Writings for Peace, by Nikolai Ilyich

[NikolaiI]

Swimming in the sea of light,
I see a moment of true peace
Snging to my soul's respite -
Tmelessly, my soul's release.

I breathe, and breathing, live
In time and space, it seems to be.
I breathe, and breathing give
Another thought, and spirit free.

Creation is beautiful, friendship more,
To where I set my heart to roam,
To find the colours my bluebird wore;
Then once again I am at home.

Every word said breaks the silence,
To which alone my life belongs,
Boundlessness, peace, from whence
An eternity echoes our Song of songs.

I asked, for which I gratefully am
A listener, understanding quietly
The island to which once I swam
And the power to set my spirit free.

[NikolaiI]

By the time I finish writing this sentence. . .
I will have learned
infinite grief,
and infinite peace.
A joyful quintessence
of actions' surcease,
of darkness turned
and fears' release.

[NikolaiI]

Every voice is telling you to be true
to them,
But they should follow you:
If you are anything of a heart
pure and free
Then you should infinitely be
our leader:
For all that is good in me
is what is free
and sure, and kept alive
from innocent youth.

Love in me is something that
quickly faded when
childhood passed.
Joy in me is that which ever
remains,
It is that which experiences
a boundless love,
it prefers to stay hidden.

There is an infinite light
Within all
That fares not so well
When it is shared before it's ready-

For when innocence meets a cynic
The one is usually slaughtered.

But I attest with infinite faith
that I am greater,
that innocence is stronger:

Some may call it strengthener,
For it gives lives.
It is pure love alone which would
help us to save each other.

It is love which heals,
Which renews,
Which gives accuracy to bows.

I am here telling you, now,
we will heal.
But you must first become sane.

There are many maxims throughout
history,
Many poets, prophets, saints,
Shelley, Goethe, Blake,
Milarepa, Rumi, Sagan,
Bassui, Black Elk, Ramana Maharshi,
Laoze, Musashi, and our beloved Ralph Waldo;
They all knew life is so sacred,
So infinitely beautiful and spacious.

Lay down your arms - watch and see.
Lie down in front of the trucks;
Watch and see the bloodshed cease
When you do all, and relate all to peace.

[NikolaiI]

One breath to know the eyes are closed,
One breath to know my trust in you
is as great as my trust in infinite truth

If I could simply return to the beginning again
I would let go of everything, and return home
and remember that I healed my wounds time
and again-
feeling echoed is much the same
as it always is

when you return to bliss
-
what is bliss?
absolute peace
trust,
knowledge that one is alright -
creating infinite worlds without any effort -

I would return, and empty, and return.

Peace, my friend, returning again
an echo of sound, and of light -
an infinite echo, it returns to sight -

I have let go,
and,
without feeling,
died..

returning again I have lived,
and again,
I have died


wwwwhhhhhaaaattttt would I do
if I were you

breathing syllabus
upon syllabus

chasing phantoms
return true.

[NikolaiI]

deleted.

[NikolaiI]

You are very kind, and I am - we are -
very glad you are here.

I've lived and died a thousand times,
and it is a small thing
to throw my heart into the breech
once again -

I would trade my life for theirs,
give my heart and soul
for their protection. . .

This is why we fight.


My dear friend -
Sing a protection of my soul,


Come into my heart,
Shine from there eternally,
Lend your strength to me.

[NikolaiI]

Morning's come,
So many things are new.
Autumn's beginning-
Simple and clear today;
Fallen are the dead limbs,
Free and alive is our future.
- Onwards! Around, forever,
In the circle unbroken -
The jagged ridges, mountains,
Are clear and pure,
Eternal and endless -
Home to boundless life -
These mountains.

[from October, 2012]


http://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?12616-Inside

I must have been reading Dogen. :]

[NikolaiI]

Take a shot at me; you'll never miss.
The folk scene in England,
California's freedom, the burning sun
Activity, dancing, drumming, this -
Is death returned to life.

Take a glance at me, you'll never guess
What nonsense is spoken in the hall,
They gave us not a thing, nothing at all,
Without listening, suddenly heard a Yes -
Mother to become a wife.

I'll set out sailing, glad to be free -
Singing out across the ocean
How each soul reached perfection
Gently placed in our shared melody
Oh sweet rest, silent rest, so tight -

Now there's a young soul glancing
All below that sheltering bough
That shades him and his loving cow,
The Truth in him, always laughing, dancing
Deep into the early morning light;

Thankfully, gratefully, JOYFULLY SING
These dancing folk mother nature's praise
Would find rest in work's perfection days
And wrapped up in love, most anything
Would seem most like a dancing step -

And power is here, but more so love,
Where light awakens heart's beauty song
And stepping light, there following along
A black swan where it should never be.
Timeless, out of space and without voice,
A formless bird from unknown dimension
Matchless - she's born of light and dark.
With divine beauty and infinite grace, all,
Unsung, nor heard, nor spoken, or known,
But written in hearts forgotten long ago,
Beyond our remembrance and forgetfulness -
Beyond the end of captivity and deliverance.




http://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?12833-Take-a-shot

[NikolaiI]

Maybe music will calm the ego
Maybe music will flatter the soul
Music follows us wherever we go,
Light's depth and beauty, we are whole.



http://www.online-literature.com/forums/blog.php?34281-Om/page18
[11-13-2010]

[NikolaiI]

Mahadeva,
your energy is great energy,
free of all but purest peace and bliss,
I don't think any have seen you
but I've gotten to see your place.
There's no one suffering there,
no one ever even hears of it.
The wind is a breath of gentle healing,
even the stem of a leaf is the same.


[9-21-2010]

[NikolaiI]

I've been looking at some of the ancient poems I wrote and this one. . . really kind of blew me away to see again.

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?11983-Shore-a-poem

I love some of my references, "My only friend," - Hendrix's song ;-) I think it's called "My friend."

[NikolaiI]

In a forest there lived, of great renown,
An empath who could not act his age-
The grandson of a time-lost mage-
In a cabin of wood, green-grey and brown.

Quiet summer seasons rolled through, and he
Spoke not a word, but quietly sang
Every song to relieve an earth-felt pang,
Every song to make life more free.

He told every secret to the squirrels and birds
Saving not a one for himself -
Daily he wrote in the books on the shelf,
But placed them back empty of words.

There is something to keep from the dreaming of sleep
That transcends words of power;
For days he kept still, on the peak of a hill,
in the dawn of a heart-kept hour.

So day by day, he passed this way,
Growing ever more so wise -
'til out of thought, untangled, uncaught,
Began the spirit's rise.

There's wisdom there, at the heart of it,
It never could grow stale,
If you would learn to tell the tale-
If the world could learn to quit.

There's nothing quite so easy as the spirit of poesy,
Absorbing heart-felt pains,
While flowing from Pure Land's freedom
As from a cloud that rains.

[NikolaiI]

[redo from post# 8]

Take a shot at me; you'll never miss.
The folk scene in England,
California's freedom, the burning sun
Activity, dancing, drumming, this -
Is death and life returned to bliss.

Take a glance at me, you'll never guess
What nonsense is spoken in the hall,
They gave us not a thing, nothing at all,
Without listening, suddenly heard a Yes -
An answer to their happiness.

I'll set out sailing, glad to be free -
Singing out across the ocean
How each soul reached perfection
Gently placed in our shared melody
Oh sweet rest, silent rest, so tight -

Now there's a young soul glancing
All below that sheltering bough
That shades him and his loving cow,
The Truth in him, always laughing, dancing
Deep into the early morning light;

Thankfully, gratefully, JOYFULLY SING
These dancing folk mother nature's praise
Would find rest in work's perfection days
And wrapped up in love, most anything
Would seem most like a dancing step -

And power is here, but more so love,
Where light awakens heart's beauty song
And stepping light, there following along
A black swan where it should never be.
Timeless, out of space and without voice,
A formless bird from unknown dimension
Matchless - she's born of light and dark.
With divine beauty and infinite grace, all,
Unsung, nor heard, nor spoken, or known,
But written in hearts forgotten long ago,
Beyond our remembrance and forgetfulness -
Beyond the end of captivity and deliverance.

[NikolaiI]

(a song and a singer)


Dearest Renbourn,
Music rising high through the soul,
Blessed melody, soothing and beautiful strains,
Reminding us we are whole,
As the day we are born -
Reward for our pains.

Blessed melody -
Spanning from the quiet center
Reunited friends
Never need to make amends;
Walking quietly, through the dark sacred night;
Loved completely.

[NikolaiI]

Dearest Renbourn,
Music rising from the soul
In beautiful, melodic strains
To remind us we are whole
As the day we are born -
A reward for our pains.


Little Niles -
From so many miles
You walked beside me,
Always kept my love free,
An angel hidden
In the healths of spirit
To release, when bidden
In the heart of composite

Life from the roots now
Pleasantly sing, oh how
you live -

Freedom was never sweeter
Than heaven's grace in you
And give
A light that's fleeter
To sweep on through,

Jazz variations
Speak volumes to the soul -
From star-lit imaginations
Unfolding from the whole -


The brightest Star from Heaven's gate
Was shining further to sublimate
The Hallowed ground, from love, full-driven
To unknown sound, from daylight given
From one whence fire has entered hurled,
Down to aspire and to this light of the world
Fingers can echo, the music can only create
And grow, when made by a heart aureate
And clothed in heaven's brightliest hues,
Aloft and accustomed to the widest views.

[NikolaiI]

In my heart, you created a home
where peace and gladness together sing
of strength and new life, for listening
to wordless echoes of the days to come.

In the wake of gratitude
life became new, time and again -
love became true, and from within
its sanctuary, together we stood.

Casting aside a doubt and dismay
Left space for loving our fearless heart -
Growing from heaven into beauty's art,
Quietly, patiently, we herald the Day.

[YesNo]

I enjoyed your poetry especially the one about music in post #9.

[NikolaiI]

Thanks very much YesNo, that really means a lot :-)

I like that one more than some of the others, too. . I feel like in a lot of ways, I was a better poet in 2010, but I am planning to write some even better poems, I just think it'll be 2-3 months from now.

In the meantime, I'll still do my best. :)


You are the dreamer, I am the dream,
You are the world to the kitten.
You are the love with which we are smitten
You are the source of the stream.

Fantasies will gladly come and go
As bursting bubbles frame the water's surface-
But only when they're gone, do I know
The waking daylight reality of this place.

[NikolaiI]

Shore - a poem

I've been waiting for the thousandth year,
Each morn I climb the hilltop early
Meditate and with the best cheer
Watch the sun arising Easterly.

Time slips slowly, then and falters;
Breath and spring begin so bright
Dewdrop wettened grass-stalk alters
Reflecting back the silver light.

A deep ocean is several miles away,
I'm just never in the mood to go;
Though the beauty of the highway
is the kind I'm of a mind to know.

Tell me how long, do I have to wait?
My goal is no goal, my aim no aim;
I'm living in a deathless state.
My sea and my sky are the same -

The angels and the demons from my past
Wander in their homes unblamed
And I, from this day 'til my last
Walk with my head held high, unshamed.

The sun moves, each of a thousand seasons
Autumn flourishes in my heart untilled,
The moon, for her usual reasons
Shines down on a world a-stilled.

I left my home, following my aimless ways,
Not looking for an answer or an end
Just following the open sky for endless days
The earth below my feet my only friend.

How many times did I rotate from mad to sane!
How many times Earth's treasure to my breast
I held awhile, just to lose again
and continue on my sojourn West.

I traveled light on past the lands of stars -
To foreign skies where green, outlandish suns
Shone down on gods who lived for wars
and rewrite from their history forgotten ones.

I knew more stories than anyone could know,
and died more deaths than anyone could bear;
And still I live out what the stories show
And find it somewhere in my heart to care.

It filled with my heart with sunshine for a while
When trees grew blithely all in tangled weaves
And senses grew more sharp along every mile
To taste the sweet aroma of the sticks and leaves.

I grew faint with hunger as the dying Earth
Just to, just 'cause, just so, and it was alright.
And in my coldest hour I slept facing North -
some secret saved me from the longest night.

A secret drove me from the house I love;
Forced me into this place to roam with nothing to do,
To bounce around observing the dangers of
Running madly from place to place without a clue.

And yet another saved my soft skin;
Invaluable words that lose their worth on speaking,
As with pearls or treasure, it's all within
And I know it's "a state of mind - to sing."

And burning in white hot flames of the sun,
I entered into that globe and came out clean.
As many cells are in the body that are but one,
Are the lives I passed through to be seen.

And sac'd my soul to God, that satyr invisible;
The center and source, the root of everything,
And felt myself down to the root indivisible,
And knew myself true, as pattern'd after no thing.

I have no secrets, now, I am senseless, impervious.
In a word I won't be removed from this home.
I sing a song of roots, no more I suss
Or worry about what's yet to come.

A housekeeper now, I'm through with foreign shores,
I'm happy just sweeping the road
All I need's just inside and outdoors,
No more carrying such a heavy load.

Bursting forth with fresh creative energy unfurled,
Dancing, singing, every part of me alive,
When joy is pure, it reaches across the worlds,
For this pure love, as always, I will strive.

And yet - silly of me to rejoice, and for what?
Nothing was gained for nothing was lost,
Since time never began, it was "Om Tat Sat,"
Saccidananda - and nothing's the cost.

[10-3-2011]

[NikolaiI]

I'm wandering in your colourful days
When Autumn comes and sweeps away
The shades of all that's gone before
And when all is said and done -
if you're wondering what the fighting's for
All I can tell you is that you're not alone.

I would trade a hundred lives for just one chance
To live out a day where your angels dance
And lastly, if we could put an end to sorrow
There'd be no one left for us to mourn
It could happen as early as tomorrow
If we'd glimpse the heaven of unborn.

There's nothing secret about the way
You hang from boughs in our hearts and sway
From limb to limb, all across the earth
It's as if you dance while others sleep -
I'll listen, if you sing what life is worth -
My heart will always your beauty keep.

Quiet summers have gone by, and now
You teach us how to hang from the bough -
There's music in the sacret stillness,
And heavenly joy in the joyful spark,
That speaks to new life - for a witness
That knows all the riddles in the dark.

There's not a day goes by that I
Will stop and wonder, or qusetion why
I was blessed with love and boundless
Returned the heavn I sought so dear,
Nor wonder why in the aether, groundless,
Rests a spaciousness of freedom clear.

If there's one thing that I know for sure
It's that heavenly peace is on this shore,
It's no where else, but it's all around -
Just for us, who love and pine
It's only here, rising from the ground
We call her Mother Earth Divine.

[NikolaiI]

How do you protect a soul?
It's easy enough to be whole,
To build upon life for another
Glad day with our Earthen Mother;
Only ask for soul's protection,
Listen in the right direction,
See right to the heart of it,
Where many souls make a composite;
The art of wisdom
Will be evinced in what is to come;
The heart's protection
is the soul's reflection
Upon a very distance shore
That wasn't distant anymore;

For many a child
Who lived in the wild,
Children of a summer day
Never missing a chance to play,
or failing to find the open way.
For one soul bursting forth
From the young days of mirth,
On the shadowy Earth,
And the cold, wintry North;
From the quiet to which we belong,
Offering to our hearts she sings,
Glimpses of what the future may bring,
Trances of prophetic song.
If her knolwedge of the future
Is not desired, then one should nurture
Treasuries of heart-felt bliss,
and again return to this.
I would trade complexity
For perplexity,
If I followed Rumi.

There is magic in the mind of my friend -
My heart is in his care,
I am glad it's there -
And I listen as swiftly the wind
Whistles it softly in air.
I have a friend, as ancient as me,
Who knows all that I know,
From where our hearts grow,
By the fire we're set free.

[NikolaiI]

Beauty above, and beauty around me,
Grace and peacefulness surround me;
Whistling to the merriest tune -
The source and cause of art is free. . .
Deftly we dwelve
from the mystic mountains
into regions of twelve
divisions of fountains -

From a prayerful glance
into the angel dance,
Apollo would not stall
for waiting at the call ;
For swiftly he descends
'Til joining at the ends ;
Until the flowers he has planted
Reach the meadows they have granted -
When the mellowing pace
Slows the rider ;
Fierce, gazing wider -
Gradually, reaches the place.

Return the call,
the flowers ascend -
for the joyful friend,
It would always be all.

Music lives and dies in an instant -
Forever lives from the instrument,
Glimpses and pieces of a memory,
Wrapped in the heart of her fully,
The sound she makes of her name
For which the stars would all come;
In the heaven of lighting, they came,
With faint recollection of home.

The minstrel came and played
For the folk all disarrayed -
In scarlet, green and gold attire
His lute-strings glinting off the fire,
Every song was played so nice
That he must needs would play it twice;
And glad, the laughing, children sang
All seemingly on heaven's plane.
It lasted twice an earthly hour,
Whereby the food and love and power
Eclipsed the days of earth itself -
For every dusty book on shelf
Was magically imbued with love;
It wasn't for the earthly food
That each was given, dreaming of,
The Palace, locked with fortitude.

Irish, English, and German blood,
Would mix one day with lovely mud,
In which the one became the two,
From which the pure white Lotus grew.

While the Native Tribes live -
dance and sing, I was here.
When the Earth-Mother spoke,
sang and danced, I was near.
when the Ancient Spirits give -
Day, that Day, will be so clear;
As one, our prayers with the smoke
Lift up to our spirit guides, so dear.

[NikolaiI]

Glastonbury calls tonight
When out of hand, out of sight
A family poor is walled within
of their own design, and chalked again.



Divine laughter erupts, and when
my Muse, the cat, plays with my pen
I then try again to write
It gives my cat such great delight,
I kiss his head and love him so
But he will not let it go.
He plays with paper, pen and pad
and I love him - we're so glad.
Him laughing, purring in his way
That makes of life a lovely day.


The most beauteous sound
is all around;
My friend is delighted,
And then, he tries to bite it,
And with his clawless tiger claws
He shows his love, and paws and paws.
A pleasant way to pass the night,
For him to play, and I to write,
I couldn't ask a better friend,
My heart and soul, for to defend.
He and I go back a ways
The dawn of time, and early days
When he was not a cat, and I
Was nothing but a little fly.

A thought is, like an acorn, born,
Takes root and presently is grown;
It bears the fruit that bear its seeds,
That take off like so many weeds;
When they're left to what they like best,
They soon grow into a forest -
And if a woods was never wanted,
It should never have been planted.

[NikolaiI]

And love I do, when nature's calm,
return a coin to outstretched palm,
For giving is almost as sweet
as when two parted lovers meet;
So gladly they with hearts fulfilled
Rejoice, 'til all the world is thrilled;
And sun and moon, time stops apace,
At loving nature's fond embrace.
What could I do, to call you near -
Earths' angels, banishing all fear?
I'd find one who loves you truly, then
Find the words to draw you in -
Knowing there's no contradiction
in loving all without distinction.
I am but one of many, yet
I can't imagine, or forget
a life without a vision - one
when all that is, is said and done.
What shall I do, what can I be -
when I am separate - set me free!
When I am but a drop of rain -
How shall I fall, time and again?
Upwards? Outwards? There's a force
That always holds me to my course;
Heaven's peace, and all of sadness
Cannot be but much of gladness
For a tree that happ'ly calls
to Mother Rain, who falls and falls.

[NikolaiI]

Beauty fills the heart that sees,
As love returns love's melodies -
As water heals one parched with thirst,
As babes are from their mother nursed.

[NikolaiI]

I wrote these last night, I'm not quite finished. There may be several more stanzas by then. . I hope you'll enjoy them - thank you for reading.


Song of our Mother

If you listen very quiet,
You can hear our
Mother Earth whispering
to one and all,
"Hear my children sing,
of my suffering" -
of planetary shows,
none are sweeter
Than the hope her life bestows
on those who meet her.

To a young Vaisnava

Wherever you go will be blessed;
Kissing the ground with your feet,
You will always know peace-
Whether at work or at rest -
When the light and shadow meet -
Then the battle shall cease.

To a young Vaisnava

You will find the way clear,
as angels beckon you on -
When you set out to roam,
You'll never lose the way here -
Wherever you've been gone,
You'll always find the way home.

To a young Buddha:

Young child, running wild,
Never forget who you are,
All at once, you're set free -
As your Mother, she smiled,
Beautiful, brightest Star,
At home you'll always be.

To a young Buddha;

Flows the river to its source -
An ebbing, flowing ocean,
Smiling in the mango grove -
A garment fine or coarse,
A firmament in motion -
Beat the wings of a flying dove.

To a young Sufi

Steadfastly fall asleep,
And in your slumber, keep
your mind from dreaming deep -
Out of your devotion,
Set the wheels in motion
To sail out on the ocean
And bring back to the shore
One pearl, for asking, more
Than what we had before.

[Silas Thorne]

I love your 'Beauty fills the heart that sees' poem. It's a beautiful song, but I wish it was longer.

[NikolaiI]

Thank you so much, Silas, I'm glad you enjoyed it. That was actually the last part of a longer poem, but the only part I ended up putting here. . I like it too and I'll come back to it and write more pretty soon. I also have a poem called "an ode to Rain," and so far, it's got all of "an ode to Rain." :-)

[NikolaiI]

Double post, deleted.

[NikolaiI]

This is a poem I wrote this morning; after waking up to the sound of rain, breaking the drought; not the kind of rain as in a thunderstorm, for which we are famous, but a more steady type, that is supposed to last all day. I suppose and realize now it's only fitting, that the two should coincide.

Castles in the Songs

To create castles in a song
is to live the day long;
Dancing on a sunward beam,
Floating in a homeward stream
One day I will fly to heaven
Live in that eternal garden.
Until then I'll watch the sky
For the angels passing by
Leading us to victory
Over violent history -
Like a shelter from the storm
Rise some hearts forever warm;
They bring new life energy
In touch with all life's synergy
To raze the prisons, flow the spring,
They keep us happy, and they sing
In praises, love, and much delight
So we might have sweet peace at night.
To wake at day with heaven's dream,
Is just enough, as it would seem.

Oh, in heaven, hear my plea
Of all of us trod under
With our poor hearts asunder
For the tread of simple vanity -
Angels without number
Spend the day in slumber
While the message, always clear
Has been that heaven's always here-
And in voices sonorous
Cried our children, "honor us,"
So forever we shall roam,
Knowing not the footpath home.
Oh, in heaven, hear our plea -
We who seek not vanity -
Knowing life in nature's ways,
Happily we spend our days.
Never follow others -
Your sisters or your brothers;
All our saints and sages say -
Find the way, lead the way,
From the childhood and the youth
Never set a price on truth.


Last night I dreamt my oldest friend
Was with me, from the start to end -
As of some merrily kissed quaker,
Or of some grape-vine taker
He spoke of life as something fine,
With a voice much sweeter than wine,
And we shared stories, best and worst
And every now and then traversed,
From one safe sitting spot, pleasantly,
To just as sweet a spot, and just as free;
Months and days we passed at ease -
Making up new melodies,
Writing songs to heal the hearts
Of animals, kept lone, apart;
With never a thought of what to do -
Knowing that peace wins always through,
Asking for nothing, except the voices
Of nature to sustain us, as love rejoices.
I know not when my visions end,
Or when I will again ascend,
To meet him there in heaven's place;
Pure Land's freedom, and boundless space -
A dream within a dream can be
A harkening to life's symphony;
When mind and heart are clear and strong
And safe within an angel throng,
Then peace, and life and mirth
Can spread again across the earth.
It only takes one wakeful hour
To see the bloom within the flower
That never leaves you, never fades
But sings and dances in the glades -
I met you there, within the growth
Of forests, meadows, and we both
Know freedom as wide as the earth
Was ever with us, from before our birth -
And I would like to ever be
Just as my friend, and just as free;
Just as we know, with pleasantry -
The way to peace is poetry.
In the Pure Lands, all over,
Green and lovely as the clover -
Beckons a love much sweeter than
Any conceived, as yet, by Man:
Ah, but I have rambled on
And though my words will soon be gone,
What we start, it cannot end -
For it travels friend to friend;
A word, a thought, a smile,
Do not last only for a while -
Just as my friend inspired me,
If not for him, they would not be;
The same, I want to inspire you -
Forever to your heart be true.

In many days I learned to live,
Be kind, and laugh, and to forgive,
And yet I not a penny owe
For all the love I've seen to grow -

It isn't wise to sell you worth,
That's just as precious as the earth;
Or follow others who are blind -
Don't wait, don't waste: just free your mind.

And if it may seem to dull to you,
I guess you've never had a friend so true;
For nothing is as great as this -
To share in love, friendship and bliss.

[Melanie]

Lovely…every line a pleasure to read and a beautiful way to start the day. Thank you.

[NikolaiI]

Thank you so much! and, you're very welcome!

[NikolaiI]

This is a poem I wrote today, I wrote the last part first, although I re-wrote it for this post. Today it was sunny and clear, though cold for the first time in a while - my favorite time to do Zazen out in nature; so I did some and came up with a part of it, the other (first) part, I wrote just now. I wrote a lot of the first stanza while listening to this album (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa7B8DDKOdk) of John Renbourn.

There ain't nothin' wrong with being sad,
But there ain't no reason to be.
I never saw a hornet that seemed much mad,
He just went where he needed to be.
A life with a musical bent is fair -
Dancers need their musicians playing,
It puts a flowing grace into the air -
Love it helps a lot to know what they're saying.
Flowing me down to the mud in the ground,
Oh, where the life flows, from the streams -
For eternity to listen and learn from the sound
In leafy boughs of the kingdoms of dreams.
What happens when several minds simultaneously
Decide to pursue love with one single vision?
Won't it happen that suddenly, quite instantaneously,
Peace will o'ertake with the speed of a Djinn?
In the heart of a man, like some Cassian temple
There rests a pure love, like some gold, blue flower
Forgotten, at rest, but awake at the simple
Skill'd touch of a slow mind, in an hour
That feels each impulse of the grass in his fingers,
Forgotten by some or by all, not a spark,
But a flavor of hope, of a grace that lingers
Long after the day has turned into dark.
Spirits humming spirit levels,
As the day goes running on -
Ancestor so laughingly revels -
Delights in the rock that we're sunning on.
Smiling to me as the summer sun -
Caught by their love as caught by a chord -
Each indistinguishable as the other one,
As the hand of faithfulness compares to a kind word.
I will hum as faithfully as enlightening
Strains of deliverance flow from his bright hand
To where a harmony endows with a brightening
Flowing of power and grace to create our Pure Land.

The Mother is there in the eyes of her child,
Even as she slept, and just as she smiled,
She gave her life up to give perfect health,
To her child she gave a boundless wealth -
Flowing wreath tapestry, wove in a ring,
Of meadows, forests, and of plains that sing
To the truth of her life, and the love of her gift -
For a single child's lilting song to lift and uplift:
And I see the grass growing green around me;
Forests of my youth, and the plains eloquently
Stating their purpose, to make life ever young.

Songs of the singers whose lives unsung
Regenerate life, as a miracle born:
Sharp, like the roses' thorn -
Cheerful like the hinter deer,
And calm, like the vision seer.

[NikolaiI]

I'm grateful for the rain
That always comes again
And flowing ever free
It fills the sky and ocean -
Forever set in motion,

Nothing to give,
Nothing to add,
Except just to live
And share that I'm glad.

If you had an angel true
Telling you to trust in you -
Saying that you always have
The means you yourself could save;
Then would you leave off pretending -
Share the joy that's never ending?
Not to yourself: remember clear
The vision you see today here.

Animals
Never sighing or replying
When I ask for them to tell
The secret that they keep so well
I think I learned it yesterday -
The secret that they will not say -
In order to alway be whole -
Live as one - both mind and soul.

In the depths of stillness,
There is another sun -
It makes a light of illness
And makes a life of fun -

Heaven is calling
for Earth's answer
As rain is falling
upon the dancer,

Who shakes and quakes in eternal ways,
For what may come here after
the tears have all turned into laughter
and the hearts have seen the rays
of living, ancient, breathing being
Sun within, warm, ever freeing
Dreamers and poets who wander around
Gaze long at life, and hearing the sound
of transcendental, famous, buzzing bees
and singers who chirp and hide in the trees.
We are - one tiny sun, one tiny relative -
A blue and green home on which to live.

All my life I'd like to sing
Of sunshine warm and winter rain
To herald life's renewing Spring
And grass to grow upon the plain;

Winter in the Sunshine
Seems like Spring of yesterday -
A time so glorious and fine
Its beauty could not fade away.

I still remember lots of snow
Come so many years ago
As I peer into the grass -
Its depth bespeaks a timeless faith -
Its history a trackless path;
Its beauty brighter than it was -

I remember when a single smile
Would fill my life a little while
With joy and light to see,
And kind thoughts to the smile-giver
For giving it for free.
Today, the sunlight glinting off the river
Brings the gladness back to me.

[NikolaiI]

This was rather written for Silas Thorne, who asked if one of my stanzas could be written longer; or at least, said that he wished that it were.


Rainfall beauty fills a heart that sees -
As love returns love's melodies,
As water heals one parched with thirst,
As babes are from their mother nursed -

All of nature's secrets here
Are hidden, and are not made clear,
But for the bold who is seeking an answer,
They are shone plainly in the grace of the dancer -

And in the wisdom of nature sublime,
Nothing is greater than the beauty of time,
Nor any gladder than the soul who finds haven
Where nature is grandly, powerfully engraven -

Here the poets, lovers and the dancers whirled
Who lived in a joy - to save all the world,
Protectors, and tenders of the plants of the sun,
Knowing as we know, that life has only begun.

And we still keep up with the art of seeing;
Hearts that are kept wise by the light of being;
Still again there are hearts that shine -
Still again are keepers of the vine.

I laughed, and told a secret,
And I know I would not regret -
For just when I revealed it,
Love rushed in and concealed it,
For when it comes unbidden,
It quickly returns to hidden-
And if secret is believed
Its makers come, it is retrieved.

Many days in heaven
Come in just one earth hour
When on the heart engraven
Are written words of power,


This world is one vast uncertain unknown
Into which a light has ever shone -
And from the roots of life have grown
A soul which shines in the void alone -

It is one tiny drop of infinity
From which the soul grows into serenity,
As from the sun a peaceful shade
Is by a bountiful oak tree made.


Rain fell into my well-worn heart
And watered the seeds of this art,
And from the prick of a well-sharp thorn
This stormy, heavenly vision was born -
As of someone joyfully bringing
Each day some new song for singing,
And life, and heart, made new and strong
By each new harmony and each song.

There is a peacefulness that never fades
Just as the One Life Tree forever shades:

And in the beauty of the streams,
There's heaven and an earthly paradise,
For those whose hearts have vision, are wise,
And can appreciate this earth, this dream of dreams.

[NikolaiI]

There is one boundless space of freedom
In the heart of nature's child -
A place where love and wisdom grow,
And everything else that's wild.

Even time comes there to tease us -
Under sheltering boughs in shade;
Colours and sounds cease to flow
But dance, to the tune of life, instead.

[NikolaiI]

Love comes early in the Spring
When Nature is regenerating,
Songbirds sing in perfect health,
Oak-trees share their boundless wealth -
Are there no songs this winter,
When sun shines plenty, and snows are hinter?

In the depths of gloried days,
Sunbeams laugh, and Springtime plays
Earlier each season, until all year
There will be only two seasons here:
One is past, and one is gone,
Still we'll be free from either one.

I return to the present task,
In the sun, glad of my fullsome task
To rewrite future history:
No more obsessed with victory,
And life in written gentle folds
Becomes a vision she beholds,
Who out of space, and out of time,
Learned to use all powers sublime,
And used the vision to bring flowers,
To brighten and enrich the hours -

And in the haze of sunlight glimmering
The spring goes on, there, shimmering,
Reflecting the importance
Of little sprites fair, who love to dance.

Here there is nothing to catch,
But singing, joyful life we watch;
As soft, the Earth receives our heart
Which each is of the other part,
And here among the graceful trees
I feel again love's melodies.

I wander to the dry creek bed -
It's just as beautiful as she said -
I've wandered into some heaven,
As by an angel's hand woven.

Another year, these seasons pass,
Another faith found in the grass
That loving nature's spirit heals
And hidden sight to sight reveals.

Our sweet illusion gently breaks
As from dreaming someone wakes -
Yet underneath the soft veneer
Was daylight by far lovelier;

A life that's ever flowing -
A heart that's ever growing,
And in the light of spirit free
We walk together with some fairy,
Long and far, in her to see
The visions of eternity.

Does love make the spirit strong
Enough to go where we belong?
It only takes one heart to shift;
For love to shine, and to uplift,
To fill the air with gaiety
From song-like spontaneity
Does love, holding hand in hand
Make us strong enough to stand?

All we've done, and all we strove for,
Was just to spread the land with clover -
To share the secret - that all our wealth
Was not more or less than Nature's health.

[NikolaiI]

This little forest in my eye
Is like a sparkling starlit sky
That echoes answering, let us live,
For the vast boundless wealth we give
And like the heavenly, starlit skies,
Mother, we have grown wise;
And in our silent standing keep
The seceret life, within a deep
Entangled web of life protected
Wherein the first seeds are reflected.
This little forest, grown so deep
Is just a vision that I keep
Like an enchanted memory
That flows on imperceptively,
But stays, while others perish,
Babe of wisdom we so cherish.

So, we while away the hours
Using all our given powers -
To your life and health sustain -
Until we melt away again,
And live anew as one long rain.

An angel called to me -
Come out to heaven, you will see
A taste of love's enchanting bliss
And answering heaven's starlight kiss:
One single drop of sunlit dew
Will bring all heaven home to you.

In the story of one who sang sweetly
Is the life of the one who ran fleetly,
And of the rain, who forever falls;
And life engraven in heavenly halls -
In the story of one who fell to earth
Are the countless times we felt birth;
And the history of the life-space within,

And how we found the way home again.

In the story is one who is free,
Is contained an endless history of lives
Before one knew the spirit that thrives -

Or the bliss of the lives lived in eternity.

In the lifesong of one who always preaches
Heaven, Life, and Love -
Is the endless, eternal history of teachers -

who accumulatively,
equal
eternal life and infinite pain:

There are two only songs.

It makes no sense to ever sing the one of pain.

This is the simple, straightforward answer and definition

Of poetry, life, love, and everything experienced under the sun.

Love and pain : Choose pain.

But in choosing: love.

Eventually there is nothing but love.

For love is only sorrow conquered o'er.

And sorrow is only happiness' manure.



Cover it up, cover it up, quickly, it's the truth

of you

that infinite freedom and bliss

cover it up- hide it,

let it see, but not ever be seen:

never fight it, don't break it:

hide it, and live inside it.

love, forever,
answer never.

[NikolaiI]

To tell someone that you know the truth of them is to tell them, that you know their innermost life, their most sacred, most secret hidden heart of heart and their very core of being. To think that one is capable of answering and knowing this, and the arrogance, of one believing one can tell another what is true about them, who and what they are and what they should be doing, is very great. This is why those who know, don't go around telling people all the time - why they are a quiet Zen master, sitting in their hut at the cave in the mountains - or rather, sitting in the cave in the mountains without a hut.

This is why sensitive people are sensitive - it is because they know the danger of allowing anyone to trample on their innermost heart of hearts; and because they can feel more keenly the pain of when it happens.

Indeed - it becomes increasingly unpleasant to converse with anyone who would carry around a hint of that spirit which destroys;

Why would I want to converse with someone, for example, if their is some chance that one day they will wish to do damage to my innermost heart of hearts?

There is none - one day I may come to trust them, and they may hurt me. Similarly, these, and all people are always inherently saying, "Trust me."

All this is inherently pointing to one thing - above all, everyone must learn to seek peace within themselves - rather, all people should make the journey which is the spiritual journey; which is going on the mountain, which is crossing the river.

It is a life long journey but essentially it is the journey for breakthrough.

In fact it is so inherently the experience of the human life that anyone who has had it, really knows it's the only thing worth talking about - yet it's also the one which is most uneasily expressed - or not rather expressed, but shared.

Hence it is only found in the hidden language of spirituality - anyone who has truly seen a spiritual experience will eventually know, that to share it with others is only possible in long periods of time in some way that it hides it from others who would not know to look for it.

In poetry, this is best expressed in Milarepa, Rumi, Novalis, Blake, Shelley, and many others. . . Each with their own tint and flavor - Shelley, for instance, was especially especially brilliant when it comes to lyrical poetry - but when it comes to spiritual vision, put him with the Zen masters and he pales in comprehension and understanding. Never the less, he existed, he lived and experienced beauty, and all of his creations of beauty sprang from him and created inspiration for innumerable artists and poets - for innumerable ages. . . Perhaps the more a poet knows of the totality of the extent of his range of being and influence, the more he experiences the bliss of that sacred other world. Perhaps a future being would tell us we eventually all turned into Gods.

The way - how well - a poet tells about beauty, loveliness and truth, and the rest, is nothing more than a skill, and it is not in itself a measure of how much truth one knows - although it can be used to gain power and this sort of thing - but power is not, and has never been, in the same league as truth.

What a person is has an influence on how valuable what it is they have said is, and this is an inherent misunderstanding by many. In truth, the person they lived, the morality they lived, and their actions, is infinitely connected to the value of what they have said. Someone who has done much bad or good, in their lives -the things they say are worth as much as their actions and beliefs and lives are worth.

In other words, if they do good actions, etc.

This is a simple and true statement, although it doesn't specifically say how much someone's views are worth, etc.

Oh - but so, we are sensitive to what people say - but, it's natural for human beings to make mistakes, and to over-step the bounds a little while sometimes.

We do, and so the sensitive folk, only stay sane if they are also a totally forgiving lot, and keep an open heart, because one of the laws is, the more we shut out anyone - others or ourselves, and the two processes are almost the same - we inherently shrink from life. . . Helping, loving, giving, makes us stronger, because they are evotlutionarily bred into us for success - a small group of a few hundred has to trust each other a lot to live, while in a city of millions, isolated, we tend to sort of circumvent that need within us, to have total trust and love and commitment to the tribe.

It's not that those humans were super-perfect, or anything, or that they never had human error. It's that they lived in a way that was natural to them - and has been for hundreds of thousands of years. . .

The current way of craziness - how we are just looking for the flaw, constantly, the flaw in the next man over - the weakness, the doubt, that we will just jump on and make them feel miserable out - This is only come about because you have a community of the whole world. So, statistically speaking, you will have every trait in every individual, within the small group as a whole.

But this type of individual - who only looks for flaws. . . is just in a phase of human life, just a particular type of emotion, and they're just stuck on that one channel . . Indeed the whole consciousness of a group sometimes is stuck on one channel - curiously it seems to be materialism - although this is just a word and a symbol that means nothing - at least means nothing true, because things are not static, and no word ever matches up with its object for very long.