People create in all kinds of ways
Like other animals do
And in uniquely human ways.
And when we uniquely create
We open up
And the Universe opens too.
And between the two magic transpires.
Creation takes all shapes and forms
From single cells to complex structures
That can span millennia.
But when gates are open
And creation really flows
The bounds of time and space
Logic and reason
Are transcended
As if they are only figments
Of limited imagination.
And in transcendence
When the illusions of self and other
Have fallen away
As if they have never existed
What is left but play?
At play in the fields of the Lord
You may say
If there was a you
Left to form such an absurd thought. For
No self and no other needs and
Leaves no room for even a Lord
And its fields for play.
In the great unknown we are reminded
Knowing we are neither,
Both or other.
(8/30/26)
Take stock of yourself and discover you include:
the evanescent sigh over a desert at night
the breath of fog exhaled by a deep morning forest
the silent beauty of a star-distant sky
the ceaseless mystery settled across a tranquil sea,
the quiet tenderness of a nursing infant,
the profound question in a whale's eye
the murmurs hovering over a sacred river
the unimaginable power in the heart of God
the infinite grace of Jesus
the Buddha's smile
limitless peace
universal light
love itself
you
Christopher M. Swan 2009
Ineffable Dream
A dream, a desire followed me
An expectation haunted me
A mysterious woman
In my golden youth
Tempted me
This is true. A lot. A teenager suffered
From a vision. Or just imagination?
This woman mesmerized my life
Soul needed a lover's embrace
It’s an illustration. Exiled
But. But. Hmm. I cannot forget. Dream
Everything was real. My eyes cried
Every night. Sweet dream. Bye
By love. By. Love. Lost. Mine
This is a living memory. Past
Hmm. Child age. Stayed past. Live life
Living past. How to forget it? Lives
My was known. Her was unknown
But I was yearning. She lived
You never know my soul
My life was ineffable
My heart was incredible
My fate was impossible
My hope was inaccessible
Do not follow me
Your shadow kills
Our life in space
Loved you. You
Bye
My
Heart
So many phantom shapes
Fluff about the local space
I can barely sense them brushing
Not hiding, just skimming existence
Not in or out
Among the growing shadows
I recall music I've never heard
Reminding me of places I've never been
Where I yearn to go back
This is the stuff of happiness
It and I alone, together mingling.
(“Zero Point of Creation”, 2018, original encaustic)
The Dual Nature
The dual nature of reality,
When we look we see a thing
When we don’t it is a wave,
Isn’t a matter of either/or
But one of and/both.
Beyond the simple wonder of this reality
Is the ineffable mystery of what lies within.
What more is there to say
When you have reached the point of origin
The zero point of every thing.
(9/3/25)
Her ineffable iridescence transcended my trepidations.
Her scintillating semblance was a hammer to the heart on my sleeve.
Shattering my shamefulness and unlocking my ululations,
But now I am bereaved for my lover chose to leave.
Now my concubine is chimeric and my feelings have faded.
Wash away my world but preserve the past memories in my mind.
Leave me to languish in our eternal estrangement.
Involuntary spasms of bliss delight,
though the norm, always takes us by surprise,
so sudden the surge by day and by night,
rapture sublime mind cannot weigh or size,
teleporting our presence to new highs.
With all our nodes aflame in body prism,
it seems we’ve transcended every known ism.
Even a word of praise
Disgraces the ineffable
12/31/24
("Anagogical Moments Merit Badge", 2011, original oil)
Ineffable
No matter what you think or say
About reality, the true nature of Life
Or mind, or God
You are wrong.
And that is simply
Because what is real and true
Is more subtle and immediate
Than we can ever say.
Doesn’t mean there isn’t a truth or reality
Just that it is always beyond thought
And thus speech;
Always, and for everyone.
And this makes you wonder
What is it then we use our superior primate minds for?
Mostly to divide and conquer it seems
Certainly not to live in peace and harmony.
Meanwhile birds sing, bees gather nectar
Children laugh and elders sigh
The world turns, beautifully and inexorably
And we are here to simply notice and enjoy.
(9/7/24)
("Eye of God", 2018, original encaustic)
Everybody Talks To God
Believers, nonbelievers
It makes no difference
Everybody talks to God
And ain’t that the truth
Since God is the totality
Of this Life we live
And so the eyes and ears
Of everyone you meet
(9/2/24)
Putting you above me
Your feet at my head
Is the natural thing to do
When your mastery
Is revealed.
But it’s all relative
As you put others above you and
Others put themselves below me.
That’s why it’s called
The wheel of life.
When I step back
And my emotions settle
I see that no one is The Master
But that each can instead
Be the appropriate messenger.
(9/1/24)
emotional
truths
evoking
memories
insights
of
discovery
in
palettes
of sensory
enchantment
diffused
in
exploration
languish
in fragility
&
wither
in
the
shadow
of the
poignant
("A Particle in the Wave", 2018, original encaustic)
Poetry
The urge
the force
the light
the crack
of Life
that flows,
out and in
in and out
Reaching
to touch, and
be touched
to change, and
be changed
to transform
awaken, display
remind
In words
what is ineffable
(9/5/15
Behold thunderclap of joy,
in the eyes of both parents,
when their ten month old baby,
crawls with confidence!
Thoughts like coloured pollen
Rhyme in sequence measureless
Candid eyes mirror
The night-consciousness of man
Most ancient smoke stacks
Rise above us
Lead us to the edge of time.
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