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Laughing Brook
Poetry for Sensual Consciousness
And then…
Soft the raven crows
Colourful the heather
Wild washing mossy brook
I let the buzzing buzz
I let the sun grow gold
I kiss the last of daylight
I am he who beholds
POETRY by laughing brook
The River of Life …
Glad you’re here. This moment in life, when we meet. Instead of rushing, pause for a while, let the moment unfold. Let yourself be seduced by a small round of looking, reading – listening. Maybe make it into a big one. Poems to make you ponder – poems about life and feeling alive.
The stream flows through the river bed, and in each episode of this poetry podcast you will find a poem, an intro text and a remix. The stage is set unhurried and leisurely, allowing poetry to flow in its own pace, to jump over rocks and rush and gush down the rocky riverbed of life.
This is the poetry of Laughing Brook. It is meant to inspire reflection on everything that makes life juicy. This is the poet’s search, journey and fascination on his way to meaning, transformation, transcendence, silence, sensuality and – oh yes! – love. Each episode is made with great pleasure and joyful love. Let yourself be inspired, jump in and get into the flow.
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Episodes
The Cave
A paradox is often pointed out, seemingly as a proof that a certain statement or a thing cannot right or correct. Yet as one ventures down the road of life and looks at what we call reality, paradoxes keep coming along.
If I bother to be bothered by paradoxes, they can lead me into uncomfortable places where what I know seems to be contradicted – a humbling and unsettling moment. Beyond this feeling of unease, though, lies something which is larger than the world I came from. It’s a bit like going into the pitch black dark of a cave. Who knows what secret is waiting there for me…
The Fly
We do the things we do because we are where are. Over the course of my life I have learned a lot about seeing myself and life differently. That has lead me into greater personal freedom. The path, though, is long and there is still so much more to learn.
For all the things I know and others don’t (just like I didn’t know, not too long ago), it’s easy to get proud and insolent. Yet there is also a choice to become compassionate; an interesting term that literally means „to suffer with someone“. In doing so, I expand myself into the up and the below. But, ah, why make it so complicated. It’s just a fly!
The Pearl
Oh my, the power of falling in love! It all starts with seeing something in this significant other, may it be a lover or landscape, a song or sight. All of a sudden my eyes are being opened and the character of this other touches me. This is where stories begin, this is what makes the world turn round.
Salto Mortale
There is a curious thing: When I hold life very tightly, everything becomes a rather tiresome and exhausting affair. When on the other hand I hold things loosely, I may discover that things seem to come to me without me really doing a lot. This doesn’t mean I’m passive.
The way to this direction leads through most unlikely doors of which death is an essential one. The tiny deaths we have to die in our life, and sometimes ugly big ones, allow us to prepare. Facing death brings a most remarkable insight.
Into Ever
There is a proof that everything is consciousness, says Sogyal Rinpoche in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, because everything we know about our existence and the world happens in our consciousness. When you think of it, it really is the only thing we have.
So it is kind of curious to take a step back from my awareness so as to ponder about what is in my awareness, what it is about. Here’s a poem, inspired by the beautiful hills of Dartmoor, and my oh my, how the beauty of that place first had me sink into it and then sank into me, so much that it has become a part of me.
Thru That Darkest Door
Following my inner calling can lead me down a most adventurous path, and part of that journey is death – not necessarily physical death, but the death of something in my life. J. R. R. Tolkien put those oracle words into the mouth of Gandalf, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
Such a quest for your inner calling frequently leads to desperate moments in which I question everything and have a sense of being completely lost, in which I feel like a complete failure. This ”dark night of the soul”, as the Christian mystic John of the Cross has put it, seems to be a necessary passageway on this journey to that fertile land of which my longing informs me. Nothing for the faint of heart! But, oh my, how very worth it is the trip, once you’ve arrived, and how so very much worth it do those dark moments feel in hindsight. So, come on, put all your chips on the table and come on board …
New Moon
What carries me through a personal crisis? Those moments, in which I am loosing familiar faces, places – really, loosing my home in the world. With no idea what’s next and how to move on. Disruptive moments can be scary, gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching.
Yet hidden in them lies, albeit often invisible, already this new life of mine. While everything inside of me wants to cling to my old ways, through a personal crisis life is asking me very unapologetically to come to it differently. As I turn towards this dark that has come upon me, there is a chance to discover something in this gloomy doom, a hidden treasure. Diamonds are made in intense pressure. And this moment of dark will pass, too. After all, new moon is the beginning of a new cycle. This is what transmutation is all about.
It takes a strong I to create
The ego doesn’t have a good rep in our world, and we all know why. Yet, there is a place for ego to navigate through this world. It is, so to speak, the captain who runs the ship and takes care so we do reach our destination. Any destination. When used properly it is a great servant to help us realize what’s important to us and what we want to realize.
In no field is this more important then in art. The creative act is such a deeply personal act, as in its truest form in comes from deep within me. As an artist, I make myself vulnerable when I present my art. So the temptation is great to smooth things into a palpable, nice way. But to be true to your art can require you to be without compromise, to be daring, to be extreme. A strong ego, a strong I, is needed, to stay the course.
Crippled Army
There are forces in this world, so utterly destructive, they leave a seemingly endless trail of traumatized victims behind. Yet, there is also a magic that can happen, where the hurtful grain of sand turns into a pearl and we develop into the wounded healers. That’s when dark turns into light and the path of life continues. Surely we’re not leaving the world to darkness, not our own world, not the world at large. We fight for the Light! We’re the Crippled Army!
alive artist awareness beauty breakup catharsis change compromise consciousness creativity creator crisis death desperation dying ego enlightenment fear freedom fulfilled gratefulness heartbreak hope letting go life light love meditation music nature night now passion presence prince reflection senses sensuality silence space transformaton transmutation trust vision vision quest