Seeds for a happy planet

The Dutch translation of this poem, originally written in German, was for years on the wall, where I changed my cloths. So, I read it many, many times in the morning or when going to bed; sometimes consciously, sometimes less. But it dripped in, slowly but surely. Now I came across it again… It is such a deep wisdom, that is also at the core of any transformation work, be it individual therapy, systemic constellation work or… it is also useful for the state of our world.

It is what it is, says Love…

“It is madness
says reason
It is what it is
says love

It is unhappiness
says caution
It is nothing but pain
says fear
It has no future
says insight
It is what it is
says love

It is ridiculous
says pride
It is foolish
says caution
It is impossible
says experience
It is what it is
says love.”

Erich Fried (Es ist was es ist. Liebesgedichte Angstgedichte Zorngedichte) – Translation by M. Kaldenbach

A Spider Playing in the House

Conventional knowledge is death
to our souls, and it is not really ours.

We must become ignorant
of what we have been taught,
and be, instead, bewildered.

Run from what is profitable and comfortable.
If you drink those liqueurs, you will spill
the springwater of your real life.

Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.

I have tried prudent planning
long enough. From now
on, I will be mad.

~ Rumi

(Thanks to Cari for sending it along!)

The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
by Wendel Berry
via Chris Corrigan

Winter

Winter. Je ziet weer bomen
door het bos, en dit licht
is geen licht maar inzicht:
er is niets nieuws
zonder de zon.

En toch is ook de nacht niet
uitzichtloos, zolang er sneeuw
ligt
is het nooit volledig duister, nee,
er is de klaarte van een soort
geloof
dat het nooit helemaal donker
wordt.

Zolang er sneeuw ligt is er hoop.

Herman de Coninck
(mij toegestuurd door Hilde Vandormael, met dank!)

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

by Rainer Maria Rilke
(1875 – 1926)
English version by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Offered by one of the participants in the circle of Women Moving the Edge in Cape Ann, as a description of our way of being together.

“Let magic and joy be honestly and fully expressed.
Let ‘going over the edge’ of current experience be a natural and wholesome experience.
Let there be a total willingness to be crazy and fearless and ready to do anything.
Let their be patience and wisdom and silence and the control of truth.
Let there be a knowing of when and where and with whom it is safe to get fully revealed, with and what level of revelation will be okay with others.
Let there be a circle of safety, not so much to protect ourselves, but rather out of respect for others and the place in the process they are in.
Let there be a fierce and innocent passion to reveal ourselves utterly and release the flow of our natural divinity into the world.”

Nancy-Rose Meeker; 1992

This was another gem of the conversation in London, offered by Tessa, a friend of the author. I like very much the first and the last sentence of it!

When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.
When someone deeply listens to you,
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold has been discovered!
When someone deeply listens to you,
your bare feet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.

~ John Fox ~

I got this link via Chris Corrigan, and it reminded me of a conversation we had with a few women recently in London – the day after ending our Women Moving the Edge gathering there. One of the quotes that stood out in that conversation was: ““To listen another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service any human being ever performs for another.” by Douglas L. Steer.

In our conversation this quote was adapted to:
The almost greatest act of service one can do for the World,
is to listen it’s Soul into disclosure and discovery.

That really stood out for me!!

The moon is most happy
When it is full.
And the sun always looks
Like a perfectly minted gold coin

That was just Polished
And placed in flight
By God’s playful Kiss.

And so many varieties of fruit
Hang plump and round
From branches that seem like a Sculptor’s hands.

I see the beautiful curve of a pregnant belly
Shaped by a soul within,

And the Earth itself,
And the planets and the Spheres—

I have gotten the hint:

There is something about circles
The Beloved likes.

Hafiz,
Within the Circle of a Perfect One
There is an Infinite Community
Of Light.

A poem by Hafiz (translated by Daniel Ladinsky)