Forest bathing….

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
― John Muir

I want to return to the forest,
to fairy haunts,
and let restful woodlands
capture my thoughts…

come with me, let’s sit awhile,
we’ll get in touch with our “Inner child” ….
as we carve our names
into ageless bark,
and forage for mushrooms in the dark…

the chorus of frogs will whir in our ears
until this foreboding disappears…

won’t it be fun,
watching light-beams dance in the sun,
as they frolic in temples
of gentle trees,
in movements so graceful
it puts us at ease…

In the stillness of our minds
we’ll gratefully unwind,
and the voice of gentle winds,
will leave goosebumps on our skin…

So that when we return to the maddening crowd,
we’ll hold fast to the secrets of hallowed grounds….

This is a re-worked poem I wrote a year ago, it still felt relevant today!

©AllysoAlly2021

A water-colored afternoon!

“Listen–are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?”
― Mary Oliver

I was fading into black and white
jaded and weary,
the mood was overcast
the scenario quite bleary,
and on a water-colored afternoon
I was visited by bliss.
in a moment of reimagining
I surfaced from the abyss,
and temperate breezes gladdened,
aspects boded brighter,
it was through the lens of gratitude
my footsteps became lighter…

©AllysoAlly2021

Captivated!

“Beauty surrounds us.”
― Rumi

I found beauty
in the fields,
quietly blooming
gently concealed…
I knelt in homage
to her grace,
I felt the holiness
of this place,
among the jewels
that capture light,
I was enchanted
by this sight…

©AllysoAlly2021

Becoming…

“I promise if you keep searching for everything beautiful in this world,
you will eventually become it.”
― Tyler Kent White

I will never stop searching
for beauty,
even until the end
of the age
when the grass withers
and the flower falls
Love will remain…

I will keep picking your florets
in distant fields,
I will hold your beauty
in my fragile heart,
I will place you
in my glass
filled with joy
and I will gaze upon you
as long as I have breath
in my body…

I will let your tenderness
and soft color
kiss me back to life… 

I’ve been gone a little while, just a bit shell-shocked
by what has been happening in our land.
You can read my post tomorrow to get an update.
I just thought I needed to keep my light visible.

©AllysoAlly2021

She remembered…

“This is what the things can teach us: to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness. Even a bird has to do that before he can fly.”
― Rilke Rainer Maria

She remembered the lapping
of gentle waves,
soothing tones that lift one’s gaze

she adopted a mode of murmured prayer
whispered longings filled the air,
it was one of those moments in a day
bright blues that brush the gloom away

an image filled
with beauty and light
a memory that brings one back to life

freed from the bonds
of an inner ache
nature called her to partake…
in secret gatherings near forgiving shores
to be grounded again
on earthen floors

to grow her faith on the banks of time
and become a vessel willing to shine…

to trust the heaviness that made her fall,
and have the courage to voice it all.

©AllysoAlly2021

Nature’s song…

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

If the world
gets you down,
and there’s joylessness
all around,
take a moment
in celebration
of the non-stop rhythms
of creation…
There’s a sanguine
festival going on,
it’s the jubilation
of nature’s song…

We are into our third wave here in South Africa
and everywhere people are talking about it,
yet the birds and bees are paying no heed to all our grumbling!

©AllysoAlly2021

A hush of praise…

“I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief…
For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
― Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

When weariness grows heavy
and the world seems strange,
I return to the sounds
of a placid exchange…

where lanky birds glide
over glittering sands,
accustomed to the magic
that makes no demands….

beauty shimmers in the vastness of the skies,
and joy is unfurled right before my eyes.

the bright waters echo to gentle waves,
and chaos is muted
by a hush of praise!

This is a poem I wrote a year ago and I have reworked it a bit.
The weariness remains heavy at times,
until I rest in the grace of the world.

©AllysoAlly2021

Breaking the silence

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”
― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

My eyes melted
into joyous skies
I felt the movement
of graceful lines

Absorbed by sounds of happy coots
I let unease quietly diffuse

And I breathed in the memory
of sunnier days
alive in the bloodstream
of organic praise
basking in the glow
of spoken prayer
I broke the silence of my despair…

©AllysoAlly2021

Reflections…

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
― Albert Einstein

Like clouds
across clear skies
it comes in waves,
and darkness gathers me
at the end of day.

light diminishes
and vision blurs
I need the assistance
of inspired words…

the fog envelopes me in mindless-chatter
joy departs and faith scatters

the body is weak but the spirit is keen
to exhume dullness
and to intervene

I stare at reflections
and what do I see,
but the scared
expanse
of what is
yet to be…

and hope moves me
with the incoming tide,
gratitude spreads out
far and wide…
and I’m found in the embrace
of all that is,
where beauty
enfolds me
with tenderness..

And the story goes that she lacked the confidence
to believe she is worthy
and the old tape played in her head…”I’m a failure!”
She reached down into the thick mists
and once again believed in the magic of the moment!

©AllysoAlly2021