Looking Forward to 2022
Happy New Year 2022. As I contemplated ideas to start this year with a fresh uncluttered perspective, I recalled the life changing experience of my walking the Camino de Santiago, so I looked through my books and found a couple of poems I wrote that capture the opportunity this New Year offers. I also received a photo from an old friend of the new snowfall around his home in Maine, which led to the final poem.
The gonging you will hear is a recording of a weekly gong concert my wife Kassandra is now playing for neighbors from our porch.
BEGIN A NEW YEAR
Clean up , clean out
uncluttered space
uncluttered mind
experience freedom.
good riddance to bad habits
welcome new good habits.
Listen from the new born silence
Open the door to the Heart
feel the magical breath
journey to the thought free world
to pure beingness
where only the present moment exists.
the past is past.
the door is now open
enter the one compassionate heart
where inspiration waits
and the poet walks in joyful
abandonment.
PILGRIMS ON THE PATH
From “Step By Step” Walking El Camino De Santiago *
SURE AS I AM
from Poetry on the Move *
ENTERING THE THIRD YEAR
Do you remember the silence?
deeper than Camino silence
traffic had disappeared
as justified fear appeared
deaths increasing ever day
friends and families in dismay
towns and countries in disarray
Wave after wave
rising and falling
variants appearing
people disappearing
Now
not so many in ICUs
not so many in coffins.
Like pilgrims on the path
may we remember
to care for each other
we are all living together
on this one beautiful planet
and we, humans, are just one
of over one million species on earth.
May 2022 bring an end to this pandemic
WINTER MEMORIES
I miss the pure white sparkling crystalline beauty of the cold snow
The steamy breath from my nostrils,
The refreshing numbing cold on my bare cheeks
The silence and stillness of the hidden birds and animals
The crunch of L.L. Bean boots
sinking into the white wonderland
Making our human presence known.
finding the tiny paw prints of the furry possum.
In this pure white world
I am drawn into the white marble shrine
My favorite meditation corner
where the breath slows down,
the mind stops fluctuating,
the heart beats quietly
full of peace and joy
I am being with the silence
That has been patiently waiting
for me to arrive again.
©MartinStrasmore2021
* both books available at Blurb.com