Mother Earth Adventures

Poetry and Writings

Poetry and Writings Used duirng 2008 weekends

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be. I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry, from "Openings"

The Journey

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice---though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do---determined to save the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver from "New and Selected Poems"

Ego

When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego, and escape like squirrels turning in the cages of our personalities. And we get into the forests again, we will shiver with cold and fright but new things will happen to us so that we do not know ourselves. Cool, undying life will rush in. New passion will make our bodies taut with power. We will stomp our feet with power, and old things shall fall down. We will laugh, and institutions shall curl up like burnt paper.

D.H. Lawrence

My Heart Soars

The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass, speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea, speaks to me.
The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning, the dew drop on the flower, speaks to me.
The strength of fire, the taste of salmon, the trail of the sun, and the life that never goes away they speak to me.
And my heart soars.

Chief Dan George

First Light

"There will always come a time in life when you have to make a significant change, follow a new guideline, take a different path, or do something new. The outcome will not always be certain. But if you can be courageous, approach each new trial with optimism, be enthusiastic, and trust that your every step is being guided by a spiritual resource that can give you unending strength, then you can believe that life is an exciting adventure of discovery."

Amy Dean

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

David Whyte

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what I loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting---
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things

Mary Oliver

From A Timbered Choir

I.
I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circle on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

by Wendell Berry

Sometimes

Sometimes
the world comes to me in shapes and colors
I do not understand,
moving me in circles inside my heart
until I am left feeling lost and separated from the gift of love
bathed in pure sadness.

It is then I run into the forest to rest, shed my weariness, and
listen to the "song of my breath."

Each spec of nature comes to me
bringing lost pieces of my soul
until at last; wings are formed around the last hint of
darkness inside of me
and it is carried away.

Her song has blended with my being
and our spirits roll in peace.

Author unknown

The Quiet Listeners

Go into the woods
and tell your story
to the trees.
They are wise
standing in their folds of silence
among white crystals of rock
and dying limbs.
and they have time.
Time for the swaying of leaves,
the floating down,
the dust.
They have time for gathering and holding the earth about their feet.
Do this.
It is something I have learned.
How they will bend down to you
so softly.
They will bend down to you and listen.

by Laura Davies Foley

From: Brian Swimme

We are the imagination of the earth,
that precious realm where visions and
organizing hopes can be spoken…
We are the mind and hart of the earth.

The universe is our teacher, the forests
are your teachers.
You will know when you fail to learn,
for failure is punished with boredom.
If you develop even the least flicker of
sensitivity, the universe will come alive in you.

The universe would never bother to create two Shakespeares…
The ultimate Mystery from which all beings emerge prefers
Ultimate Extravagance, each being glistening with freshness,
unique, never to be repeated. Each being is required.
None can be eliminated or ignored, for not one is redundant.

From: Rumi

The ground's generosity takes in our comost and
grows beauty. Try to be more like the ground.
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all
the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

We came whirling out of nothingness,
scattering stars like dust. The stars made a circle
and in the center, we dance!

I died a mineral, and became a plant.
I died a plant and rose an animal.
I died an animal and I was human.
Why should I fear?
When was I less by dying?

Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you;
Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want;
Don't go back to sleep. People are going abck and forth across
the doorsill where the two world touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.

Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing,
those with average eyes would see as fixed and still.

Silence is the sea, and speech is like the river.
The sea is seeking you: don't seek the river.
Don't turn your head away from the signs offered by the sea.

From: Richard Rohr

Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing
gratitude until we are grateful, and praising God until we
ourselves are an act of praise.

….when we expose ourselves to silence and stop exposing
ourselves to the judgments of the world; when we stop thinking
about what others think of us, we are who we are in
God-no more and no less.

From: Thomas Berry

The inner life of the human depends immediately on the outer
world of nature. Only if the human imagination is activated by
the flight of the great soaring birds in the heavens, by the
blossoming flowers of Earth, by the sight of the sea, by the
lightening and thunder of the great storms that break through
the heat of summer, only then will the deep inner experiences
be evoked within the human soul.

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathers. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

by David Wagoner

Hanta Yo

When we enter the Stillness and listen, we are given the opportunity to fee the
aliveness that is around us. We give ourselves the opportunity to be a part of the
vibrant, living, natural world. This place that we call Tiyoweh can open new understanding if we put the mind's voice aside. The stillness brings a deep serenity
into our hearts and vital life force into our bodies. When we practice Entering the Silence in nature, there is no frantic separation between the creatures of the forest and the gentleness in our hearts.

Taking the time to seek the silence of Tiyoweh, and to listen, is the act of a wise person.
For it is in that place of serenity we become the Oneness. Through the Oneness we
discover the joyous truths of being alive.

by Ruth Beebe Hill

The Ways to Rainy Mountain (exerpt)

Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look
at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the
wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all of the colors of the dawn and dusk.

by N. Schott Momaday

From Hanta Yo

I stand at the center and the light shines all around me. And now I know that my spirit
makes this light. I come into power with the sun for I am like the sun. I am my own light.

Here at the cent I see the meaning of things, all things. And now I know that I am the meaning. The whole meaning.

The four directions come together in me. I am the center and everything flows from me, returns to me.

I am that which they call great mystery. I am that which each one calls wankantanka before coming, here before seeing the light.

I am here and so I know. Her I know everything. Here I know myself.

I am thought and will and nothing sits above my will.

I am pride and joy. And nothing sits above my joy.

I own my life. And only mine. And so I shall appreciate my person. And so I shall make proper use of my self.

by Ruth Beebe Hill

Vision
author unknown

Go forth now friends
Drawn forward by your ever expanding vision, which from your profoundest self shines
through. A vision, which if you choose to fulfill it, will open up within you new capacities which you never knew.

To see that which is not yet conceived.
To draw forth what is hidden in the hurt, chaos and darkness
New beauty, new truth, new justice
New forms to fit the proportions of the human personality and the dimensions of your dreams and your visions.

Buddhist Metta with Intentions
adapted by Erik Kolvig

---May I be happy
I will do everything I can to bring myself happiness
---May I be safe and protected from all danger and harm
I will protect myself in a wholesome way
---May I be healthy in body and mind
I will do all that I can to support my physical and mental health
---May I live with ease and well being
I will be gentle with myself
---May I be free
I will practice the path of liberation to full awakening

Buddhist Forgiveness Reflection
adpated by Erik Kolvig

---I allow myself to make mistakes
---I allow myself to be imperfect
---I allow myself to be a learner, still learning life's lessons
---I forgive myself
---And if I can't forgive myself completely now, may I forgive myself in the future.

---I allow you to make mistakes
---I allow you to be imperfect
---I allow you to be a learner, still learning life's lessons
---I forgive you.
---And if I can't forgive you completely now, I will attempt to forgive you in the future.

Winter Earth Sauna Sacred Gathering-2003-Camp Tuckabatchee

She Been Waiting
by Paula Walowitz

Read by Gray G.

She’s been waiting
She’s been waiting, waiting.
She’s been waiting so long.
She’s been waiting for her children
To remember, to return.

(Repeat)

Blessed be, and blessed are,
The lovers of the lady.
Blessed be, and blessed are,
The mother, maiden, crone.
Blessed be, and blessed are,
The ones who dance together.
Blessed be, and blessed are,
The ones who dance alone.
She’s been waiting, waiting.
She’s been waiting so long.
She’s been waiting for her children
To remember, to return.

(Repeat)

Blessed be, and blessed are,
The ones who work in silence.
Blessed be, and blessed are,
The ones who shout and scream.
Blessed be, and blessed are,
The movers and the changes.
Blessed be, and blessed are,
The dreamers and the dream.
She’s been waiting, waiting.
She’s been waiting so long.
She’s been waiting for her children
To remember, to return.

(Repeat)

Fall 2002 Earth Sauna Sacred Gathering--Relax4Life

Untitled
by Gray G.

"I have had an opportunity to sit with myself and work through my thoughts and feelings that came up during Sunday's Earth Sauna. It was an incredible experience filled with incredible people. I feel blessed by the energy that surrounded me, and that I carried away when I left.

I wanted to share with you something that happened during the third round of my Earth Sauna. As I was looking at the Grandmothers and Grandfathers during the silence of the round, I saw a "mask" on one of the Grandmothers/fathers. It appeared as an African mask - very intimidating, and angry. My first feeling was to turn away from the fire, and then I remembered what you had said about receiving visions. Instead of turning away, I began to talk to the mask. I explain that, although I found the mask frightening, I knew it was there to help me. As I was speaking to it, I flashed on faces of people in my life that I have felt were angry and judgmental of who I am, and thought that the mask represented them.

Suddenly, with absolute clarity, I realized that the mask was mine. It was my judge! I had placed it in the fire. I had covered the Grandmother/father with the mask. I then reached beyond the mask to talk to the Grandmother/father behind the mask. I told the Grandmother/father that I was open to whatever she/he had to teach me, and that I accepted the wisdom with gratitude and love. Suddenly, the mask fell away leaving a bright, glowing face - warm and welcoming - full of love and acceptance.

Since Sunday, when my "judge" has put in its two cents - trying to tell me that I not good enough, or strong enough, or acceptable - I just remind myself it is a mask. And I reach beyond it for the love and acceptance behind the mask."

Fall 2002 Earth Sauna Sacred Gathering--Tuckabatchee

HEALING WOUND
by Monica Y.

i have these words left with me
like old bones. sometimes,
late at night when i can't sleep,
i lay them on the cool soil
and offer them up to the stars
and moon. i feel the ripe curvature
of their age with my hands, questioning
whence they came, "is this the animal of my love? or,
the animal of my fear?"

these words,
these questions,
this wanting to know
has become still born within my womb.

I have with held their sustenance.
I refuse to nurture them any longer with my tears.

all i can do is wait out their decay,
feeling every part of their deterioration within me.
breaking down over the days,
becoming a part of my breasts and hair…

i long to love with a virgin heart,
one that has never been broken.
one that trusts,
like it has never been disillusioned,
but i am no longer the maiden i once was.

no longer wanting the corsette I wore for him,
so tight and exhausting.
my rouge, that he so loved,
is just a smeared stain across my palm…

i have made many pilgrimages
through the depth of my wound
and begun to heal it
with the blood i find there.
transforming the value of my sickness,
it becomes my medicine, my arrow, ali
and friend.

i dig,
i scrape,
i bleed,
and i persist
for the emergence of a new woman.

i pluck each betrayal from my skin
and love it,
until it laughs.

A PRAYER TO HUMANKIND
by Medicine Story
of the RAINBOW TRIBE

Read by Steve P.

Hear, O Humankind, the prayer of my heart.

For are we not one, have we not one desire,
To heal our Mother Earth and bind her wounds?
And do we not all seek peace, even as our brother
The lordly elk upon the vast and silent plains,
To be free as the spotted eagle climbing
The laughing breath of our Father Sky,
To hear from the dark forests and flashing rivers
To the curling lip of the sea the intricate harmony
Of the varied ever-changing Song of Creation?

Humankind, are we not all brothers and sisters?
Are we not the grandchildren of the Great Mystery?
Do we not all want to love and be loved, to laugh
And to play and work and sing and dance together?
But we live with fear. Fear that is hate, that is
Mistrust, envy, greed, vanity, fear that is
Ambition, Competition, aggression, conflict,
Fear that is loneliness, anger, bitterness. . .and yet,
Fear is only twisted love, love turned back
On itself, devouring itself, hating itself,
Love that was denied, love that was rejected. . . .
And love. . . .
Love is life, creation, seed and leaf,
And blossom and fruit and seed, love is growth
And search and reach and work and dance,
Love is nurture and succor and feed and pleasure,
Love is pleasuring ourselves pleasuring each other,
Love is life believing in itself.
And life. . . .
Life is the Great Spirit singing who he is, dancing
His story, improvising, playing, creating,
And we are all that God, our stories all
But one cosmic story, that we are love indeed,
That perfect love we seek we are already,
That the love in me seeks the love in you,
And if our eyes could ever meet without fear
We would recognize each other and rejoice,
For love is life believing in itself.

Humankind, We must stop fearing Life,
Fearing each other, We must absolutely
Stop hating ourselves, resenting God. . . .Life,
O Humankind, Life is the only treasure.
We are the custodians of it, it is our sacred trust,
To bring peace and health and harmony to ourselves,
To each other, to the one web that connects all that is.
Life is wondrous, Awesome and holy, a burning glory,
And its price is simply this: Courage. . . .
We must be brave enough to love.

Hear my heart's prayer, O Humankind,
Trust in love, don't be afraid, I love you
As I love life, I love myself, please
Love me too, love yourself, for perfect love,
As a Wise One said, casts out all fear.
If we are to live there is no other choice,
For love is life believing in itself.
Above all,

Let us let the children out, break
The traps of fear our fathers left us,
Set them free, give them trust, to grow
To seek and question, to play and dance and sing,
And build with them a rainbow world of endless love,
For love is life believing in itself.

Hear, O Humankind, the prayer of my heart.

(In memory of my friend and brother,
Alan Watts, 1973.)

UNTITILED
by dsr

Sometimes
the world comes to me in shapes & colors
I do not understand,
moving me in circles inside my head
until I am left feeling lost & separated from the gift of love,
bathed in pure sadness.

It is then I run into the forest to rest, shed my weariness, and
listen to the " song of my breath".......

Each spec of nature comes to me,
bringing lost pieces of my soul,
until at last; wings are formed around the last hint of
darkness inside of me, and it is carried away.

Her song has blended with my being
and our spirits roll in peace.

Additional Writings in Response to Retreats sponsored by Mother Earth Adventures

UNTITLED
by Jay P.
June 31, 1992

Thank you for bringing me here…
For Today I have entered the town of my birth…
The trip was long and hard…
But once reached, well worth it…
There are many things I did not remember and many that will
never be recovered…
The things that I have discovered in my moments of solitude
will have lead me through doors not known…
Bringing back images, ideals, lost in the house of thought…
for today I start a new beginning…not to belittle the past…
but to reflect on it with wisdom and retrieve the good…
and let go of my vices…
To be harmonious in mind and soul is the utopia, self-actualization,
that everyone would like to achieve…
Too many obstacles of life to make the possible…
To withdraw and let go for awhile brings insight that is
necessary for most of us to carry on…
True love between each other and our surroundings is a goal for
the world to overcome…
Hopefully one day… My cynical outlook believes it cannot be…
but as for my own beliefs and emotions I can only hope…
for today I have entered the town of my birth and
here I have learned many things…

HUMBLE GIFT OF PEACE…
by dsr
Sept. 23, 1999

MAGIC IN OUR HEARTS
IS WHAT WE CREATE
WHEN WE SLOW OUR FOOTSTEPS DOWN
AND LISTEN…

THEY SPEAK TO US-
THE WINGED ONES
THE FOUR LEGGEDS
THE TREE PEOPLE
AND WATER'S SONG…

IT IS THEIR VOICE
I HEAR IN MY HEART
WHEN I AM ALONE.
AND THEIR MUSIC
I PUT WORDS TO
WHEN MY TEARS HAVE NONE.
THEIR HUMBE GIFT OF PEACE IS MINE.

WE ARE ONE, SHE AND I,
EARTH MOTHER AND FRIEND
OUR HEARTS BEAT IN UNISON
TO AN ANCIET RHYME.
THE RHYTHM REMAINING STEADY,
HER SPIRIT PURE,
DESPITE ALL OUR HUMANNESS.

THIS UNBROKEN CIRCLE
TIES US TO THE CREATOR.
IT IS THIS LONE I TRUST,
AND THIS ALONE I BELIEVE…

UNTITLED
by Nancy W.

My help is in the mountain
Where I take myself to heal
The earthly wounds
That people give to me.
I find a rock with sun on it
And a stream where the water runs gentle
And the trees which one by one give me company.
So must I stay for a long time
Until I have grown from the rock
And the stream is running through me
And I cannot tell myself from one tall tree.
Then I know that nothing touches me
Nor makes me run away.
My help is in the mountain
That I take away with me
Earth cure me.
Earth receive my woe.
Rock strengthen me.
Rock receive my weakness.
Rain wash my sadness away.
Rain receive my doubt.
Sun make sweet my song.
Sun receive the anger from my heart.

THE Earth Sauna
by Dano P.

Earth Mother, I descended into you
into your dark bowels.
The steam of your breath and fire
swallowed me and purged my heart.
Naked as a helpless child in your womb I cried,
washed and cleansed in ashen tears.

My body anointed with mud
and my head reeling with your heat,
I cried and moaned in languages unknown to me.
In the suspension of time,
purged in sweat and smoldering herbs,
You Dear Mother ushered me
to the veil of my own soul
where I was yours alone
and closer to my spiritual home.

As the skins were pulled away,
I was reborn emerging from Your Holy Thighs
to face anew the starry sky and the blessed cold stream
which kissed my body with refreshment sweet
so much so that I howled and shouted with joy.

Soon I had fallen into a trance-like state
into your frosty grassy arms
to hear the gentle lullaby of the night
being sung by your children the owl and the wind.

UNTITLED
by Linda H.
Oct. 5, 1996

It's time to kiss the
earth again
to lay myself down
belly to belly
and let her moist body
drain away this too hot
heat-to sink into her

It's time to kiss the earth
and be patient with myself
as her dark mud and
slick leaves slave
my soul wonds

It's time to kiss the
earth again
as we finally rest complacent
lovers still and full
blanketed with sacred
night air-
watched over by
star grandmothers

UNTITLED
by Bill D.
1991

Long before time begin… I was here…I have always been here…I will always be here. I am part of it…I am all of it. Now I come awake…My time for reawakening is here…I will be with you…my brothers and sisters….this night.

The small group crawled into the dome-like enclosure. No words were spoken. The group formed a circle inside the enclosure around a small earthen pit. The last one in was called the Watergiver….

Quietly the Watergiver whispered thru the opening…"We are ready for them…Let the come now!"

And the Reawakened Ones began to enter…One, two, three…they took their places…No words were spoken…except those murmured by the Watergiver as he greeted the Reawakened and offered them sage as a welcoming gift. As they entered the intensity of their power radiated from them….they glowed with an almost magical aura. Four, five, six, seven…As the last entered the flap was drawn shut and there was darkness complete.

The Watergiver began…singing songs of praise and welcome to the Ancient Ones….asking for their help and blessings. The group of people responded to the Watergiver's supplications with murmured acknowledgements as their bodies streamed with water and their very beings were opened to the experience.

The Ancients radiated power….

In turn the people spoke to the Ancients…opening their hearts and souls….communicating with the Ancients in the total darkness…bodies flowing as the Ancients radiated their power….

And the Watergiver paid homage to the Old Ones again…the group sang and gave praise to The ALL in a joyful manner and the darkness resounded with their exultations.

The Ancients radiated power….

Once more the Watergiver invoked the Grandfathers and the people murmured their response. The pipe was filled and passed around the circle…each person first offering the Pipe to the Old Ones.

The Watergiver signaled….the flap was drawn back and as each of the people crawled out thru the opening the words…Ho Mataqwe Oisin…were heard.

I am part of everything…I am everything…I am at the edge…I am the Center… It is all One…
It is all One……..