Beyond Reaction

When I react I cannot really feel.
When I respond I scratch the surface
of an undernourished part of me
that connects with what is real.
When I think from the heart
and my body is at peace
I reconnect each disparate part
of that thing we call the psyche.
Sometimes I know and feel
that all that ever was and is and will be
is present here in the Eternal Now
and every note of music born
in fury or in scorn
will reach an end and die
and change its form and live and breathe
in pastures new and pastures old
where there are bridges
that renew, revitalise
and reconnect the active and the passive forces
which fuse and give new birth
to a creation cleansed of lies
and the cul-de-sac of inner dialogue.
There, where heaven and earth
are of no account,
is that realm beyond the two
where neither superstition nor cold logic
come close to what is True.

© Geoff Davis 2010

What is God?

I was partly inspired to write this poem after reading this blogpost What is God? from Professor Jacob Needleman (he has also written a book with the same title which, as yet, I have not read), Professor of Philosophy at  San Francisco State University. Not only did I find his writing intellectually satisfying but it also had a profoundly calming effect on my solar plexus. (Since writing the above I have read the aforementioned book which I found both thought-provoking and uplifting. It has a measured tone and intelligence which is rare in most writing on this subject.)


What is God?

God is where
the ego has no voice,
where Conscience has an objectivity
beyond a culturally or religiously conditioned conscience,
where humility has confidence and innocence and insight
and belongs to everyone and no one.

God is where
every violent thought and feeling and movement
falls away into Silence,
where there is no argument nor explanation nor analysis.

God is where
words and numbers dance
exchanging clothes and meaning
in a Universe that both confuses and delights.

God is where
the labels that we attach to others and to ourselves
have no value
and where we people
are trying to Understand and to Be
in as much as our limitations will allow.

God is where
the thoughts, that turn around in circles and torment,
surrender and acknowledge their own impotence,
where reaction is replaced by reflection.

God is where
the personal and the abstract,
the allegorical and the actual
unite.



© Geoff Davis 2010

Three Weeks Later

This morning I was thinking of a conversation I had with my father three weeks before he died, seven and a half years ago, and I remembered I wrote a poem about it. Strange how you speak straight from the heart, without thinking anything out beforehand, when someone you love is dying.

<sup>Three Weeks Later

"Something’s come over me," he said.
Three weeks later he was dead.
"I don’t believe in anything," he said.
Three weeks later he was dead.
"I don’t want to do anything," he said.
Three weeks later he was dead.
"I don’t think anything matters," he said.
Three weeks later he was dead.
"You think things matter," he said
And I paused and scratched my head.
"Most of the things that we think matter," I replied
Just three weeks before he died
"Don’t matter in the least," I sighed
Just three weeks before he died.
"But some things matter," I replied
Just three weeks before he died.
"And there is never nothing," I replied
Just three weeks before he died
"There is always something," I replied
Just three weeks before he died
"So I believe in something," I sighed
Just three weeks before he died
"Even if I don’t know what that something is," I said.
Three weeks later he was dead.
"Yes," he said. "There’s always that."
And that concluded our little chat
And I like to think that discourse gave
Something he took with him to the grave.


© Geoff Davis 2003</sup>