This place
as we call it,
so full of needs,
is the silence
turned inside out–
a realm of voices
and wilderness–
as if the crumpled
piece of paper
with our Meaning
written on it
couldn’t be found
by our groping alone
and so the satchel
with Everything in it
had to be turned over
and shaken loose onto the table,
spilling out moons and raindrops,
car keys, a flock of herons,
thresholds and nooks full of lovers
warmed by the act of remembering,
and all the dusty stars besides.
Way back…
before…
(maybe yesterday morning)
who could have foretold
the glory of elephants?
Who would have dared
to imagine such trumpeting intelligence?
Such harbingers of time’s
interest-accruing wisdom,
with eyes that go straight through.
Who could have glimpsed
the rising of the waters, the winged fish,
or those deep-lying, boxy ones
with their own head lamps?
For who was there to see such things?
Who knows–?
but now we are here,
our seams showing to the sky,
sifting hungrily through
lists of ingredients,
recordings of trial and error,
and possible side-effects
stacked like flat washers
on a one size fits all anchor bolt
holding together our latest book
of best practices.
We’re enamored of
marching band patterns, too,
and the winking tones of atoms.
But sometimes,
in the quiet,
don’t you still remember
when you and the moon
were laying next to each other,
touching finger tip to finger tip
in the darkness?
Don’t you still remember
when Everything
was hiding happily with you
in the hall closet,
breathing in your ear?
Thinking of these things,
I’ve come to realize
that so much of what needn’t be said
but is…
is simply grieving.
And here in this place
that isn’t a place at all,
but the contents of our heart
displayed for all to see,
I am grateful for Hafiz
who saw that his seams were showing,
and laughed, before turning
into a moonlit doorway
the elephants cross each year
in search of water.
I think he realized that
spilling-over
was always in there,
that we were always in there,
and that this is what is now.
The Love, if you will, is out of the bag.
Embracing Forever 
My critique: Wow!
A revelation at every twist and turn.
Thanks for showing up to greet me with this post TurkeyDay blessing.
peace, Linda
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Hi Linda,
Thank you for the lovely reply. Hope you had a nice TurkeyDay, though now perhaps it is a distant memory… The Love is out of the bag, and some days leads to the most astounding conundrums!
Peace
Michael
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You are welcome. Are you back with us or still on a hiatus? So glad is out of the bag 🙂
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Hi Linda,
Still pretty deep into the hiatus. We’re starting up new equipment and trouble-shooting, and it is pretty close to all-consuming. I don’t know which day of the week it is these days, which is a pretty good indication I’m somewhere else entirely… 🙂
Michael
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sending light and love during this all consuming work season. Like all that is, it will shift into something else.
peace, Linda
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Through laughter, and tears, you are truly an inspiring gift Michael…this had me flying, and I mean flying with you and Hafiz, he teaches well and you are in the path to all that is, and I am flying, yes, flying like a big blue heron, dipping fish from the sea watch in glee as you two go about the daily business of being….WOW…did I just yell? Sorry, but the happy tears leave me breathless for life😊 Happy to be along for the ride of a lifetime…peace and love and happy smiles, K😀🙃🤗😀
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Thank you, Kim. So glad you are along for the ride, and swooping down to the sea for a glorious snack… Hafiz is quite an exciting character roaming around in my psyche… Glad he drops by and glad the gifts extend outwards… Thanks as always for your presence and kind words.
Much Love
Michael
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You are most welcome, yes he is a character…your words are Always uplifting…the world needs more…can we clone you perhaps? Now that would really make my day complete….although not sure if there is enough Haziz to,go round…..perhaps we can clone him too? Have an amazing day and thank You for the inspiration you always give. Appreciated beyond words….Peace and love always,
Kim
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Ha! I think there is enough Hafiz to cover the bases… There’s quite enough of whatever is truly needed, I think, when we are for each other… As to cloning, perhaps we’re all clones of the same loving heart… 🙂
Peace
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Yes, now for some reason I’m singing the beach boys…round, round, get around Hafiz gets around…..tell him to stop😊 just kidding, the world and amazingness of it all is truly a 🎁. Peace and love, K
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So vivid. Still feeling it and hearing it and experiencing it.
Peace, Harlon
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Thank you, Harlon! Glad you connected so tangibly with the shaking out of eternity’s rambunctious secrets onto the table. Hope all is well, my friend.
Peace
Michael
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Your poem splits the seams of my morning and lets all the joy and peace in…thank you Michael.
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Thank you, Rajani. Sounds like you’ve peeked back into the satchel, or stolen a glimpse backstage of the world’s curtain… I like the thought of peering through a gap in the world’s seams, and imagining what is on just the other side… 🙂
Peace
Michael
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When I remember laying next to the moon, which seems to be frequently these days, I’m filled with such a howling grief I can hardly function. And you just reminded me all over again. Yes the love is out of the bag and it leaves me completely undone, as does your poem.
Alison xox
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I know… It is easy to miss those days when everything was joined, and to wonder how they will be recovered… And then the Love reminds us that it is all still joined, just set into quite a strange collective motion! Coming undone with you, remembering those days… 🙂
Much Love
Michael
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Exquisitely written, superb visualizations. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you, Tina. I appreciate it!
Peace
Michael
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It is so out of the bag!!!! 🙂
“But sometimes,
in the quiet,
don’t you still remember
when you and the moon
were laying next to each other,
touching finger tip to finger tip
in the darkness?
Don’t you still remember
when Everything
was hiding happily with you
in the hall closet,
breathing in your ear?”
I remember!! I remember!!! Your soul, I also remember, dear Michael. I think quite possibly we were in that closet with the moon…and oh…the secrets that were told! 😉
Hope all is super in your beautiful world!
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Hi Lorrie!
Yes, we were all in that closet. Very roomy, that one. A few secret passages leading to worlds like this one if you walk far enough into the coat rack… 🙂
All is well. I hope it is so in your world, too…
(Isn’t it amazing that we have worlds living within worlds???)
Peace
Michael
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Yes, my dear friend..it is truly amazing! And I love when these worlds can intersect…even if only for a brief moment…or a word or two 😉
Thank you for the incredibly peaceful, knowing presence your are in my life! Blessings. ..or Blessitude!! Dear friend! ♡
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Thankyou Michael, for another quite sublime offering. I have noticed over the months that you occasionally reference ‘Meaning’ (with a capital M) – are you able to expand on what you intend to indicate in your use of this term? I realise that may be an impossible question, though I remain curious, or at least, my meaningless little mind does.
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Thank you for the ever-encouraging words, and as regards your request I shall do my best, Hariod!
As I am given to think of phenomena as indissolubly connected and interwoven, then Meaning would be the unbreakable bond linking each to each. Meaning could also be equated to causation, in a sense, but only in the context of a glimpse of unity in which one comprehends with the fullness of one’s presence– to the very limits of all that one is capable of touching in the unbroken expanse of awareness that unity affords– that there is nothing arising out of an independent or unrelated cause. There is nothing that is, that has a cause of its very own, and thus Meaning is the bond all share.
Now what that is… who can define it? We can only live it, or experience it as ourselves living it– as us being us basically…
This is why I think I ultimately resorted to greater use of poetry on this site, because I just can’t quite spell it out!
Much Love
Michael
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Wonderfully written
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Thank you very much…
Peace
Michael
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“that so much of what needn’t be said
but is…
is simply grieving.” That resonates with me. Thanks for sharing this beautifully written piece.
Peace,
Karin
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Hello Karin,
I’m glad you picked up on that line… We must have both been reaching out for the same moon… 🙂 That one leapt out at me when it came, and I think it helped me to realize that the root of so much of what needn’t be said– e.g. what is said as the outward projection our discontentment– has at its root this grieving of the loss of that moment with the moon… I’m glad you felt that, too…
Peace
Michael
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Uniquely Michael, timelessly so! Peace! ~Dennis
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Thank you, Dennis. I always deeply value your words, and I appreciate your acknowledgment of the voice that has been percolating inside of and through me… Hope you are well, my friend!
Peace
Michael
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….” But now we are here ” …do you know how grateful I am for your ” satchel spilling out moons and raindrops ” . Dear Michael , your gorgeous poem is spell binding on every line and I love the surprise of every verse and love how you bring the elephants back at the end …I would just like to say “Wow ” too along with the others ….and love , megxxx
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Hello Meg,
Thank you… It can be a glorious thing when we let our hearts spill out, and we see what we’ve each been given to offer one another here in this inside-out land of dreams. Such a beautiful, crazy, glorious and confounding world. Grateful for your sharing here as always, Meg!
Much Love
Michael
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❤
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This is such a great one. Well, of course all of them are. It’s like you are able to interpret feelings deep in the heart and soul, that we (I) don’t have words or images for. It’s fantastic, Michael. Truly. I love the satchel of everything turned over with all those seemingly unrelated things, and the warmth of remembering and the glory of elephants, the memory of touching the moon with my fingertip, and of course – that Love,if you will, is out of the bag. Thank you Michael for the depth of your heart.
Peace
Mary
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Hello Mary,
Thank you for such a thoughtful response to what is on offer here. I’m touched by your heartfelt sharing. My heart grows ever deeper by such interactions…
Blessings, my friend!
Michael
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These are words
I would aspire to say
to share how I feel
when really being with,
really this time, being with
what it is
when I can’t
otherwise
find my own
words 🙂
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Hello David,
A little delayed reaction here… 🙂 Thank you for sharing your responses which always inspire with their spreading kindness. It’s good to find oneself in those places for which words simply won’t do as well… In the end, some of us are possessed by this inner need to keep trying, and it is a blessing to share the results with such wonderful colleagues.
Peace
Michael
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