When you find Love, You will find yourself. ~ Rumi

The “I” as light as a feather,


Rising in the glow of the morning sun,


Up and up it goes, beyond the tether

Of fearful notions into an altitude where,

A joyous abandonment, wise and gentle,

Substantial as all the good put together,


The self in heavenly illumination --


At the astonishment of some,

And ministration – requests to withdraw
.

Selflessly it moves beyond 


The confinement of a minor place,

A tiny human mental space, to feel the bond

With the great “I am,” and therein 
An enlightened, inner world to contemplate,

The movement of a soaring,

Gliding spiritual thought, seen obedient,

Though to a mortal sense
Progress seems an impediment, thus boring …

Now the time has come

For thought resurrected

To enter the portal of Love, and

With ardent whisper, you’ll say:

“O Love, hold me in your healing embrace!”


On this, Dearest, meditate --

And surrender the self to Love’s ways.

--eva-maria hogrefe

(July 30, 2012)

A few notes:

I write free verse -- that means when I compose a poem I listen to the musical phrasing instead of the metronome, i.e., I’m in-tune with my own voice of rhythms, which will be my measure for composing, and … (a love of mine) adding the richness of metaphor.

Poets down the ages thought the gift of metaphor the most important.  … The best words in the right order and then the musical sound, the rhythm, but most important, the metaphor.

For me poetry is music in words, doors to step through, canvases to paint, or compositions of an inner melody to listen to … 

A poem can be a kind of conversation with itself, or the narrator the observer, not speaking only from experience but from observations life offers. 

Once upon a time, long ago ...

“Against the stormy gusts of winter’s day” … so young, just a little child, and yet all this to bare …

…………………………. .............................what was it that penetrated the darkness?
............................................................Light, ~~~~~  the Light that is Love!

Once upon a time, long ago, 
A man, he, my father, was told

His beloved mother

Had been buried alive.

His sister,

(A decade older than he),

Years after the War

When construction slowly

Rebuilt the city, was told

… … they …

Had found her remains 
In one of the bunkers

Where she had taken refuge

At a time of  bombardments

As Allies moved in

And with boulders strong, closed

Entrance for safety,

 … … thus …

In its stillness like a cave,

Raising upward her prayerful song ...

Did she know ...

She had taken refuge in a grave?

There, in a dark tomb, alone,
(I assume),

His mother suffocated,

And ... was gone.

My father inconsolable,

Kept it all alive within,

The pain was too great,

Thus under its burden he bends,

His grief unspoken -- he

Distraught without end!

Many years later, I, still a child,

Heard of the tragedy,

And I had my sorrow and trail

Of fears, pestering human belief,
Already aware of the mockery

Of mortal destructive deeds,

The merciless cruelties of all wars, 

Because fear is false and weak.

I know too little of her …

Only that from family

Recitals, of a warm, caring,

Generous, and kind woman …

My imagination was running wild,

Thinking of how she must have felt?

And it made me shudder.

O my trust in man, how it shattered!

I love the thought of Light,

Which for me within my heart,

Is LOVE and my God!

But how could I love

Mankind?

And then,

Ever so gently

I saw the light:

“All is given by God!”

It is He who is Love and Life!

Not misery and decline,

These are the distorted

Images of a blinded mankind,

Devouring its own

Mortality.

Then something in me said,

(A kind of revelation):

“God and His children

Are one!”

The light of this message so bright, 

That in Love and to Love

My heart replied,

And throbbing migraine headaches --

Like an unseen vault --

Full of mystery and fright,

…. Came down to a halt!

My father?

He too saw it all

In the light of a gentle

Resolve

Remembered

A mother’s great love,

And grief

Had to tumble and fall.

Love is the herald of peace --
Love and Life never stall!

--eva-maria hogrefe

(July 2012)

The world sees your calamity

“The world sees your calamity
but it will never know the victory

of the valor that brought your loss!

---upon this wooden tablet lock my hands, 

purge my lips, and kill the hero of this war!”

--W. Garcia 

“… the hero of this war.”

A hero is a hero!

He lives on in my thought

Whether seen and heard

Or unseen and unheard,

My hero is the imperishable man!

How then could dignity be lost?

Limbs gone, is forlorn …

Not able to freely stand ...

Physicality's pain "bourn"

Can truly this define man?

When echoes of body cease,

Well, then in a breath, I see

Man's majesty:

His glory

And endurance

His goodness

Committed

In bravery, (bless him!)

His strength  

Of character

Deeper than the Sea,

And thus the height

Of his intelligence,

Richer than all blinding might.

All show forth the way ...

“I am who I am, a man!”

The inner voice will say.

Preoccupied with physicality

Can turn any man into a clod,

Ahhh...

But spirituality

Brings out the likeness of God!

Take the divine path.

 “Escantadora”:

I like the name you did give me,

The sound of it

To my listening ear—

Rings like a bell

Which plainly sings,

“Let Love, God, your prime

Adoration …

To be your heart's rhyme!”

--eva-maria hogrefe

(July 22, 2012)

Dear heart ...

There are too many

Obstacles that hinder

Our debt to friendship

So young and brief, 

However, my soul is ready

To spread its wings to fly

To your honeycomb

Into the hive of silence,

And there I drink

Sweet nectar made sweeter

From your boundless loving

I discover in your words.

Ah! They fuse with the sound

Of brooklets’ clear waters

Flowing/gurgling,

Sparkling,

Being heard in many voices, 

Everywhere a delight!-- 

Seeing wonders

Of tall stones in sunlight,

Isolated as we are

Snow-covered mountains,

Still. 

There echoes a gentle melody, "... dear heart, mon ami!”

Rivers winding through

Earth and rocks,

Cascading into meadows

Of butter-colored blossoms --

All nature locks you

Into peace, thus then follows 

A gentle breathing in,

Even if it brings me

Little comfort,

I’m breathing out,

Because you still

An absent friend!

 As I was taking a boat journey on the Vierwaldstaettersee near Luzern, I composed this poem. On a clear window across me a honey bee tried to find her way to freedom.

--eva-maria hogrefe

(May 2012)

You are so silent --

I see veils dropping off

One by one in the weaving

Lights … perceived

In those love-thoughts

Of a true heart …  

Ahhh … today it is—

This my contemplation

For you and I:  

Thou O LOVE, divine

The joy we seek,

Thou art the Joy--

Which does us feed!

--eva-maria hogrefe

(June 14, 2012)

The Devotion of a Friendship

O Friend! May to you be revealed, 

Even if just a fragment of that which 

My inner Self contains, but

If rephrased by limitations, 

Altered to just flesh and bones;

An erroneous view, and thus evil’s throne,

Which raises hordes of mortal strain.

But when I in Thy blessed light remain,

I be as a flower on an altar without stones,

Blessed in the silence of my soul, 

A boundless all-embracing inner world,

Thy kingdom, and my hidden Pearl, 

Where all our communications are alive,

Not setting cautious boundaries, 

But instead with the words, "Thee we be"--  

An acceptance of "tat tvam asi" -- 

The eternal Spirit we then express,

Covered under the white cloak of humility.

--eva-maria hogrefe—

(February 20, 2012)