The Dreaming Cantos - Poems Inspired by the Words of Don Miguel Ruiz
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Transcript of The Dreaming Cantos - Poems Inspired by the Words of Don Miguel Ruiz
The Dreaming Cantos
by Greg Perry
The Dreaming Cantos
by Greg Perry
copy right 2006
The grapez Press
Inspired by the words of Don Miguel Ruiz
Dedicated to the Four Women of My Life:
My Mother, Gladys Feugill Perry
My Daughter, Maura (Emmy) Thompson
My True Love, Beverly Rigolizzo
My Mentor, Rhina Espaillat
The Dreaming Cantos
I. Agreements
Prologue
1. Consciousness .................................................. 31
2. In Lectio Divina ............................................... 31
A. The Dreaming Cantos ..................................... 38
Inscription 1: Impeccability of the Word ............. 33
Inscription 2: Not Taking Things Persoonal ........ 34
Inscription 3: Not Making Assumptions .............. 35
Inscription 4: Always Do Your Best .................... 36
Introduction
3. Clearing ............................................................ 37
4. New Day .......................................................... 37
B. Point of View .................................................. 38
II. Love
Energy
5. Sea, Sky, Ground ............................................. 41
6. Naturally ........................................................... 41
C. Ardor ............................................................... 42
Creation
7. Revelation ........................................................ 43
8. Guarantees ........................................................ 43
D. Rebirthstone .................................................... 44
Overcoming
9. The Voice of Knowledge ................................ 45
10. False Luv ...................................................... 45
E. Artistry ............................................................. 46
III. The Dream
Fictions
11. Adamnic ......................................................... 49
12. Odysseus ........................................................ 49
F. Stories .............................................................. 50
The Real World
13. Voice of the Past ............................................ 51
14. Material Fabrications ..................................... 51
G. Circadian Rhythms .......................................... 52
History
15. Becoming Another ......................................... 53
16. Conspiracies ................................................... 53
H. Orchestrations ................................................. 54
IV. Domestication
Evolutions
17. Solutions ........................................................ 57
18. Options ........................................................... 57
I. Instructions ....................................................... 58
Fear
19. The Mist ......................................................... 59
20. Voices ............................................................ 59
J. The Fog ............................................................. 60
Stories
21. The Alien ....................................................... 61
22. The Boss ......................................................... 61
K. The Joker ......................................................... 62
V. The Skyler Ancillaries
First Ancillary
23. First Epistle .................................................... 65
24. First Chronicle ............................................... 65
L. First Line .......................................................... 66
Second Ancillary
25. Second Hand .................................................. 67
26. Second Thoughts ............................................ 67
M. Second Sun ..................................................... 68
Third Ancillary
27. Third World ................................................... 69
28. Third Eye ........................................................ 69
N. Third Time’s the Charm .................................. 70
VI. Belief
Myth
29. Critique of Pure Reality ................................ 73
30. The Gods of Logic ......................................... 73
O: What's Up Doc? ............................................. 74
Essence
31. Effervescence ................................................. 75
32. Rigged ............................................................ 75
P. Play It Again Samsara ..................................... 76
Facts
33. Quarks ............................................................ 77
34. Knot God ........................................................ 77
Q. The Mayonnaise of Maya ................................ 78
VII. Dreaming
Streams
35. Dreamland ...................................................... 81
36. Afterlife .......................................................... 81
R. Morning Glory ................................................. 82
Tide
37. Perchance ....................................................... 83
38. Draft ............................................................... 83
S. Flood ................................................................ 84
Real
39. House of Mirrors ........................................... 85
40: Attention Span ............................................... 85
T. The Tao of Dreams .......................................... 86
VIII Waking
Views
41. And the Eternals ............................................ 89
42. Worlds ............................................................ 89
U. Planetary Breathing ........................................ 90
Divinity
43. Continuum ..................................................... 91
44.Creed ............................................................... 91
V. Rider in the Rain ............................................ 92
Shadows
45.Chaos ............................................................... 93
46. Reckoning ...................................................... 93
W. Baptism .......................................................... 94
IX. Creation
Waters
47. Lakeside Meditation ..................................... 97
48. Shore .............................................................. 97
X. The Word ........................................................ 98
Life
49. Quantum ......................................................... 99
50. Pulpit .............................................................. 99
Y. Resurrection .................................................. 100
The Mystic
51. Vision ........................................................... 101
52. Beyond Words ............................................. 101
Z. The Dream's Prayer ....................................... 102
I. Agreements
The outside dream hooks our attention and teaches us what to
believe, beginning with the language that we speak. Language
is the core for understanding and communication between
humans. Every letter, every word in each language is an
agreement.
~Miguel Ruiz
1. Consciousness
Action heroes moving
grand decisions forward
to creation; super
conscious effort turning
future tense toward living
recreation; inner
dialogues of anxious
paradises-lost turn
unexpressed at present.
2. In Lectio Divina
In Lectio Divina,
holy readings of
their scripture, monks reflect
on passages as open
conversations with
their God. And in that spirit
I’ve been reading words
by Don Miguel Ruiz
and writing poetry
A. The Dreaming Cantos
I call the Dreaming Cantos.
I am energy,
that essence of the living
universe, who dreams
this nightmare of our planet,
hellish lies of fear
and loathing. But with love
and true forgiveness, I
begin to dream anew.
Prologue
In the summer of 2006, I discovered the books of
Don Miguel Ruiz. It wasn’t exactly a New World,
but one I felt I had always known, but somehow we
had never been properly introduced. Things I had felt
on an intuitive level as well as things I had learned on
an intellectual one suddenly were revealed to me in a
metaphysical way. A fog lifted. The holy sun was
shining. And all summer long I would read his words
and then would write my own, attempting to digest
things in the best way I know how. In poetry.
Inscription 1: Impeccability of the Word
For better or for worse,
with every word, we make
our world alive again.
With every action taken,
we make creation dawn
again. With every day,
we generate a light,
despite our lies, that leads
our life to love, if wise.
Inscription 2: Not Taking Things Personal
A thousand lives will orbit
your life each day. Each one
complies by laws of nature
distinctive from the ones
your world obeys. So pay
allegiance to the gravity
of your own. But question
even that: don’t let
false airs turn wings to stone.
Inscription 3: Not Making Assumptions
Most questions can’t be answered
but we reason every
unknown anyways.
It doesn’t matter if
our finding’s true; a lie
that keeps us safe will do.
But in a world where mystery
is the answer, only
truth provides a clue.
Inscription 4: Always Do Your Best
That energy which moves
my incarnation is
the concept they call God.
To catch it like a sail
encompassing the wind
is all there is to do.
No idol, ritual,
or mantra is so dear.
My motion is my prayer.
Introduction
3. Clearing
After the flood, the river
forgives the rain for falling,
and the land forgives
the river for rising. The sun
reflects on everything
transpired and calls it a day.
The next day nothing remains
except the recollection
a watermark has made.
4. New Day
Faith is but a sail
boat drifting in a river
on this certain morning
underneath a navy
firmament enlightened
by a nuclear
reaction that consigns
four million tons of awe
towards otherness per second.
B. Point of View
Fathom not the peaks
of someone’s point of view,
unless it’s really yours—
and then you know it’s never
true. Such depths don’t lie
within our own life’s story.
At best, truth is sensation,
sound. The instant voiced,
it tenders higher ground.
II. Love
Energy
5. Sea, Sky, Ground
Blue with love, the sea
embraces sailboats with
an ever-flowing present.
Blue with love, the sky
exchanges visionary
daylight with a cloud.
Blue with love, we live
on ground reflected from
around, below, above.
6. Naturally
A photograph defines
an element of landscape
with chromaticity,
delineation, and
cold-blooded certitude.
The eye sees differently.
In fear, surroundings lose
all sight—outlandish perspective—
but love looks naturally.
C. Ardor
Scientists are certain
that the world is simply
energy aligned
in forms of matter if
and when we see them so.
But love is form that sees
itself as energy
and recognizes nothing
else will tend to matter.
Creation
7. Revelation
To dream creation, I
reveal creation deeply
saturating me
becoming life revealing
love is all there is.
The Beatles dreamt it, Jesus
dreams it, Buddha, Moses,
and Mohammed. Even
Einstein loves that living.
8. Guarantees
Note: disassembly voids
all warranties; your word
wields guarantee enough;
the small print is the simple
recognition that love
assumes no previous
arrangement with the former
or future, so and so
on ad infinitum.
D. Rebirthstone
An amethyst owl alone
—in skies of onyx darkness—
forwards his voice to discover
territories once
the terror of points unknown.
There, taking heart he is singing
a round of love, an expression
forgotten but now reflecting
the lapis of utter creation.
Overcoming
9. The Voice of Knowledge
Neurosis, God of Lies
We Tell Ourselves, All Knowing
Omnipotent Belief
informs me of my perfect
inability
to write this poem about
Emotion, Heart on High,
Archangel of Our Passion.
In Mythomania—CRY!
10. False Luv
People love to fall
in love—for reasons many
misunderstand. It's never
romantic paradise
nor sexual kingdom come
we're crazy for—not even
the love of another lover.
It's license to love one's self
because we're loved by another.
E. Artistry
Our lives are not exactly
random, but follow love
in ways distracted by
the sudden gust of fear
or other emotional
obstructions. But spirit waits.
In time your life creates
its art. Not art for art’s
own sake, but life, at heart.
III. The Dream
Fictions
11. Adamnic
I eat an apple whole
and know without a sailor’s
doubt the world is sharp,
my life is built in ruins,
and nothing holds me here
but gravity and hope—
for freedom from such knowledge—
for oranges and gardens,
New Jersey before the traffic.
12. Odysseus
Every yacht is looking
condescendingly.
And all directions point
at me, insinuating,
with the current, tales
of second-rate Ulysses.
I know it isn’t so;
it’s just the planet moving
me to think I know.
F. Stories
The issue of our lives,
you see—they’re just invention.
Nothing’s real but life
itself; the rest is fiction.
Some are better story-
tellers, start at once
upon a time and go.
And some will wait in vain
for greater truths to show.
The Real World
13. Voice of the Past
Voices inside my ears!
The boy I was who fears
first grade soon tears at me.
The adolescent lost
in sere self-consciousness
still reappears High Noon.
The husband, now divorced,
avoids—nay jeers—June love.
Pray soon I overhear.
14. Material Fabrications
The dream is real enough
to sleep through life, pretending
fashion matters: madras
bleeds for you. Belief,
we know, is strong enough
to judge ourselves an open
book: seersucker thinks
for you. Our guilt grows common:
polyester rules.
G. Circadian Rhythms
The dream climbs higher daily,
reaching altitudes
no one has ever gained:
tuition, mortgages,
insurance, entertainment
systems of religious
body politics
erotic war. No wonder
we’re afraid of waking.
History
15. Becoming Another
In the beginning poured
the light and such delight
became the body filled
with insight that divines
the brightness whole around
and all within until
some particle begins
to call attention to
itself as something other.
16. Conspiracies
Who killed Kennedy
suspends our disbelief
in no solution. Lone
assassins disassemble.
The grassy knoll is not
another solid rock.
But stories come and go.
Commissioned fabrications
make one hell of a show.
H. Orchestrations
We are the walls and ceilings
where roomfuls of effects
determine who we really
pretend to be. Or are we
blood and intestinal
extremities? Or do
we move invisibly
and lovely in concert with
one living symphony?
IV. Domestication
Evolutions
17. Solutions
Our reality
evolved by physical
necessity to what
it is today: a mirror
of our senses for
survival. It’s subjective,
not a true solution
of what is. What is
will breed re-evolution.
18. Options
No words elucidate
the present energetic
look: a symmetry
evolving from opposing
stimuli. On one
hand there’s the milk of love.
But from a sharper hand
spills blood. You either smile
or cry—until you die.
I. Instructions
They scare up a screwdriver.
You secure the wrench.
Then rest a bolt within
an ear canal and turn
your consciousness until
domestication clicks.
Be careful not to strip
the thread of narrative
or else there is no else.
Fear
19. The Mist
The cormorants are not
afraid to be alive.
The cormorants are merely
drying off their wings
while waiting in the mist
to hear this bedtime story
about a man who sits
beneath an eastern pine,
afraid to be alive.
20. Voices
Afraid to be alive,
the pine trees shed their needles,
quiet down the younger
rhododendrons, still
the voices in the sky.
Afraid to be alive
no more, the pine trees shed
their old growth fabrications,
voice their green and thrive.
J. The Fog
Afraid to be alive,
I wandered in a world
of fog and listened to
the voices in my head
afraid to be alive.
Deep-rooted voices whisper
in my head a bygone
fog of dreams that seems
afraid to be alive.
Stories
21. The Alien
The war of worlds is not
an alien invasion
from the deepest reaches
of the universe
but one within ourselves
against our self. It’s life
contesting all the stuff
that’s alien to life—
our extraterrestrial story.
22. The Boss
One day the river descends
to depths of blue pollution.
So angry it could flood
the sea itself—although
it knows the ocean is
its better—it drowns the rainbow
trout and underlings
instead. Such subjects fill
our food chain to be fed.
K. The Joker
We love our stories more
than all the teas from God.
They fit like threadbare slippers—
worn dark nights before
we nod. These dreams are all
that stand between sea level
and our weak-kneed legs.
We aren’t exactly chicken;
we really want the eggs.
V. The Skyler Ancillaries
First Ancillary
23. First Epistle
Dear Skye, I saw myself
the other day, a mirror
image echoing
accounts I’ve told myself.
He said his name was Skyler.
He worshipped dragonflies
and preached a nebulous
philosophy of odd
belief but no surprise.
24. First Chronicle
He tells his story well.
Environmentally
correct, he labors in
a mill recycling paper.
Skyler recycles wit
as well, a poet just
like me, his latest work
involving dragonflies,
their buzzwords almost wise.
L. First Line
A dragonfly will draw
these perfect storylines
across our consciousness
connecting mythical
creations with the buzzing
drone of what we think
reality to be.
Such lines are true although
the stories disagree.
Second Ancillary
25. Second Hand
That dragonflies are neither
tells you less of words
than wisdom in their choosing.
That dragonflies are sometimes
damselflies relays
awareness that’s confusing.
That dragonflies are landing
on my hands conveys
this story for my musing.
26. Second Thoughts
I know that Skyler wants
to draft another poem
concerning dragonflies.
They’ve opened up his eyes
to all that universe
behind this wall of things
he’s seen since God knows when,
that’s made him think he doesn’t
realize where he’s been.
M. Second Sun
The light of dragonflies
reveals itself in time,
at first a subtle, almost
diaphanous delight,
becoming neutron bright
in sun’s own dynamite.
Softly, this summer day,
the light of dragonflies
alights on light au lait.
Third Ancillary
27. Third World
I wish to say this straight
as flights of dragonflies.
The world is not the world
we see and sense as such.
That’s just a dream within
our story. Dragonflies
consider us as much
as we consider what
the otherworldly is.
28. Third Eye
If Skyler understood
what all these dragonflies
are signifying, he
would see enlightenment.
But Skyler only knows
the wonder dragonflies
present the world and words
to tell such wonder with.
His dragonflies flee myth.
N. Third Time’s the Charm
Instead of new construction
I know dragonflies.
Instead of interstates
descending through the suburbs
I see dragonflies.
Instead of subjects, objects,
flags, geography,
untold woods and rivers,
behold the dragonflies.
VI. Belief
Myth
29. Critique of Pure Reality
The dream begins with green
accordions unfolding,
revealing oranges
exchanging names with apples.
Momentarily
the watermelons look
real business-like. A lemon
is a lemon is
our carrot after all.
30. The Gods of Logic
The gods no longer use
the telephone or ask
a sacrifice of first
an appetizer, say
the quesadillas. No,
they raise us to invest
instead in logical
mythologies like time,
wall space, and toiletries.
O: What's Up Doc?
Perfection is a diamond
in our carbon-based
reality. Perfection
hurts and there’s no crying
in perfection, Joe.
Perfection is a carrot
Bugs Bunny never wanted.
Elmer Fudd desires
that silly rabbit though.
Essence
31. Effervescence
If we’re doomed to always
misrepresent the essence
inherent in the living
ineffability
with words too effing stupid
for words, then why we try
is unbelievably
cold-blooded or else a warm-hearted
tolerance for tales.
32. Rigged
I’ve read the history books,
and clipper ships once spanned
this harbor with their rigging,
bent on places once
the terror. This we know
from chronicles and paintings.
But none has leaked a single
secret in the making,
never mind an era.
P. Play It Again Samsara
You must accept the fact
there are no facts except
that fact, before the truth
begins to dawn on you
that you are not the true
authentic you, but one
who suffers through a life
conducted from a view
untrue. It’s love that’s you.
Facts
33. Quarks
And verily we fail
to comprehend the quarks
we really tend to be
believing facts instead
involving physical
anatomies containing
brain and kindred matter,
despite the sciences
we know that preach the other.
34. Knot God
Poetry without
a god is like a cell
without a formula,
or to be more precise, like a cell
whose knot of formula
contains a circular
reference, always referring
back to itself, false gods
without the poetry.
Q. The Mayonnaise of Maya
There’s not an ounce of knowledge
worth the weight of living
yet we value nothing
better than belief.
We understand so little
yet profess to know
the meaning of it all.
But worthiness of fact
is infinitely small.
VII. Dreaming
Streams
35. Dreamland
This energy we call
the weather answers clearly
summer perfect high,
endowing energies
interpreted as river,
meadow, hillside, trees
with vibrant spectrums filled
within, without, with light.
This dream is out of sight!
36. Afterlife
A fishing line is breaking
through my view, a thread
of other consciousness
broadcasting its desire
past my impassiveness.
It’s strung as tight as life,
a tautological
conclusion well-supported
by nothing at its end.
R. Morning Glory
The river is a dream
that wakens in a sea.
The sailboats in its stream
pull at their moorings while
the current of the earth
whispers about the birth
this morning of the sun.
Soon they will open sail
to make their own dream run.
Tide
37. Perchance
We wake from nightmares half-
asleep and deeply conscious
we’ve been dreaming life
away. Still weary though,
we know we need to sleep
again, towards reverie
instead this time, angelic
revelations. Or else,
return to living dead.
38. Draft
But once awake, your dream
becomes a beach ball maybe,
something frisbee free,
a dream that knows it’s dreaming
circle alphabets
the coloring of roses,
heart of hearts, the word
aware it’s poetry
alive before rewriting.
S. Flood
The tide begins to turn,
all sailboats drifting towards
the parallel of current.
An ocean asserts itself
with hesitation at first;
our rudders remember the river.
But then the pull of something
like the moon transports
our will to face the sea.
Real
39. House of Mirrors
The real world isn’t all
that real. There’s images
on images and dreams
to dream. There’s who we hope
you think we are, and who
we judge we really are,
and who we guess you are.
But none of them are who
we live when loving true.
40: Attention Span
Death convinces me
the story of my life
excepting love is nothing
unimaginary.
Understandably,
familiarity
with unreality
will breed a certain knowledge
insubstantial too.
T. The Tao of Dreams
The bridge that opens is
the only way to take.
And where the river meets
the sea begins the dream
the earth remembers when
it sleeps. Horizons far
away seem much closer than
our course. But when you start
to drift, you’ll see its source.
VIII Waking
Views
41. And the Eternals
Past Blake and innocence,
I dream an aspen quaking
in experience,
its argent parchments forgetting
that they’re silver leaves,
believing to be gray
decreed and regulation-
sized—until a sounder
wind can turn the pages.
42. Worlds
The Navajo have no
appellative for global
warming. And that’s a start.
Unlearn the names of all
those spheres we’ve sorely profaned!
There’s no reality
like tragedy and, man,
the comedy is this:
we swear such worlds are real.
U. Planetary Breathing
The secret is to breathe
the earth within and turn
a pleasant landscape green,
and then exhale yourself
completely out becoming
high horizon blue.
In time you’ll circle back
to what you’ve always been—
a loving scenic view.
Divinity
43. Continuum
Before Greg Perry, I
believed I knew myself
a personality
as callow as leaflets, as
emotional as iron.
Little I knew that ages
ago, I exercised photo-
synthesis, and eons
from now, I’ll oxidize.
44.Creed
I don’t believe myself
believing in beliefs
breathed into being by
some dreamweaver and sons
incorporated. Truth
be told I just believe
in disbelief—the sun,
the further, and holistic
enchilada, dear.
V. Rider in the Rain
Divinity resides
in Phoenix, moonlighting as
a paralegal. Living
with her eternal sweetheart,
she’s now expecting. You
exist within her mind,
as I do. In a New
York minute, we will move
to Arizona too.
Shadows
45.Chaos
A trawler waits in harbor.
Its gillnet is entwined
haphazardly while waiting
to make the passage to sea,
where fishing crews will lower
that illusive weight
below the surface shadows—
to capture something formless
between its open spaces.
46. Reckoning
Our story is a lie,
one consecrated by
the faith that holds the whole
shebang together, faith
in negatives and less
than integrated figures.
Pray for greater faith
than zero, faith to reveal
the wraith and make it real.
W. Baptism
Between the concept and
its realization lies
a shadow world where life
returns in play of light.
Between the shadows comes
a focusing of sight,
revealing something bright.
Between such focal points
an energy anoints.
IX. Creation
Waters
47. Lakeside Meditation
The green unbroken tree-
lined shores surround this lake
like dreams, defining life,
encircle consciousness.
The cumulus-filled sky
beyond commands attention
like each thought that passes
in our head. That all
is one is left unsaid.
48. Shore
The miracle of lakes
and all that water gathered
like a congregation
found reflecting sky:
the individual sparkle;
ripples of genuflecting
white caps; waves intoning
rocky shore; the depths
unseen, unknown, but sure.
X. The Word
So all things here have names:
the rocks; the pond; the wind;
the waves, invisible
and visible. Yet names
annihilate the living
energies around
and in me. Everything
is indefinable
and absolutely lovely.
Life
49. Quantum
Sailing the dream called life
depends on essential force
we cannot see. It fills
our cells with microbursts
we solely divine are there
because they will our movement.
Resistance to this motion
is vain fantasy,
a death-defying notion.
50. Pulpit
Returning from the sea,
I fear the land is something
of an afterthought,
superfluous, dependent
on its visible
extent and boundaries,
but there’s no substitute
I can identify.
The amber waves grow high
Y. Resurrection
Sometimes I forget
that death stands in an open
door awaiting life
to ask it in with welcome
arms and house and title,
acknowledging that all
belongs to it except
this present moment, now!,
and nothing else is vital.
The Mystic
51. Vision
The world beyond our senses
probably exists
without our time and spatial
preoccupations, working
past and future in
the present, there and back
again to here, where mystics
see a semblance of
materiality.
52. Beyond Words
Seraphic fantasies.
Celestial chiffon
phonetics. Nanosecond
secular liaison.
Sonic nitrogen.
Genetic Ichabod
kaboom. Bombastic time
tomato. Matter tune.
Notorious retracing.
Z. The Dream's Prayer
O Ever-creating Creation,
Grant me the Faith to Sever
The Bonds of this Old and Untrue
Dream, and through Wisdom and Focus
In Love and Compassion, Create
This New and Beautiful Dreaming,
Here on Mother Earth,
Beneath this Father Sky,
Within the Great Mysterious.