Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Rider on the Rays



image borrowed from bing


Rider on the Rays

“The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze
with undimmed eyes on all darkness.”--Nikos Kazantzakis.

We are told,
               reminded,
                     instructed by the sages.
                                                shaman,
                                                philosophers & psychics
that the only true answers to all of life’s problems
are an inside job;        Go within, young man, 
                              while traveling West
or napping beneath a weeping willow,
                              that there should be/is a simplicity
                              to any level of enlightenment,
because Jehovah dwells inside us,
                                 connecting us        to the farthest reaches
of the most remote corners of the trillion universes;

moreover, We are God, we are entities of such immense power
& pure white light that we surely co-created this universe
with All-That-Is,    that we surely inhabit multi-dimensions
simultaneously,    that we are a soul who has a body, not
                                               a body who has a soul.

Awakening has many faces, many names in many languages;
bodhi, kensho, satori, moksha, kenosis, prajna,
           and yet even with this keen historical awareness
of divine Light,                 our perpetual journey toward it,
much of the time              dwells in the densest of darkness;

& this divergence, this dark side, this shadow with teeth,
plunges half the planet & half of us into its brutal blackness,
& too often, as today, can seem overwhelming;
             planes & ships disappearing into thin air,
             emboli escalating into a probable pandemic,
             Western youth being trained as terrorists by ISIS,
             zealous assassins beheading journalists, poking a 
sand dagger into the underbelly of the American wasp nest,
             daring & goading us to put our boots on their ground,
             kidnapping, raping young women in Africa,
                                            young boys being forced into
             homosexual servitude by imams & parish priests--

while dictators, demagogues & bullies trample on liberty &
ancient feuds in Palestine drench the Gaza strip in fresh blood,
                       never ending pods & factions of evil,
                       carcinogenic cruelty, pernicious greed,
                       wholesale slaughter of the innocents--

yet, when the din diminishes between murderous beats,
                       I can hear those tiny voices,
                like angelic crickets at midnight, calling
for each of us to be a Jina, 
                a liberated soul, but their lyrics
are drowned out by the demonic dissonance
like psychic jackhammers tearing at our exposed hearts,
                blurring the message--  save the whales,
                                                               the oceans
                                                               the planet
                our very souls--conjure the white light,
                bring the healing, salve the wounds,
                pierce the onerous darkness;

while most of us, tears streaming, heads spinning
walk the tightrope between the extremes,
              tracing the lines between Yin & Yang,
              trying tenaciously to keep our balance,
              creating the illusion of safety,
even as the tired rope begins to untwine,
the dangerous darkness billows beneath our feet.
              and the Light 
              seems to grow dimmer
              & more distant.


Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?

       

24 comments:

Unknown said...

the answer is an inside job--STELLAR. I swear, I've only been aware of that for a couple years... Our bodies are our minds and we are souls; the mind controls our central nervous system, which is basically our BODIES... And love how deeply you delved into the darkness... the rapings in Africa, and of young boys by bullshits dressed as priests. I watched a documentary about the tragedies in Africa a few years back: they showed the body of young woman, with a thick branch shoved into her vagina. What pain she must've experienced; almost makes me what to question, "what kind of human do you have to be to do that?" But I wish to not know the answer, as it is an inside job...

Claudia said...

ugh... it makes my blood boil with anger when i hear about all the crimes committed in the name of enlightenment or religion or in trying to be god - lyrics drowned out by demonic dissonance indeed

brudberg said...

I must say that walking this tightrope of reason cross the abyss of insanity is so tiresome.. Really a perfect piece I wish I had written myself

Victoria said...

Oh, wow. So much that you've tucked into this one. The journey from light to dark, the many confusing events that stun and confuse us and the perfect metaphor of the tightrope. This calls for more than a quick read--rather a thoughtful pondering
And to echo what you said to me, this is at the top of my Glann-favorites list.

ayala said...

The journey indeed a difficult one...Like Claudia it makes me crazy how crime is committed against humanity every day in the name of religion and enlightenment. Great piece.

Anonymous said...

Blinkin love this as it touches so much on things I've been studying of late Glenn! Brilliant work <3

Grace said...

First I like your quote, smiles ~ I like the imagery of walking on tightrope which for me symbolizes the challenges that we wade through every day ~ It is never the yin or yang entirely but the colors and the dimming lights in between ~ Enjoyed this one Glenn ~

Anonymous said...

trying tenaciously to keep our balance... that sums it up for me.

Myrna R. said...

I used to be a seeker, outside myself. Now I focus on that inside job. I think we are kindred spirits.
This is a wonderful write. It certainly addresses much of what I (at least) have been feeling lately. I'm afraid perhaps I'm letting too much darkness in.

vb holmes said...

So much horror in our world today, Glenn--but when has it ever been otherwise? Excellent
emotional capture of so many universal and timeless issues.

Kathy Reed said...

I am beginning to wonder ...could it possibly be that we are coming to the last chances to save the goodness of the planet..is there enough power to unite against the destructive forces ...with love, an all out effort by each and every one of us to use the Ghande approach on a national/international level...surely great minds exist that can lead this kind of endeavor without it being a religious crusade...if indeed this world is an experiment, it seems it is proving to have been a failure...even tho it is kind of a rant, your poem or prose is written rationally and with great passion for the underdog. Bravo, Glenn!

Katie Mia Frederick said...

i savor all your words here with wonder true..and only hope more voices like this can and will be heard for true now that light can flow to places never reached before for efforts in just like this..:)

Anonymous said...

we do walk the path between Glenn, if we can manage it.

Sumana Roy said...

"that we are a soul who has a body, not
a body who has a soul."this seems to me to be the only truth of life that lifts us beyond the reach of mundane darkness ...few alas understand that the answer is an inside job...an enlightening piece...

Marina Sofia said...

I like the way how you start with the internal darkness and ways to handle it, then you bring in the frightening external perspective, and then plunge back into the personal and internalised.
Finally, there's something so casual, off the cuff, that I really like about the lines:

Go within, young man,
while traveling West
or napping beneath a weeping willow,

Anonymous said...

There was an conference on the Jungian concept of the Shadow held once in Berlin before the wall came down -- odd locus, huh --: I read a book of papers contributed to the conference, and it began with an epigraph from Holderlin: "Where there is darkness, there is also light." The shadows here are deep and almost consuming, obscuring some birth about to happen. Maybe without humanity, I come to believe. If we can't keep our shadow from hurting so the world, the world will exorcise itself of us ... Great work.

Anonymous said...

Most thought-provoking...

seasideauthor said...

Agreeing with Claudia, I like your truths here. I do wonder if all the abyss has poured back onto the earth and if there is enough light dissonance left to assist in any meaningful massive scale? You are indeed thought provoking...well written, slam?

Susan said...

As we get older--rightly or wrongly--we give ourselves more rope--a wider one in this analogy--with less room for getting bent out of shape and dizzy. I like knowing that I am taking that space but not blindly. 'course, I'm still shaking on the edge and fearing falling.

Wolfsrosebud said...

"while traveling West or napping beneath a weeping willow" this is a lovely line. If only one could trust spoken truth. Man has discredited so much with lack of their honesty. They will be dealt with one day.

Truedessa said...

Riders on the Rays..that picture is amazing..the true answers are inside of us, shaman and sages know this the problem is people as a whole do not grasp the concept and there are those that have twisted enlightenment to fit their own agenda. This a very powerful write my friend you have reached in deep and peeled away layers of darkness in the journey. Balance is harder and harder to maintain in life..but, I believe light and dark co-exist as it has been that way since the beginning..I am just not sure where the beginning originated or where it all ends. Brilliant writing once again..

Arathi Harihar said...

lot of insights in this poem Glenn..beautiful

RMP said...

It is definitely a delicate balance and very hard to see the ropes fraying. There is a lot to think on in this piece. I admit, I fear looking within will only prove to show more darkness than light...

Anonymous said...

i like never ending pods of evil. i liked the divergence. i lOVED the pic. I'd say more i like, but when i click on make a comment, it takes me aways from the post...and i don't remember any more specifics. well...bottom line, i liked a lot of stuff in this.

Notes From A Metro Line