Three magical days with Muhammad Ali and his wife's sister, his caregiver Marilyn, and her best friend Rhonda, from the old neighborhood back in Louisville, Kentucky. Three days watching the foremost superstars in the world - Beyonce and JZ, Maria Shriver, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Alan Iverson, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, Ray Allen, Spike Lee - all were like little kids around him (ok, Shaq is a BIG kid)...the dignity he carries inspite of living with Parkinsons, which as I have watched him is like living in a gravity chamber where 4 G's of pressure hold back and weigh down each movement, each eyelid, each foot. Yet the Dignity lives on. The History lives on. And what would we be like if this icon could bridge the gap of Muslim and Christian and Jew like no other. Where would we be? How would we confront these atrophied notions of humanity and race? Would he not help us craft a poetry of tolerance?
All I know is that his effortless dignity has taught me much more than even his words - floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee...perhaps now, stinging with his silence, as he floats along through a world few of us can know.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Poem - The Riddle
Isn't life grand
That in the midst of solving our life's riddle
One discovers
Pieces of the puzzle
That help us understand
Our mortal coil
And free us
If we dare
From any stagnant soil
For God's intent
Is to help us rid
Our festering discontent
By living lives that He meant
As soldiers of His highest will.
We sharpen our soul's weapons
By healing compassion
For our own thick scar
So instead of repeating
The dance of pain
For who we think we are
We rub clean the wound
With love's refrain
And wisdom's words
sing loud and clear
We all are broken
By childhood fear
For the dark thunder of life
Has dyed this old stain
But new lightening
Will come without sound
And ghosts and goblins will disappear
Below the dry ground
He has prepared
Us for a new day
And brings power for which
No one has dared
Throw away
One simple gift
That He loves us
And we can finally love Him
And ourselves
By letting the light shine in
By letting the light shine in
That in the midst of solving our life's riddle
One discovers
Pieces of the puzzle
That help us understand
Our mortal coil
And free us
If we dare
From any stagnant soil
For God's intent
Is to help us rid
Our festering discontent
By living lives that He meant
As soldiers of His highest will.
We sharpen our soul's weapons
By healing compassion
For our own thick scar
So instead of repeating
The dance of pain
For who we think we are
We rub clean the wound
With love's refrain
And wisdom's words
sing loud and clear
We all are broken
By childhood fear
For the dark thunder of life
Has dyed this old stain
But new lightening
Will come without sound
And ghosts and goblins will disappear
Below the dry ground
He has prepared
Us for a new day
And brings power for which
No one has dared
Throw away
One simple gift
That He loves us
And we can finally love Him
And ourselves
By letting the light shine in
By letting the light shine in
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Poem October 26, 2008
Mid-summer Night’s Dream
The wakened state of dreams
Is not as it seems
but that which we might relate
as if on solitary date
with our mirrored self
and the familiar ghosts we dance with
Each day
As we go about solving the problems
Of the world
They haunt us
Yet without our knowing
As if at summer’s camp
It is snowing
Inside our head
Cool white and gray flakes
Alert, alive, distracted if not dead
Hypnotized still
Touching and nudging
Soul rather than Will
Hinting and squinting
We look for God’s mark
Whispering to us
To redeem
By ourselves, freely left alone
To dream
In the borrowed light
Suspended between
Right and wrong
Mortal skin and bone
Sing soliloquy
To think, to stir, to awake
to our spirit’s eternal song
Yet in the creeping dark
Of our own blurred sight
We yet sleep, again
Knowing not where we belong
(Nick L October 26, 2008)
The wakened state of dreams
Is not as it seems
but that which we might relate
as if on solitary date
with our mirrored self
and the familiar ghosts we dance with
Each day
As we go about solving the problems
Of the world
They haunt us
Yet without our knowing
As if at summer’s camp
It is snowing
Inside our head
Cool white and gray flakes
Alert, alive, distracted if not dead
Hypnotized still
Touching and nudging
Soul rather than Will
Hinting and squinting
We look for God’s mark
Whispering to us
To redeem
By ourselves, freely left alone
To dream
In the borrowed light
Suspended between
Right and wrong
Mortal skin and bone
Sing soliloquy
To think, to stir, to awake
to our spirit’s eternal song
Yet in the creeping dark
Of our own blurred sight
We yet sleep, again
Knowing not where we belong
(Nick L October 26, 2008)
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Poem ~ Return
Return
Go back
Far back
To that moment
Of pain and loneliness
That cold jail cell
Of isolation
Of life without a map
Lost, unloved
Misunderstood
Stay there
Close your eyes
Feel the moment
Then feel more
What was it like?
What was happening
And where
And why?
The tears
The wrenching guts
The howling emptiness
Did it make sense?
Was it part of a mystery
A tragedy or a drama?
Return to that place
To the dizzy circus of life
To the ritual of noise
Smudge lipsticked clowns
The trapeze
The tight rope of life
Are you up there
On that bouncing cord?
Almost falling off
Into the lit ring of death
Far below?
Can you remember
What is was like?
To hold on
For dear life?
How it made you feel?
Return there
Then breathe
And lie down and stay
And listen
Listen still more
Let go the voices of thinking
And feeeeeeeel…..
Is God there?
What would He say to you
In that song of sadness
What would He sing to you
Now?
Can you hear Him?
Can you still your beating heart
Your throbbing head
Long enough
Your aching soul
To feel all that
again
Can you hear His deep
Father’s voice
Honestly
Clearly
Calmly?
What is He saying to you?
If He could?
If he is?
If you could speak for Him
And let His words wash over you
What would they be?
What are the sentences
that might set you free?
Go back
Far back
To that moment
Of pain and loneliness
That cold jail cell
Of isolation
Of life without a map
Lost, unloved
Misunderstood
Stay there
Close your eyes
Feel the moment
Then feel more
What was it like?
What was happening
And where
And why?
The tears
The wrenching guts
The howling emptiness
Did it make sense?
Was it part of a mystery
A tragedy or a drama?
Return to that place
To the dizzy circus of life
To the ritual of noise
Smudge lipsticked clowns
The trapeze
The tight rope of life
Are you up there
On that bouncing cord?
Almost falling off
Into the lit ring of death
Far below?
Can you remember
What is was like?
To hold on
For dear life?
How it made you feel?
Return there
Then breathe
And lie down and stay
And listen
Listen still more
Let go the voices of thinking
And feeeeeeeel…..
Is God there?
What would He say to you
In that song of sadness
What would He sing to you
Now?
Can you hear Him?
Can you still your beating heart
Your throbbing head
Long enough
Your aching soul
To feel all that
again
Can you hear His deep
Father’s voice
Honestly
Clearly
Calmly?
What is He saying to you?
If He could?
If he is?
If you could speak for Him
And let His words wash over you
What would they be?
What are the sentences
that might set you free?
Monday, October 20, 2008
Poem Big Love October 20 2008
Big Love
Is bigger
Than us
Bigger than a yellow school bus
Bigger than hurt
Bigger than the Sahara desert
Bigger than you
And me
Bigger than a tall
sequoia tree
Big Love is
An exquisite trust
Come boom
Or bust
'Tis an absolute must
Big Love is
an oversize heart
That pumps loud and clear
Is lungs
Full of air
And not of fear
Is life turned art
Not science
Not math
Tis a big wide path!
Big Love
Is cream filled
Apple tart
Is rich w cinnimon
Warm and full
Big Love
Is no bull
Its...Sweet not bitter
Moist not dry
A mouthful
Of cherry pie
A swallow
Of humble pie
Is bigger
Than us
Bigger than a yellow school bus
Bigger than hurt
Bigger than the Sahara desert
Bigger than you
And me
Bigger than a tall
sequoia tree
Big Love is
An exquisite trust
Come boom
Or bust
'Tis an absolute must
Big Love is
an oversize heart
That pumps loud and clear
Is lungs
Full of air
And not of fear
Is life turned art
Not science
Not math
Tis a big wide path!
Big Love
Is cream filled
Apple tart
Is rich w cinnimon
Warm and full
Big Love
Is no bull
Its...Sweet not bitter
Moist not dry
A mouthful
Of cherry pie
A swallow
Of humble pie
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Poem ~ Trinity October 16, 2008
The light
Comes on
When the darkest
Moments come
And one's sight
Is bleakest
The music is not done
If one listens
When one is weakest
And permits the heart
To ache
And lies down in that
Dank place
And feels its rich and real pain
For His sake
Full in the face
There is at once
A smaller you
Yet a larger peace
Ever so shy
For the wounds will not
At first cease
Yet if one can breathe
And listen with the soul's ear
(Not the eye)
That remains yet open
Despite the fear
And the lonely, still hole
In ones heart
You will hear
Another voice, Holy
And calm
Saying Live On
Dear one Dear
Live on
Breathe in
And you and your heart
Will win
Breathe out
And learn to be
Without
For I am in you
And I yet remain
Live beyond doubt
Let me your throne reclaim
Be this hour alone
And as your King
Together we will triumph
A fellowship of the ring
For suffering can not
be run from.
And I have known suffering
But I will never be far
From the stark hero
you are
I will always be here
To conquer your arthritic fear
For I am new
And I am you
Just be now
With me
Pray my child
As Father with son
For then,
meek and mild
We make three
Comes on
When the darkest
Moments come
And one's sight
Is bleakest
The music is not done
If one listens
When one is weakest
And permits the heart
To ache
And lies down in that
Dank place
And feels its rich and real pain
For His sake
Full in the face
There is at once
A smaller you
Yet a larger peace
Ever so shy
For the wounds will not
At first cease
Yet if one can breathe
And listen with the soul's ear
(Not the eye)
That remains yet open
Despite the fear
And the lonely, still hole
In ones heart
You will hear
Another voice, Holy
And calm
Saying Live On
Dear one Dear
Live on
Breathe in
And you and your heart
Will win
Breathe out
And learn to be
Without
For I am in you
And I yet remain
Live beyond doubt
Let me your throne reclaim
Be this hour alone
And as your King
Together we will triumph
A fellowship of the ring
For suffering can not
be run from.
And I have known suffering
But I will never be far
From the stark hero
you are
I will always be here
To conquer your arthritic fear
For I am new
And I am you
Just be now
With me
Pray my child
As Father with son
For then,
meek and mild
We make three
Friday, October 10, 2008
October 9, 2008, Poem ~ Courage is the Thing
The chance to connect mind
And soul
And finally discover
One’s destiny role
Requires more than thinking
Requires courage
And heart
A life of new substance
Will only start
When pain and scars
Are looked at as they are
Then washed away
One at a time
By putting spiritual dollar
Ahead of personal dime
A lifetime of love
Will take wing
As soon as one realizes
That courage is the thing
And soul
And finally discover
One’s destiny role
Requires more than thinking
Requires courage
And heart
A life of new substance
Will only start
When pain and scars
Are looked at as they are
Then washed away
One at a time
By putting spiritual dollar
Ahead of personal dime
A lifetime of love
Will take wing
As soon as one realizes
That courage is the thing
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