The Littlest Poems

I love to read Haiku. The idea is to capture the essence, actually the feeling, of something in just a few words.

Some of them are timeless, as is this one by the Japanese poet Gomei:

One chestnut, only one,
Is all his tiny hands can hold,
My little baby son.
(Gomei)

The Language That Kept Calling Me

John: This is John back in the studio with Reet. I just heard about Reet, did I hear right, that you just went back to college, and you have a degree in college? And what is your degree?

Reet: I have a certification in ASL which is American Sign Language.

John: My understanding is I went to college, 17, 18, 19, graduated at 20. Most people go to college when they are 18 to 20 years old. Are you 20 years old?

Reet: No, John, I’m actually 74.

The Invocation of Angels

Let me call upon you now.

Every thought calls you.

Every breath calls you.

As the waves come upon the shore, so do I call you.

Let me feel you press upon me.

Do you stare upon me as I look to see you?

So much is unseen, unheard, unknown, yet surely there.

Lift my senses into the higher realms.

The waiting is over.

I ask for a drop, and you give me buckets, oceans.

Light my way.

Let it be easy and sure and powerful.

You all seem to talk in one voice.

The Happy Journey

   The actual song itself is available only in spoken form, as requested by Philip.


Response by John:

The last GEM you heard was called The Happy Journey. And it reminds me, in my own life – and that is what is amazing about these poems and songs by Phil – how much you can relate to yourself.

I can think of a woman I once knew from Japan. This woman traveled from Scotland to Canada to see him. I met a woman from Japan. Her name was Shigiko.

The GPS Song

Introduction by Phil

I fell in love with what a GPS could do, the first time I saw an article about one in Popular Science. This song celebrates whoever invented them.

   The actual song itself is available only in spoken form, as requested by Philip.


The good Lord loves all animals

For all you animal lovers, here’s a story that many people have heard of: Francis and the Wolf.

Francis was told there’s a vicious wolf out there, killing sheep, defenseless sheep, and attacking their shepherds. So he goes out into countryside, and the wolf comes up to him, and the wolf is snarling.

He lifts his cross up. The wolf kneels down, prostrates himself, and he sees the reason for the wolf doing what it was doing.

The Frozen Brook

The Frozen Brook

One minute
A pure sound
A sound of
The frozen brook
Yet still there is movement
There is flow
There is activity
In a frozen state
You can see rippling’s
And reflections
Under the thick ice
What do you picture
What do you see
What do you sense
Listen
There is some loud wind
Listen
Slow down
Take a pause
To notice nature
To imagine
To Dream
Be contemplative
Ahh!!!
I could be here all day
Taking it in and letting it out
Amen

The Floating Driftwood

There’s a brook by the side of the road. Sometimes, on the way home, I stop here.

It only takes a minute to get out of the car, you walk out, you tip toe across the little stones that extend and rise above the brook. It’s shallow here, maybe eight inches deep.

So I picked it, and select the large rocks, and I’m standing now in the middle.

The sound is beautiful.

As I look to my right, upstream, I see a driftwood. It’s floating down right now.

I wonder what’s going through that driftwood’s mind. Aimlessly, without a care in the world, just floating.