Los Angeles 2014: This Morning. I Am, I Exist Here In The Some How

"... while waking up this morning,
I channeled a whole complete poem
about something I experienced in the past,
and it was beautiful,
but I did not write it down.
Yet, here I am, 
in present time, 
being reminded 
that the beauty I feel 
inside me, 
when I smell a flower ,
now, here, immediately ... 
defines me more today
than an event I went through yesterday.

It is amazing 
how I realized 
that carrying memories 
became ... becomes ...
some times ...  some how ...
some thing I define my life with. 
I am not by definition
defined by any experience 
I had or I am having and yet ...
I learned over the last few days 
that I was carrying 
a memory.

As I made peace with my memory ...
a new feeling moved through me ...
accelerating my presence, into more presence.

I re.envisioned my Self.
I Self-realized, I realized that 
for many years I had believed
that a memory did define 
who I am ...
who I was ...
who I was not ...
who I am now.

Yet I know, for sure I know,
that I am nothing, existing here -
here, now in the here and now ...
Here, I am ...
Here, I exist 
Here is existence ...
Here ... I am, 
I am, I exist 
Here some way in the some how.

~~ Other People's Fingerprints ~~
In 1993 David Hickey wrote;
“Out of sheer perversity,
I followed beauty where it lead,
into the silence.”

In 1046-256 BC Laozi Li Er 李耳 wrote;
"I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures."

Photography by Karin Lisa Atkinson

South Seas 1989: Healing, A Thirst That Parches Human Vanity

I am moving faster than my theories, 
while lying on my back,
straight up, under a twinkling
diamond-cut star-stained quilt.

The Polynesian cloth
that covers me is not enough.
Combined with the smell of diesel engine,
the cold penetrates inside my skull.
Pressure points in space
behind my eyes define the ache
pushing within the centre of my head.

The sky above me is fleeting
black silhouettes of diving birds,
and the Ocean beneath me is flowing
dark profiles of jumping fish.
I am a shadow
sailing mid-ocean somewhere -
on my way to measuring
the spending of my time
by the distance and number
of island hops in between.

I am growing faster than my theories
by following my dreams -
my growth soaks my wakefulness
with chances I take.
I risk nothing but by allowing,
my new life has new events
and I may find in the unknown,
my own drift.
I may find truth
and so be able to reconcile my past -
all may not be lost adrift in seas of the known.

I am working and living on cargo boats.
Sailing barges of endless blue green canvases.
Oceans wet from wind and wave,
cut my path through pink and white coral.
The reefs are sharp
and I follow their edge with my eyes.
I have an eye for the insane,
my insight is impressionistic -
I alone handcraft my Self-made destinies.

Nightly, I receive my dream’s impressions.
Daily, I act on my visions.
Now, Oceans alive sing me bedtime lullabies.
Ocean Life reminds me of my presence,
and my world, of our worldly, shared ancestry.

The stories Oceans tell,
a sharing evidence,
that We are a Water planet.
Tales transposed onto beaches,
historical scatterings of evolving images -
Skeletons and Shells washing the sands of time.
Our Earthen canvas, the pieces We call countries -
these occasional landmasses which appear
within this fluid world, in occasional places.
We, require good posture,
and a good measured
well meaning sense of Self.

We, planetary population,
the bodies that coexist
by sharing all that is;
We, sound forms of light,
water, earth, air, fire, ether -
We, the cyclical solar shine
and tides of lunar luminance.
Our bodies are planetary bodies.

We, the people who live this once,
a Life self-created, with essential memory of more.
Sharks bite Self-awareness at our border’s edges,
until We become conscious of no need for borders.
Sun beat-upon-beat opens and exposes our hearts,
until We become aware of no need for boundaries.
Wind blows laughter buckling our rigid stance,
until We become illuminated by no need for limitations.
Rain soaks clean our round world’s four corners,
until We become self-recognizable by no desire for war.

When our horizon's crisis cross,
reality’s line meets our hunger for hope -
transforming false hope into real desire to heal.
Acceptance, a vane of emptiness' within each one of us.
Allowance, a vain rediscovered mine within my voice.
Peace, a vitality within all life forms breathing in Life.
Love, a vitamin nurturing our true nature.
Healing, a thirst that parches human vanity.

~~ Other People's Fingerprints ~~
In 1923 Kahlil Gibran wrote,
"Sons of my ancient mother,
you riders of the tides,
How often have you sailed in my dreams.
And now you come in my awakening,
which is my deeper dream.
Ready am I to go,
and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind.
Only with another breath will I breathe in this air,
only another loving look cast backward,
And then I shall stand among you,
a seafarer among seafarers.
And you, vast sea, sleepless mother,
Who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream,
Only another winding will this stream make,
only a murmur in this glade,
And then shall I come to you,
a boundless drop to a boundless ocean.”

"Sea Space Glide" 

by Karin Lisa Atkinson