Gaia Community: Ron's Blog

Rilke

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 13:07:01 GMT

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives

are only princesses waiting to see us act,

just once, with beauty and courage.

Perhaps everything that frightens us, is,

in it’s deepest essence,

something helpless that wants our love.

Rilke
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So whatever pain or problems we have, if it helps us to find a quality of presence—-where we can open to it, see it, feel it, include it and find the truth concealed in it——that is our healing.

Tags: dragons, princesses, Rilke

Common Ground

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 03:03:21 GMT

He thought, I love you.
She said aloud, as if she heard
the words; I love you too.
He then knew
Yes. We are one.

For more haiku, tanka and other interesting poetic forms check out” One Deep Breath

Tags: tanka, love, haiku, poetry, common, ground

Anna Quindlen…

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 03:01:06 GMT

He stared out at the ocean and said, “Look at the view, young lady. Look at the view.”
And every day, in some little way, I try to do what he said. I try to look at the view. That’s all. Words of wisdom from a man with not a dime in his pocket, no place to go, nowhere to be. Look at the view. When I do what he said, I am never disappointed.
— Anna Quindlen in A Short Guide to a Happy Life

To Practice This Thought: Take time to really see what is right in front of you.

Tags: Anna Quindlen, practice, view

Soul Boosters

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:58:58 GMT

On Toscanini’s eightieth birthday, someone asked his son, Walter, what his father considered his most important achievement. The reply was, “For him there can be no such thing. Whatever he happens to be doing at the moment is the biggest thing in his life — whether it is conducting a symphony or peeling an orange.”

To Practice This Thought: Stop whatever you are doing and remember that it is the biggest thing in your life. Then return to it.

Tags: Toscannini, soul, booster

When We Met

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:57:15 GMT

This is not a literal dialog between two people exactly, rather it is about a dialog that took place a few years ago. I offer this for Poetry Thursday readers and all others who may find an interest.

When We Met

We spoke of those times of our foolishness

not without a hint of nostalgia,

of the feel of it coursing through our blood.

We spoke of it as if it were a good thing

to speak of, to remind ourselves of that

pain, that glory of sorts, that anguish of youth.

It was a miracle actually, we could speak at all,

as if it were just a simple story diluted with time

like a liquid ferment that changes colors like Fall.

The miracle was in the speaking,

in the braggadocio, the casual way with death

that denies the real and smells like a tomb.

We sweat in those times, now in absentia.

We were lost in the circles, those

circles of redundancy, an endless

loop that comes back to haunt us

recalling the time we stopped on the loop

and couldn’t remember how we got there,

so we got high and jumped back in to take

the turn ever lower on the spiral, to

the bottom at the end of the line of the times.

We won’t speak of it again….

The pain of its memory felt too good.

Tags:

Point of View

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:54:17 GMT

LotusFlower

When I awaken

The universe opens

When the lotus blooms

More haiku here at One Deep Breath

Tags: haiku, lotus, blooms, awaken

Pay Attention…

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:46:43 GMT

“YOUR EXPERIENCE OF LIFE

ISN’T BASED ON YOUR LIFE, IT’S BASED ON

WHAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO.”

Tags: quotes

Spirituality of Imperfection

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:44:12 GMT

In order to arrive at what you do not know

It must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.

In order to possess what you do not possess

You must go by the way of dispossession.

In order to arrive at what you are not

You must go through the way in which you are not.

And what you do not know is the only thing you know

And what you own is what you do not own

And where you are is where you are not.

The Spirituality of Imperfection.

T.S. Elliot described this spiritual path of the via negativia in “East Coker”]

Tags:

Blue Ridge

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:41:54 GMT

Location, location, location….

My favorite shot from our trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway, near Blowing Rock, NC

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Nurture

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:39:31 GMT

Nature is nurture

Sunlight birthing our wholeness

warming us all

Let your light so shine

Nurturing glow abundant

Filling the whole earth

More haiku here at One Deep Breath

Tags: nature, nurture, poem, haiku

Elixir

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:36:27 GMT

Poetry Thursdays random prompt prompted this:

Elixir of life

promise of eternity

marrow of false hopes

(elixir of life – a hypothetical substance believed to maintain life indefinitely; once sought by alchemists)

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Sleep

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:35:03 GMT

May 10th, 2007

For this weeks haiku prompt (Sleep) at “One Deep Breath”
I am also using these two poems (first a tanka, the other a haiku) for Poetry Thursday

Sleep is where we live

Most of our waking hours

Unencumbered by light

By the work of thought

It’s time to wake up!

If we sleep the sleep

Of the enlightened ones

Is the world still here?

Tags: sleep, poetry, haiku, tanka

EarthLove

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Fri, 04 May 2007 20:56:22 GMT

The earth untreated

with loves luminous display

haikus unwritten

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Cosmic Birth

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Fri, 04 May 2007 20:54:21 GMT

Physicists teach us

fusions resulting spinoff

we are born of Suns

I look in her eyes

She looks back into mine

Super nova!

Tags:

Unlearning

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 02:44:38 GMT

unlearning your birth

going naked without a name

melting down your masks

This haiku (Inspired by a poem by Jacques Lacarriere from Surat of Emptiness)

Tags: poetry, Jacques Lacarriere

Differentiation and Integration

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 17:51:10 GMT

(This one is for Poetry Thursday’s prompt using a line from someone else’s poem. The line I used is by Harry Rutherford. It is the first line in the poem and links to Harry’s blog.)

Like a toppled buddha
do you recognize the timeless One
that is spontaneously aware of all this?
If so, please tell me,
Who and What you are,
when you are deeper than within?

Clouds pass by,
feelings pass by,
thoughts pass by-
but what in you does not pass by?
Do you see that One?
Can you say its Name?

Tags:

She Said Yes

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:23:18 GMT

We laid our bodies flat on the rock looked up at the sky through the branches as light streaked down upon us. She said, this is so peaceful. I love it here. I said, yes it is (feeling nervous). We spoke of many things. Then...silence. I turned my head She turned to me I said...will you marry me?

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Breath

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:25:26 GMT

My contribution to "One Deep Breath" Haiku blog:

there is just one breath

cosmologically speaking

do you know of it?

the earth knows of it

the green and yellow of it

blazed across the sky

Sun pulses its breath

gives its life to all who care

do we not love it?

Tags: breath

Amatively Speaking

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 01:28:00 GMT

My Poetry Thursday contribution

The word is: Amative

If it is a falling in love
it was most amatively
a thing later to be regretted
since such preoccupation
of body and soul taxes...
body and soul.

Thus a falling it was
one night when the moonlight
etched its verse across
your mind leaving a mark
on your heart, indecipherable
script...soul words.

Words read when mouth
gently touches a mouth
and becomes a thunderous
shout in the brain, boundaries
given new meaning in
mis-firing synapses

Tags: amative, love, boundaries

Sonnet To Van Gogh

http://ronrusso.gaia.com — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 11:08:48 GMT

Sonnet To Van Gogh

What if this day brought with it colors

wrought in tear-stained stone. Would it

then be a remembrance to dally on? What if

the sun were blotted out and the light became

awash in shadow? Would the day then be

a waving, rolling wheat field for you to

drown in? "But" you say, "that is not my doing.

I am only, after all, one who tumbles

with the wind and I thought I could respond

with grace and thus brighten the day by

stroking it with ochre and azure as if the sun

came out of my belly, and fields of poppies

came from my heart, like the love that is hidden

in skies of vermilion and French sidewalk cafe's"

Oil on canvas 81.0 x 65.5 cm Arles 1888

Ron Russo

Tags: Van Gogh, poetry, sonnet, poem