Category: Poems

He Set Me Free

He was hard working, dedicated, disciplined;
Ended school after 8 grades, all As:
His dad insisted he go to work
Farming for his uncle.

In war he wanted to serve in the Navy.
They said “no” – color blindness disqualifies.
Farming was essential then too:
The troops needed food.

A Master Electrician apprenticeship came his way.
He had to say “no” – low pay for too long
Wouldn’t put food on the table
For a new, growing family.

He farmed for Uncle, then Dad, then moved
When war was done, to a farm 20 miles
Away with new wife and son:
A rental, shared crops and cattle.

We prospered through hard work and discipline.
Years went by, son joined in the work,
Another son came along. The farm went
For sale; he bought it for his own.

We worked side-by-side, first son and he.
He pulled that son aside one day and said:
“Don’t get stuck on this or any farm.”
He set me free that day!

Ever and always grateful.

Living Inside Out

Nei Gong – inner practice:
It begins with breath –
Doesn’t everything?

Sense the slow inhale:
Feel it rise through chakras,
Earth-gate to Heaven’s gate.

Sense a relaxed exhale:
The downward flow as
Face, chest, belly, sex sink.

Extend awareness to the body:
The extremities – fingers and toes,
Outside and inside, energy running.

Become aware of the skin:
Air moves whispering fine hairs,
Tingles ripple with the grace of Qi.

Sense the tongue resting on teeth:
Smooth surfaces at the tip,
Ridges midway, a tickle toward throat.

Tune the ear to inner music:
Body bubbles and gurgles with Jing,
Low hums and thrums of life-tones.

The nose knows many scents:
Flared nostrils invite the inhale;
Hairs filter and warm breath-smells.

The inner eye sees all in the field:
The quantum mirror is free of dust,
The vision ahead is open and wide.

Inner senses lead the mind:
It quiets, chatter and spin subside;
Abide – living inside out!

January 9, 2019
©2019 Richard W Bredeson, all rights reserved.

Levels

At the quantum level
There is nothing,
Then there is something,
Then nothing, emptiness:
Reality Flashing in and out,
There then not.

At the atomic level
There is probability:
Matter is probably there;
We can see it, touch it,
Smell, taste, hear it.
Observation pins it.

At the DNA level
Quanta and atoms form
Base-pairs, form strands,
Double helix twists that
Probably exist to perform
Their replicating functions.

At the cellular level
DNA housed in chromosomes
Spin off proteins in hundreds
Of thousands of transactions
Per second, sustaining life,
Fitting neatly into the body matrix.

At the body level
The matrix of cells
Living, breathing, beating, dying
On an unimaginable scale
Of numbers and transactions
Numbing the mind to unconsciousness.

At the consciousness level
We can imagine all these levels
Humming, spinning, winking
In and out of existence, all
Across the Universe in no
Space-Time, sustained only by love!