#2327 - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - Editor: Jerry Katz

[Guest guest]

Hi Harsha,

Sorry for cross-posting, but Eric Ashford used to be a member here,

and thought those who remember him would enjoy knowing he has

a book published now.

Gloria

#2327 - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - Editor: Jerry Katz

The Nondual Highlights

Archive and Search Engine: http://nonduality.com/hlhome.htmWe welcome

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websites and blogs. Send the info in a reply to this email.

This issue of The Nondual Highlights features selections from Speaking

Through the Opening: Allowing Your Life to be Your Poem, by Eric

Ashford. http://www.palabras-press.com/

However, I'm going to do something unusual in this presentation of

John's poetry. I find that within the poems are brief, intense,

remarkable lines that stand out like shocking lights. I have

unscrewed some of those lights from the larger poems and I only hope

Eric doesn't mind!

"Eric Ashford goes to a new place of consciousness that we are only

now exploring. He consistently has what I call 'Rumi Moments,' where

time stops and you look inside and see the beauty that cannot be

spoken, though Eric has just spoken it. You look up from the page,

smile and shake your head and let go, savouring for a few moments,

before returning to the magic of his words." --John MacEnulty

Eric Ashford lives in England. He is a poet who believes that poetry

is an authentic spiritual path in its own right. Writing poetry is

contemplative, healing and a way of self-realization. He would also

say that poetic self-expression is how we choose to view and become

the art of our own life.

~ ~ ~

This book explores in 200 poems, the many ways that we can become the

poetic expression of our souls. It touches upon the highs and lows of

this "art of living" that is our individual path to self-awareness. It

is my hope that the readers will come to realize their divine

potential to live optimally from the poetry of their souls--to live

from a deeper source of their creative light--and to come to know

that his very life that we lead is the poem we allow ourselves to

write.

~ ~ ~

When you do not know your words

and cannot name them,

then you are in season,

Then you are heavy

with something new to say.

You are pregnant like the sky is when full of rain.

~ ~ ~

When a poem speaks to you

it's as if you just spoke to yourself.

~ ~ ~

Black-inked words fall on snow fields.

Poems arrive like thunder out of a clear blue sky.

No one here is looking.

There is only the poem

looking at itself.

~ ~ ~

Place one foot here and one foot there

and wait for the big picture to appear.

~ ~ ~

Write every poem quickly

even if it takes you a lifetime.

~ ~ ~

You have endless amazing talents

but, until you love to reveal them,

nothing real can be said.

~ ~ ~

Find that one thing that feels

as if God is making love to you.

Undress yourself in the dark to be that light.

~ ~ ~

....let the wheel turn in your hands

and force nothing.

~ ~ ~

When you employ no safety net

and carry no provisions,

you arrive at real destinations.

~ ~ ~

A hermit crab leaves home for a moment,

becomes breakable,

and bursts into travelling music.

~ ~ ~

Poems are trails that show you

where you were hunted down and killed.

~ ~ ~

Some poets go beachcombing until late

kicking over old rocks

to see where the sea went.

~ ~ ~

Breathe for a while and

wait to hear what became of you.

~ ~ ~

Speaking Through the Opening: Allowing Your Life to be Your Poem, by Eric Ashford.

http://www.palabras-press.com/

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