Poem for the week: "A River of Woe"

A River of Woe

There’s a river of woe running

through this world, and everywhere

people, friends and neighbors, are

in agony as COVID-19 runs through

their lives. A college student in Ohio

is gripped by deep depression: “My

future, which seemed so bright a few

months ago, seems bleak and hopeless

today.” And a college junior from

Pennsylvania said: “I’ve spent days

crying alone and feeling helpless stuck

at my parents’ house.” And seniors

in nursing homes, who are hit hardest

with this pernicious virus and cannot

see their children and grandchildren,

a wrenching loneliness that tears their

hearts apart. A woman in Dallas lays

bare her soul as this river of woe runs

through her: “I’m terrified for myself

and my family and everyone in the

world. All the things I love to do, now

I’m afraid to do.” The stress of this

pandemic is draining everyone. A lady

in Oak Park, Illinois cries: “Why am

I suddenly afraid of the mail carrier

or the food delivery?” And an atheist

in Philadelphia prays daily, but he does

not know to whom he is praying. But

character is forged in the smithy of

our soul as we’re forced to see that all

of this grief is teaching us about who

we truly are; only then can we ride this

global pandemic to a new perspective

and accept that we are all in this

river of woe together.

New poem to ponder: "The Times of Gnosis"

The Times of Gnosis

These are the times of Gnosis,

the eternal truth of life experience

born of COVID-19, the global

pandemic that’s uprooted the soul

of man from the wormy ground

of our being and planted us in the

fertile soil of suffering and grief

so we can transcend ourselves

and realize our destined purpose

of individual oneness with our

divine nature, which was what

Jesus meant by salvation when

he said to Philemon, the Gnostic

Master in Jung’s garden, “I bring

you the beauty of suffering. That

is what is needed by whoever

hosts the worm.”

Poem for the week: "The Only Cause that Matters"

The Only Cause that Matters

All the stories are flooding in now,

people all over the world dying

from COVID-19, and innumerably

more afflicted with this contagion

that chooses its hosts with no distinction

to status or race, a non-discriminating

virus that renders everyone equal,

from Prince Charles to Jane Doe; and

the anguish, pain, and suffering that

this global pandemic has cursed us

with will never be appreciated until all

the dust has settled and we look back

and remember when our life was

brought to a crawl to slow the spread

of COVID-19, and we thank God for

bringing the world together in the only

cause that matters, the unification

of the human race.

New poem: "In the Words of Robert Frost"

In the Words of Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in the woods

of life, one of freedom and the other

of fear, that COVID-19 has brought us

to with this global pandemic; but not

until we expand the context of our life

will we see that all the suffering and

grief that COVID-19 is responsible for

is waking us up to the learning we need

to expand our paradigm and free us of

our darkest fears, so when we come to

the next crossroads of our own life we

can take the road less traveled by,

which, in the words of Robert Frost,

makes all the difference.

Poem for the week: "The Celestial Music of COVID-19"

The Celestial Music of COVID-19

I sensed it unexpectedly while talking

with my love this morning, a feeling,

an insight born of this global pandemic

that’s terrifying the whole world.

“It’s in the air,” I said, grasping it with

my poet’s mind, a sound I never heard

before, a new octave higher than any

music the world has ever known.

A sound of restive peace, a quietude

of healing that no earthly orchestra

could conceive, and I said to my love,

“It’s the celestial music of COVID-19.”

And I knew that the world will one day

relish in this new octave of higher being,

born in the womb of COVID-19, as we

painfully entrain with life’s divine

purpose of harmonious living.

New Poem: "These Are Crazy Times"

These Are Crazy Times

“These are crazy times,” said

the retired little banker, who tends

to his immaculate lawns with such

devotion and love that he’s known

in the neighborhood as “the lawn

guru.” And in a more serious and

conciliatory tone he added, “If it

wasn’t for our faith, where would

we be?” That’s how COVID-19 is

affecting the world, affirming one’s

faith, or calling us back to it.

Poem for the week: "The World Is Not Broken"

The World Is Not Broken

And all the soothsayers came out to have

their say, warning us to get it together

because the world is broken; but where

did they get this information?

The coronavirus is spreading like wildfire

(wasn’t the world ravaged by wild fires the last

few years?), and the affairs of the world have

been disrupted; but is this reason to panic?

It’s all a question of balance, said the wisest

of the wise, when asked for guidance; but,

Archangel Michael added, it’s not the world

that needs to be balanced, but ourselves.

The world is not broken, despite what we do;

and not until we raise our vibrations to a

higher level of moral awareness will our fear

of this global pandemic go away.