Friday, January 28, 2011

The Puppet Master



















Image: Panneau marionette



Up and down.
In and out.
Left and right.
Teeter totter.


For how long have you
been self-employed as the
Puppet Master
of your universe?


There are so many strings
attached,

so many knots
and frayed edges
to evidence your frenetic
addiction to Control.


Haven't you noticed? -
all of the puppets
have worn thin and
will no longer serve you.


Parts of you have gone on strike.


Some of them resigned.


A few got up and left.
People too.


It is time to put down
the devices of
manipulation.


The life your insecurities
have been animating
is an illusion

and the script lacks
imagination.


Sit in the audience for awhile
and watch the acts
of the past play out
in the stage lights.


Your need for control dramas
will cease
when you realize
the identity of
the missing performer.


Do you See it...?


When your heart was absent,
you devised strings
and yanked and pulled.


When you sensed the Other's
heart was absent,
you devised strings
and yanked and pulled.


Oh my silly human -

Could you just relax
and surrender
into the open arms of
the Universe?


Authentic Love
is untethered.


(c) 2011-13/Jamie K. Reaser
Published in "Note to Self: Poems for Changing the World from the Inside Out" (www.hiraethpress.com)

Monday, January 17, 2011

Courting the Viper


















Baba Gulabgir I pray to you:
teach me the magic
of the serpent pot.

The vipers they rise
swaying with lies and manipulations
on muscular stalk,
fastening cold black eyes
on me.

Practiced strikes land upon my flesh
and eat into my soul.

Necroses and bloodletting
commence
as scarlet
pairs of liquid beads -

Droplets of my precious
personed being.

The Wounded One screams
in pain as the toxins circulate
and madden.

Though sitting on my cushion,
I am unsettled by rage
and visions
of retaliatory get-evenings.

Will the body still
writhe when severed
from the head?

I struggle to find my way
out of conflict with
integrity –
but like a rodent that is
already halfway down
the elongated stomach.

No.

I cannot, will not,
embrace a peace
that is declared
by my willing victimhood.

Patiently waiting for me to finally
take a breath,

the Guru gently says:

“Lift your flute.

Play.

Court the venomous snakes
with Life’s most
rapturous music.

Dear One,

It is the alchemy of love
that transforms poison
into medicine.”

© 2011-2013/Jamie K. Reaser
Published in "Note to Self: Poems for Changing the World from the Inside Out" (www.hiraethpress.com)

Sunday, January 2, 2011

The Candle Snuffers




















Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

Be-aware of the Candle Snuffers:
those who wish to diminish,
even eliminate,
your essential flame.

In your presence
their form casts a Shadow
that just might scare them to
your death.

The more they struggle
at the sight of it,
the more it dances
wildly,
erotically,
untamed
and full of dangerous potentiality
on the
Wall of their Psyche.

Primal fears emerge
and are given false-life
like saber-tooth terrors
that flicker into action
before cave-dwellers' eyes.

You have done nothing wrong
by shining.

Please hear me when I say this:

“You have done nothing wrong
by shining.”

Beautiful and bright,

Your light is what evokes awe
in the stars
when they gaze upon this Earth.

You mustn’t rob the galaxy
of the pleasure that it
takes in you!

Dearest Light of the World,

Do not surrender even a
nascent spark to
the oppressive forces
that they wish to
bring down upon
you -

Burn.

Burn.

Burn the holiest of fires…

Pledge your allegiance to
the sound of your breath,
breathing so deeply that
you fuel the fire that burns
within your heart.

The fire that burns
within your heart…

Love.

Lovingly offer the Candle Snuffers
in your life
the sacred flint and tinder

of Mirror and Council,

inviting them to recognize
their own true flame.

There is an eager,
capable wick,
in all of us -

Dignity.

Oh my Flame of Unity,

If you have befriended your
own Shadow,
then in the presence of
their Light,
the only form that shall be
cast is that of
Understanding and Kinship.

The time is coming in which
Homo illuminatus
will finally learn to
to pass
the torch.

© 2011-2013/Jamie K. Reaser (Published in Note to Self: Poems for Changing the World from the Inside Out; Hiraeth Press, http://www.hiraethpress.com)