

Not this time to

Continue conversations

In corridors

That somehow feel

More confidential

Than back home.

Not this time

To sit in circle

Holding a simple

Cross

In the hand

And holding stories

Laughs, burdens,

Challenges of

Others lives

In the circle of the

Room,

And one’s heart,

And in the

Great Story.

Not this time.

This time

Other things emerge

But there are many times

And the gratitude endures.

Simon C.J. Falk 13  May 2023

What Frequency?

What Frequency?

What frequency

Is your tinnitus?

Mine casts waves.

Of doorbell chime,

Searing security alarms,

And phones

Pinging and ringing and

Ringing and pinging.

But wait!

Is that sound of

Guitars?

And cicadas on the summer breeze,

Of banter and laughter of those

Passing by.

With a little sigh

I hear

Why fret and worry

About so many things?

Few are needed.

Let them go.

Let them be.

Be.

Simon C.J. Falk  14 January 2023

The Last Day

A recent poem