New Poem – whenever you can conjure…

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Whenever you can conjure

The stillness to notice,

There is

A sense of the ancient

Hanging in the air.

 

A lingering spiritual fragrance,

Full of knowing,

That dresses

Contemporary journeys

Like ours.

 

And always set against

Such a broad tapestry,

Long woven too

With telling details

That confirm who we are,

Albeit still as raw

And naive as any infant.

 

All the more so

When stood, toe to toe,

With the luminosity

Of days gone by.

And embarking,

As best we can,

On the benevolent

Opportunity

Of one thin slice

Of a chosen life,

However glorious,

Or loaded with pathos

This eventually becomes.

 

No chance of tragedy

Here though!

For we truly are,

As we come to recognise

Ourselves to be,

Mere receptacles.

 

Gilded chariots

That our spirits ride out,

But for a hallowed moment in time.

 

The merest splash of presence

In the serried halls of wonder.

99 Comments

  1. Laura Bailey

    Love “the serried halls of wonder”! Always have and always will! Very beautifully done! 🙂

  2. Bjorn Rudberg

    Scott, I like the thought of the present, on the foundation of the ancient..

    To me it brings a quote of Khalil Gibran to mind:

    Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.

  3. Yet another finest piece filled with wisdom and light. The concluding lines appear to be a breathtaking quote from you Scott- ‘The merest splash of presence
    In the serried halls of wonder.’ Thank you very much for this great piece of work. As always a real pleasure to read.

  4. Anna O. Moon

    Scott, jsem velmi ráda, že se tato stránka dá dobře přeložit do češtiny. mohu si tak vychutnat vaše krásné básně plnými doušky. Děkuji Vám. Thank you

    Scott, I am very glad that this page can be well translated into Czech . I so fully enjoyed your beautiful poem. Thank you Thank you

  5. Carol Zielinski

    The words to this poem are so moving to the very soul! Another lovely piece of art!!!!

  6. Tory Allyn

    A thought-provoking poem…I enjoyed it!!!!

  7. Onitra Wilkerson

    Scott, that was awesome, my friend! 🙂 Cannot wait to see more!! Beautifully done! 🙂

  8. Anna-Marie Docherty

    Another piece of beauty to contemplate. Love your closing phrases in particular. Congratulations on your new collection coming together… so nice to hear your wise and thoughtful pieces are reaching far and wide. Exciting times enjoy them.

  9. As people, we are intricate, yet obvious. As always, your words speak perceptibility and encouragement.

    “Such a broad tapestry,
    Long woven too
    With telling details
    That confirm who we are”

  10. I love “a sense of the ancient hanging in the air” and those closing lines magnificent piece, food for the soul

  11. Interesting poem —- lots of beautiful & memorable one-liner quotes to recall.

  12. Alscess Lewis-Brown

    Scott, keep on writing. Congratulations on this…

  13. That’s some beautiful writing right there.

  14. A lingering spiritual fragrance,
    Full of knowing,
    That dresses
    Contemporary journeys
    Like ours.

    A lot of depth & wisdom in this poem!!
    Excellent write 😀

    Lots of love,
    Sanaa

  15. Depth, wisdom, hope–all extant within your fine verses. It does resemble a middle eastern parable, but with deft modern touches as well. I like the lines /gilded chariots/that our spirits ride out/but for a hallowed moment of time/.

  16. Ah.. imagine a place
    of freedom.. where there
    are no bounds no limits
    and never
    any expectations..
    better yet live
    it now
    my friend
    as your
    words
    tale..
    It’s tempting
    to go there and never
    come back online
    in attempts to
    metaphor
    a path
    for
    others to
    this place we
    enjoy always
    now generated
    totAlly free from
    within but it is too
    delicious a meal
    not to
    attempt
    to share
    for
    free..
    sMiLEs..
    of Love
    Friend..:)

  17. And so we are (mere receptacles)and we must make the most of our short time on this world of ours. How sad it is that mankind seems intent of self-obliteration.
    Kind regards
    Anna :o]

  18. I like the deep reflection of our life’s journey ~ That we are indeed merely receptables, that our spirits ride out ~

  19. Patricia Awapara

    Beautiful poem Scott. It is heartfelt. warm to the soul. 🙂

  20. Thinking of ourselves as mere receptacles is a unique way of look at ourselves. And I like that there is a sense of the ancient hanging in the air because it shows the timeless nature of being.

  21. This poem especially resonates with me, now that I am living in Japan. The rich tapestry of this country’s heritage harks back thousands of years and forms a scrim through which all is experienced here. Without a sense of all that has nurtured ourselves as members of a culture, we are but knee jerk puppets trapped in a cocoon of immediate fleeting sensory data.

  22. A lingering spiritual fragrance

    That is a great line, Scott! It keeps one’s thinking on a sustained path!

    Hank

  23. You are the tapestry weaver.

    the words tend to spill over the edges of your white canvas, with delicate emotions.

    there are so many wistful dreams within this poem.

    bellissimo.

  24. Drew Clausen

    Very strong Poem Scott I enjoyed it very much..It shows a pathway that many others would not see in life..With strong conviction..LIKE a Pillar of time with newness of life. it grows and grows..

  25. Great piece, gives me time for pause and reflection

  26. We have to embrace the vastness to realize our own minute selves.. Nicely done!

  27. Gayle Walters Rose

    You demonstrate so well the blending of the now with time immemorial. You also put into perspective the blink of time that we actually are here…it really is astounding to think about it. Beautifully done.

  28. Wow, Scott, this is invigorating poetry! I’m especially taken by:

    …the benevolent
    Opportunity
    Of one thin slice
    Of a chosen life,
    However glorious,
    Or loaded with pathos
    This eventually becomes.

    Thank you for posting excellence!

  29. A beautiful flow of wisdom.

  30. Beautiful and profound poem !

  31. If only we made the most of our hallowed moment in time. How foolish we are to waste even a second of it. Beautifully expressed Scott.

  32. Mahnaz

    Thanks for sharing another intriguing poem,Scott! It’s a thoughtful investigation of life or as you said,”A lingering spiritual fragrance,
    Full of knowing,That dresses Contemporary journeys Like ours”.

  33. Thank you for this wonderful poem. I find it “interesting” how it resonates with the poem Rosemary picked for today in her “The Living Dead” feature over at Poets United. And thinking of Mary Oliver now, it is marvelous what we can do and affect in our “hallowed moment in time.”

  34. It certainly takes stillness inside to notice – a path which some of us have yet to tread on but which you and your poem seem to convey with a light further down the path.

  35. Mary Bryant

    Yes, so beautiful as always….

  36. Trish Shields

    “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Alexander Graham Bell

  37. Brian Wakeman

    As usual, a beautiful control of language and images.

    Brian
    Author of Knowing Through Poetic Reflection.

  38. Your poems are wonderfully felt. I’d love to put one of them or two in our PnPAuthors Promotional Magazine for our November issue. If you’re interested here is the address. http://pnpauthorspattimariandpeter.ning.com/?xgi=4OZnTWghUDexOX
    Pattimari

  39. Silence is timeless. Or a time machine.

  40. Beautiful and moving. Thanks for sharing.

  41. Very nicely done Scott. I like the feel of the ancient infusing our every day lives.

  42. Don Carroll

    Nicely done and the last two lines nail it to the mat perfectly.

  43. Our life is but a moment.
    That we could be wonder seekers, and open
    to new experiences, not just validating our own
    positions in the universe.

  44. “Whenever you can conjure
    The stillness to notice,
    There is
    A sense of the ancient
    Hanging in the air.”…..this so true and beautiful…

  45. Such a beautiful wise poem – the new built on the old, the old being such a strong foundation. …a lingering spiritual fragrance…if we allow ourselves, we can indeed breath in that wisdom and strength. I like this poem muchly. Second reading was even better.

  46. “luminosity of days gone by” indeed .. another exquisite addition to an already sparkling body of work…

  47. I so enjoyed the musing tone of this poem and your closing lines are absolutely stellar. Am impressed that you have another book coming out. Yay! Good work.

  48. Nice job…especially those last two lines…takes one’s breath away.

  49. Scott, it is for me always a bit difficult to comment upon poetry of such spiritual depth. Each poem that I read filled me with a sense of serenity and quietness. Thank you.

  50. Mindfulness does bring me into the very presence of which you speak, so present and spiritful that it hardly matters how thin a slice we have. Beautiful poem with so many surprises of which here are two: to dress a journey! “as raw / And naive as any infant.”

  51. This is a deeply contemplative write. Luv the images you used. Luv the themes of transience, journey, and continuity

    Have an awesome Sunday

    Much love…

  52. Your poem conjures that moment of stillness ~ so that the message and the effect of the poem merges 🙂

  53. A Splash of refreshment!!! You give the reader this wonderful place to look at life, experience, age. Your tapestry is colorful and complete.

  54. Profoundly stated. beautifully expressed. right on!

  55. Glory and pathos… I notice both, with wonder.

  56. I really love the opening and how Bjorn brought out the perfect Khalil Gibran quote….beautifully penned and so thought provoking.

  57. This was a pleasure to read..I could feel a bit of ancient lingering in the air. Our bodies but a vessel a chariot that we ride out..I think you’ve captured the journey beautifully.

  58. Beautiful thoughts of being and becoming. You write with the wisdom of an awakened spirit. Lovely.

  59. As you ride your “gilded chariots” between the ancient and the contemporary through the “serried halls of wonder,” there is no doubt that the timeless wonder of transformational mindfulness brings a heightened enlightenment to the tantric union of which you speak so eloquently in your poetry, Dear Scott. Best wishes always.

  60. It takes a certain type of grace to see our own fragility in that much larger picture. Even more to write about it in that musing tone and thought provoking manner. Thank you,

    Elizabeth

  61. Panchali

    “For we truly are,
    As we come to recognise
    Ourselves to be,
    Mere receptacles…”- Immaculate! Some beautiful things can’t be discovered without getting lost! Loved it, Scott.

  62. Life is indeed a wonder.

  63. Nivedita Yohana

    Your lovely poem came uncannily at the moment, I needed to hear these words. You are truly my angel guiding me through this journey through your divine incantation. As you rightly say we are mere receptacles of the energies we attract or the energy of the divine providence shaping and molding us just as a sculptor would, to a piece of stone. I absolutely loved the lines:

    “Gilded chariots
    That our spirits ride out,
    But for a hallowed moment in time.

    The merest splash of presence
    In the serried halls of wonder.”

    which beautifully sums up the eternal truth that many sages and philosophers achieved after spending years on meditating and conferring. The truth is in the present. It reminds me of Rainer Maria Rilke

    “Let everything happen to you
    Beauty and terror
    Just keep going
    No feeling is final”

    and Walt Whitman who says “Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.”

    I really love the way you view life with such endearing detachment and embracing life’s moments, the stillness and the crescendo of silence that engulfs the fleeting moments of life. The mystical aura that hangs around us is subdued by the white noise around us. Your words swim in the pool of such virtuosity and sanctity, Scott… amazing!!!

    I am sure your words are reaching far and wide comforting, sustaining, assuring and validating life itself! just as they are to me.

    With lots and lots of love,

    Nivedita

  64. Scott:

    Good poem from a great Poet. I especially like:

    “As we come to recognise
    Ourselves to be
    Mere receptacles.”

    I often pray for the Holy Spirit to fill me; a mere vessel.

    ~ Richard ~

  65. As always you are embarking deeply…I like that opportunities for us are benevolent whatever we choose to pursuit, and indeed this is the precious moment of present. Love the image of chariots, it’s always about the choice.

  66. Another beautifully expressed reflection on what life is all about!

  67. I love the idea of an existence with “no chance of tragedy”; for most of our tears, I believe, are squeezed out by our hubris.

  68. Carolyn Bean

    Another beautifully expressed thought about life!

  69. Pattimari Sheets Cacciolfi

    Your poems are always so beautifully felt…

  70. Shari LeKane Yentumi

    Thank you for the wonderful poetry

  71. Scott, it is most interesting that you should write this in this time. Of late I have had increasingly greater moments to pause…reflection on existential things and truly what we are and what our significance and purpose is on this vast earth. Then there is a much broader consideration as we look beyond the horizon of the seas and heavenward to limitless depths of space. Receptacles indeed and seemingly here for a mere century or much less. Perhaps these thoughts, these engagements come with greater frequency as age is finite in more relative terms. Four times in is simply insufficient reading…I shall return!

  72. So true…. we really are just riding through in these gilded chariots…. Your insight is always so ravishing Scott… So earthy. It always touches me.

  73. Ashlie Allen

    Wow, Scott! I truly think this is one of your best poems. It has a sense of longing to know what it means to be human. There is a vulnerability here that has such grace and sincerity. I am amazed! Thanks for sharing!

  74. Lovely poem. The end paragraph though is where he comes rushing through in great and triumphant thunder. Read:
    For we truly are,
    As we come to recognise
    Ourselves to be,
    Mere receptacles.

    Gilded chariots
    That our spirits ride out,
    But for a hallowed moment in time.

    The merest splash of presence
    In the serried halls of wonder.

    These are the moments that magic and great poetry are made of.

  75. Lovely poem Scott. There is always so much pleasure when reading your poetry. Always too, something of value to savor. Thank you.

  76. Helen Moule

    Just read your wonderful piece again and so wonderful always to read your amazing poetry

  77. Imfundo

    Great poem!

  78. Great, deep thoughts in here…loved it! Totally relatable in mood and content no matter at what juncture of life one finds oneself – your poems have that universal appeal Scott! Particularly loved the butter-smooth ending!

  79. Jayanta Guha

    Nice one!!

  80. Aikya Oneness

    Thank you very much for an eye opening poem dear Scott

  81. Ela Matteucci

    Like a hallowed moment in time

  82. Shanthi Yiyayabhasker

    NIce, yes….where contemplation transforms one into the mystical…

  83. Parlay Yvette

    A (M)AGNIFICIENT PLANE

  84. Roopika

    Scott….Wonderful poem with lots of spirtual essence in it. Thanks.

  85. Nija Guna

    Beautiful words embedded in beautiful poem

  86. A lovely piece nicely put together, your words well crafted and meaningful. And indeed, quite so, such is the human condition.

  87. Neena Sharma

    True Scott sir.

    Our bodies are the chariots and we as souls can dive within to experience the stillness of divine spirit within during our mortal sojourn on earth, no matter howsoever the tapestry of our life … Whether full of pathos or juxtaposed with pleasure and pain… We emerge triumphant in the whole journey , for peace and happiness is never far away … And it is a journey not a destination.

    Wow! Brilliant profound marvel from a true artist. So sensitively and tellingly portrayed!
    Thanks for this…

    Divine greetings, felicitations and regards.

  88. Congratulations for the wonderful poem. I understand just a bit than English language, but, the necessary to read your text. Regards. Pedro

  89. Lukman Clark

    Wonderful!

  90. “Gilded chariots

    That our spirits ride out,

    But for a hallowed moment in time.”

    This passage really spoke to me deeply. As a grandfather twice over, my chariot has lost much of its gilding and now creaks and groans at every turn of the road. The end of my hallowed moments seems vaguely imminent, making the moments more precious.

  91. Rita Ames

    Beautiful words Scott. I am always amazed at how many ways there are to touch on a subject by creative people.

  92. Brian D. Peterson

    Whenever you can conjour speaks well of the awe, wonder, and mysteries of life.

  93. Donna Thompson

    I see you are a positive entity!

  94. It’s full of light, light which gives hope.
    Thank you Scott. You are awesome!

  95. A beautiful and thought-provoking composition. Well done!

  96. Angela Kolias

    Mere receptacles? I am experiencing life as a live wire, a conduit, without beginning or end.

    Scott says: Yes indeed Angela – receptacles… In other words spaces where energies can take shape and begin to spark… Energies that make us eternal when our physical body (receptacle) is no longer… So yes, without beginning or end in our essence beyond mortality itself…

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