haiku: Christmas Eve
tree lights all aglow
overnight, first winter snow,
all wrapped with a bow
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 24, 2022
photos by author
haiku: Christmas Eve
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Category Archives: the Christ
tanka: winter’s feast (out of darkness, light)
tanka: winter’s feast
(out of darkness, light)
cold Advent mornings
dawn’s light shines in the darkness
winter solstice near
the star in the east heralds
earth and heaven intertwine
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 17, 2022
photos by author
Author’s note:
I love the season of winter solstice,
Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany to
which I pay homage to my patron saint,
Gertrud Nelson. Gertrud has taught me
more about these traditions and their
authentic meaning than anyone. Nine years
ago, I had the good fortune of meeting
Gertrud and attending her workshop on
these traditions thanks to our dear mutual
friend, Pastor Brian Hooper. Gertrud’s
book, ‘To Dance With God: Family Ritual
and Community Celebration’, has the best
descriptions of these traditions and rituals,
and practical guidance on how to observe
them in our daily lives, than any other resource
I have seen. Her book is available on Amazon,
and I highly recommend it. Following is a
quote from Gertrud describing the workshop
I attended with her: “What could possibly be
more exciting than incarnational theology,
celebrated, taken in, lived, enjoyed, understood?
We have a great store of traditions to draw from,
as we go from darkness to light. The traditions
are ancient and have belonged to people
of all ages. We have a tendency to paint over
these ancient truths with cheap paint and tinsel.
Years of accretions plaster over the hidden
within.….let’s scrape down what dulls the
deepest truths and find the gem.”
To which I say, “Hallelujah!”
an Advent poem: making ready (what comes before)
an Advent poem:
making ready
(what comes before) sitting in the pre-dawn
darkness of this spiritually
transformative season
(what comes before) sitting in the pre-dawn
darkness of this spiritually
transformative season
silent, reflective, open,
to the Divine Truth within
and the new beginnings before us
witnessing the Universal Cosmic Christ
who came down to us, comes again,
and is always with us in eternal life
mindful of the season’s
sentimentality, nostalgia, and hubris
which comforts and distracts us
here and now in the bliss
of participating and being
in the way of Creator God of All
mutually committed in body/mind/spirit
to preparing the way and living together
in diversity, healing, and peace
we humans transformed and co-creating
the alternative neighborly community
of True Self and Authentic Belonging
a lone voice in the wilderness
crying out, make ready the way
for the in-flowing of the Great I Am
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 6, 2022
author’s note: The last stanza is a paraphrase of the prophet Isaiah from the old testament found in Isaiah 40:3. The Great I Am reverences the I Am statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John, and Yahweh, God’s name in the Old Testament. It also connotes the Sanskrit mantra Tat Tvam Asi from the Chandogya Upanishad which refers to the unity of the individual Soul with the Divine Universal Consciousness. My experience is that all Divine Truth is universal, perennial, and cosmic flowing from the one supreme source which underlies all religion, spirituality, and mysticism, and which can be directly experienced by human beings who follow the way of True Self. An excellent book on this idea is “The Perennial Philosophy” by Aldous Huxley.
art image ‘O Root’ by Sister Ansgar Holmberg
tanka: winter’s feast (out of darkness, light)
tanka: winter’s feast
(out of darkness, light) cold Advent mornings
dawn’s light shines in the darkness
winter solstice near
the star in the east heralds
earth and heaven intertwine Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 17, 2022
(out of darkness, light) cold Advent mornings
dawn’s light shines in the darkness
winter solstice near
the star in the east heralds
earth and heaven intertwine Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 17, 2022
photos by author
Author’s note:
I love the season of winter solstice,
Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany to
which I pay homage to my patron saint,
Gertrud Nelson. Gertrud has taught me
more about these traditions and their
authentic meaning than anyone. Nine years
ago, I had the good fortune of meeting
Gertrud and attending her workshop on
these traditions thanks to our dear mutual
friend, Pastor Brian Hooper. Gertrud’s
book, ‘To Dance With God: Family Ritual
and Community Celebration’, has the best
descriptions of these traditions and rituals,
and practical guidance on how to observe
them in our daily lives, than any other resource
I have seen. Her book is available on Amazon,
and I highly recommend it. Following is a
quote from Gertrud describing the workshop
I attended with her: “What could possibly be
more exciting than incarnational theology,
celebrated, taken in, lived, enjoyed, understood?
We have a great store of traditions to draw from,
as we go from darkness to light. The traditions
are ancient and have belonged to people
of all ages. We have a tendency to paint over
these ancient truths with cheap paint and tinsel.
Years of accretions plaster over the hidden
within.….let’s scrape down what dulls the
deepest truths and find the gem.”
To which I say, “Hallelujah!”
poem: a Lenten blessing for personal and relational transformation for all
poem: a Lenten blessing for personal
and relational transformation for all in some shadowy Lenten corner of our
desert hearts, may we face all of our
small self-serving definitions of Creator God,
and the idols we erect and worship
of our hubris, conceit, and sentimentality liberating our self from this wilderness,
following the Way of the Cross, as did Jesus,
the Universal Cosmic Christ, and resurrecting
into a more authentic becoming
with the Spirit Creator God’s grace and love universally and
unconditionally given cannot sustain New Life
in an arid heart and wilderness mind,
the vine dies and fails to produce the
communal Fruit of Life may the Divine Creator be the lotus flower
upon the throne of our heart chakra,
om manni padme hum, manifesting love,
grace, kindness, and compassion
to every corner of the Cosmos Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
March 9, 2022 images
Lotus heart chakra – unattributed
Open your heart, Paschima Namaskarasana,
Reverse Prayer Hands – unattributed
and relational transformation for all in some shadowy Lenten corner of our
desert hearts, may we face all of our
small self-serving definitions of Creator God,
and the idols we erect and worship
of our hubris, conceit, and sentimentality liberating our self from this wilderness,
following the Way of the Cross, as did Jesus,
the Universal Cosmic Christ, and resurrecting
into a more authentic becoming
with the Spirit Creator God’s grace and love universally and
unconditionally given cannot sustain New Life
in an arid heart and wilderness mind,
the vine dies and fails to produce the
communal Fruit of Life may the Divine Creator be the lotus flower
upon the throne of our heart chakra,
om manni padme hum, manifesting love,
grace, kindness, and compassion
to every corner of the Cosmos Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
March 9, 2022 images
Lotus heart chakra – unattributed
Open your heart, Paschima Namaskarasana,
Reverse Prayer Hands – unattributed
Reflection: On Being Present and in Conversation with Others
Reflection: On Being Present and in Conversation with Others
My (an old man approaching his 74th. birthday) most
fond wish and deepest passion is the Communion of Souls
brought to bear through our right action of mindfulness, intention,
purpose, discipline, and practice. And grounded in True Self,
Authenticity, Mutuality, and Belonging together in Communities.
Dear Beloveds, may we awaken, personally do the
work, and collectively join together in the unitive experience of
the Divine Ground, Radical Grace, and Radical Love.
– Herb Stone, poet and author @herbstonejr.com
Let us consider this plea in its perennial expression of our sisters and brothers:
“For a lack of attention, a thousand forms of loveliness evade us everyday.”
– Evelyn Underhill, Mystics
“We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible.
To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple,
obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk.”
– Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul
“The divine Ground of all existence is a spiritual Absolute,
ineffable in terms of discursive thought, but (in certain circumstances)
susceptible of being directly experienced and realized by the human being.
This Absolute is the God-without-form of Hindu and Christian mystical
phraseology. The last end of man, the ultimate reason for human existence, is unitive knowledge of the divine Ground—the knowledge that can come only to those who areprepared to “Die to self” and so make room, as it were, for God.”
― Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
“We expect a theophany of which we know nothing but the place, and the place is called
community.” -Martin Buber, Between Man and Man
Jesus, the Universal Cosmic Christ, is a revolutionary
Jesus, the Universal Cosmic Christ, is a revolutionary
please visit my web page for more of my poetry, reflections, and quotes @herbstonejr.com
Thank you for your support and happy reading
click image to see it in full
Christmas Morn Reflections: The Cosmic Christ comes into the world in the way of weakness, vulnerability, and need and a mission of radical grace and love for healing the world of power, oppression, and violence and lifting up the oppressed
Christmas Morn Reflections: The Cosmic Christ comes into the world in the way of weakness, vulnerability, and need and a mission of radical grace and love for healing the world of power, oppression, and violence and lifting up the oppressed
“God entered into our world not with the crushing impact of unbearable glory, but in the way of weakness, vulnerability and need. On a wintry night in an obscure cave, the infant Jesus was a humble, naked, helpless God who allowed us to get close to him….The Bethlehem mystery will ever be a scandal to aspiring disciples who seek a triumphant Savior and a prosperity Gospel.” – Brennan Manning, Shipwrecked at the Stable
“The whole point of the kingdom of God is Jesus has come to bear witness to the true truth, which is nonviolent. When God wants to take charge of the world, he doesn’t send in the tanks. He sends in the poor and the meek.” – N.T. Wright
art by Gari Melcher ‘The Nativity’
poem: and now it is Christmas ‘time’
poem: and now it is Christmas ‘time’
time slows
and deepens
at Christmas
from 40 days
of waiting
expectantly
to the coming of the
Universal Cosmic Christ child
God with us Emmanuel time now comes to
its eternal
fullness filled with awe
and reverence in
this ever-present moment standing in the silent
snow covered field
in bleak mid-Winter stripped of adornment
travelers weary
in the cold and mud only the
angels, shepherds, and magi
will witness this New Day that Heaven and its Love
reign down on me and us all
then, now, and evermore Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 24&25, 2021 photo by author in
‘A Snowy Winter Eve’
Universal Cosmic Christ child
God with us Emmanuel time now comes to
its eternal
fullness filled with awe
and reverence in
this ever-present moment standing in the silent
snow covered field
in bleak mid-Winter stripped of adornment
travelers weary
in the cold and mud only the
angels, shepherds, and magi
will witness this New Day that Heaven and its Love
reign down on me and us all
then, now, and evermore Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 24&25, 2021 photo by author in
‘A Snowy Winter Eve’
Blue Advent reflections: The lowly, the imperfect, and the wounded shall be lifted up in dignity and rejoice
Blue Advent reflections: The lowly, the imperfect, and the wounded shall be lifted up in dignity and rejoice
God, by whatever name you know, chooses the lowly, the imperfect, the wounded to do God’s work in this world!
This season of our different faiths and spiritual traditions can be a challenging time for many of us this time of year.
However, my dear brothers, sisters, siblings, we must always remember that none of us is too ‘lowly’ to do the work of God, too imperfect do be loved by God and the Godly, too wounded to not be healed in this Divine radical acceptance and love! Just consider the birth of the Universal Cosmic Christ in that dirty stable and on the run from the Roman empire! And consider the words below of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pastor, saint, and martyr, as he preached in his Christmas sermon in his homeland of Germany during the reign of the Nazis.
However, my dear brothers, sisters, siblings, we must always remember that none of us is too ‘lowly’ to do the work of God, too imperfect do be loved by God and the Godly, too wounded to not be healed in this Divine radical acceptance and love! Just consider the birth of the Universal Cosmic Christ in that dirty stable and on the run from the Roman empire! And consider the words below of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pastor, saint, and martyr, as he preached in his Christmas sermon in his homeland of Germany during the reign of the Nazis.
And yes, we live again in the time fascist tyrants, dominant empires, pandemics, and violence and many are heartbroken, wounded, marginalized , oppressed, and neglected.
Let us remember, we are all children of a Universal God, a Cosmic Christ, and a pervasive Spirit, who belong together in diverse, authentic, neighborly communities of grace, love, mercy, justice, and hope
For God’s love for us, we love one another now and always!
Let us love one another during seasons of the Spirit, the Holy Days, the not so Holy Days, and all year around eternally as we are called to do by the Cosmic Universal Christ consciousness at its dawning!
“Lo, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Jesus, the Cosmic Christ, to the disciples, as reported by Matthew in his Good News
Authors note: My use of the ‘Universal Cosmic Christ’ designates an incarnate principal of consciousness grounded in radical grace and radical love for one another which extends beyond a single religion or spiritual tradition and therefore is universally available to all beings here and now always.