The 60-Second Sabbath

Halloween, 2011

Zombies are hot this year;
The Walking Dead
is a runaway hit for AMC;
major cities around the country
hold zombie crawls. 

Sociologists theorize
it's an expression of 
our national tendancy
toward mindless, insatiable consumerism.
To openly acknowledge this
is to threaten the glue holding America together.
After all, the answer to a terrorist attack is,
"Go shopping."

So, as often happens,
we give voice to truth poetically,
sideways,
through the arts.
The image?
Staggering, soulless, walking dead,
mindlessly feeding on the brains of the living,
never, ever sated. 

Is that what we've become?

How interesting that the rise in Zombie-mania
coincides with the occupation of Wall Street.

Kinda creepy, don't ya think?

Happy Halloween!

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

 

 

Back through the Gate

Amma.
Abba.

I offer these
at the beginning of my prayers--
or often as the substance of my prayers--
as symbols of assent,
as symbols of ascent,
a yes to the divine,
the desire for transcendence,
the opening of heart, mind and spirit to transformation,
back through the gate,
back to the Beloved.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

The Portal

Every time you become aware
of your anger,
your tension,
your disconnection,
your frustration,
that awareness
opens a portal
through which you can step
to embrace peace.

It's a tap on the shoulder;
it's a voice whispering in your ear,
"Hey, what's going on here?
Is this really what you want?"

And at that moment
you have a choice
to remain this side of the portal--
stewing, fussing, grousing, hurting--
or to step through, breathe deep, pause
reground yourself in what you know
to be most true.

What is it you know
to be most true?

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

 

What Dolores Wrote

Somewhere in rural Nebraska,
in her farmhouse kitchen,
as was her custom,
Dolores wrote on the square of chalkboard
her axiom of the week:

    We don't need more of what we've got,
     we just need to be more grateful for it.

Within two weeks,
Dolores passed away,
leaving empty her various roles
of wife and mother, churchgoer and philosopher.

Twenty years have passed,
and those words remain,
unerased...not even smudged.

Her husband continues to shuffle into that kitchen every morning;
her daughters--every month or two--
travel back home to restock the cereal and toilet paper--
putting fresh milk in the same old refrigerator
that still runs
beside the blackboard
that still offers its reminder
of love and gratitude.

One of those daughters tells me,
"It's comforting;
she's still there."
She points to her heart:
"She's still here."

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

Pick a Subject, Any Subject

Pick a subject, any subject:

There are those
so thoroughly, thoughtlessly for it
that their e-mails, radio and TV broadcasts
    Facebook posts, Tweets--rants, if you will--
bloat with exaggeration, anger and alarm.

There are those
so  thoroughly, thoughtlessly against it
that their e-mails, radio and TV broadcasts
    Facebook posts, Tweets--rants, if you will--
bleat with exaggeration, anger and alarm. 

Ironically, these two groups
stand on common ground:
fear of the unknowable future,
the desperate desire to belong, to matter,
the same techniques to manipulate and enflame.

Ah, and one thing more:
a lack of commitment to truth and love.

Stop listening, and they will fade away.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

 

 

We Can See

We can see,
but that doesn't mean we look.
We can hear,
but that doesn't mean we listen.
We can speak,
but that doesn't mean we converse.
We can know,
but that doesn't mean we understand.
We can embrace,
but that doesn't mean we accept.

We can gather to worship,
but that doesn't mean we love.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

 

 

When God Lives within You

When God lives within you
the parables and prayers
of all faiths
increasingly make sense--
the poems of the Sufis,
the drumming circles of indigenous peoples,
the beads of the Catholic rosary,
the prayer Jesus taught his disciples,
the rasping chant of the evening cicadas...

The more deeply you embrace your own identity
the greater beauty you discover
in the identity of others.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

 

Keep Waking Up

Keep waking up.

You woke up this morning;
now wake up to this moment:
this moment is not here to usher you into the next,
but exists for its own sake.

This is the kingdom--
this moment--
now.

Now is it hand.
Wake up to this moment,
now.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

 

Cat Food

The cats I've had
excitedly hunt
mice, moths, flies and grasshoppers,
and will--to varying extent--consume them.

I have yet to see them
hunt down
cows, chickens, calves and fish of any kind.
And given their response
to the approach of a trundling toddler,
I can only imagine them running in fear
from anything larger than a crow.

So why then
is all cat food flavored with
beef, chicken, veal, salmon, etc.,
and absolutley none with
mice and insects--
that which cats crave the most?

Another of life's mysteries...

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

Conquered by Love

I want love to win
the conflict that wages within,
the conflicts that rage without.

I want to be vanquished by love. 

I want to see the love of God everywhere.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.