Forgiving Ii Poem by Saiom Shriver

Forgiving Ii



SNOWDROP LAKE

The clarified waters of Snowdropp Lake
form from melted hexagonal snowflakes.
The heart unfrozen with new love flows
as new soulspace does forgiving make.

(Curiously the writer has several
times removed the 2nd d in snowdrop
which keeps reappearing)

PEACE TEMPLE LIGHTNING

Carved in stone in the Peace Temple
was 'those who live by the sword
shall perish by the sword'
but the caretaker of that temple
had so learned his lessons
.. a God-dispatched lightning
bolt.. erased those words
and wrote in their place
'Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

FISHNET FORGIVEN

The fishing net has
straightened out
.. and become a dreamcatcher

(to J Lehman and his work)

ARIZONA RAIN

The feathers of the Phoenix
bird are not always
flakes of fire..
sometimes they are mercy's
falling waterdrops

NINTH STEP

She was very upset to find that the
woman to whom she wanted to make amends
had died.. Later she found
that by miracle.. a friend
had made amends for her.

BEYOND CRIMSON SCARS

Above earth's crimson
scars
shine the diamond stars
Beyond earth's greyest
clouds
shines the great sunstar
Beneath his angry mouth
beats his peaceful heart
A paradox is it
.. that his angry words
are written with the ink
of love

HATE METASTASIZES

Revenge destroys
the brain with fire
It is terror and cancer
cells' multiplier
.. the great
metastasizer...
will you choose to focus
on the rose
or on the thorny briars?

FORWARD BUTTERFLY

The butterfly does
not look back
to the cocoon
of caterpillar.
She does not
want to be
a Lot's wife
bitter pillar

WILL I EVER BE

Will I ever be
like the peony
which responds to storms
heavensent
by gifting all with her scent?

..

LAVA TURNS TO JEWELS

She the sea
.. receives red hot
lava
and transmutes it
into green glass jewels.

She the listening compassionate
ear
turns anger into
love.



(to L Lichty whose friends were gently diverted when they criticized others in her presence)

PRAYER

Thank You
for Your descent
Holy Spirit.. Dove
with Your transforming
Touch of Love
in the heart of each
killing general and
judge
prosecutor and gov

PLANTS FORGIVE

Some day
the acacia leaves
will forgive giraffes
and in the presence
of koala bears
bamboo shoots will laugh
.. the cows will
be welcomed by
each blade of grass

SNOWMEN

'Snowmen dropp unassembled from the sky' *
some created by sculpting child's play
.. their life models men frozen into cruelty by
pain

*(said the anonymous email..)

DEWDROP METAMORPHOSIS

The hanging ice daggers
slowly drip drip drip
and one by one they
do drop
until finally the last
one.. melts and plops..
some day.. it will
be dewdrops

BLUEPRINTS AND WIND

Of our past transgressions..
The Divine Wind away blew prints
and the Sun made reality
of wish blue prints

TO UNDERSTAND AN AGENT IS TO FORGIVE HER OR HIM

Some were threatened physically
or their loved ones threatened.
Some were released early from
jail in exchange for services.
Others had hearts' desires for
money, addictions, a person
etc dangled in front of them

NONDUALISTS
FORGIVING GOD

Nondualists who think that
God is the only Doer..
believe that God is the only one
they need forgive.

SHADOWS SCURRY

Entities who the dark
path represent
do forgiven images
re-present.
They scurry away
when
the Name of God
is present.

GOD IS GUILTY

If God is the only Doer
then..
even a killer is an actor
saying his preordained lines


CONNECTING THE SYNAPSES

When Kissinger declines to hunt boar with Brezhnev
but arranges the bombing of Vietnamese.. this is a disconnect
in the chambers of his heart

When Churchill directs a ladybug to be saved
and bombs hundreds of thousands.. this is
a disconnect in the chambers of his heart

When Hitler directs that animals be freed
from the Berlin Zoo during the bombing
but kills millions.. this is a disconnect
in the chambers of his heart

Howard Zinn speaks of the disconnect
of bomber pilots who cannot
hear the screams, smell the blood
nor see the limbs being blown
off.. as they are 30,000 feet up

When people stand in freezing cold
for peace.. and then go home
to dead bodies on the dinner plate
this is a disconnect

When teachers show their
cooking classes graphs
of animals divided into
steaks.. it is a disconnect

All these illustrate the disconnect
of distance.. they cannot kill
whom they know but can
objectify beings they do not know

It's not sin or lapse
but disconnected synapse

GRASS SEED

She often had to plant
grass seed where
her volcanic explosions
had occurred.

TAN

Dracula was running
from the dawn
.. on vines he tripped
and by temple dogs
was trapped
.. and found as the
sun rose
that he too by Sunlove
was tanned

EDITING

It is easier to
edit what is written
on paper than what is
carved in stone.
Easier still to edit
what is written on
sand or water.

RED DRESS

Unforgiving..
a desire for redress
can become the soul's
vengeful red dress

THUNDERSTORM

His storm
in the fruitladen
tree released
her grace gifts
early.

RADIUS RIVER

The radius river
moved..
fanning into a delta
before becoming
the circle sea

LIGHTNING SWORDS

As swords of
lightning cannot
cleave the sky
the personality
cannot harm
the God in which
it lies

FEMORAL

On pot he looked down
at the chicken bones
femoral
of innocent birds
with lives so ephemeral
and decided from the
moment of that day
to attempt nonviolence
in every way

RELEASE

When her pluto ruled
underground springs
upwelled into Sagittarian
joy geysers
she was able to forgive
Nazi children of the Kaiser


TREE TEMPLE ROSEBUSH RIGHTS

To destroy a present temple is akin to pulling
down a living tree... to resurrect old rocks..
...or to a psychopath killing
an 'illegitimate' child..

Jan had a vision of Catholic nuns watering
the roses on Hitler's grave. Rosebushes have rights, even if they are woven of the flesh of the body of Hitler.

PUPPETEER

Those who believe God is the only
Doer
believe that the Puppeteer punishes
His puppets.

FORGIVING MYSELF FOR UNCONSCIOUSNESS

In the days before 1968
I stood for peace
but sat down to violence
.. vigiled for an end to war
and dined on blood turned juice.

UNIVERSAL

his posts were
usually off topic
and quite misanthropic
but they forgave him
and invited him back
to their paradise in
the tropics

VICTORY OVER TIME

As the physical magnetism
of some can affect wrist watches
so the spiritual magnetism
of the holy
can erase time's karma

HEART OF THE DEER

A tiny percentage
stalked the deer
to eat their hearts
But billions worked
to guard
the love flowing
from those hearts

(in the US, less than
4% of the population hunt..
hunters are down one third
among those 18 to 24)


DEICIDE IS IMPOSSIBLE

The neonazi changed.
He did decide
that if God is light
noone can commit deicide

NO HARM NO FOUL

A message bottled
within each sparkling sunbeam..
'no harm, no foul'
because it's a dream.


WOLLESLEY BEAR

I promise you Wollesley
Bear.. wherever you are
.. that next time I brake
for a butterfly
I'll make sure you
have your seatbelt
on

SNOWS OF THE MOUNTAIN CRAGS

As mountain crags do
hold the snow
though on it mightily
the sun does glow
so does it longer take
for some souls
to release pain which
long ago froze

FRUIT OF CRITICISM

What is the fruit of criticism?
The receiver's heart shuts down.
There is an urge to counterattack.
The ego and the heart are intertwined
so both feel judged and begin
to marshal defenses and to attack.

(Thaddeus Golas: 'In response to
pain, expand')

FORGIVE ME LITTLE VIOLETS

Forgive me, little violets,
that in smelling lilacs
I did unconsciously step on
your shy little heads.

AS MOTHER LOOKS ON A TODDLER'S FALL

God looks on error
as a mother looks on a toddler's fall*
.. or on her young son making mudballs*
as the sun
gazes 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

FLOTILLA OF BIRDS


On the lake float
a flotilla of all direction flying
birds
neath a flotilla of 1 direction
clouds..

Some had landed first on ice
.. others differently upon the
water

.. In February Mother Earth
forgives sooner than
Father Water..but he too
will melt

DEBT ERASED

It had snowed
and the criminal's
footprints showed
the path to him.

However it was the
same snow.. knowing
he had changed
.. which again fell
erasing the tracks
to a judicial hell

FEBRUARY

A sudden February freeze
arrested the raindrops
on the branch
like a snapshot..
stopped them in their flow
..
but the afternoon sun frees
drops from the morning freeze
... gone the frost
nothing was lost

DIFFERENT RIVER

A river has changed
in this second..
some of him has emptied
into the sea..
some is being renewed
in headwaters.

PENTACLES MELT IN THIRD EYE

In meditation he watched
black pentacles
melt in the cobalt blue
of the third eye

and knew someone's
past karma was being
erased

GOD KEEPS NO FILES


God keeps no files
on reformed pedophiles
.. Spirit
creates learning
situations..
with action's consequences..
but God sees
all bodies
as Divine Love phials
and can each soul
undefile
as She erases
all prison files

BOUND BY LOVE

2 former competitors
for the same man,
not yet aware of their
eternal spirit love
for each other
were yet bound
by their love for him

FROM ANY POINT ON THE WHEEL

God can catapult someone
from the most fallen states
into liberation.. while
another remains stuck
in orbital shells
not realizing his
complacence is a hell


33 DEGREE WATER

33 degree water
can be colder than 32 degree ice
for it is not barred
from entering the skin

When Cancer forgives
cancer can disappear




PATIENT TREES

.. patient trees
receiving the blows
of elephant tusks, lovers' initialing
knives, 'pruning' shears, moose antlers,
lightning bolts, tornado winds,
utility axes, lumbermen's chain saws


never themselves holding up
branches defensively to fend
off the blows

CLEMENCY

I ask you tenderly
to grant me clemency
as polluted rivers' tendencies
are purified in clement sea.

TOTAL AMNESTY

As the criminal's snowprint traces
are gone when sun the cold erases
so do all sins disappear in
God's
firefall of
all graces

COLD GOLD

The people's land
was given to the mineowners
at firesale prices.
They hired slaves at
less than minimum wage...
and when the fire
at their deathtrap mine
took the lives of many
it refined
the cold gold.

LOVING FOES

God told us to love our
neighbor as ourselves.
Jesus told us to love our
enemies.
Therefore we are told
to love our enemy as ourselves.

RELEASE THE WASTE

The body should not hold onto
toxic waste
nor should the mind or soul
cling to past hates.

ABOVE FREEZING

To frost had firmed the fog
which veiled the cranberry bog
but now iced crystal jewels
melt into Spirit's drops

LIQUID DECK OF CARDS

Iceberg spires and turrets of
crystallized pain
melt in warm waters
off the coast of Spain.

FOUR ELEMENTS

God's water washes away transgressions.
God's fire burns errors to ash.
God's earth buries mistakes.
God's air blows them into fragrant zephyrs.

GREEDY CATERPILLAR

Gopal said she saw
greed as a hungry caterpillar.
May I see it that way too: a voracious
caterpillar soon to cocoon
himself til his own transmutation
..the devoured sacrificed
green leaves of spring
turned to translucent
feathery invulnerable wings

ICEBERG

Paradoxically n iceberg overhang
is more
dangerous when melting than
when frozen. As evil is breaking
up
it can be more unstable
and dangerous. The wise
avoid proximity in such
cases.



CONNECT THE DOTS

When I asked my father not to fish
I did not connect to the meat on my plate
When I saw the film Mondo Kane I did not connect
When I saw the cow on the high school blackboard
marked with dotted lines I did not connect those dots
When I saw the picture magazine with a hyena's face frozen
in terror right before he was killed by a lion I did not connect
When I met a vegetarian I resisted
The different chambers of my brain did not speak to each other.
I now forgive myself.. for having been unripe fruit..
hard and green...unconscious... unawakened to suffering.


-


THOUGHTS ON FORGIVING
Jesus: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.
Course In Miracles: The holiest ground in creation is
that where 2 former opponents have forgiven each other.
(paraphrased)
J Myzkowski: My former enemy was a mirror who revealed
the dirt upon my face. (paraphrased)
Kabir: The saint helped the scorpion over and over again
and the scorpion each time returned a sting. Some said
'do you not know it is the nature of the scorpion to sting? '
and the saint replied 'it is my nature to save.'
Jan Freundschuh: When I'm having trouble forgiving someone
I mentally regress him to baby state.
Sri Yukteswar: The vanished lives of all are filled with
many shames. Therefore do not judge.
Gerald Jampolsky: Forgiving others helps us forgive ourselves.
Bible: Judge not lest ye be judged.
Kabir: Forgiveness is a game only saints play.
April Baer: Forgiveness is a form of cleaning out closets
(paraphrased)
Nancy Taylor: Unforgiveness wastes energy as extra weight
is carried around. Unforgiveness requires the energy
waste of repressing.
Maria Susie: (re the Bible that God tosses our sins into
the deep sea) God has posted a no fishing sign in His
deep waters.
Sai Baba: You may blame me for the bad which passes through
you if you praise me for the good.
(God is the only Doer)
Gopal: It helps to understand in why people do bad things
to remember that only a tiny slice of the pie of their
divinity was brought into this incarnation with them.
L Bertsch: Resentment turns a face slap into an ulcer.
Sai Baba: Not in the morning pond does the lion wash his blood.
The Buddha: The more evil done to you the more good do in return. (Buddha's purity was so great that those who plotted to kill him had their plans recoil upon themselves, not by his actions, but by the law of spiritual physics.)
Evangelical tv pastor John Hagee: Did someone harm you in 1962.. let go of it! Control and ride the horses of anger.
(may Hagee be aligned to Jesus' teachings on pacifism)
Jan Freundschuh: (To a former foe) Now I see you as a pure rushing fountain..adorned only by your own sweet splashes.
D Calleia: I went to sleep praying for an opponent, someone who
had repeatedly harmed me. That night God came to me in her
form.. and gave me a creative new way to draw my graphs.
Poster: Don't go down Rearview Road. It's one way.. and leads to pillars of salt.
JBO: So are you saying that you are getting the senior citizen
discount on your sins and the reduced weekend excursion rate
on your transgressions?
Saint Of Shirdi: It is the fruitladen tree which attracts a shower of stones.
S Anthony Grafio: To hold someone in past thoughts is to imprison him.
A Thakur: My uncle received the anger of a great saint. He
considered it a blessing.
Sai Baba: The actor who slapped you on the stage waits behind
the curtain to congratulate you on your performance.
Alanon (passed through SC) Others' opinions of me are not my
business
Bible: Judge not lest ye be judged.
Poster: Until past images are released, one is a blocked tv screen.
K. S. Hoare: The woman was not miraculously healed until she forgave
the horse who had thrown her.
(*perhaps all horses need to forgive their human oppressors)
John C Lehman Jr: Sometimes it is not necessary the problem
to solve but change the angle of vision and the problem dissolves.
K. S. Hoare: Part of her heart was tied off by God..
that the rest might grow larger.
Mahatma Gandhi: An eye for an eye makes everyone blind.
(Jesus came to make the blind see.)
Unknown: To understand all is to forgive all.
*
A: What did I ever do to her.. I never spoke to
her.. never touched her
B: You bathed her in your aura

********


the 2nd d in dropp is not the writer's idea

A humble request:
Please print from the web on rice, cotton, scrap, nontree paper, or 100% recycled Emily Dickinson: a whiplash unbraiding in the sun (unconditional love unties the knots of resentment) For the sake of sentient trees and their resident flightless baby birds and squirrels please use cotton rice or other less violent paper in print outs from the web

© Saiom Shriver


Greedy Caterpillar was inspired by a thought of J Freundschuh God Looks On Sin includes 2 of Sai Baba's parables and a dream of J Freundschuh Stars in 'As Mother Looks on a Toddler's Fall' are based on the teachings of Sai Baba as is the parable that we should be like rivers flowing over sharp rocks Tecumseh Museum is to all Native Americans and settlers who have suffered in the past) (years after dreamer had this dream on the early morn of December 7 she heard broadcast on C Span a description of a Mohican museum.. followed by the song You are my sunshine) Mallik Arjunan: From any point on the wheel one can be liberated notes on As Mother Looks on a Toddler's fall.. title based on a quote by Saint of Shirdi.. mudballs based on a dream by Jan F (we are all Tecumsehs: look not at our past but at the divine light within each of us as we forgive ourselves) * the stars indicate concepts transmitted to writer by the words of Sai Baba Silver Screen Projection is to Susie M C If You is to T Jackson

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