Author Archives: Herb Stone

poem: the intensity of now (where am I and how did I get here)

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poem: the intensity of now
(where am I and how did I get here)

yesterday a shadowy memory
tomorrow unimaginable
there is only the intensity of now
stuck in the present moment

past experience unretrievable
and unavailable in creating one’s future
thus stuck in the eternal present
necessarily filled with questions

answers: you are at home
where we live husband and wife
together for fifty years
now elders to a younger generation

we humans carrying on our Earth journey
closer to its end than its beginning
Cosmic Love reigns Supreme: we remain
grateful, in awe of the mystery, hopeful

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 18, 2021

Author’s note: The poem reflects my experience caring for my beloved wife with
Alzheimers. As memories become murky and unreliable and the future
unimaginable, the present is filled with questions and takes on a new intensity of
being stuck in the present. What remains is love, gratitude, awe, and hope on the
journey.

photo by author
‘Gulfview Heights Beach on the Gulf of Mexico, 2017’

Advent reflection: embracing the Life giving mystery of Life together vis-a-vis the personal hubris of self in a world to be calculated and exploited

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Advent reflection: embracing the Life giving mystery of Life together vis-a-vis the
personal hubris of self in a world to be calculated and exploited

it is in our inability
to sit with and receive
the mystery of human’s
greatest gift of Cosmic Christ,
come down to us
filling our hearts with Love
to be shared mutually
with others, which is our
greatest human downfall

instead substituting our
selfish hubris too often
learned on our knees
at the Empire’s fortress
where we are led astray
in its’ lessons of power,
control, and violence
which hardens into
private, selfish hubris
thus losing our respect
for the mystery of Life
and Love and our Eternal Being,

failing to see and denying their
crucial transformative processes,
clinging to the old ways
of seeing the world as something
to be calculated and exploited
for our personal, selfish gain

dear one’s awaken,
prepare,
participate

art: ‘Dalit Madonna’ by Jyoti Saha

Author’s note: My reflection is
inspired by the writings of the
German Lutheran Pastor,
theologian, and martyr Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, who was hung by the
Nazi’s for his resistance and religious
beliefs after spending two years in Nazi
prisons and concentration camps. I offer
these reflections from the perspective
of spiritual experience universal to all
creation and humanity whatever one’s
religion, faith, beliefs, or traditions.
Herein lies our hope for the Oneing
of heaven and earth in true belonging
in authentic communities of radical grace
and radical love. Advent blessings!

poem:  this Advent season of waiting, watching, witnessing, awakening 

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poem:  this Advent season of waiting,
watching, witnessing, awakening

all Creation groans:
humanity expectant,
pregnant with the anticipation
of waiting and preparing

Earth and Heaven are changed:
the star in the East,
the road made straight in the desert,
the low places made level

the world of  human society changed:
the great leveling, scattering the proud,
bringing the high, low, and filling the hungry,
sending the rich away empty

the incarnation of
Universal Cosmic Christ consciousness:
came down to us, comes now,
and will come again

vigilant, waiting, watching,
this knowing deep in our bones,
in every cell, in every breathe,
our Advent witnessing and awakening

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 9, 2021

photo by author

Author’s note: The poem draws on
Matthew’s story of the Magi, Luke’s
Canticle of Mary, and Isiah’s prophecy
of John the Baptist from the Bible. It is
written from the perspective of spiritual
experience universal to all creation and
humanity whatever your religion, faith,
beliefs, or traditions.  

poem: beauty’s healing hope rising

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poem: beauty’s healing hope rising

recalling the beauty of life
amid the roses and the thrones
always pulls me back
to the both/and wholeness
of here and now

thus remembering

that late Fall light in the Hudson Valley
a favorite literary quote
a snippet of poetry or music
loves most pure moments shared
the haelin of True Self
belonging and walking each other Home

take a deep breathe
loosen your grip
open your hands
opening and turning around
fully embracing and sharing
beauty’s healing hope rising

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 4, 2021

music by Ennio Morricone
and performed by Yo-Yo Ma
‘Giuseppe Tornatore Suite’

poem: a sweet visit to Toddy’s house

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poem: a sweet visit to Toddy’s house

exiting Toddy’s house
through the large kitchen
onto the screened porch
down the steep back stairs

across the backyard
out to the alley
then right four blocks
to the corner bakery

peering in the huge glass front
with the huge glass display cases
always filled completely
with cookies, pies, cakes, and rolls

entering the store
with its colorful display
and comforting aroma
enveloping all

with a pocket of change
one could buy a white paper sack
filled with their delicious
pastel, buttery, shortbread cookies

and for a bit more
the whitecake with creamy, white icing,
a chocolate meringue or chess pie,
or some fresh Parker House rolls

then on the way back, stopping
by the corner drugstore, its doorbell tingling,
and its wood slate floor, and high ceiling fan
hanging from the tin roof

buying an ice cold bottle of Coke
to wash it all down, a sugar high,
before the hike back up
to Toddy’s kitchen

there one would always find Toddy
in her apron smiling widely, knowingly,
preparing food at the big sink
as steamy pots cooked on the cast iron stove

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
December 2, 2021

images family photos of Toddy
Becker’s Bakery unattributed

Author’s Note: Toddy was my maternal
grandmother. Everyone called her Toddy
which was a nickname from her childhood.
The bakery us grandkids visited was
Becker’s Bakery founded in 1925, which
was one of Nashville’s best bakeries for
decades until closing a few years ago and
always one of the most popular. Getting
something there was always a treat, and we
were close enough to walk when at
Grandmother’s (Toddy’s) house.

poem: a thief in the night (stuck in time)

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poem: a thief in the night
(stuck in time)

in her lucid dreaming
she returns to the
farmstead of her youth
with her family
every night as she sleeps

each morning upon
her awakening she ask me
‘how did I get here,’
‘who brought me here,’
‘what is this place”

never mind that
we have been married
50 years, lived in this
house for 35 years, or never
been apart in the last 5 years

sitting on the bed’s edge
looking into her eyes
I remind her she has
been on the farm all night
while she slept

now back home with me,
that we have not been apart
for a second for many years,
in our house where we raised
our family filled with love

a thief in the night,
stuck in space and time,
the dementia confounding,
now each moment together
all the more sweet

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 29, 2021

Image by author
“just resting my eyes”

Author’s Note: A poem
about our life together, my
wife and I, and our experiences
living with Alzheimers.

poem: Thanksgiving passes, Winter Solstice nears, Advent begins (via negativa)

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The Season of Advent Begins
Pregnant with Anticipation

poem: Thanksgiving passes,
Winter Solstice nears,
Advent begins (via negativa)

and now the family Thanksgiving
bountiful feast has been eaten
and the days revelry abated
( the dominant culture’s lies
about its oppression of the Native
American’s laid bare)

entering the liminal space
of late Autumn’s cold, short days,
the Winter Solstice nears
(the dominant culture’s
Black Friday and pre-Christmas
buying frenzy muted)

preparing ourselves through
deep reflection and contemplation
in our stillness and quietude
(the dominant culture’s frenetic
holiday festivities and prideful hail fellow
well met transmuted)

coming into the Advent season of the
coming of the Universal Cosmic Christ
and its call to “the high price of full
consciousness” (the dominant culture’s
distortions of Santa Claus and the churches’
sentimental baby Jesus plays notwithstanding)

Christ consciousness incarnate
Jesus is Lord, Come Lord Jesus
(not the dominant culture’s current day
Caesar of power, control, and violence,
but Christ with us in the neighborly
community of the Kin-dom)

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
November 28, 2021

Image by Matthias Stromer
‘Annunciazone’

Author’s note: My poem is meant to
convey the story of Universal Cosmic Christ
consciousness breaking into the worldy
human empires of the many Caesar’s and
their power, control, violence, and oppression.
As a universal cosmic, spiritual story, it extends
beyond the institutional Christian church and is
available to everyone regardless of personal
religious beliefs. It becomes part of the human
story of spiritual growth towards True Self and
belonging in Authentic Community together.
The quote in stanza four is from Richard Rohr.)