Episodic Flash Sight (Poems)
The poems below, “Rainbow“ and “A wave does not need to swim it only needs to be“, are samples from Neil Richardson’s personal book of poetry, Episodic Flash Sight (Poems). For more examples of his work, please contact Neil via email on NeilRichardsonMeditation@gmail.com. Read more about Neil on his biography page and his blog.
Download a sample of Neil Richardson’s Episodic Flash Sight (Poems) [PDF]
Rainbow
Drop of water fall from cloud
Turns into vapor
Becomes invisible
Yet transcends ephemeral substance to become a billowing cloud
building block of rainbow
Sunlight penetrates the rain droplet with a crooked eye
And ecstatically responds morphing white light into something new
Eternal return in seven hues!
Raindrop is journeywork of a million reincarnations
Is there a point at which the raindrop ceases to exist?
Cascading downward falling back to earth
Forming river torrents
Finding the sea
Eventually to ride…part wave part spray
Until the great mother sun beckons
Sucking the liquid from the droplet body
To begin epic cycle again and again and again…
Rainbows appear as an arc to the mortal eye
Even as they exist whole
What does your eye not see?
less real if not revealed?
Any drop of water in you may have been part of the salty brine
yesterday or five hundred or five million years ago
or in me
Is there a forward and backward in the cycle
toward what end?
As the color fades from this world
Its spirit expresses
What is unseen white light is equal in measure
to all shades of the spectrum
Rainbow
as beautiful and as imperceptible
As me as you.
A wave does not need to swim it only needs to be
With an eye always observing limitless spheres
Shifting like liquid kaleidoscope swirls
my minds eye reflects innumerable colors…green, red, purple,
yellow-more
Recalling adventures of body, spirit and brain
I see ecstasy, ennui and pain
near the ceaseless thundering din of craggy shore.
I see in shadow’s despair—the best mentor
I do not wonder regarding suffering
I wonder regarding resilience and courage to bear transient agony
I ask…what of grace? By god or by divine sight?
Do you suppose it a gift to be given or realized?
In brightening light, I see cobbled path heading toward sea
Sun with billions of sister stars twinkle orgiastic on undulating waves
Percussive thud after percussive thud
plunge into beach, with the mist…
I hear the surf whisper come closer in salty breath
Beckoning me to dive deep, become wet
to become the sea.
What is the muscle that flexes kissing lips soaking in timeless brine?
Come near, so that we may fuse our souls without permission
enfold me in churning, pounding Eros and crashing Agape
Can you feel the communion of soul with Thou?
My heart releases forever—fragmentation into strong current
I am neither swimmer, wave, nor even sunray from warmest star I am all.
I declare the sum far greater than part
No longer given to wait for grace
A wave does not need to swim it only needs to be