Category: Hope in uncertain times

Breathe Deep. Breath Slow. – A Mantra (2020 Re-post)

© RedCat

Breathe deep. Breath slow.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Take your time to inward go.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Cultivate space to grow.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Investigates what lies below.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Release all that keeps you low.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Accept all there is in the now.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Connect to life force flow.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Listen to your higher self say so.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Learn what wisdom want you to know.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Changed awareness new seeds sow.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Let the winds of change blow.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Trust your soul your path to show.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Bathe in inner divine glow.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.
Let the universe its love bestow.

Breathe deep. Breath slow.

© REDCAT
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Re-post comment:

For tonight’s Wandering the Archives Wednesday.
I’ll share this meditation mantra.
I think of it whenever I feel I need to calm and center myself.
I might not repeat all the lines, but enough repetitions of just
– Breathe deep, breathe slow –
works just as well.

Enjoy!

Photo by DTS VIDEOS on Pexels.com

I like repetitions and rhymes. I also like meditation and mantras. :-)
“Breath deep. Breath slow.” – was the first meditation poem I wrote. Which coincides with the first day I started to seriously meditate. Right now I’m thankful for the fact that I managed to make it into a habit before the pandemic started. Without that daily dose of peace and grounding. Without that self-care, I think my depression would have bloomed right now, fueled my the ongoing catastrophe.

Photo by Magicbowls on Pexels.com
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The Anthropocene Hymnal – An Experiments in Fiction Publication. Out now!

I’m very proud and happy to tell you that The Anthropocene Hymnal – An Experiments in Fiction Publication. Is out now! I’m as bursting with joy and gratitude today as I where when the editor asked me to participate with two poems. Mother of Creation and Leaves fall to Moulder.
Below you’ll find all purchase information.

The Anthropocene Hymnal is a collection of 63 poems from 34 poets from across the world. Beautifully illustrated by Valdis Stakle and with cover art by Kerfe Roig, the anthology is the brainchild of Ingrid Wilson, and in her own words is “a unique response to an unprecedented crisis.”

…

The second part of the book looks at what hope means in difficult times – what we still have to hold on to – what can still be done. Taking the form of invocation and prayer, these poems cast a thread to find a way through and call on that in us which is bigger than our current crisis.  RedCat’s Mother of Creation gives new names to hope, while Kerfe Roig’s Mercy 1 and 2(after ML Smoker)  speaks of  finding a way back from despair with “You leave a candle burning, / place it in the window.”

Excerpts from the Advance review by Lindi-Ann Hewitt-Coleman

You can find a list with all the contributors here.

For more information and several readings of poems go to Experiments in Fiction.

The waiting is over! You can now purchase The Anthropocene Hymnal in Paperback and Kindle format from Amazon (just select your relevant region).

There is also a PDF version of the book available. The PDF is not sold but revived in response to a donation to the WWF Fundraiser. Once you have made your donation (minimum €3 or equivalent in your currency) please email confirmation to experimentsinfiction@protonmail.com and and the PDF will be sent by return email. The aim is to respond to your email and send you the PDF within 24 hours of receiving it. The editor will also be making regular personal donations of the Amazon royalties as and when I receive them. Please follow my fundraiser page for updates!

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Friendship – Hay(na)ku (2020 Re-post)

Photo by P C on Pexels.com

Awake
Not asleep
Company you keep

Talk
Worry sharing
Hand hold caring

Steadfast
Strong pillar
Repels depressive killer

Forthright
Honest, straight
Restoring lost faith

Accepting
Big, small
Trauma scarred all

Trust
Freely given
True heart living

Friendship
Fortifying presence
Find my essence

Strength
Along way
Even when astray

Safe
To be
Realize all me

© REDCAT
Photo by Bakr Magrabi on Pexels.com

Re-post comment:

Another Hay(na)ku for this week’s Wandering the Archives Wednesday.

Enjoy!

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This Being Human – Dedicated to Karin Boye

The road might be long and windy,
but with will and intention
we can make the journey the point,
not an unforeseeable future goal.
©RedCat

This being human is a journey on unknown roads.
A journey without any set goals.

Every morning a new path to walk.
Full of wonders and delight,
but also pain, sorrow and fright.
Your job is to enjoy and endure.
Find your voice and chart your own path.

Every evening a new fork in the path.
A new chance to learn and thrive,
or another instance you run and hide.

Every day a twist in your way.
Everything good or bad there to teach you if it may.
Everything sent for you to learn, to listen to what your heart, soul and true self say.

Every night a new turn in your trail.
Will you learn your lesson, find wisdom and compassion.
Let your dreams to heaven and beyond set sail.

This being human is a journey on unknown roads.
It’s the voyage that counts, not the goal.

©RedCat

Written for Poetics: The Art of Being Human at dVerse. Where Kim gives us a Rumi poem full of metaphor (last in this post). And challenges us to “write a metaphor poem that starts with the words ‘This being human is…’”

There are so many ways you can go with this but I ended up with a journey metaphor. I’ll see this one as a first rough draft because there is so much more you can put in there, but this is all my migraine allowed me to write.

As I read it through I realized I once again had ended up with a line – the last one – that is directly inspired by one of my favorite Swedish poets Karin Boye. And one of her most known poems – I rörelse (In motion).
Another time a similar line popped up was in – Leaves Fall to Moulder. 

Like with Tomten by Viktor Rydberg, I couldn’t find a translation I truly liked, even though you can find several at the Karin Boye Society. 

So I did my own! (Read below)

Alienor by Karin Boye.

In motion, by Karin Boye,
translated by RedCat

The satiated day is never greatest or first.
The best day is a day of thirst.

There might be goals and purpose to our path,
but it is the journey that gives the effort worth.

The best goal is a nightlong rest,
where the fire is lit and the bread shared in haste.

In places where you sleep but once,
your sleep becomes safe and your dreams full of song.

Strike camp! Move on! The new day dawns.
Endless is our great adventure hereupon.

In motion, by Karin Boye, translated by RedCat
Photo by Johannes Plenio from Pexels

The Guest House by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.​

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

​Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

​Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

The Guest House by Rumi
Photo by Ivica Džambo from Pexels
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Searching For A Way – 8 December

Photo by Nikhlesh Tyagi from Pexels

Searching for a way
For the right words to say
I long for the dawn of a new day

Searching for a new life
Passionate, loving, without strife
Filled with strobing nightlife
Abundant wildlife

Searching for a new dream
Asking guidance of a moonbeam
For the path where creativity teem

©RedCat

Right now life feels small, cold and lonely for many, and for me. So I tried for some hope, light and life in today’s Advent Calendar poem.

The midwinter darkness has felt exte oppressive lately. The unseasonable warmth keeps the skies grey and foggy rather than the crisp, nipping, sunny air the season should have (unless there’s snowfall of course).
Today I read that the instruments in Stockholm and several other cities have measured ZERO sunhours in December.

So a warming climate makes the winter darkness more oppressive, by denying us the few hours of sunlight, robbing us off the white cover, starving us from reflected moonlight. A full moon can make a clear snowy December night brighter than an overcast December midday.

Some days I have hope for a new spring, perhaps next summer without a pandemic looming. A world coming together on the pandemic and the climate.
Other days, when the sun has not been seen for more than a week. I feel cold desolation, touch deprivation and failing hope. A world gone to smoking cinders, cascading ecological disaster, all ending in an egotistic whimper.

Not knowing to hope or despair, over the fact that the human race has its destiny in its own hands.

The road might be long and windy,
but with will and intention
we can make the journey the point,
not an unforeseeable future goal.
©RedCat

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There Once was a Word

Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels

There once was a word
Wanting not only to be read
But said
And heard

It wanted to be whispered dearly
Wanted to be shared
Make hearts flare
Then vowed clearly

It exist to be our guiding star
Steady rock
Home dock
There whether we are close or far

At the speed of thought
On the wings of a dove
Two souls care
Two hearts dare
To take a chance on Love!

©REDCAT

A Happiness Project seems like something not only I, but everyone, everywhere needs right now, so I decided to make an extra effort to write lighter and happier pieces during November.

Even more important I made a vow to myself to get back to writing daily! And no better month to do that then NaNoWriMo.

Photo by Shamia Casiano from Pexels
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Return To New Normal

Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

What will the world look after the pandemic? How will the geopolitical landscape change? How will that affect me personally?
Will one catastrophe lead us to accept responsibility for, and take action against, the looming human made climate emergency.

Even before the pandemic my life where in flux, changing. It still is.
A history of unprocessed trauma, a newly acquired trauma activating full PTSD and leading to major depression, will do that to a life. But now the urgency to imagine a better future, for all humans, feels even more acute.

So what should I do? Change career?
Change residence from city to wildwood?
First step. Change myself to the core! Rewriting those programs that prohibits self-love, true self, esteem, courage to live my truth, my goals, my dreams.

In springs pale rebirth
I see the truth of seasons
Birth, growth, change, rebirth

© RedCat

Posted as response to Tuesday Writing Prompt Challenge: Tuesday, May 5, 2020.

Photo by Janko Ferlic on Pexels.com
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Just To Be Thankful — Phoebe, MD: Medicine + Poetry

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough …and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and […]

Just To Be Thankful — Phoebe, MD: Medicine + Poetry

Since I recently started writing gratitude lists, this poem spoke a bit extra to me.

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