Spellbound

[JOYFULLY10]

I thought someone might read and feel what I experienced from the words below.
There are no need for words to explain. Enjoy :)

Joy

SPELLBOUND

Beauty,
What have I known of you
In my endless struggles for
Perfection?
Struggles to fit in?
To please and be pleased?
I have taken your name
In vain.
Cried for you in the darkness
Of illusion,
In the illusion of my own darkness.
In my narrow-minded,
New-moon way
Of not seeing,
I have looked past you
And thought
You were not there.
As a child,
I saw your reflection,
Though briefly, at times,
In my mother's eyes.
But when I responded,
It turned into sadness,
And hid behind a veil
Of distant longing
That seemed to say,
"Oh child, if you only knew."
I never knew what.
But I knew that when
I caught a glimpse
Of you
In my mother's eyes,
That she would hide you
Quickly again
As if some shameful secret
Had been revealed.
And yet I knew you lived
Inside her still.
Somewhere.
If only I could catch her
Off guard.
And then I learned
That when you live
Inside a flower,
Or a sunset,
Or a doll,
Or a new dress,
That it was okay
To look at you
Directly,
And even to speak
Of you.
And no one was embarrassed,
Or turned away,
Or blushed
Self-consciously
Like when I saw the inside
Beauty.

And so I learned:
To know Beauty
Is to hide
Behind clothes,
Makeup,
New hair styles,
Perfect bodies.
And soon I found
I'd forgotten you
Altogether:
Your purity,
Innocence,
Naturalness,
And ease.
I began to try and fit in.

In school,
I learned that Beauty
Is exclusive,
That it is donned
By a chosen few
With perfect bodies,
Perfect faces,
Perfect clothes,
Perfect hair.
And that the rest of us
Were less valuable,
Dispensable.
Our greatest service
Was to provide
A contrast:
Contrast that helped
Beauty to shine
Brighter compared
To those less fortunate ones.
So some of us
Performed more,
Studied harder,
And tried to please.
Some just simply gave up.

Beauty,
You became
An ugly word
That kept company
With shame and loneliness
In dark corners
Of narrow minds.

For years I learned
To compensate,
To give more,
To work harder,
To listen and care,
To be more clever,
Appreciate all
The beautiful things-
Outside myself.
I did not expect
To be happy-
Just to survive
Was enough.
Until one day
A strange,
Provocative
Powerful voice said,
"You deserve to be
the best that you can be.
Your very existence
Is Beauty.
You are that
Which you see."
As if a veil were lifted,
The trees,
And hills,
And fields
All sprang to life
As if a still-life
Watercolor
Became animated.
Each leaf,
And every blade
Of grass,
And even the tiniest dirt particles
Were living and glowing
Essences of
Wonder and awe
And Beauty.

Unashamedly
They glowed:
Radiating
Light as pure,
And innocent,
And present
As that in my mother's eyes
When I was young.
Each was whole.
Each knowing,
Each being
The Essence
Of self
Unveiled.

And how can we compare
A grain of sand
To a wildflower,
Or a scrub brush
To an oak.
And yet I saw them all
Held in the eyes
Of God,
And in the heart
Of the Goddess
As equals:

Beauty
Beloved
Beheld
Of
Beauty
And
Spellbound.

Tears of remembrance
Washed away years
Of forgetting,
As my heart embraced
All That Is
Through my eyes.
Windows of my soul
Cleansed in tears
Of love
And grace
As I felt
And knew
That I, too,
Was seen and held
In the eyes
Of God,
In the heart
Of the Goddess
As equal:

Beauty
Beloved
Beheld
Of
Beauty.

And after a time
Another came:
A Beloved
Who through the years
Of denying,
Forgetting his own
Essential self-
Not being truly seen
By others-
Had a veil
Of distant sadness
And forgotten worth
That hid
The best he could be.
And still,
I saw him.
I recognized him
Behind the veils.
And I knew that you,
Beauty,
Were not lost.
With time we learned
That Beauty
Hidden in illusion
Is not lost.
And when our eyes met
With open hearts,
Willing to be seen,
The veils were lifted,
And

Beauty
Beloved
Beheld
Beauty
And was
Spellbound.

Beauty,
I have only begun
To know you
As I cease
My endless struggles
For perfection,
Struggles to fit in,
To please
And be pleased,
And look into
My own eyes,
And the eyes
Of my Beloved;
And then:

Beauty
Beloved
Beholds
Beauty
And is
Spellbound.

- Amorah

"I am wise only because I know - I know nothing." -Socrates

[Georgianne Baartmans]

Joy, that poem is lovely. Thank you. It's a keeper!

namaste,
Georgie

JOYFULLY10 wrote:

--
Namaste,
Georgie

Lord, let me remember to be with you today.
May I be the wave of the wind,
as it flows through the maze of my dream,
Let me not be a rock,
ricocheted by currents into mirrored walls,
made solid by ego's illusions;
blown by an invisible phantom force
projected from my mind in fear,
waiting on time for the translucent portal
of your Will, already accomplished.

[Daniel S. Schroeder]

Joy,

I think your poem is wonderful.

Daniel

"As God created things by seeing them in His own Logos,
man brings truth to life in his mind by the marriage of
the divine light, in the being of the object, with the
divine light in his own reason. The meeting of these
two lights in one mind is truth."

---- Thomas Merton

[JOYFULLY10]

Thank you for you responses to the poem - I am glad you enjoyed it - as did I -
I must tell you though that I am not the author - I read it the other night in
this book I am reading called "Pleidian Perspectives on Human Evolution" It is
a wonderful book that raises many different emotions and feelings in me - and I
consider it one of the many guides that I have asked for - just as the Course
has. I would recommend (even though I am only 1/2 way through) this book to
anyone and everyone - especially Course students! The author is Amorah Quan
Yin.

Thanks again!

Joy

[Bill Hasselbach]

I enjoyed it, it's very much like Kahlil Gibran's stile.

Love, forever
Bill
"Oh what a wonder in the street is any human nod.
Where walk in great democracy the million masks of God." 'G.K.Chesterton'

" 1+1+1+infinity=1 "--'BH'.

"When I said I wanted my dreams to come true.
I should have specified the good ones."--'Zigy'

"Seek not to be like the teachers of old.
Seek what they sought".---?