Poetry

["Peter Reist" <preist@...>]

Rawn,
I once asked if I could post some of my poetry that has connections 
with my own workings. The following is one such thing, a stream of 
consciousness that occured durring a meditation while coming home on 
the bus near midnight last winter. Once I got home I wrote as much as 
I could remember down, though a lot did get lost.

Love and Live well,
Peter Reist


A Meditation Upon Love and Compassion (c) Peter Reist 2003

Inhale love, exhale compassion.
A squeal of tires, the grinding of breaks.
Cursing and swearing.
The light turns green again.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

A woman rearranges her hair,
Looking carefully in the mirror.
In her eyes she feels inadequate.
What can one do?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Newspaper pages flutter in the wind.
Tossed aside once read.
Abandoned, left for dead.
Yesterdays news ? forgotten.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

I breathe.
In and out.
Love and compassion.
Does it make a difference?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

She stands at the bus stop,
Huddles in the corner of the bus shelter, near midnight.
Her cloths, expensive, yet inadequate
To cope with the cold.
Who is she trying to impress?
How is she trying to survive?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

A professor lectures.
Students listen, some nod.
Others fall asleep.
Is the final exam really that important?
Questions a student.
Is your life?
Answers the professor.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Believe nothing, O monks?
Should I believe in love and compassion?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

?Just because a wise person has said so.
I breathe.
Experience.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Kwan Yin stands before me.
An illusion? Perhaps.
Though I see compassion
Throughout her visage.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

The higher man does not fight.
The lesser man loves to fight.
If one fights in the name of compassion,
Is one a lesser man?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

The highest virtue is free from virtue.
The lower virtue clings to virtue.
Do I cling to love and compassion?
What does it matter?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

As above, so below.
As below, so above.
Where is my love and compassion reflected in likeness?
Is it above, or below?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

A gunshot cracks the silence.
The bullet ripping through flesh, internal organs,
Ricocheting and shattering bone.
Internal haemorrhaging starts to occur.
Endocrine glands let flow hormones into the bloodstream
As more blood flows from the wound.
Euphoria envelops the pain.
Death comes.
Murder.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Homeless, wrapped in rags and filth.
Did you choose this?
You don't reply.
Your eyes gazing upon the fire that warms you this night.
What love and compassion can
Help one hopeless like you?
I breathe.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Newton's third law of motion:
Fir every action there is an equal reactions.
I breathe love and compassion.
What reaction does it evoke?
I can not see it.
Is it really there?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Orgasm.
Fluids mingle together.
Pleasure.
Ecstacy.
Two sweaty bodies twined together.
Hearts racing
Lungs heaving.
A star is born.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

By observing a thing, one changes that thing.
So the nature of the observer
Affects that which is observed.
How do I affect love and compassion?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Online, in cyberspace, people converse.
Some harshly, other's gently.
Yet both attitudes can be positive.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Step. Step. Step. Step.
Footprints in the sand.
You carried me when I thought you where not there.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

I shall not fear.
For fear is the mind killer.
Fear is the little death
That brings total oblivion.
I shall face my fear.
Permitting it to pass through me.
When there fear is gone,
There will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
What of love? Compassion?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Though I walk through 
The valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Let him who is without sin
Cast the first stone.
Hands raised with heavy stones pause,
As if in contemplation.
Only to fall with dreadful force.
Bones shattering, splintering.
They do not have ears to hear.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Anam Chara. Soul friend, confidant, guide.
Thus you are to me.
And I the same to you my beloved.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Breathe.
Just breathe.
Breathe damn it!
Breathe!
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Just stop thinking, will ya!
Has anyone ever told you
That you think too much?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Go to sleep.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Sleep.
Dreams.
Freud.
Lust for the mother,
Hate for the father.
So Freud believed
Part of the unconscious worked.
How terrible it would be
If he where right.
Therefore one might consider him wrong.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

I told you.
You think to much.
Now stop it!
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

So this is madness?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Who is the madman?
The man?
Or the madness?
Which seems right to you?
Inhale love, exhale compassion.

Inhale love, exhale compassion.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.
Inhale love, exhale compassion.
Inhale love, exhale compassion ? a last breath.