Jonathan Livingston Seagull

“They are saying in the Flock that if you are not the Son of the Great Gull Himself”, Fletcher told Jonathan one morning after Advanced Speed Practice, “then you are a thousand years ahead of your time.”
Jonathan sighed. The price of being misunderstood he thought. They call you devil or they call you god. “What do you think, Fletch? Are we ahead of our time?”
A long silence, “Well, this kind of flying has always been here to be learned by anyone who wanted to discover it; that’s got nothing to do with time. We’re ahead of the fashion, maybe. Ahead of the way that most gulls fly.”“That’s something,” Jonathan said, rolling to glide inverted for a while. “That’s not half as bad as being ahead of our time”.
Richard Bach
Jonathan Livingston Seagull

The Seagull Speaks Creative Commons Copyright

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Your Face, Your Smile

Here is a podcast of me reading this poem




Staring into the dark pools,
Of your blue eyes.

Pearls of pain were falling,
Tears of a terrible time,
Etched in the ice of your memories.

They froze upon your cheeks and glistened,

Glowed with the fragrance of the forgotten times,
We shared before the end.

And now,
I see your face,
In the depths of the roaring tide,
Staring up at me,
From beneath the waves in which you died.


For a while, I thought I saw you smile,

Through the mist,
Across the miles,
I'm sure I saw you smile.

And now, I see your face,
Shimmering in the depths,
Of this river,
This void.

You waver like summer evening haze.
Alive with wonder in my tomb,
I smile down to you,
So deep.

I see the sky in your eyes,
I feel the water wrapping me up,
Engulfing, enfolding, caressing you,
With thoughts of real wisdom,
Of life.

I begin to learn what it all means,
But when I touch the silver surface,
You flee,
And your smile fades,
In a wondrous haze,
Across the surface of the water.

*A version of this poem was published in 2001 by The International Library of Poetry in the compilation "The Path into the Light", p144. Watermark Press, MD, USA. 


This poem was written around 1990 following a walk on the Somerset levels in winter when the levels were flooded - hence the watery theme. It is a poem about the loss of someone I loved and memories of happier times. I guess it is also about the search for answers and the difficulties of obtaining such answers. When they come they are transient and can't be grasped.
           

Within Me



The ocean told me so,
One day it said to me,
"Can't you see with your eyes,
What I am?
Can't you fathom the secrets,
Hidden deep within me?
Don't you know why?
Everything is here,
I am everything,
Within me you will find,
The truth of your existence,
Within me you will find happiness,
Within me you will find yourself!"



Full Moon, Killiney Beach Dublin,
Ireland, January 30, 2010.
The Seagull 


This is one of the first poems I wrote in the mid 1980s on my experience of an awakening of consciousness brought on by becoming immersed in the 'mind' of the sea...but is the sea outside me or within me?

Friday, January 29, 2010

Silence

Too much noise, 
Empty noise, 
Try to be with you'
 All noise.

People,
Kids,
Cars.

Withdraw my mind, 
Peace of darkness, 
Stars flickering, 
Quiet wind whispering, 
A duet with the tide, 
Audible,
But humanly unfathomable.
 
A gentle peace, 
Natural, 
Your noise, 
With you, 
At last!

Lying back,
Listening to the sweetest sound of, 
Nothing,
But everything.

Alone on a Hill Top

All alone on a hill top,
Somewhere under a billion stars,
Trying to comprehend,
What does it all mean?
           
Feeling so insecure,
Like two of me here,
Arguing at my interpretations,
Of this mystery called existence.
       
A yellow moon rises slowly,
From behind flickering clouds,
Purple,
They are flecked with a red tinge,
Moved slowly by the wind,
The hint of the light in this darkness,
A hint of the truth in their lies.


 Another night poem around 1990. I would go to my favourite hill overlooking the moors - trying to reconcile my insignificance and yet my importance in the Universe. And why there seemed to be so many people living a lie about what is important in life and trying to convince me to buy into their way of seeing things.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Dreamer by the Sea





Here is a podcast of me reading this poem:




They don't know where I go,
So quiet in the dead of night
The wind stings like fire,
Along with the rain,
Splashing,
Punching me,
With its pins of pain.
   
All the while,
Crush the ground,
Push it down,
Laughing inside at what I've lost,
Outside myself,
Outside belief.

Drift!
Drift ever on,
To nowhere.
No!
To the beach,
To see the dreamer by the sea,
To ponder on what he'll tell me.
   
The dreamer by the sea.
They all say he's mad,
Like me,
Inside me,
The dreamer by the sea,
Lives in a cave,
When he can,
Or else he sits on the rocks,
Until the tide arrives.
Sparks fly from his eyes,
Like stars they glow.
   
He listens to the voices of the pebbles,
How they have endured the beating of time.
He talks with the waves,
And tells me,
About the way things were,
When he was young.
Challenges, asks, knows.
   
The dreamer by the sea.
   
And when I arrive,
He asks me "Why"?
But I can't say,
And he says he knows,
Then shows me how to dream,
How to be me,
On the inside,
How to believe.
   
The dreamer by the sea,
Caresses the night,
With talons of ice,
       
Bright is his light,
Spreads its wings,
Flies into the distance,
Through the deepening blackness,
Warning ships with thoughts,
Flecking the cliffs,
Giving them transparence,
Until they become real,
To me.
       
How ideas I had were never known,
By me,
Inside,
Help me believe.
   
But he knows,
Always knew,
Been squatting on his perch for years,
Millennia I'd say,
Digging up ground,
Making no sound,
Changing shape in the dark,
And hiding by day.
   
The dreamer by the sea.
   
Tortures himself while watching birds die,
Tears himself to shreds and cries.
   
But I sit and watch,
And he tells me all this,
Until I walk back to my bed,
To what is deemed to be real.
Until I walk back to me,
To what I believe.
   
The dreamer by the sea.
   
He says "Goodbye"!
And laughs again,
From the cliff tops,
From the rocks,
In the sea I hear the shuffling of his feet,
In the wind I hear the whispering of his profundity.
All around,
Mixed with the mist,
Swirling in the spray,
He talks to me.
   
Everywhere I watch and feel,
How real it is to me,
How real is he,
And I realise,
I believe in the truth of,
The dreamer by the sea.


This poem was written in the late 1980s. It is again about the search for wisdom in nature and the blurring of the divide between dreams and the waking world. Where is reality? Inside or outside? The search for truth outside always leads to the recognition that truth and reality are inside and depend on the state of ones own consciousness..awake or asleep. 

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Seagull's Prophecy

People of Earth, behold and listen. A new phase of contact has begun. You are at a crucial stage of your evolution. You are entering a new era, which will ultimately enable you to fly to the stars and beyond in the years to come. Generations of Earth humans will be fulfilling their destinies in the cosmos. This is where your future lies.

You are at the ultimate crossroads. A branching of the paths. You are entering a new space-time continuum. Which way do you want to go? Which way will you decide to go? For you have the free will to decide. The next few years will bring great changes to humanity. I, along with my brother and sister seagulls, who have been living amongst you as well as those of us who fly overhead, sometimes seen, but usually wearing cloaks of invisibility, have been working for many years on raising your consciousness. We are the light travelers from afar. Well, our work is finally beginning to pay off and, dare we say it, we are beginning to believe that there may be a time in the not so distant future when our work will be complete. People are already beginning to wake up and have small inklings of the truth and the purpose of their existence.

You, the messengers, who are seeking us out, seeing us and talking to us, are being educated to have various roles in the process of awakening and truth telling. You will also become sculptors of light. You have a lot more to learn and you are only beginning to receive the first clues about this reality, but it is the truth. We seagulls will continue to provide you with the information you require to go about your work as and when you need it.

From the lofty heights above the Earth, where we soar on the winds within, above and beyond the clouds, we can see great changes coming soon. The Earth is evolving and powerful energies are being released across the planet. Along with the earthquakes, tsunamis and extreme weather events, you have an unprecedented opportunity to use these energies positively, for yourself and the good of humanity.  Notice how things are changing. This is just the beginning. The mass of humanity will turn away and try to ignore all of this - they simply cannot believe it to be true. Others will look in awe and wonder at what is happening, but will not understand. The dark forces will deceive many, as they have done throughout human history on Earth.  But do not listen, open your eyes and your minds and realise the truth! This is why they have kept you enslaved. Because they know that once you understand the power of the truth, the abilities you all possess inside, the darkness they produce will perish in its presence.

But, although the negative forces are still at work here, there are also brave men and women on Earth like you. They value their glorious planet, all of its life and beauty. They value love and truth and the future of their children and their children’s children.

Great and strange events will be seen in the skies above Earth. You will see more of us seagulls, sometimes alone, sometimes in great flocks way above you and sometimes close enough that you think you might be able to touch us. Sometimes, we may even land on your shores and mountains - not always near the sea. Sometimes, you may even see us above your cities. And that is not all. There will be increasing numbers of strange shapes in the skies and patterns on the ground that you have never seen before. Many will try and convince you that these events are not happening and that we are not seagulls, but some other unspecified, unrecognised, undiscovered kind of bird; that we are figments of your imagination. Such people want you to continue sleepwalking into oblivion, so that you don't realise that you can continue to evolve. But everything you see is a message for all of humanity to heed. Whether you do or not is your choice.

Many will turn away and not believe the reality of what they will witness in the heavens and on Earth and the world governments will be aiding in that deception, though not all. There are many good people in positions of power who walk in the light and do their best. This will be the final battle between the best and the worst on Earth and in the heavens that has been in the waiting for such a long time.

But, know this, all that is good - love, truth, wisdom and light - will prevail.

When this is all over, and who knows how long it will take, the Earth will be a very different place, environmentally, politically, economically, scientifically and spiritually. New ways of being, understanding and doing will have begun to be forged within individuals as well as throughout human society as a whole. People will finally begin to see themselves primarily as citizens of the Earth, not as subjects or citizens of individual countries. A global community of the people will emerge and wisdom along with rationality and knowledge will begin to prevail, so that everything is managed with everyone’s best interests in mind, not just those of the wealthy and the powerful. The old dogmas will begin to fade away.

You don’t have to let your leaders dictate to you anymore - mostly, they are behind the times, leftovers of a bygone era. They no longer have power over you. It is you the people who wield the power now and they are beginning to realise this.  The internet means that real news can be propagated throughout the world, without censoring by governments. Every civilization in the Universe reaches this stage sooner or later. This is the point at which amazing things begin to happen. Actually, the first step to becoming citizens of the cosmos. We seagulls will continue to be here to help you in your evolution.

And the power lies in you, each one of you, to achieve this. The power of the spirit is infinite. Find your spirit and it will set you free and provide you with all the power and truth and meaning you have been missing in your lives. Spirit is energy, spirit is matter, spirit is creation and renewal, spirit is pure power and spirit is life. True life. Each one of you holds a small piece of the power of creation within you. A fragment of this Universe. It is this power we seagulls have been telling you about for years now and that you messengers are developing and using. You are all warriors of the light and darkness cannot survive in the light.

The dark forces will not prevail even though they will continue to try to control you. They will be unable to enter the new space-time continuum in which you are beginning to traverse. Rest assured that the light will shine. There is no need to be afraid.

But, all these things must come to pass for the great creator to understand better the essence of itself. So, do not be afraid. Walk in the light of love and truth. For these times have been written in the stars for millennia.

These words have been given to you, so that you will all have the opportunity to understand yourselves and your place in the Universe. Spread them as widely as possible, so that those who are open to the truth can hear these words, listen and understand.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Frozen Spirits

 The mournful sound of the fog horn out in the bay,
A sad sigh for humanity’s failings,
Snow flakes falling,
Frozen tears,
As eerie as they are beautiful.

Like their spirits,
Locked,
Imprisoned,
Hidden within,
Yearning for freedom,
And Truth.

This is the beginning of great change,
Amidst the silence,
Snatched out of the freezing air,
By the snow.
 
Warm words will come,
To fill the whole of humanity with joy,
And the frozen landscape will thaw.

You will heal this Earth of yours,
And the shoots will rise again from the snow,
Bringing hope to all mankind,
And the recognition of love and the truth always.


Dark winter days can be difficult can't they, but there is something beautiful about the snow. I wrote this poem in January 2010. I was walking to the DART (railway) station in Glenageary, South Dublin and the fog horn sounded from Dublin Bay so clearly - this gave me the first line of the poem as the snow flakes fell down. I had an overwhelming feeling of stillness and a sense of pristine beauty, as well as a feeling that things are changing and that there is a lot of hope for the future because now is the time when the true spirit of humanity will begin to reveal itself.



With Each Person You Meet

''To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction: or the forces of two bodies on each other are always equal and are directed in opposite directions''.
Newton's 3rd law of motion


With each Person You meet,
Each precious Person You interact with Day by precious Day,
Take Time,
Look into Their Eyes and touch Their Spirits,
Each time You do this,
A spark of Delight will ignite,
This spark will reproduce itself and evolve,
Throughout the body of the Person with whom you interact,
The spark is the Truth of Life,
And it is utterly knowable.

It will take Time,
But sooner than You would think,
The flames of innumerable candles will be lit like stars,
And the Person will begin to know Joy for the first Time in their Life,
True Joy, unencumbered by the restrictions of worry and fear and doubt.

Then,
As Time goes by,
The candles will move closer to each other,
The flames will meet,
And Energy will be released,
Seemingly from nowhere.
Pure Love, pure Consciousness, pure Creation!

The Spirit swells within the chest,
And is so joyous to know itself for the first time in this Life,
That it cannot be restrained and never will be again,
For Creation has to know itself.

The Spirit is released and begins to explore its temple the Body,
And the Body knows this and begins to Heal.

Realisation dawns,
Life is appreciated,
Life is Loved.

The person,
Body and Spirit joins the eternal chain,
And Creation Evolves,
On and On and On……..

 

Infinity

The boy sits on the rocks,
As the waves crash in,
Aware of Infinity,
Staring in to his own Soul.

Raindrops


Watch out for pearls of Wisdom,
That fall on You throughout the day,
Like raindrops,
Filling Your Spirit with joy,
Enabling You to experience the Truth,
Appreciating the beauty of Creation,
Maintaining Your Mind and easing Your Body,
Allowing You to let go
And just Be.
A fragment of all Eternity.



The Truth

Know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.

Believe in Love and all it holds,
Believe in Creation,
And Learn to Love,
To truly Live.

Believe in Beauty for it nourishes the Spirit,
Believe in Life for it is a gift cut from the diamond of Creation,

Know that there is a Spirit within You,
Your Spirit,
Yours alone to Evolve through countless lifetimes,
Eternal and Divine,
To learn and Love,
To Grow.

A gift from the omnipresent, eternal Master who is Creation.

Beyond Space, Beyond Time,
Beyond comprehension,
But essential for fulfillment and enlightenment,
In this material life.

Only through each of Us,
Through each individual spirit can Creation know itself.

We are each precious,
The Truth lies within us waiting to be found.




Intelligence

The Universe teems with Life,
All kinds of Life,
Including Human life.

Inspired and knowledgeable of the Truth,
They are there for Us always,
Guardians watching over Us,
Guiding Us,
Helping Us from afar.

Wake up Humans of Earth.
Listen!

Heavens

You look up at the Heavens,
Because that is where Your future lies,
Where You will reside.

Diamond

Your Soul is a diamond being etched,
Which Soul did You receive little one?
Who lived before You?
Who helped You Evolve in past lives?

Beauty

A full moon shining in on us through our bedroom window. Frosty, cold, snowy.

Beauty,
Believe in Beauty,
And Love,
And the Truth.