Category Archives: Poems

A Song at Dawn

Posted on by learning to live like water

breeze-at-dawn

Do you not love the sunrise?
Golden dawn,
Or cloudy skies, no matter.
A new day,
A new chance
To get it right.

As the dawn breaks the dark,
a fissure opens in the soul
Letting in the new light.

Harsh words spoken yesterday
By me, or to me
Are now behind me.

Today,
in this rising light
We can try again
To be the person each of us wants to be.
We can try again,
To honor ourselves
And those we love,
To let the past go with loving kindness,
To welcome this moment
And all the moments to come,
Fully into our lives.

The first ray of light comes
And illuminates the darkness.
Listen to the birds songs
Welcoming the day.
Be like them,
And sing your song to the dawn.

To be sure, I love the sunrise.  Lately, I have not seen it, but it awakens me despite my deep slumber.  I saw this Rumi quote this morning, and it described how I felt upon waking to the sunlight filtering through my curtains.  This is my attempt to share that emotion with you.

By Deborah E. Dayen

Picture by Google Images

The End of Land

Posted on by learning to live like water

lands-end-apartments-portland-tx-landscape

Land’s end….
Hangs suspended above the water
Rocky promenade
Laying in the sand

He was there with me
for a moment
A moment of my life
And a moment of his.
We scoured the horizon
Looking for the next step.

It was water,
Just water.
There were no stepping stones.
There was nowhere else to go.
There was no boat
There was no dolphin.
We were at the end.

We held on tight
Tight enough to scar our hands
Tight enough to sear our hearts.
But not tight enough
To withstand the moon
And the sun
And the tides.

One of us washed away.
Then the other.
Leaving lands end.
Alone, in waters beginning.

Float on the water.
Live like water.
Let it take you where you need to go.
Transform, become what you never dared to be.

Alone, where the land ends
And the water begins.
Primal force carrying you
When you thought it was the end
It was really just a new beginning.

By Deborah E. Dayen

Picture from Google Images

Dancing Without Touching

Posted on by learning to live like water

no-touching

In fragile circumstance
We danced
Around the truth
So close, so close
Without touching.

The passion arose
And fell
It swirled and circled
Never ending
Never beginning.

Just wanting to know.
Begging, of all things,
Don’t disappear from the dance.
But he did….
Only to resurface at the point
of my exhaustion.

Exhaustion from weeks and months
Of dancing around the truth.
Of sleepless nights,
Of playing the game.

I agreed to the game,
It was my idea!
But I didn’t understand the rules.
They weren’t the ones I had laid down.
Now, I just ask….
What has happened?

In my sleep,
I am disturbed
Frightened.
Presence makes me aware.
And the disappearing act continues
Cruelly.

It was always cruel.
Trying to disavow a connection
That remains
Across time and space.
Unbreakable.

By Deborah E. Dayen

Picture from Yourtango.com via Google Images

Daydreamin’

Posted on by learning to live like water

lotus-in-bloom

Daydreamin’ kind of Saturday
Golden laid back mellow
Melting into the sky and sun and breeze

Pleasant dreams are germinating
From a tiny pion inside my brain
To a sprout,
To a bud,
Then a bloom.

So, with eyes closed
Sit here in the sun
Let the dreams grow
Til they light up the landscape with their beauty.

By Deborah E. Dayen

Picture Shutterstock, via Google Images

Ascension

Posted on by learning to live like water

fiery-mountain-top

Your arms surround me
Melting me into some soft butterscotch
Your hand touched
The silver and gold flecked sheath
of my skin and made me glitter, and glow.
I turned to find your rich deep velvet
Eyes watching
Me, as I writhed.
Our ecstatic energy combined
And surged to a fiery summit.
We slid, wound in each other’s froth,
Down the slope
Until we stopped.
Pulled apart by circumstance
By forces beyond our control
We continued on alone.
But we will always know each other,
Through ancient lifetimes, and future.
If I find you again, I’ll know you.
And once more, we’ll ascend the mountain
And jump into the fire
To know a moment’s grace.

The Wall

Posted on by learning to live like water

stone-retaining-wall-contractor

The love is so intense it consumes you
You breathe it, you bathe in it.
Sometimes it’s excruciating, you stay with it anyway.

Until, with out warning, something changes, in you.
One day, there’s one word, or one phrase
A wall appears between you.

You didn’t build it.
You didn’t even particularly want it there.
But it’s there.

You can’t take it down.
Something just stops you,
From taking out that first brick.

You know if you take out one brick
The entire weight of the wall
Will come down on you and crush you.

The weight of a wall built in secret
One row of bricks at a time, under your nose
You’ve been peering over it.

You didn’t even know.
Until it obscures your vision.
Suddenly you can’t see over it anymore

Or through it. Or around it.
You know what’s on the other side
And all you can do is walk away.

By Deborah E. Dayen

 

Oblivion

Posted on by learning to live like water

oblivion

Day rises, night falls
Love grows from nothing
Then disappears into oblivion.

So some think.

Love is all there ever is
Oblivion is where it waits for you.

Forget yourself
Into the deep dark recesses of oblivion.
There you will find love

When you find yourself.

By Deborah E. Dayen

Picture from Google Images

Finding Freedom

Posted on by learning to live like water

the-beachWalking down to the sea
Soft, white sand beneath my feet
Gentle waves break rhythmically
The clear horizon where sky and water meet.

This is your home
The voice deep inside told me
This is your place, where the land ends
It’s where your peace begins, the sacred sea.

The vastness of the universe
Unfolds before my eyes
My spirit soars, my feet on the ground
Something is born as something dies.

Infinite possibilities begin to take form
In the endless blue of sky and sea
Sun and sand join them
And I know, in my soul, I am free.

By Deborah E. Dayen

Picture taken by me, yesterday.

Unruly Children

Posted on by learning to live like water

unruly-child

Why is it that every stupid thought
in my head
screams to be written down?
Like an unruly child
Each one screams to be heard first.
Me me me me ME.

Hear me, they say, just hear me.

Watching TV someone says,
“No one makes me laugh like you.”
And that thought….
No. No one made me laugh like him.
Ever.
Ok so the thought is out on the paper.
Or the screen.

“THAT’S NOT ALL!”
The thought child yells at my weary fingers.
“You miss him, you miss him making you laugh.”
Ok, yes, I do. I miss him
Making me laugh.

But I DON’T miss him making me cry.
Or feel unimportant.
Or being ignored.
Or the games.
Or the other women.

But I do miss the laughter.
I do miss his heat in my bed.

The child sits down.
OK, it says.
So….it hurt you
Even though parts of it you loved.

Yes, I tell the child.
It hurt too much.
Many parts of me went numb.
Those parts can’t participate any longer
In the foolishness.

The child says,
“Thank you. For hearing me.
For giving me a voice, or at least words
On the screen.”

The children grow weary,
Trying to be heard.
But they’re persistent.

Once I hear them
And give them voice
They sleep, like children.
They are soothed..

Everyone, every thought, every feeling
Wants to be acknowledged.
And so I write,
To allow silence to come eventually.

By Deborah E. Dayen

Picture from Google Images