Messages in the Poem

Leaves

Rustling about like oak leaves
on winter branches that should be bare,
thoughts blow and rattle in our minds.

The browning instruments play
a song of Dukkha.
Ever changing in their direction,
they blow this way and that way,
creating nothing but noise.

 The chords pull the sap from our frozen roots
up to the surface where we,
 breathless from anticipation,
 wait in a disappointed state of,
 'This is it ??"

Then we feel the icy chill
as the fluid of Life once again
 plummets to the darkness below.

Up an down we  pull and drain,
laugh and weep,
gain and lose,
hope and seek relief.

We are caught in a whirling frenzy of a
dance that leaves us breathless and confused.

Yet,
numb from the storms
we perceive around us,
we do not want the music to end.
We cling,
not willing these thoughts and images to go
from our weary but determined minds.

We plant down into the earth
 and steadfast we stand
against the ferocious, unpredictable weather. 
We hold with all our might
to this which is familiar.

Over the noise that is created,
we cannot hear  the sweet and gentle Voice
that whistles through our branches:
"Let go!  Just Let go!
This that you hold onto  means nothing.
No storm can touch who you really are."

Only when we release the hold
of these ever changing leaves
and in silence and stillness
watch as they  scatter off
in a wind-swept ballet of perfection-
will we breathe the way nature truly intends;
will we sigh and sink back into the steadiness of our trunks
and feel the peace of Life's seasonal soothing mantra
filling us to the core.

It is only when we stop clinging
and let go
that we will  know who we really are,
and only then will we  finally  be alive.

Dale Lyn Revised July 2018

Okay I felt compelled to do something with this poem, not because of ego but because of trying to make the message clear to myself and  therefore to others.  Poems are all about the message that comes from some deep space within. I never really understand what was said until long after a poem has been written. So I looked at this poem...removed a lot of unnecessary thoughts (inspired action) and words and this is what I have come to feel  was meant to be said.

Oak trees cling to their leaves well into winter.   A few years ago I looked out at the tree I shot( in the previous post) and thought, "Why don't they let go?  Those leaves have no purpose  anymore and sustaining them must result in extra energy drain for the tree. " In the first stanza of this poem I am comparing the useless thoughts we cling to...to that of the leaves on an oak tree in winter.  "Branches should be bare."   Should not our minds be empty?  But instead we have this senseless rattling and blowing of thoughts that serve no purpose.

This noise our thoughts create leads to  our perception of suffering or dukkha. This suffering is caused by the instability of thoughts that make us happy one moment and sad the next. This going back and forth from one emotion to the next is what is causing us "noise" or the absence of peace. I compare that movement to how these leaves move back and forth on a tree creating the rustling noise (that I happen to love btw but can't say that because it removes the feeling of distasteful noise I am trying to create lol)

The thoughts can feed us or they can drain us.  They can give us hope and some form of perceived energy...like when we get excited or enthusiastic as we think about something external, something that might happen in the future or the achievement of some goal we are 'working' toward.  We feel the energy rising but when the so called future thing arrives...we realize it will not sustain us.  So many of us work so hard all our lives with hope that we are getting somewhere special,  that it is going to make it all worth it...and then when that moment comes we ask with great disappointment, "This is it??  This is what I busted my....for? This is what I was dreaming about that was supposed to give my life meaning?"

And down we go into the realm of disappointment, confusion, doubt and above all fear...that this is all life has to offer us.

To compensate for the downward spiral we look for something else out there to focus on that will bring us back up.  We will go up and down, gain and lose our entire lives as long as we do this.

It is like being caught in a "whirling dance" where we have no control and are being spun around against our will.  Who might we be dancing with?  The monkey mind, of course.

Yet, instead of letting go of the thoughts ( leaves) that are causing all this suffering and confusion...we cling even more.  For some reason we are so identified with these thoughts and we fear letting them go will mean our demise. We see the world around us, the storm it creates, as responsible for our plights.  We don't like pain.  The thought activity somehow numbs us and distracts us from that pain...so we are determined to hang on to what is going on in our minds.  We cling to what is familiar and find false comfort in that.   We are attached to the world our mind creates.

The more unpredictable life gets ( with its unpredictable weather...let's face it...the life around us is unpredictable) the more we cling to this idea of who we are and what the world is. Like schizophrenics we cling to and defend our illusions, hallucinations and delusions. How energy draining that is for us.

And while these leaves are rustling around in our heads making all kinds of noise, we don't hear the one Voice we should be hearing.  This Voice is telling us to let go of the leaves we are clinging to.  It is telling us that they serve no purpose and mean nothing. Yes ...the life we perceive as real is stormy and unpredictable but it cannot hurt who we really are.

It is only when we are willing to be still and quiet, to stop clinging and let go of our ideas and our beliefs will we know who we are, will we relax into our Self and feel Life flowing through us. The thoughts will come and go but we just need to observe them...watch them flying through and away.  We need to  become aware we are the Observer before we become aware we are  the experiencer of Life.  It is then we feel the peace that we are meant to experience. (Side Note:This, I believe has yoga significance...the steadiness of our trunk is achieved through Hatha asanas.  The Life filling us to the core is breath ...breath awareness/pranayama and the soothing mantra refers to meditation.)

If we could only let go of our leaves, our thoughts, ideas and beliefs about our little self and the world...we would discover the truth of who we really are and we would know what it means to truly be alive.

Well that is what I spat out!  Makes sense to me now.  Hope it helps in some way.

All is well.