poem: writing in time of pandemic, climate change, social injustice, tyranny, and gratitude for what matters

Posted on July 17, 2022 by Herb Stone

poem: writing in time
of pandemic, climate change,
social injustice, tyranny,
and gratitude for what matters

writing from our home
in Nashville, where we
are under an excessive
heat warning all this week,
high humidity and temperatures

my beloved and I
both testing positive for COVID
for the first time and
quarantined at our home,
we are managing

writing this now,
my eyeballs hurt,
my fever is breaking
and I am covered in sweat
and trying to control a bad cough

tragically, we are inundated
daily with bad news of
gun violence, mass shootings,
and extrajudicial shootings
of young black men by police

and all this, not to mention,
the house hearings on the
criminal ex-45th. ‘president’
and his fascist, anti-democracy,
insurrectionist efforts to steal election

dear hearts, grateful for
all of you who have expressed concerns
and who walk this journey with us,
blessed to belong in authentic
community with you all

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
July 7, 2022

photo by author

poem: somewhere between solitude and loneliness

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Herb Stone

poem: somewhere between solitude and loneliness

being here now in solitary existence
somewhere between solitude and loneliness
reflecting on recent events and experiences:
aging, disease, injury, separation, siloing,
the world and its totalizing systems

struggling, striving, sitting with challenges,
reconciling the grace of our being,
the preciousness of our life together,
and the amazing beauty of our Earth Home
with tender heart and teary eyes

busy, tired, and weary at times,
continuing at my task knowing
that we can bear it together
through connecting, belonging, and sharing,
grateful for authentic relationships and community

sitting quietly, listening,studying, reflecting, creating,
and connecting continue in this busy season of the suffering
arriving as an unexpected guest at my door,
each invited in and treated with truth and respect

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
June 21, 2022

art by Andrew Wyeth, ‘Christina Olsen, Triton’

Author’s note: I have struggled to write this, or anything else down, for over a

week. Knowing that sharing one’s suffering is very unfashionable in our

contemporary culture and society of everyone for themselves, I hesitate. I do not

share my poem from the perspective of being a victim, or a denier, or a masochist,
or from a place of apathy. Rather, I share from the perspective of witnessing,

better understanding, gifting, connecting, authentic belonging, and healing in the

tension of our suffering and our joie de vivre! The last three lines of stanza four

are after Rumi’s poem ‘The Guest House.”

poem: being a stillpoint in the ceaseless rush

Posted on May 28, 2022 by Herb Stone

quote: “To be alive is to be vulnerable.”

Posted on May 21, 2022 by Herb Stone

poem: visions of hope, transformation, and manifestation

Posted on May 19, 2022 by Herb Stone

poem: visions of hope, transformation,
and manifestation

hooking one’s hopes on the egos
of humans and worldly events
crushes our souls

peace is denied at the tyrant’s whim,
human rights are ruled unconstitutional,
life, liberty, and happiness end at the point of a gun

we, in the world, not of the world,
Earth students, Spirit beings,
our hopes are set in shared visions

the diminution of ego of True Self,
the diminution of control of Authentic Being,
the diminution of personal power of universal Cosmic Consciousness

our visions of yes/and unity, wounded healing,
mutuality, beloved community, wholeness,
the way of the Cosmos

one’s authentic hope lies
in deep intuitive knowing, envisioning,
and faith in manifesting transformation

beloveds, be the change
shanti, shanti, shanti
thou art that

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry

May 15, 2022

poem: the peace of kindred spirits

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Herb Stone

poem: the peace of kindred spirits

beyond our struggles with sentimentality,
hubris, conceit, nostalgia; and subduing
our apathy, helplessness, and perverse
notions of suffering

manifesting our inner True Self,
coming to full fruition, joining
with others in the mutuality of belonging
together in authentic communities

realizing the deep knowing and peace
of meeting the other and connecting
as kindred spirits; two lost pieces
of a puzzle fitting effortlessly together

now the bigger picture beyond self
arising into relief and clarifying its movement
towards deeper and more inclusive
authentic, complementary wholeness

my deepest gratitude and appreciation
for you kindred spirits who see me,
and I, you, wounded healers all,
dear friends belonging in beloved community

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
May 12, 2022

art image unattributed