Poetry by Richard MacKay

Earthsong Poetry Vol III

©March 2021 Available on Kindle

In my latest book, I consider experiencing, hearing the silent voices, realizing the feelings, and sensing the wholeness of nature in contrast to fragmented life in the city, where we are more or less separated from the natural world of trees, flowing water, animal and bird life.  This lifestyle, I believe, is a cause for much of our mental and social illnesses, reactivity, and separation from others.

LANGUAGES

 

I’ve perfected so well

my language of words,

yet I find in the plant world

a different expanded awareness

of language

beyond just my language of words.



ATTENTIONAL WALK

-A haiku poem-

 

attentional walk,

opening my senses, now

eco-time a-ware

Earthsong Poetry: Interrelationships

Earthsong Poetry: Interrelationships

©July 2020 Available in Paperback

This was a book of poetry inspired and created with the help of a young artist friend in Indiana who did the cover.  It was a time in the middle of the pandemic and when the George Floyd protests were occurring not only in the park behind my building but worldwide.  This environment was the stuff out of which I created these poems and several others that I didn’t include.  I was learning to live a more sequestered life, less mobile, and had to learn to communicate on Zoom and not in person.  I guess I felt more like a plant than a mobile human being.  I was also learning more about plants through an online class taught by Tigrilla Gardenia, ReConnect with the Plant Kingdom.  I believe all individuals, cultures, plants and animals are interconnected to the Earth, to Gaia; we are existing on a living planet.

RESPONSES

 

Listening to the voices of nature,

magnificent trees circling

and reflecting in the pond,

in a mirage like greenness,

the birds diving in a comforting wind, 

drawing herringbone wave patterns on the water.



Somewhere nearby, within my soul,

I feel the closeness 

of some good poet and artist friends:

Rilke, Van Gogh, Frost, Thoreau, and others;

I am not alone here.

 

SILENT PRAYERS

 

Days of protests

around, behind, and in front of

my building downtown.

 

I pray here by the poolside,

with the wind lightly

soothing rippling waves.

Poetry by Richard MacKay

Moon Rhythms

©Feb 2020 Available on Kindle

This is the first of a set of three books that I put together and published at Amazon KDP, during the time of the pandemic, 2020.  The book contains some poetry that has facilitated a catharsis on my journey, some insightful images, and some wistful memories of experiences in my life.

I found ways to be more interiorly aware and pro-active in how emotions affect my life.  Journaling is one way I have become more aware.  I also learned to express myself in poetry, art, and song.  Not necessarily to find specific answers, it seems, but to articulate states of my experience and questions on the journey on which I have found myself.

In terms of emotional well being, there is always a choice one makes between ignoring emotions by stuffing, and distracting, facing them with increased understanding, and expressing them in positive and not dysfunctional ways.

THE STRANGER IN THE DOORWAY

I come into the lodge;

I’m startled,

seeing the reflection

in one of the glass panes

of the front door

 

This stranger coming toward me,

looking at me,

looking like me.

Poetry by Richard MacKay

Earthsong Poetry

©Jan 2020 Available on Kindle

The Limits of Our conscious Perceptions

We think of the environment through the filter of our own limited conscious perceptions.  What if there is much more to the Earth than is obvious.  Thinking that’s all there is, what if there is more to all the plant and animal life than we see at casual glance?

With beauty may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk

With beauty behind me may I walk.

With beauty above me may I walk

With beauty all around me may I walk.

Navajo Night Chant

“Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and value.” 

(Thomas Berry, “The Ecological Age,” in The Dream of the Earth, P. 42)

A JOURNEY OF AWAKENMENT

 

Since witnessing the photo of the Earthrise in the late 1960’s, I slowly awoke to the realization in my spiritual awareness, in my learnings, in my work, in my relationships with other cultures, and with being in a Naturally Conscious Community, that we all have to transcend our ancient prejudices and collaborate with all life on this amazing planet Earth.

 

This is the only workable future for coming generations.  This is where I see the Interior Spirit and the Divine in my life.  This journey remains a work/play in process for me and I hope for many of us.  Where is your life touched by this gift?

 

EARTHDAY WHAT IFS

 

What if my individual

being is only one puzzle piece

in my choices of connection,

and expansiveness or contraction.

 

What if a Dream of

Earth harmony is

effected by my thoughts,

actions, and love.

Poetry by Richard MacKay

Heart spirit

©Sept 2016 Available in Paperback

PREFACE-THE VOICE OF THE POET

The voice of my poetry is an internal perhaps more introspective voice.  Writing, crafting my poetry, journaling, doing art as well as creating  music compositions has helped me traverse through difficult times.  It has been my solitary meditation and guide, I suppose, connecting me to my deeper self and to Spirit in my life, and I am gratefully open to sharing it with others.  This is a book illuminating that journey of creation.  It is available at Amazon right now, but not in a kindle version.

HEART’S SPIRIT

(Knowing Your Interior Spirit)

There’s this spirit inside –

I can’t always find.

The will to be.

 

There’s this center of

things where all seems

perfect and secure and

at rest.

 

Out of which

my life flows and

matures and flowers.





HOME IS WHERE MY BEING IS

 

There’s dialogue with others

There’s hope midst despair

There’s love in my living

Not getting stuck in repair.

Poetry by Richard MacKay

Contemplating The Miracle

©March 2016 Available in Paperback

The first of my published books of poetry at Amazon.  Influenced by living in New Mexico, “The Land of Enchantment”, and the Native American understanding of life, the richly creative atmosphere, and the many practitioners of alternative health care.  It was a first work in sensing my poetic wisdom and sharing it on a wider scale.  In terms of navigating my life, I found my creative journaling, art, and writing to be a rootage and germinating of Spirit in my life.  The book is only available in hard copy edition.

PASTEL SHADES OF BLUE

(My Introducing to “The Land of Enchantment

Pastel shades of blue

painted on the panorama ‘fore my eyes

Oh, Magenta, red, and aqua rainbows

filling the sky just like some rhyme.


SILHOUETTES OF THE MIRACLE

(Walking in the park)


The theatre of the heart

is here for my contemplation

posing now silhouetted in silence

for my photographs.

earthsong poetry volume iv

©July 2022 Available in Paperback and Ebook

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