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”