Copyright notice: Original poetry for perusal & download for personal use.
Reprint is permitted if source or link is mentioned (e.g. www.BentMyggen.com or VisionEars.com)
Poetry, thoughts & inspirations


This is a gallery of personal discoveries.

Introduction:
After
10 years of marriage,
a son of 7 years,
owning a house, running up debt, bankruptcy, foreclosure -
I was now going through the dreaded Separation & Divorce.

Life had become an endless cycle of stress and worry about money. Depression followed, I was diagnosed with ADD. (Prozak and Dexedrine was interesting)

If I was not who others wanted me to be, then who was I?
So we went our separate ways and agreed to raise our son 50/50.

She found a new place to live, I bought a VW van and discovered life in the moment.

The Following are excerpts from my personal log-book, observations, ideas, poems, etc.
11/14/00

There is no man
within me now
No joy
No gentle whisper
My voice has died
and in it's place
an angry storm so fierce
it tears my heart apart.

There is no room
for me no more
No work to go to
no smiles to meet
no lucky draw no more.

I could spit
I could rave
I could just kick and scream
But here I sit
as mute as wood
To sleep and hope to dream

My brother bought a sailboat and asked me to help sail it down from San Francisco to LA. It took 5 days. This was written along the journey.
11/28/00

Across the water
of Half Moon Bay
A dream stepped out
Another stayed

As seabirds crossed
the crimson sky
A love was found
Another died

And from this quiet harbor
A journey will begin
To set the sails of life ablaze
with fire from within.

When I realized that all I really needed to live was a dry, warm and safe place to sleep. Life changed and I found joy again:

3/23/2000

I don't want to sleep again
For the waves
are still crashing in the moonlight
and the spray of tears
feel like joy tonight

I don't want to wait for the rain
when the drops play the roof
in the rhythm of my heart.

I have a senseless, shameless
light within me
and I don't want to sleep again.

One time I would see a woman holding her lover, and I had a flash of someone out there, waiting for me.



I saw your kiss
fly by me without warning
Holding me forever
in it's longing for a home.

Your hand
would touch his throat
so gently,
yet
your mind was only faintly there.

I knew
you were alive
and yet longing to exist.

Writing by hand became magical. I would start to write without thinking first and watch what came forth:

The mind is blank
Each moment passes
As each page is turned
I write the meaning
into life on the page

What was here before my pen?
Nothing?
An infinate sea of possible words.
The pen traces the dots
of just one possibility
and it becomes
what is so
The page turns:

4/30/00

Something always comes
when I stretch out my hand
Always there's a pebble on the beach

Something always knows
and though I don't know of a plan
Fate is getting close enough to reach.

I met Rev. George Barrett and his wife Petina at the end of his life. He was the first Episcopalian bishop to ordain women into ministry in America - to the utmost consternation of the church. As these words were written, he passed on.
George is dying
Sipping air
like tea in the afternoon
Hour by hour
the minutes go by.
George is in line
His ticket in hand
waiting for the doors
of the movie house to open.

His sentries are here,
His angels of mercy
On both sides
of the golden door
They wait.

And sadness reign
as we cannot join in
the feast for him today.
His work now done
His will is gone
New life a breath away.

Sleep soon
Sweet prince
May your soul
be dazzled soon again.

06/26/00

I saw an man
on a bus in Los Angeles
many years ago.
He carried bags of paper
and notes
and he was busily writing
more notes.
He wrote and wrote
Turned the paper and wrote more.

I don't know what he wrote
Or who the notes were intended for.

He had no home.
I don't know if he had any friends.

I hoped then I would not
become him in the end.

And now I am.

01/02/01

It was a time of discovering that there was no other time than now:

There isn't anybody who could pay me to live like this.
But the lessons I am learning are priceless.
The music, the ideas,
sitting out on a warm night,
looking into the universe.
Seeing the Moon
between the branches of the Oak Tree.
- these are universal moments.
There is joy inside me
to simply be allowed to live another day.
To smell the Jasmine or the Sage.
To walk on Earth
as gravity holds me like a lover
until I float back out among the stars.

Can I give this joy to another? I don't think I can.

It is the immortal's joy of being mortal,
and it is just for me.

01/15/01


Are you warm
in your bed tonight
Now I can only send
my spirit to hold you.

Do you talk to
your pillow sometimes
& does your pillow weep?

And what did I not do
to make you hurt for love
How did I let you down?

I loved you,
held you in your sleep
And kept you safe from harm.

You wanted more
it's safe to say
Than I was man to give
I plowed ahead
and lost my way
In hell I tried to live.

Still, when the past crept in, there was plenty of emotion. Love was still looking for a reason.

Through these years, I had come upon a dance-group, and every Wednesday I joined them in free-form improv. There was one women I felt a special excitement about. We had fabulous and inspired encounters, but we never spoke, and after the dance she always disappeared in a puff. She became my Mystery Woman.
01/22/01

I danced
And I'm willing to tumble
Ready to throw down my fate
You
could be my lover
If you are here
It is not too late

01/23/01

Note to Self: If you enjoy your own company
you are not alone.

02/10/01

This Book
already has too many words.
Do I write because
I want to reach you, the reader?
In that case, why?
Do I need you to confirm
my own existence?
I am now here
And you are in my future.

You don't yet exist,
but in my mind you do.
If you read this, I may not exist
But in your mind I will.

Perhaps
In that connection
My heart tries to reach yours
and make it's love last
into eternity.

03/05/01

I'm stuck in a bug
that won't start
It's raining
and the bills are mounting
Has anyone seen my destiny?
The thread of my life
long broken
how I wish I could
tie the ends back together.

The world has lost
all interest in my talents
I can display the sweetest
most beautiful progressions
and they yawn in respect.

I am no one
somewhere
who used to be someone
nowhere.

The grass grows in the rain
& water runs from the mountain.

[My VW van developed a peculiar habit of not being willing to start unless it was cold. This meant I would go someplace and suddenly have to wait for half an hour to an hour - wherever I had parked. It was a bit of a Zen exercise in being willing to change one's mind (and plans) on short notice. It also reminded me that I was becoming more and more invisible to others]

Mikael, my son now 9 years old would sleep with me in the camper on my days with him. We'd play on the beach, walk in the mountains and I would watch his face dreaming as I played the guitar at night.
04/08/01NOTE:

Today I was the camera with the visit of my son's best friend - both nine years old. I mentally framed into cinemascope scene after backlit spring-filled scene of them (1) balancing along the railroad tracks through the forrest. (2) Running down a narrow, overgrown path leading to the ocean - side by side - each competing to discover something first. A large Greyback Crane was in their path, and took off from their approach.

I mentally recorded it all and tried to tag the scenes for playback upon my death - as one of those perfect moments.

I thought:

Here we are
so many of us

anxious and fearful
- and in the same time-frame
beauty and perfection
occurs.

Perhaps...
Our ability to witness life's perfection
often is in reverse proportion to how much stuff we own
And in direct proportion to how much we can trust that

In this moment all is given
that we need.

And that this moment
does not stop
Ever...

WEBMASTER NOTE: This section of Poems is being worked on and will some day soon be much different.