Tag Archives: self-realization

Blossom

Compassionately,
walking the path of peace, we
scatter rose petals.

No path to peace in this world will be found with a nuclear weapon. It is only we who will make this peace by extinguishing the hate in our own hearts (our shadow side), and find and feel compassion for our fellow man. We have all been programmed in our various cultures, and hate, I believe, is a learned trait, often propagated generation to generation, until the haters have completely lost sight of “why” and themselves.

Are we capable of walking a path of peace, as a collective? This remains to be seen. Mahatma Ghandi is reputed to have said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. It will never just be handed to you. You are a creator, so create it!

Scattering Rose Petals

I use the metaphor of rose petals in the haiku as a representation of our own ability to transform and blossom. In many cultures worldwide, “rose petals are seen as a symbol of transformation and renewal, representing personal growth and spiritual awakening”.

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© Susan L Hart 2024

Humanity’s Dance

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Humanity’s a
wallflower, sidelined,
waiting for a dance.

Worn shoes, shabby frock,
her sad eyes have seen too much.
“Who would dance with that?”

The crowd parties on,
make-busy taking selfies,
tries to ignore her.

She’s irritating,
that girl waiting for her chance,
hoping for a dance.

Overindulgence,
the laughter now rings hollow,
the clock strikes brittle.

Someone looks over,
overcome by compassion,
can bear it no more.

Extending their hand,
Humanity stands to dance.
(Crowd’s silent snicker.)

Slowly, gracefully,
wisdom learned, eons shine in
Humanity’s moves.

The tired crowd watches.
Perhaps there’s something to that
girl who wants to dance.

Mesmerized, new thoughts
energize the soul-weary,
move them to the floor.

Humanity’s dream!
She just wanted the chance to
teach them how to dance.

Humanity’s Dance is from Humanity’s Lament: Poetry for Our Times. | Download it free.

Eternally

Just a Stone’s Throw Away

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Our love was
so strong that
we were just
a stone’s throw
from reconciliation,

but the stones
already slung had
so badly broken
the glass house
of our trust that

fragments seeded
a stone wall over
which no stone
could ever be
thrown again.

We were so close,
and yet so far.

Stone’s Throw © Susan L Hart 2024

Recently a friend posted her dismay that she had been attacked for being too nice. That’s right, too nice! I suppose the world has arrived at a place where we must always choose a side, no matter the issue. If you’re too nice, clearly you’re not on the side of the haters.

Beginning in 2020, suddenly we were deluged with extreme fear over disease. But the worst disease of all may extinguish humanity in its entirety, if we don’t put a stop to it.

The disease is called “my ego need to be right”. As long as we force each other to choose sides and then attack each other for those choices, there will never be any meeting ground for healing and building. We will constantly be stuck in a state of tearing down, doomed in a fatal downward spiral to a black void.

Imagine a time in future when aliens visit Earth, a beautiful place lush with flora and fauna, but strangely void of other life forms. And in their exploration of this lovely planet, they come upon a huge headstone that reads, “Here lies Humanity. Sadly, they killed each other with their need to be right”.

Personally this is not a future vision that I want to see manifest. As the poet Rumi said,

“Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.”

Yes, we could make the choice to create a meeting place. Imagine everyone with a unified commitment to constantly see, evaluate, and discuss many points of view, without judgement or a need to “have it all my way” or attack.

It would be a beginning… We’re just a stone’s throw away from getting it right. But first we must stop throwing stones at each other.

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Life is a Gift

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It’s a blue-sky day,
one of those
beauteous blue-full,
joyously jocular,
splendidly splashy,
exceptional days –
I long to shout
LIFE IS A GIFT
in unmistakable
letters across the
blue shiny yonder,
to imprint them
indelibly on your
mind, so you’ll –

Remember when
the dark clouds roll
in, on a day when
life feels pissy and
oh so problematic,
to take a deep breath,
and close your eyes,
and gently pull the
gray gloom aside,
to see those big
oh so true words
I etched on blue
for you, so that
you’d never forget –

Life is a gift.

From Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life. Download it free.