AT THE END OF 2023 we spent 2 months in India and some of these poems reflect my experience in the Siddha Yoga Ashram in Ganeshpuri where we participated in a retreat called Pilgrimage to the Heart and then stayed and offered service. Sacred space seems to exist in "powerful" physical locations, in reality we each carry own Sacred Space in our Hearts.
The Nobel Laureate poet Joseph Brodsky said :
Humanity should always be in touch with the Gods,
Poetry carries their messages,
A poem encases humanity.
RETREAT TIME
The line to the heart forms early.
The pilgrims want to start
The journey to Bliss
We don’t want to miss.
It is that everlasting state
When we have a clean slate
Free from our own fate
Why wait?
Sweet silence.
We will embrace.
Stillness, quiet will take us deep
into the love we all seek.
Hoping all this happens in a week!
Now we each have to step in.
And keep walking down the path.
To become one with our own beautiful hearts,
where only love, joy, contentment, and peace exist.
MEDITATING IN THE CAVE
The small shoeless group
Stand waiting for the click
4 am
The sign switches
From closed to open
Open to grace
We silently filter in
Through the curtains
keeping in the darkness.
Enveloped in the stillness
We each find our comfortable spot
Pranaming to our Siddha Gurus
Carefully placing our asanas
We find the perfect posture
In a few breathes
We are all meditating as one
The blanket of silence and stillness
Intensifies
filling the cave
…..
Until someone moves
It is 5am, chai time
My inner timer is triggered
And one by one
We gather our asanas
we slowly drift out
To hot sweet chai
Under the stars
To start another beautiful day
Of chanting and seva
In Gurudev Siddha Peeth
Pranam = is a form of respectful or reverential salutation
Asana = white wool meditation seat
Seva = offering service
To find out more about Siddha Yoga and the terms I used please go to the website SiddhaYoga.org
SACRED SPACE in Sedona
Inspired by Hill Country by Tracy K Smith
(Music recorded on the trail, by Kenny the flute man)
In the distance
High in the red hills
Up the steep narrow path
Stumbling on slippery
Loose stones and rocks,
There is the ancient cave.
A sheltering place
For the God of all creatures;
Fissures, giant cracks
Open to the sky
Light streams in from the blueness.
What has lived and died here?
In the stony dryness, a frog
Still jumping, staying close
Along the shaded wall
Hidden from its hunters,
Surprises his human companion.
why are you here? He asks.
Why not, frog seems to reply.
Now scrambling back down
After sitting for a while (timeless)
In the caves expansive silence.
Now Aware of the scared space
Expanding out
Into the surrounding country.
This sacred space, this peace
Is floating along inside me now.
Now that I am ready to return
Down the steep narrow path
To the place I now
Call home.
NATURE CALLS THE TUNE
Stepping outside
Down the steps
Into the symphony,
Early morning Bird songs
Caress me with a cloak. (Surround)
Colorful, cheerful, welcoming
Cooing doves
High pitched crackles
Chirping mocking birds
squawking Ibises
Formation flying above.
in the distance
Shrieking Osprey partners
Call to each other.
Moving toward the water
The golden sunlight
Turns the harlequin dragonflies
Into Sparkling jewels
Twirling and whirling
Welcoming into nature’s temple
Into this scared space
With stillness in the air
Filled with golden light
sparkling sounds
I am home again.
PROLOGUE
Helen Keller said
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart
©MartinStrasmore2024
