God in my heart

” In the solitude of my heart
I see nobody 
Save and except God the Smiler.”

~  Sri Chinmoy

My heart's ocean

Yesterday 
I lived inside 
My mind’s disastrous uncertainty-sea.

Today 
I am living inside 
My heart’s rapturous divinity-ocean. 
This is what my Lord’s 
Unconditional Grace 
Has done for me.

~ Sri Chinmoy

Song of Myself

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

~ Song of Myself, Walt Whitman

A magical wood

Once in the dream of a night I stood
Lone in the light of a magical wood,
Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;
And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,
And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,
And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.

~   "Song of a Dream" – Sarojini Naidu

I came from the sunny valley

I came from the sunny valleys
And sought for the open sea,
For I thought in its grey expanses
My peace would come to me.

I came at last to the ocean
And found it wild and black,
And I cried to the windless valleys,
“Be kind and take me back!”

But the thirsty tide ran inland,
And the salt waves drank of me,
And I who was fresh as the rainfall
Am bitter as the sea.

~ Sara Teasdale “The River”

A Twig Breaks

The scream of a bird high above,
A branch creaks, leaves fall, the flutter of feathers
The smell, scent of leaves and moss with trees like a cage around me
Bars together, so close, straight, tall and seamless

Shades of green and brown everywhere
Silence, no birds, something is coming
A twig breaks, its close, or was that me
A bead of sweat falls from my chin.........

~ From The Rain forest by Belinda Pertot

Enlightenment and the entire sky

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.
~ Dogen

All sentient beings are essentially Buddhas.
As with water and ice, there is no ice without water;
apart from sentient beings, there are no Buddhas.
Not knowing how close the truth is,
we seek it far away
--what a pity!
~ Hakuin Ekaku Zenji

Not believing in anything I just sit,
listening to my breathing
After thirty years
It still goes in and out.
~ Albert Coelho

The work you did today

Is anybody happier because you passed his way?

Does anyone remember that you spoke to him today?

The day is almost over, and its toiling time is through;

Is there anyone to utter now a kindly word of you?

Can you say tonight, in parting with the day that’s slipping fast,

That you helped a single brother of the many that you passed?

Is a single heart rejoicing over what you did or said;

Does the man whose hopes were fading, now with courage look ahead?

Did you waste the day, or lose it?  Was it well or sorely spent?

Did you leave a trail of kindess, or a scar of discontent?

As you close your eyes in slumber, do you think that God will say,

“You have earned one more tomorrow by the work you did today?”

~ By John Hall, “At Day’s End”

Footfalls in the Memory

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
~ T.S. Eliot

This Old House

"This ole house once knew his children
This ole house once knew his wife
This ole house was home and comfort
As they fought the storms of life
This old house once rang with laughter
This old house heard many shouts
Now he trembles in the darkness
When the lightnin' walks about........."

"The old house" painted in 2008: It is inspired by what I remember of my grandmother's house

Colour Purple

" I think it annoys God if you walk by the colour purple in a field and don't notice." ~ Alice Walker, from The Colour Purple

We noticed, and remembered much later....

Gold Leaves

“Gold Leaves” by G K Chesterton

Lo! I am come to autumn,
When all the leaves are gold;
Grey hairs and golden leaves cry out
The year and I are old.
In youth I sought the prince of men,
Captain in cosmic wars,
Our Titan, even the weeds would show
Defiant, to the stars.
But now a great thing in the street
Seems any human nod,
Where shift in strange democracy
The million masks of God.
In youth I sought the golden flower
Hidden in wood or wold,
But I am come to autumn,
When all the leaves are gold.

That's how the last painting came into being.

A bird sings because it has a song

“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” - Maya Angelou.