Posts Tagged ‘origin’

4 Trumpets

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

Nightly in your room
You watch for a white star
That whispered long ago
Of an ancient quest.

Yours are young eyes
Which seldom rise,
Eyes that beseech
For some noble thing
Some heroic measure.

On your altar
A portrait of the master
Behind the candle light
Illuminating amid your skirmishes
On the field of concentration.

Children once free
We turned into proud liegemen.
The valiant fight for their country,
Some for duty, others for gold.

Yet who can hear the precept:
“One’s enemies will be
members of one’s household.”

This night the cup is filled.
Your vigil evokes four trumpets
From near and far
Resounding where you are.

Cosmic child
Far from home
Do you remember circling together
Among the moons of Jupiter?

The royal call
White flowers blown
From the dogwood tree,
Angels of your emerging symphony.

It now demands more than before
More than skill and sacrifice
Nay, your very heart.

What shall eternally fulfill
But the adventure set only for you
The all-consuming quest
For Self-Realization.

© 2011 Ron Herman

The River

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Let us sit by the river.

A long time ago
You were the cool trickling
You lived in yourself as the fishes and plants
Swimming and swaying.
Birds and deer drank from you.
Leaves fell into you.
You were the vigor of the current.
During the day you reflected the sun
at night, the sparkling stars.
These rocks on which we sit,
You unearthed them
And shaped them.

But that was a long time ago,
When you knew who you are.

© 2011 Ron Herman

Daedalus is Myth

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

There is no reason to forget
Who we are,
From where we come

Save for the labyrinth
Where we find ourselves,
So cunningly made.

When we strive to break free
We are turned back to the same spot,
Only a different scenery.

We ask for help,
But what use are directions
In this place?

We walk a path, turn a corner,
And wonder:
Will this be the one?

Yet how many turns have we made
Alone, or with another
Only to be disillusioned

And left puzzling:
Have we moved closer
Or farther away?

Let us stop
And be still,
And be still.

Have we become too accustomed
To running along boundaries
Of the mind?

Are we too eager
To follow the thread
Of the day?

Daedalus is myth
And so is our labyrinth.

© 2009 Ron Herman

Who She Is

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Should I tell her who she is
And ruin your surprise?

How long did you want her to forget
Who her father is
And ahh, her mother too?

I have kept my promise to serve.
But I can no longer look upon her and pretend
That her rags and fetters are real.
Even if I keep silent, my eyes reveal.

Shall I make it subtle
Or shall I be quick?
Will she believe?
Or run away thinking I am mad?

Who her father is
And ahh, her mother too!

Did you cause this meeting
Only so I should betray you,
And reveal to her that she is
A lady of the most noble birth.

© 2009 Ron Herman

A few words from W.S. Merwin

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

“Poetry begins with hearing. It is more physical than prose.”

“Poetry is really about what can’t be said.”

“When you really get a poem, don’t you have a feeling that you discovered it yourself, that you remembered it?”

- W. S. Merwin, in an interview with Bill Moyers, 2009

Emergence of Language

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

“You see a silent photograph of an Iraqi woman whose husband or son or brother has just been killed by an explosion. You know that if you can hear, you’d hear one long vowel of grief, just senseless, meaningless vowel of grief.  That’s the beginning of language.  Inexpressible sound.  It’s antisocial, it’s destructive, it’s utterly painful beyond expression, and the consonants are the attempts to break it, control it, do something with it.  I think that’s how language emerges.”

- W. S. Merwin, in an interview with Bill Moyers 2009