The Soundless Word: poems from 2002-2005
My first taoist inspired poems were written under the collective name of "The soundless word". They helped me discover and voice my very personal spirituality.
I wrote quite a lot of poems in the period 2002-2005, but most of them have no images associated with them, and some of them I posted on my blog during 2006.
For simplicity, I have posted a small sample of them as a single page.
At a later date, I will create separate pages for them.
Stillness
a tree in the forest
boughs sway in the wind
leaves flutter in the breeze
but the heart of the oak is still.
the movement of the world is not our movement
the movement of the world is not the world
heed the silence in the thunderstorm
All is One
Beneath the moonlight
The deep dark pool in stillness
Reflects everything
Impermanence
Each death and rebirth
The ceaseless river flowing
Sunlight on water
A drifting snowflake
investing in fragile dreams
falls upon the path
crystal crashing waves
the dreams and hopes of our hearts
writing in the sand.
Effortless action
Effortless action
Let the voice of tao
The voice of deepest spirit
Speak.
Or remain silent.
Do not reach for the tao,
for the tao is always there
Open the gates
and let Tao flow.
The voice is within
The voice speaks of without
All things are known
All things are understood
if we do not try to understand
if we do not try to know.
Let the tao be
And it will be here
Let the Tao come in its own time
and it will always be timely
Only in striving do we encounter success or failure
Only in being still do we encounter wisdom and serenity
At the pace of the enduring stars
all things will unfold.
Wholeness
Without one arm
I am still whole
I still know who I am
It is not in that missing arm
That my completeness exists
Where I am
Here,
Is where completeness exists
Letting go of the external,
I turn inwards
I shed my armour
I set aside my weapons
Naked
I am defended
Without walls
I am impregnable
None can damage me
For I am not this body
I am not this self
I am my experience
And that is here
Has gone
And cannot be taken from me.
Spontaneity
spontaneity
An action arising from the heart
and not the head
from unity, not separation
From the word unspoken
From the inner stillness
without reaching, without extending
Touching all things, and all hearts
Without straining eyes and ears
Hearing all things
and seeing what there is to be seen.
Let spontaneity arise
Like the motion of water
free and flowing
but following the laws of gravity, of nature, of being
In all things, let us be our true selves
and what we are expected to be
Not what we think ourselves to be
But simply what we are
And in knowing who we are
We have reached the centre.
Knowing
Here is knowing, without knowing a thing.
seeing without looking
hearing without listening.
Here is the child’s world
of doing and being
of touching and smelling and tasting
This is understanding without knowledge
achievement without striving
gain without the use of means.
The sun is shining,
there is laughter
a butterfly flits
the world turns
and we breathe.
The child knows,
and does not know he knows.
We think we know, and do not know a thing.
Until we come back to the innocence of first sight
The innocence of child mind
And start again
as though life, and living were but new experiences
The first taste of spring water
The first ray of sunshine on our skin
The first joyous laughter.
Give up who we were
And be who we are
The child always is
If we remember to remember.
Tao
Tao is innocence and simplicity
The moment we have spoken the word
written the character
or painted the stroke
we have lost the tao
without explanation
without articulation
before the beginning
and after the end
tao will go on
without witness
the circle of tao still turns
because the tao is the unconscious uncaring mind of all things
Te
te, is the rushing of waters
the stillness of a pool
the drip, dripping into deep places
the trickle and splash of a spring
te, is all things as we are
moving and still
thoughtful and active
te, is the being of us when we are simply being
the doing of us when we are simply doing
being is not striving
being is not denying
in stillness or in action
te is truthful to ourselves
te is seeing what is to be seen
saying what is to be said
standing or sitting
silence or shouting or laughing
te is being how we are meant to be
stillness in motion