Pain is not truth; it is simply what we must endure to find truth. This body we are experiencing is an embroidered flower, merely representative, beautiful, but artificial, not the full living embodiment of the flower. Thoughts are guests checking in and out of our quaint inn, just as this form is temporary, a visitor who will travel on. We take death so personally, spend a lifetime preventing loss, projecting fear from our own ignorance, denying our own place in the circle. It is only possible to lose what is not real. Even if we think we’ve lost everything, what remains is what is real.
@Home Studio – 93rd poem of the year
Chopra, Deepak. The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want. New York, United States of America, Harmony Books, 1995, pp. 96-101.
Runner ups for the circle of life photos to accompany my poem:
Actors (clockwise from top C) Martin Luther McCoy, Dana Fuchs, T.V. Carpio, Ekaterina Sknavina, Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Kiva Dawson, Joe Anderson and Halley Wegryn Gross are shown in a scene from the film “Across The Universe” in this undated publicity photograph. https://images.app.goo.gl/VGx3qPKwxrQnu3xp6
i’m just a Girl standing here wanting you to Hold Me Tight so i can give you All My Loving. I Want to Hold Your Hand. though i endure tough times With a Little Help From my Friends, It Won’t Be Long before i need more than they can give, but I’ve Just Seen a Face that i can never forget, and that is saying a lot for me. i pray that god will Let It Be our destiny that we will Come Together forever, and if we ever get married, Why Don’t We Do It in the Rain? If I Fell, would you catch me? I Want You to be the one who always catches me, not the one who says, “She’s So Heavy”, and shirks the hard parts of love. Dear Prudence will be our saving grace, for our future will never lack with us in it. we’ll be Flying high the Blue Jay Way over the rainbow and off to neverland where I Am the Walrus and you are the Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite because you make my heart soar. Something you said to me changed my perspective forever, Oh! Darling. you loved me as i was, freckles and paleness, green-eyed simplicity, and Strawberry Fields Forever. it was a Revolution to be loved for myself and celebrated for my curves. you love me when i suffer, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps, you hold and comfort me, transporting my grief Across the Universe. you love me when my anger has turned our world Helter Skelter and i have forgotten Happiness is a Warm Gun aimed at a Blackbird the only way to handle strife? no, you have shown me that it’s ok to walk away, to pause, to let things simmer down, then say Hey Jude-iciously discuss our differences. Don’t Let Me Down, my love. don’t ever become someone other than who you are. whoever said, All You Need Is Love, never got a divorce. you also need the right person, a person who makes you feel like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds when things are rough and you feel like lana in the dirt with slime.
@Home Studio – 89th poem of the year
Todd, Suzanne., et al. Across the Universe Widescreen., Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2009.
Someday I’ll live in a hobbit hole and grow mushrooms and sweet mint. I’ll stoke a small fire to cut the chill and steep cinnamon for a cozy scent.
First thing in the morning, I’ll sip my tea, while I watch the sunrise in peace. Then at 10:02, I’ll water the plants, before hand-feeding the bunnies and geese.
By then it’ll be time for second breakfast— berries and cream in a bowl. Then I’ll probably need to take a nap because that’s life in a hobbit hole.
@Home Studio – 83rd poem of the year
Runner ups for the Hobbit hole photos to accompany my poem:
Shall I build a spire atop my roof and invite the townspeople to a grand ball with a string quartet? Or shall I plant a rose garden hedged in by topiaries and pebble paths bordered by flower beds? Or shall I plan a high tea with clotted cream, scones, and jam, cucumber sandwiches all around? If it’s a rainy day, should I pass the time by taking an afternoon lover and lounge on satin cushions? If I’m feeling melancholy, shall I read a book of poems by candlelight and cry luxuriously at the romance? Once I pay bills and file my taxes, get my oil changed and check the mail, grocery shop and gas up the car, shall I start on my new to do list? Yes, I think I shall.
The tree that holds up the moon had to be reinforced last month. A branch broke and the light of night nearly came tumbling down to earth. We wept and prayed, wished we had thought of something sooner. Then the women gathered their tools and began the tedious work of stitching the bark strong where the wound remained from the gaping hole the bough left when she fell away and broke our hearts.
@Home Studio – 77th poem of the year
Runner ups for the tree moon photos to accompany my poem:
Sweet inspiration flows inward, filling every cell and synapse with translucent nectar that branches into spirals of peaceful fragrance. There are notes of earth and rain, warm melons sitting ripe in a field, flower petals lingering long after being wilted by the moon’s tears, golden bread fresh from the oven, and the vellichor of parchment.
@Home Studio – 76th poem of the year
Runner ups for the inspiration photos to accompany my poem:
We must learn to contain both chaos and order, swirling atoms, firing neurons, never ceasing electrical storms matched only by coherent thought and organized cellular function. A rose in seed form looks the same as a bean or a violet. Only invisible twisted twin strands delineate its inevitable destiny. Yet, we worry about becoming, spend struggle and effort to assert our determined uniqueness. Why not surrender to fate? A rose by any other name (and all that) is a universal truth. When pressures push this way and other, we try to impose order. Yet, attempts at control run counter to the grain of life. Learn to accept the unpredictable, make peace with entropy, embrace all potentials, so the opportune impulses can flood like inspiration into life, and the bud naturally unfold into a rose.
@Home Studio – 75th poem of the year
Chopra, Deepak. The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want. New York, United States of America, Harmony Books, 1995, pp. 85-89.
Runner ups for the rose bud photos to accompany my poem:
Sleep is my favorite activity. I think it always has been. It’s just a little harder now to reach the perfect bliss. When I was young and firm, sleep came easy, just dripped like candle wax on my pillow. Now I need my cpap machine, a supersonic fan on blast, the right kind of darkness that blocks out memory, the right kind of quiet that sets the stage for dreams, the perfect temperature set, all my pillows plumped just so, my grounding sheets tucked, and my husband by my side.
Rain, rain, here all day. Drench the world and stay to play. Sky purrs, rumbles low, trees sway, cool winds blow. Days like this bring me rest. The earth and I are truly blessed.
rebekahjmarshall 