Month: May 2017

To Be a Martyr

/ Korin Thomas / Leave a comment

In the human heart is a space
large enough to hold another
or a world tossed in the heavens.
In the deepest dark of night
we may sense it even in us.
We imagine it is ours
attached to our being
fixed in proximity to our days
then, with our death, it goes away.

We know not much of our heart
expect so little of it, cannot
fathom its cosmic reach, the way
it belongs to us but is not ours alone.
That is the way with the martyr.
In a moment they understand,
touch an infinite and unspeakable glory
barely knowing that, soon,
their lives will be over.
Precious time have they to say
words of love and forgiveness
yet their actions speak for them
about the ways of the human heart
when it opens to all the world.

Portland, Oregon – May 30, 2017

Dedicated to and inspired by the Portland martyrs, Rick Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, who gave their lives protecting two young girls on a train in Portland on May 26, 2017.

There was another who stepped up and lived.  He also is to be counted among those called courageous and a hero.  He is Micah David-Cole Fletcher who wrote this poem from his hospital bed:

I, am alive.
I spat in the eye of hate and lived.
This is what we must do for one another
We must live for one another
We must fight for one Mother
We must die in the name freedom if we have
to. Luckily it’s not my turn today.

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No Thought – Hah!

/ Korin Thomas / Leave a comment

Without thoughts I look for words
strings of words with meaning
wisdom born of wellsprings
dug deep through urgent years.

Hah!

Where are these effervescent pools
whose brimming edges overflow
with sensuous penetration
into great rivers of enlightenment?

Hah!

Lessons in fading school rooms
lamp lit nights reading to sleep
walking trails beside rivers –
the circuitous interstices within.

Hah!

So. I must form thoughtless words
out of twilight and a cool breeze –
without meaning, answering no question
mimicking shadows and whispers.

Hah!

Portland, Oregon – May 25, 2017

Aimlessness

/ Korin Thomas / Leave a comment

Teaching of the aimless way
nothing to seek, find, or lose.
My self, pale in this body,
stumbling through years unto age
living through breath, beating heart
in company with all
no one less than another
tree, spider, crow – animate
inanimate – wind, stone, star;
a share of an onshore breeze
infinitesimal part of the bright moon
all on our paths in movement
within limitless space beyond
the reach of time and its claw –
a chimera, imagination creation
but so beguiling is it not?

Portland, Oregon – May 18, 2017

Continuous Creation

/ Korin Thomas / Leave a comment

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Our lives form each day
in acts of continuous creation
ever dissolving into the past
moment by moment –
conceived as a verdant garden in spring.

Lives opening as flowers in a meadow
beautiful for a time
folding to close as twilight comes
and in the night bend back to earth.

Each day something new
stumbled upon in old growth
hidden beneath broad leaves
from the past, forgotten.

Each moment a new being
as in the garden on the first day –
a sweet morsel satiating
deep and fragrant longings
opening as tulips, apple blossoms
loveliness in scents of wine
wintergreen and myrrh.

Portland, Oregon – May 16, 2017

Photo is my own, taken May 7, 2017, in our garden.

Closing My Eyes

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Evening in a slow sun set
through evergreen limbs climbing
into a cloudless spring sky
backlit in golden pale blue light
set in motion by a breath of cool air.

I close my eyes.

The glorious gilded field remains
in flickering shadow movements
surrounded by the choir of birdcall
smell of pine and turned earth –
the floating world of silk rustling
lotus blossoms, deer in sacred fields
lit in sunset over a western rim.

Portland, Oregon – May 8, 2017

Darkness within Darkness

/ Korin Thomas / 1 Comment

What could this mean – darkness
as in the deepest night
without brilliance of bright moons
or morning stars in quiet flame?
Darkness as in a mid-day breeze
when all the flowers bloom
sway from side to side
without meaning, just shadows
of light wavering over stillness?

In the rain on a spring evening
darkness walks the garden
settles in among the small leaves
unfolding resplendent life
in flickering forms of fading light
their points punctuating darkness.

I see the heavens, flowers and the leaves –
darkness hiding in them, between
their folds, their flung lights
in all the mindless gaps
between the stars, before the sun
shimmering in every thing.

Portland, Oregon – May 1, 2017

My title and inspiration comes from the last verse of Stephen Mitchell’s translation of chapter one of the Tao Te Ching, of Lao-tzu:  “Darkness within darkness.  The gateway to all understanding.”