Forgiving Poem by Saiom Shriver

Forgiving



CRADLE ROCKED

When the pond was smashed
by his clenched fist..
it became a cradle rocking
for the little fish

God transmutes anger
into love

THE RIVER TARRIES NOT

The river tarries not
over the stones of karma.
To seaward joyfully running
is her destiny's dharma


TECUMSEH MUSEUM ON A HIGH HILL

A Tecumseh museum.. on a high
hill.. full of axes, scalps
and knives..
Someone enters and
walks around opening all
the shutters..
light pours in
One is then
aware.. only of the
supernal radiance.

And from the high hill
distance one sees puffs
from many chimneys.. all
smoking the pipes of peace.



ICICLE POINT

The frozen daggers of
unforgiveness..
icicles..
shine in the light
but it is the orb
of forgiveness
.. the miracle
point at the drip
of the icicle tip
which reflects the sun

INVISIBLE GARLAND

Each of us wears an invisible
garland of skulls.. for all
the souls we have in this
or other lives killed, injured,
neglected, for all those beings
whose hearts we have hurt.

God's mercy sometimes
instantly, sometimes through
centuries, turns all the skulls
to jewels.

CROATIAN CREATION

Crocuses are blowing
with the news..
cows are crowing it
and frogs are croaking it..

A most sacred place
in all Creation
is the forgiving ground
of Bosnian Serb & Croatian



SEACHANGE IN HEART WATERS

There are signs of the tide's inrush
as the gulls come closer..
as the sound of laves wapping brings
peace
.. and in the waters of the heart
is a subtle seachange


VIOLET ME


As the sun poured into
her niches and naves
and
her coves and her caves
Mother Earth cried
'You violate me! '

But weeks went by
and she spied
April's apricot apron
and apple blooms
and then she exclaimed
'You violet me! '

(to a quiet saint, Nita Nickol)

NIAGARA FALLS

Two rock divided branches of the
same river of God
approach a cliff.
Lanc causes the waterfall foes
each other diametrically to oppose.
As each roars over the cliffside,
unhurt they emerge as one,
some drops rising as mist
to bless riparian trees.
Made of the Mist
are new leaves.

(to the people of the United States and Canada)

(to the people of the US and Canada)

TWO NEGATIVES A POSITIVE MADE

As two negatives when multiplied
a positive do make
.. former foes who seek
each others' good
cause miracles forth to break

BEING KIND

Those who refuse to harm
the hearts of others
with humor involving
ridicule or cruelty
or searing revenge
.. are able to call
on the aid of the guardian
angels and parents
who do not forgive
as quickly as their
human charges.

SILVER SCREEN PROJECTION

She never feels rejection
by others' projection..
as they describe their
own faces..
found in her soulmirror's
reflection...
when they cast
their negative movies
upon her luminous silver
screen. Its very purity
invites the process..
as a blank page invites
pen scrawl.
as a sea receives
rivers. Slowly
others learn it is their
own movies on her screen..
their own faces in her mirror.

(to MSC)


BALL TO BALLLOOOOON

The ball got lighter and lighter
as she shed more and more
of her insides of the past..
until she became an invulnerable
balloon.. and soared away
wherever she wished
.. alighting whenever she wished



GREAT UNCLE

She was able to forgive
the hunter who shot
her great aunt
in the woods
when angels gave her
a dream.. and showed
her the hunter had
let her aunt out
of earth jail...
and ushered her
into the world
of ecstasy.




AS MOTHER LOOKS ON HER TODDLER'S FALL

God looks on error
as a mother looks on a toddler's fall*
.. or on her 4 year old child's making mudballs
or like the sun
gazing upon sour fruit soon to be sweet*
.. or upon a blow which releases
water from ice freezes

God does not send loved ones to hell
for acting on drives from the outer shell

God is more forgiving
than the daily snowfall which
erases
many human footfall traces
.. more forgiving than
the sea
which holds onto no boat wake
.. more forgiving than
the sky..
which forgets the path of clouds
or the fire
which devours the mistakes of
the past

Divine Love made us
.. anything which is not
of Divine Love
.. is not you.. is not me
***********


ALTARS OMNIPRESENT

In doubt or
hesitation
do not falter
at Abba's
omnipresent altars
where
God forgives
all us knaves,
all defaulters

IF YOU

If you do now
your heart unlock
I promise in the future
I will knock


ICICLES

Our enemies..
they were huge
daggar icicles
hanging up high
.. ready at the
slightest sound
to crack down

Time passed..
they dripped
and grieved
at their own
passing

More time passed
.. they glow
in the morning sun
.. crystal..
exclamation points
of joy
with drops at the
bottom

Now all the ice
is gone
.. water no longer
caged by frozen
form

STAR SHAPED SCARS

As she began to focus
on the grace rather
than the pain

Each little scar
turned to miracle star

BOUGH

God looks upon
a broken vow
as on a river
not clinging to
bough


BRIGHT GOLD FIELDS

Within the husk
are bright seeds
containing future
gold fields of corn

Just so God grows
joy's bright kernels
inside the husks
of cruel scorn

DIVINE PAINT

The blue paint
of the third eye
cannot be chipped
away..
The blue eraser
of the 3rd eye
cannot be overlaid
It cancels all
mistakes of the past
.. all dark portraits

HEATHER

The falling snow erases
the criminal's footprint traces
The seas do not record
the weedcleaving swords
of the unknowing oared..
nor does the heather neath
highland mist
seek to remember the
heavy tread
which for wee moments
crushed
her violet head

(to Heather S)


FORGIVING FOREGIVING

To forgive
is to release
to let go
to fore-give
to give first.

FLOW INTO FOE

When you can flow
into your foe
and witness his
most bright soulglow
love replaces
the wavering
of to and fro

SCARLET LEAVES ORANGE BERRIES

We passed a scarlet leafed
orange berried bush
..crimson leaves turn
to softer fruit..
Anger.. into Love

HE IS CHANGING

You cannot see how he is changing
He is a growing baby eagle
with an unmoving shell
and within him does unseen

the force of Godlove swell.
He is water melting within
the towering iceberg spires
He is coldform becoming formless
through the touch of GodSunFire.
He is the April Aries apricot
leaf ready to unfold
.. which will calyx the fruit
as it turns to gold


CLUBHOUSE

He gradually realized
that when the gang of
thugs kicked him out
of their clubhouse..
they released him
from jail

CANCELLED STAMPS

God can forgive even
a general's or president's


millions of caused deaths
more quickly than
President Eisenhower's
image on a stamp
can be cancelled... once
a heart decides never
again to cause suffering.


SOLUTION TO THOUGHT POLLUTION

When anger at warmongers
creates thought pollution
prayer for them and me
is a possible solution

Rather than let anger's winds
blow my raft away
I can cross the bridge
over thought's separations


TO UNDERSTAND ALL IS TO FORGIVE ALL

He who rescues an ox
from a ditch might
be muddy for a time
as the lake in which
the lion washed his blood
is for a while
crimson with his anger.

VIETNAM

The soul humbling forgiveness
of the Vietnamese
brings our hearts
to our bending knees

OARCLEFT

Birds have oerleapt
the sea oarcleft.
But she has
not been harmed

Bee has petals
of clover cloven
but she has
not been harmed

She confers her
drops of grace
on the shaft which leaves
without a trace


THE STONE SHE HAS THROWN

The stones
she has at others thrown
have become the cornerstones
of her Divie Love throne.


CHERISH THE CHERRYSTONES

Cherish the
hard cherrystones
.. inside each is
scarlet lettered code
They are
.. the crimson chariots
of future
cherries
transformed into rubies
by the
sun's cheer..
for every Chinawoman
and Cherokee
.. every child
young or old
For them.. every year
is a jubilee

(to Patty and Charles D)
(writer was ignorant of
cherrystones as a word
for suffocated clams)

RAM DASS

The Asian Indian Ram Dass
says that good and evil
are a projection of my mind.
Therefore it is myself
I must forgive.

KIND SURGEONS

there are kind surgeons
who stitch up sturgeons
and release them to the open seas
when the high tides are surgin

THE SUN AND THE MUDCLOD

The sun did shine in 360
degrees.. blessing all with her
rays.. one particular clod of
mud.. refused her love.. did
not answer the door to her radiant
silent knock.. did not.. the
gate of his clodheart unlock..
so she held back one of her
infinite rays.. but after a while
realized that it was silly
to waste energy..
and so let her rays shine
in all directions as before. Letting go
caused more energy to flow:
And the mudclud, the hundredth lamb..
did eventually his heart unlock.

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