My Personal Universe
My personal universe is more meaningful than the one in the sky.
I know I can never reach its limit, yet it is mine to enter any time I open to it.
I create the sparkling gems of stars coming to birth through who I become.
The glow of galaxies swirl in my being as I gather the pieces of my life.
The spheres of loving/giving form to the beauty of my universe.
We create the universe of our being.
The deeper we go into the True Reality of life,
the more exquisite our universe can be.
Do not waste time, pollute your universe, or neglect the wonders that await you.
Pheo Rose
copyright 1971, Contemplative Life Foundation
Nascent Faith
(Nascent – the state from which development can occur)
Touching unending expansiveness that is all one –-
even just for a second.
Accepting for a moment –-
the inconceivable is.
Shedding despair’s torment of “Is this all there really is?”
Our Vision of Existence we find after all, Is ever so limited.
“I believe” utters my astounded voice.
Presence enveloping all loneliness,
Catching my heart’s beat.
Vision of Love expands with my breath.
“You do Exist” utters my astounded voice?”
Do not extinguish this flash of hope,
Hold this glimpse of clarity rare,
Buffer taunts of inward doubt.
Fleeting the destiny of what could have been,
If one lets go of this moment.
Eternity unfolding is what can be
For one who tenaciously holds its reality.
Pheo Rose
Copyright 1992, Contemplative Life Foundation
In the Maze of People
In the maze of people who berate others out of their own self-disillusionment,
of those who demean so that they can control,
of those who manipulate by being ever so close in what they say,
Difficult to discern the soft voice
who speaks of your true light, gifts, and uniqueness
without wanting some part of you for themselves.
Yet, they, known as the pure of heart, are there.
And, those who shake off any who berate and demean;
and slip from the ensnares of the manipulators and controllers,
while holding to their faith in Love
do recognize that one voice in the maze,
And are opened like a seed who can now push through its casing.
Love is truly relational, and with humility we must continue to acknowledge
that we must have this through another.
So, we go on through the maze
knowing that those cherished ones
who will help us see ourselves will intersect with our path.
Pheo Rose
Copyright CLF 2007
A Confession.
(This poem is dedicated to a friend of a friend I was visiting. He was so excited that evening because he felt, for the first time, God (known by so many other names) was real in his life. I smiled for him. The next morning I saw him glum and grim. As I approached him looking out the window, he stated: “See, I believed in God and look what happened.” As I looked out the window, I saw his car had been badly side-swiped. “There is no God, look what happened.” And he set his face in a glare. There was so much I wanted to say, but I knew he would have to find his way. He eventually did.)
O Oneness of Love, That which is Intimate and Infinite,
I opened just a crack of faith and belief in You, and have turned away.
I have kept myself from you.
I have shielded myself and backed away,
I have ignored You in my life because I can.
Forgive me.
For turning away, rather than trusting.
For the times I have felt a spark of faith and backed away again and again.
For reaching for life’s mainstay instead of taking the path to You.
For seeing all the charlatans and ravaging done in Your name, as You.
I rationalize, and I make believe in my own life:
empty ache as empathy.
Stripped nerve endings as shared being.
Intolerable situations as actualizing.
Relative lack of pain as joy.
I am so afraid of the ugliness, cruelty, hate, suffering, and injustice
my eyes saw when I opened to You, so I turned back to the blindness,
and turned away from You.
I fall into shock, dread, abhorrence, rejection,
and in this am bound to this world.
In protecting myself, I live entrapped.
You showed me that I can be freed.
The perceived fear of the unknown is healthy, and discernment is my guide.
Love so Great that I cannot comprehend, is a treasure to receive piece by piece.
I know You are the Source of my life, even as I continue to question Your existence.
To surrender to You is to take on the strength of faith and trust the wisdom of the ages.
Pheo Rose
copyright 1980, Contemplative Life Foundation
Love’s Flower
Love’s flower pushes for the light of life and the air of others.
From the seed, it ages with time.
Nourishment and deprivation fate the flower’s growth.
One special person can fertilize love’s ground,
and a bud blooms into a radiant blossom,
Freely blowing in the wind and withstanding contentious elements,
The flower radiates an aura of beauty and serenity.
Love’s Flower has its own seasons.
Relationships bloom, and even with the best of sturdy stems
Relationships wilt, and it is time for solitude to prevail,
Warmth of true love opens, and depth of intimacy flourishes.
Only when a root system extends deep,
can the flower weather lack of nourishment of others
and the darkness of despair.
Each flower grows in its own way.
Some develop deep roots but never reach out.
For these to blossom, rustlings of another are necessary.
For those never rooting, each flower stunts and withers.
The wise ones root deeper than they reach out.
The most exquisite ones have rooted into
The source of all Love,
That Love which is Intimate and Infinite.
Pheo Rose
copyright 1973, Contemplative Life Foundation