For the inner ear, the voice of the vessel of silence is an embrace
felt by an infinite number of scribes.
It is my wish to offer here an oasis of present day poetic
pens.
Each month i shall invite new poets to breathe with, and they in
turn will bring guests of their own.
Poetry Corner at TIFERET has evolved out of Donna Stein’s
enthusiasm to nurture the spirit of beauty in all its forms.
silent lotus
August 2010 Silent Lotus’ Selected
Poets’
Dick Holmes
and his guest Max Reif
Sadiq Alam
and his guest Naomi Stone
Dick
Holmes
APPALACHIAN ALEMBIC
From now on,
I’m going to write
my poems on fallen
sycamore leaves and
toss them from the
peak of Hawksbill Mountain.
I’ll wear only the edible,
including myself.
At sunset, I’ll glide like
a hawk over the misty gorge,
just for the fun of it.
TRAVELING LIGHT
Among the crowd, I
recognize the persona
emerging contexts have been
inclining me toward
and set out with him.
It’s a long journey we go on
through hell and heaven
and back between, though it
takes only an instant
to get to our destination.
Along the way, the ten zillion
things I never really wanted, after all,
reveal their emptiness. This
comes as no surprise
to my sage traveling companion;
it’s what he’s been telling me
for ages. Now here it is, the
unexpected, brilliant elegance.
 | Born in Kansas in 1949, Dick Holmes has lived elsewhere since growing up there, but the natural beauty and solitude of its vast fields and skies have continued to inform his aesthetic sensibilities. “For me,” he writes, “poetry is a spiritual quest, a form of language for communing with the Divine Beloved. As such, composing a poem is more of a listening, truing meditation than a writing activity. Over the years, my poetry writing practice has guided me in every aspect of my life, from psychological growth to spiritual surrender.” Dick is the author of a large collection of poems entitled Recipes for Gratitude (Pure Heart Press, www.mainstreetrag.com/DickHolmes.html). He is a featured poet at AvatarMeherBaba.org (www.avatarmeherbaba.org/erics/dickholmes.html) and at Poetry-Chaikhana.com (www.poetry-chaikhana.com/H/HolmesDick/index.htm) and is a regular contributor to the Poetry-Chaikhana.com Forum. For the past thirty years, Dick and his wife Bronia have been teaching English to international students at the University of South Carolina. |
Max
Reif
TO A VISIONARY WHOSE NAME I’LL NEVER KNOW
This is to you, lady who smiled at me
as I came out of the subway at 14th Street
and walked down 6th Avenue in the winter of ’74,
having just arrived in New York. Gentle feathers
of snow had just begun falling from the black
above the streetlights. Passing you,
I felt myself taken into your
eyes, and suddenly
was no longer a confused young man
wondering whether every next step was the right one,
but a Light-being, love built into his cells,
leaning forward,
poised to give.
Thirty-five years later
I still walk those tunnels of your eyes,
down the line of your smile,
toward that person you saw in me.
 | I’m 62 living in California now, still trying “to penetrate into the essence of all being and significance, and to release the fragrance of that inner experience for the guidance and benefit of others by expressing in the world of forms truth, love, purity and beauty.”(Meher Baba). Very rich time, right now. My website, WHAT REMAINS IS THE ESSENCE, can be found at http://www.realnothings.com. |
Sadiq
Alam
Soul-fish swimming in God-Ocean
this soul-fish swims
in the God-Ocean
and keeps wondering:
‘where is this
ancient, nostalgic
thirst of water
coming from?!’
the lover dogs of God
are howling all along
from the time of separation.
remain unseen
the ancient lovers’
ever flowing tears,
because
since aeon
they’re crying
inside this
vast God-Ocean.
Where is the Center of an Infinite Circle?
stop being ego-centered
and merely selfish.
you are not
the (only) center of the universe.
amidst this ever expanding
Infinite creation
we are in an Infinite Circle.
and know that
every point inside an Infinite Circle
is it’s Center.
 | Servant and Seeker of Truth, SADIQ ALAM is Editor and Author of INSPIRATIONS AND CREATIVE THOUGHTS (www.mysticsaint.info), an internationally acclaimed weblog published since 2005. It covers a wide range of themes including Integral & Comparative Spirituality, World Faith Traditions and Mysticism. Sadiq has a strong interest in Sufi teachings and Eastern religious / spiritual traditions. He developed an early interest in Spirituality which led him into the study of Sufism through the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan. He took initiation into the Sufi path in December 2007 by taking hand with Shaykh Muhammad al-Jamal of Jerusalem, a guide in the Shadhili Sufi lineage. Presently Sadiq lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. http://www.mysticsaint.info/ |
Naomi
Stone
Dance of Creative Freedom
If I am patient
and let my heart lead,
each word that appears
on the page,
flames out from the sparks
leaping within my heart.
The dance is choreographed
by the winds of love,
like the breeze of the mystics,
or the breath
of the Beloved,
to move in the swaying beauty
of invisibly moving music,
tossing and touching
and playing
with my hair.
Oh how could I name the lover
that leaps from my heart
and surrounds me
with the belovedness of life,
who surprises
me with an embrace
that expands the soul!
My mind has melted into colors
and light
and feelings that slip away
and vanish
if I reach out to touch them.
How do I allow this unknown spirit,
this hovering nearness,
to cradle my being
in a divine fusion
of beauty
that flees from form
and defies description!
Faith in Love has new meaning
as it opens its arms
to my heart.
There is no answer
to the bewildering mystery
that keeps me awake
to greet the dawn,
except to risk everything
and surrender
to the glorious Beloved,
veiled in the mist
of the enveloping cloud
of unknowing.
| Naomi Stone is a mystic, poet, educator and writer. She is also the Literary Editor of the book Rumi: The Alchemy of Transformation by visionary Artists Rassouli. http://newoma.wordpress.com/ |
Poetry Corner Monthly Archives
POETRY CORNER by silent lotus … JUNE 2010
POETRY
CORNER by silent lotus … MAY 2010
