The journey of the hero
Is both in and out simultaneously
As above so below
Since the nature of reality
Is its nonduality
Everything has a light
And everything a shadow
How could it be otherwise
As we occupy this space
With presence
Dreaming always dreaming
We spin our tales
Weaving a web to catch what?
A glimpse of something divine
The wick our candle burns around
The spark that ignites our consciousness
A something that is no thing
Before there was a Self to seek
The hero’s journey is out and in
There and back again
A mind forever questing
A grail made holy
By the quest
The mystery of manifestation
Made manifest
Sun made flesh and fiber
You could say
And in so doing
Once again simply
Miss the mark
(6/6/26)
(“Depth Psychology Merit Badge”, 2015, original oil)
This world without question
Is exactly what it is
Everything we know
Everything we feel
Floats like oil
On its surface
And what lies beneath?
All we don’t know
A vast unconscious
Without question
In silence
Layer after layer
Waiting simply waiting
Oil comes from somewhere
You know.
(1/3/26)
(“Depth Psychology Merit Badge”, 2015, original oil)
The mind is a mysterious thing
Handling the conscious and unconscious
Simultaneously,
A true multitasker behind its multimasked face.
So much remains below the surface
Monitored, projected and reacted to instinctively
Without even needing to rise to the level
Of conscious awareness.
And what does rise, getting all the attention,
Is often the same old stuff
Patterns and habits, worries, hopes and fears
Wearing deep grooves so hard to erase.
Below, the current shifts, fluidly
In tidal rhythms but with a constantly creative
Playful air that seems to defy
Its survival imperative.
How can the mind be so accepting
In the face of change’s annihilation?
Maybe it knows something in the depths
Which we mere mortals with rational logic reject.
Something fluid, tidal and creative
Something both above and below
Something which is a nothing
But the light reflected in her face.
(10/7/25)
(“Depth Psychology Merit Badge aka The Myth of Being”, 2015, original oil)
The Weight of Time
Experiences fall like snow flakes
Full and soft, floating down to settle gently
Building up in layers, forming drifts
And, with the weight of time,
Ice in glaciers and massive shields
That smother the ground
And eventually work their way to the sea
To form blocks of experience
That then float away.
Sunlight illuminates their inner being
Releasing memories all packed together
In sights and sounds, smells and feelings
Faces and words, thoughts and dreams
Hidden beneath a surface
In unfathomable depths
Each bonded with other moments
Supporting and sustaining
the notion of a whole
Greater than the parts.
Each of us exist like this
Bergs of distinct memory and identity
Adrift and at ease
Subject to the flow of tides and currents
Beyond our control or comprehension
Subject of the ever falling snow
Full and soft, floating down to settle gently
In layer upon layer
Condensing into something more
Under the weight of time.
(12/21/24)
("July 7 - Hot and Blue", 2024, original encaustic)
Turning to Become
As they say, humans are like onions,
Densely layered and prone to making others cry.
But I think a better metaphor is Earth herself,
After all the Good Book tells us
We are created in God’s image.
At the surface all is sweetness and light,
The abundant fruits of survival’s tricky game,
While just below tectonic plates drift to a darker rhythm
Leading to all sorts of uncontrollable forces,
And at the core, something unknown,
But pure and original nonetheless.
So with us, we show our best at the surface,
While just below swell the barely repressed tides
Of biases and bigotries, passions and poisons.
And at our core the mysterious essence abides,
Pure but powerful,
The clear light of primordial awareness
For lack of a better, poetic term.
Each of us is such a complex world,
The micro expressing the macro,
Each of us challenged with being ourselves
And getting along with others.
From cradle to grave Life is the constant,
While we the change
The world is turning to become.
(7/10/24)
("Depth Psychology Merit Badge, aka The Myth of Being", 2015, original oil)
The Myth of Yesterday
“Yesterday, today was tomorrow
and tomorrow, today will be yesterday”
So say the sages,
and so say us, groping in the dark
following the trailing sparks
of fireflies dancing in the night.
But the fact remains
it’s all a myth,
the myth of being and becoming,
the myth of yesterday and tomorrow,
the myth as a story
we tell ourselves
to make sense of it all.
A riddle wrapped in a mystery
inside an enigma
told to the blind ones
safe and sound within their cave.
(2/15/24)
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