Pre-existing Condition

Pre-existing Condition

 

Before the Beginning

Before form, time or life 

The surging Void lay waiting

Fertile land of shifting shadows 

Beyond which all boundaries dissolve

Revealing mysteries or shrouding secrets

Confining or releasing 

Draining or enervating 

Infinite potential 

Erebus

Kek

Donn

Nyx

Roaming Seer’s eyes 

Have peered into this Stygian gloom

There revealed to some

Chaos

Death, madness, unholy obfuscation 

Doom

Evil Incarnate

Giants

Demons 

Nightmares 

Formless fear

The House Underhill

The Wild Hunt

The Underworld 

Karmic Justice 

Ebony deer

Hecate 

Chernebog

Kali

Hodr

Kauket

To others were given visions of

Spiritual Evolution 

Balance

Introspection 

Transformation 

Sacred Twins dancing in perpetuity 

Primordial Cows leaking life, galaxies, moons 

Axis Mundi 

The Golden Egg

Oran Mor singing all into Creation 

As the shell cracks in perfect silence 

Let there be Illumination!

For those new to the game, each poem in this series is inspired by a Teacher found in nature; a star, stone, animal, plant etc. Everything around us holds lessons for those willing to listen. Can you hear who is singing today? 

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything, but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first and it is waiting for it." Terry Pratchett

"Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift." Mary Oliver

“The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.” Robert Pirsig 

In traditions around our world before anything there was... Darkness. To some this meant Chaos, others saw only the Void, but the Darkness is quite full it seems if unordered. Madness, sin, evil, ignorance, obscurity, sorrow, unrest, fear, hate, death, judgement, monsters formless and unimaginable, constraint, containment, binding, night unending and it is also mystery, secrets, knowledge hidden ancient or lost, innocence, immorality, transformation, the comfort and protection of being held by the power of Creation, the quiet furnace of the womb, unlimited potential without judgement, freedom, unbinding, a light too dark to see. What you see in the Primordial Dark may be only what you bring there in the first place. 

Black is a color that hungrily absorbs all light. It literally draws the light and heat of our sun which prompts us to wear less dense, brighter colors in hot sunny conditions. Black is the color of funerary grieving, power suits, elegant ballrooms, authority with shiny buttons, bold headlines marking history, formal ties against the crisp backdrop of a white shirt, seduction tied up in a little dress, rich soil renewing life each spring and also collapsing stars at the edges of galaxies we haven't imagined yet.  

In Greek mythology Erebus is the god of Darkness and his parent is Chaos. You may find him in the absence of Light anywhere... down a cave, crevice, in a shadow or the Underworld. He was one of the first to emerge before creation and is a sibling of Gaea (Earth), Nyx (Night) Tartarus (the Underworld) and Eros (Desire/Procreation). Depending on who you ask his other siblings could include Chronos (Time), Aether (Light), and Uranus (Sky). 

Stellar Insights

Infinite Celestial bodies spinning in an

Intricate harmonious dance

Emitting hope as easily as they do light

Aligning precisely about their business

Cynosura... flickering, twinkling yet 

forever steady guiding bright

Seven Sisters dancing a Hole in the Sky

Dispensing omens

Clarifying dreams

Recording history

Divining destiny

Asteria 

Inanna

Sah 

Sopdet

Nuit

Two Gazelles, Yin & Yang

Famous Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux

Protectors of Travelers

Altair, Deneb, Vega

marking each angle of summer as

Bellatrix marks the Hunter's shot an'

Rigel his relentless step in calm blue

The Three Sisters carrying 

the sighs, tears, dark sorrows of our souls

yet shining like divine beacons as they do

Astraeus

Inanna

Zorya

Itzpapalotl

Each numberless talent sprinkles magical dust of

Inspiration in streaks across the velvet dark

Ancient Methuselah to distant Earendel

Luminous astral giants and gleaming dwarves

burning gases in their forges; hydrogen, helium

Singing out, "Have courage!" "Well done!" and

"I really love your spark!"

White, brown, blue, yellow, orange, or red

these Teachers sing at every stage of being

across time and space

whether we stay up to listen or 

wander off dreaming to our beds

For those new to the game, each poem in this Singing series is inspired by a Teacher found in Nature; a tree, stone, element, plant, animal, etc. Everything around us holds lessons for those willing to listen. Can you guess who is singing today? 

 

 

Sacred Surfers from the Savage Garden

We waddle we paddle 

with comical ease

Watermoles digging

from steady earth to flowing brooks.

glowing in mysterious shades unseen

Bills purring, squeaking, cooing, growling

humble brown yet in shadow

purple, blue, green

we sing our wisdom.

four broad webbed feet

pushing us forward

thick tails like rudders 

steering us 

surely through eddies 

currents along the river.

Unique curious diplomats 

We invite you

to swim waking through

your dreams.

Listen, Learn, Work

Dreamsurfers

Bright eyes closed

sensing electric sparks of life

Grins wide

letting humor guide you in darkness

charming, disarming

to conceal secrets

like milk of amnesia

perhaps better kept

closer to the vest

Cuddly cute

best keep an eye 

on our boots though

one of us carries

 pain venomed daggers

that would drop you to your knees.

Only she will slumber so

curled upon the throne of 

egg bejeweled nest.

Transformation

Renewal

Seekers in murky waters

Leave no stone unturned

in your sacred quest

Accept all your diverse parts

Reject nothing, hide nothing

from yourself

Everything begins within

Wisdom, Love, Change, Fortune

Want to heal the world?

Start with you.

Adapt to your own potential.

Knowledge is power

which can mean the difference

between surviving and thriving

Diverse

Creative

Resilient

Mysterious puggle

Private Investigator

Sensing always 

more than meets the eye.

For those new to the game, each piece in the Singing series is inspired by a Teacher found in Nature; a star, stone, animal, plant etc that holds lessons of Wisdom for us. Can you guess who is singing today?

Temerarious Tempest Reader in a Teacup

Temerarious Tempest Reader in a Teacup

Clever Crocutas serving high tea and trading omens 

upon the shadowed ceiling of their oracular cave

Striped, spotted, earthy brown

Ferocious matriarchs, relentless Houdinis

never quite where or what you expect

Lunar priestesses, cloisonne pots steaming sigils 

from Serengeti to Caucasus

Leading cackling feliform carnivoran packs.

Turning surviving into thriving

the way high rollers turn a pittance 

into winner's stacks.

Roll them bones! 

Mama needs a new pair of shoes!

Set yourself free from fears. 

There is the cave that holds 

the treasure you seek.

Giggle, chuckle, fill nights with cocksure glee.

Howl with the absurd hilarity 

run mad as often as you please,

but do not faint, Fanny, 

Oscar, so wild, combing your manes!

It could all turn on a dime. 

Tails, you run!

Life is the grand game, 

yet no one gets out alive.

Master that throat chakra, folks!

Clarity in communication 

is worth more than being shy, quaint.

Nobody has time for that. 

Laughter reduces shadows.

Good medicine for everything 

except broken ribs.

Having some left at the end of the day

means there is still hope for tomorrow.

Laughter and tears

soap for the soul.

Moods are contagious.

Be courageous.

Stand in your truth.

Hunt diligently for the right words

rather than scavenge for what you can make use of 

just because it is laying close at hand, MacGyver.

Tough enough to laugh first at yourself, fool.

Consult the Clan.

Hear our concert.

Create your oasis.

Fierce bite protects loyal heart.

Ready your battle plans.

Lead from the center of the mud puddle

Shenzi, Banzai... Ed

Everything light and shadow touches

Crown your lunacy 

while shifting shape

on the crossroads of your desert

For those new to the game, each piece in the Singing series is inspired by a Teacher found in Nature; a star, stone, animal, plant etc that holds lessons of Wisdom for us. Can you guess who is singing today?

Hyenas have often gotten a bad reputation in folklore or symbolically, been cast as the villains, deceitful brutes or just dirty scavengers. In truth they more solidly represent the duality of nature, both worthy and brutal. Hyenas can hunt alone or in packs. They are capable of strategic thinking, fearless courage, great strength, resourceful, adaptable, resilient and yet all four species are most known for their barking which sounds so much like laughter. Hyena could represent fear, chaos, darkness, powers from beyond the void and the messengers that travel between carrying power, even death... and the laughter that exposes all those things, breaks their hold and dispels them, protection from all the evils that go bump in the night. 

Puirt à beul of the Maringouin

 Puirt à Beul of the Maringouin 

Whining hum

Here they come

Back again

Forever complaining

Incessant at the gate of every ear

since the dawn of time

226 million years

if it has been a minute, surely.

they come

as surely as winter thaws into spring

 

Oh yes go right ahead!

Help yourself

I see your narrow crystalline grin

revealing nary a jagged tooth

Butter wouldn't melt there!

Are you all world's worst come again?

Aedes, Culex, and Anopheles, oh my!

Click my ruby heels

Not saccharine little old you?

Something more savory?

Something with a little spice?

Bite down nevertheless

Dig deep, 

not to the bone for your savory fare

just beneath the skin is far enough

Needling everyone around you

Work them into a rash, a fever

Set the world abuzz!

Slaver, drool over your feast

Swamp angel, Nighthawk

Spreading plague

Sowing discontent

Breeding anger, lies, rumors, gossip, envy

Make them itch with malcontent

Derision dropping easier than blood

from another wayward prick

Rub everyone the wrong way

Perhaps turning even the air toxic around you

Dispersing along paths of least resistance

with hardly more than an errant slap

as a screening process 

to inoculate the masses

from the black vomit 

unrelenting scourge

of our droning 

repellant asses

Irritated?

Curse the day that ever we were born?

Think you are the first do you?

Let it go

All things pass eventually

even if they pass like hailstones

Even us, 

Passing through cycles

through lives, rooms, dreams, veils

Vectors unstudied yet

Interconnected

Valuable to the fabric of life

in the extremist of conditions

Delicate enough to carry

a spark of creation

spreading verdant life 

as easily as devastating disease

Balance in recycling motion

Yin Yang

Patience

The water's mirror will still once more

Reflect

Rise above

Resist

Persist

Examine

Transform as reason and season dictate

Be objective

Be present

Be here

Now

Sing in our ears

Hum along if you don't know the words

You are 

the very cure you seek

Physician heal thyself

Spread the cure

Save the World

For those new to the game, each piece in the Singing series is inspired by a Teacher found in Nature; a star, stone, animal, plant etc that holds lessons of Wisdom for us. Can you guess who is singing today?

p.s. whew! lol It has been a minute.  ;) just wanted to say, this is the first completely new Teacher poem I have managed since my mom passed. Like it or not lol I am pleased with this Shadow Teacher's song that has been humming in my ears a little louder every year since mom slipped the veil in 2018. more importantly to my heart, I know Mom would be so pleased and would laugh when I told her about this one. She always was so pleased, each and every time I had something to stick up on the fridge she carried around in her Mom heart since day one. I was so very lucky to have her. <3 Congratulations to Cathi on being the first to name this Creature Teacher! 

Coursing River Dividing My Heart

 Warning: therapy poetry.... it ain't pretty people. so, if you don't have the space for it today, skip this one. It needs somewhere to live other than my body. That's all. It doesn't need anything, just... air. lol

Coursing River Dividing My Heart 

I sang your name to you

while you dreamed in your shell

I loved you with a wild joy

before either of us knew who you were

You seemed to see the world with a heart of compassion

You seemed to want to love it whole, happy, sane again

like I once did

as a foolish girl with dreams too large

I tried to shelter your heart close to mine as you grew

while letting you grow in your own directions

I tried to guard, to guide, to listen, to hear

Above all, believe you 

when you took the time to speak to me

I saw when you began to hide and lie to me

It happens when we leave childhood behind

Life batters us, distracts, confuses

We all stumble, lose our way

Love is the source

All that heals, binds, lifts us up, inspires, makes worthy

We gather, share, to make ourselves not only happy but stronger

Beacons of light

So my mother taught me

So Life has shown

So I believe

So I instructed

I didn't understand when you began lying to yourself

I didn't understand when you began treating yourself like a victim

I didn't understand when you stopped listening to me, hearing me, believing me

I didn't understand when you began to treat me more like a roommate than a parent

I damn sure don't understand when you went from "I would never do that to you, Mom"

to ripping my heart out so casually

leaving it on the floor like a forgotten toy

without a word, or a picture, or a scribble, not even one smile from your kids

while their presents pile up at graves that don't yet exist

to punish me for being your parent

to punish me for being the roof over your head and theirs

to punish me for being there to care for your children every day for years

diapers, baths, bedtime, meals, stories 

just as I did every day for you

not just come and see Yaya so she can give you sweets

then go home after a visit

No

I fell asleep exhausted next to them 

at the end of long days

Just like I did next to you and your siblings

a second parenthood I never earned nor complained of

How awful when Aunt So and So cut off precious Grandma

never did let her see those boys again

How evil when that sociopath denied me

the ability to see our first grandson

for an entire year

before she went and got him killed when he was just 3

Devastated the whole family

Why would anyone use their own child as a tool to cause pain,

or like a commodity with which to punish or reward?

Generational Trauma unleashed

Off the hook, connections unmade

"I would never do that to you, Mom"

I can still feel your arms around me as you said that

Liar

Nothing was enough to stop you

from dividing my heart

with your piercing river

Inexorable

Heedless

Consistently

From Texas to college and therapy

You rolled over all my concerns

with what you simply desired

as careless as a river in full flood

No thought to the damage you will leave in your wake

No empathy for the mourners left wailing along your banks

never to reclaim their loved ones for proper burial

Abandoned 

by your piercing river

that should have brought love, healing, a renewal of wisdom

instead of this unnatural disaster

Because I insisted

Get Therapy or Get Out 

for serious abusive issues 

to a no job boyfriend

who just moved into the house

depressing the entire family

after two years of being forced to live in silence

against my will, better judgement, sanity, personal faith

all while I watch the campaign being run against me

the scapegoat

on the other side of your widening river

My heart dissolves slowly

like banks too soft to withstand yet another rain

While your sister

who refused to be a living light

laughs and tells me

You were not tactful enough, Mother

Enough

I could cry my own river 

with how much I miss her

but I am thankful she 

my Mom, the original Black Sheep,

isn't here to see any of this bullshit

We loved too much

She and I

We may be divided

You and I

Yet

I will not be drowned 

by your silly trickle, my little love

For Love is the source

Not me

Not you

No matter how you flow 

nor how we rage or grieve

You too will return to the source eventually

Though I may storm now

eventually my love will lie calm again 

Reflecting that perfect light 

back to you once again

Perhaps a sailboat or two

Moonlight

upon the ribbon of the river

dividing my heart

Revolutionary

 

I am the Revolution

I know

I accept

I believe

I am

I love me

I am strength

I am love. Love is a Force of Creation

Creation lives Within and is without end

I am enough

I change as needed

I adapt

I grow

I have been given a sacred gift to defend

I do not hesitate to defend the sacred

I wound

I heal

I die

I recreate

I transform

I revolve

I dream

I am perfect imperfection

an evolving Masterpiece

living emotions

eating experiences 

vomiting lies unconsumed

toxins rejected from the soul up

laughing at the joy and absurdity

Severity

Mercy

I trust my wings to catch me

I am the Sky

I am the Revolution

I am becoming you

Always

the path is a spiral

leading ever inward

a place of peace

where we walk each other home

Time 

The door

through which we pass 

as often as we must

to become you

the Revolution