AFTERWORD


Gentle Reader,

What you’ll find below is an upside-down anthology of sorts: a journal of my frequent nightly musings from January 2008 till now, in reverse order.


Much of what I write here is verse in traditional rhymed iambic pentameters, old fashioned in form but contemporary in topics and idiom. It asks to be read aloud so that the effects of rhyme and meter may be felt.


Sometimes I write brief prose essays, but even my verses are essays, or attempts, pursuing a line of thought to some conclusion, though more sonorously than those in prose: discursive verses, I call them.


In either case, you’re the reader over my shoulder as I write, which makes my writing different than when I have no audience in mind but only a vague urge to express. So I thank you for whatever attention you give my words and thoughts and feelings because you might so easily attend to something else, and you soon will.


To beguile you to linger longer, though, I’ve coupled most of my compositions with a photo or image I’ve taken or borrowed, which often corresponds with my words of that day.

Thank you for visiting here.  I hope you enjoy your stay and are moved to come back soon.

—Alan Nordstrom

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WRITING YOUR DESTINY

Because you are an author, and your life is your story, it behooves you to learn your craft and become an artist of the highest stature you can.

Though you are not the originator of your life, and you are not responsible for most of the formative influences that shaped your early years, there comes a time, sooner better than later, when you must assume authority, or authorship, of the life story you will live out.  To the common question, “Whose life is it anyway?” you must answer, “Mine!” and make it so.

Schooling should not simply stuff you with knowledge, but teach you the rudiments of life-crafting. It should be formative as well as informative, developing in you the mastery to make your life a masterpiece.

As the author of your life story, as the captain of your soul, you must chart your own course and begin an adventure full of surprises, unforeseen opportunities and challenges.

You will not know your final destination or destiny until you arrive there, but meanwhile you’ll stay alert to the winds of spirit that blow about you whispering where you’re bound for, and you’ll set your sails accordingly.

Do what you love as much as you can.  Your vocation is what calls to you from within, from the center of your being, from your heart of hearts.  It says, “THIS is who you are, THIS is where to go, THIS is what you rightly ought to do.

Do it.  Become it.  Make your story come true.

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MOTHER UNIVERSE II

for Duane Elgin

   Why not suppose: throughout the Universe
   One Spirit is that is the Universe,
   The Source of all—the Mother Universe,
   From whom in time all lesser worlds disperse—
   Yet still remain united with their Source
   Through some mysterious and numinous force?
  
   And then why not suppose that somehow we
   Can tune our minds to that same frequency
   To which the humming Universe is tuned
   And with our Source may thereby be reuned,
   Feeling ourselves connected throughout space
   To that eternal fount of Love and Grace?
  
        But why suppose?  Instead just simply know:
        Relax, release, reune, and feel the glow.

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INSTANT KARMA

    In times like these when we are taught to crave
    immediate response to our desires,
    what if we learned how better to behave:
    less like a puppet jerked about by wires?
   
    What if, no sooner than we went awry,
    off on some wrong track or against some law,
    we suffered ill effects that made us cry
    “Alas, alack” and came to see our flaw?
   
    Such instant karma then would gratify
    a higher human need than selfish lust:
    the need for love, which money cannot buy,
    the need for confidence, the need for trust.
   
         Such is the karmic role that Conscience plays
         by goading us from detrimental ways.

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CONSCIOUS / CONSCIENCE

A common usage error I’ve seen recently in students’ writing is to say conscience when they mean consciousness: simply being aware but without a moral implication.  Or sometimes the error goes the opposite way: “It was against my conscious to act like that.”

But perhaps, at a deeper level, such verbal confusion is justified, and these terms are more closely related than normal usage implies, with conscience being a term to represent a higher level of consciousness along a scale that ascends from the minimal awareness of an amoeba to the enlightened consciousness of the Buddha.

Which is to say that the highest reaches of organic consciousness have been defined as a “cosmic consciousness” comprehending and uniting with the universe, conceived as the living source of all existence.

Our implicit moral imperative, then, would be to develop our consciousness during our lifetimes to the highest level or finest degree of conscientious sensitivity—of compassionate care for other sentient beings.

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ENIGMA

    If nothing else, the miracle of life
    Commands awe and respect from thoughtful folk.
    Despite Darwinian laws dictating strife
    To cull the weak, life’s still the masterstroke
    Of our grand, enigmatic Universe:
    A blessing, even when it seems a curse.

    Grant that injustice, cruelty and lust
    Predominate in our experience,
    And all too rare are honor, love and trust;  
    Is not the fact of virtue recompense?
    Does not the care and kindness that we know
    Point out the way our youthful race can grow?

         As evolutionary destiny unfolds,
         We better see the miracle it holds.

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COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS

                                            for Duane Elgin

      Of all the many stories that we hear

      Of how the world began and what it’s for,

      Some meant to fill us with respectful fear,

      Others to teach us rightly to adore,

      The one that presently makes sense to me

      Proposes that the Cosmos is alive,

      Informed throughout with vital energy,

      The Source of our intelligence and drive:

      Our consciousness is Cosmic Consciousness

      At heart, far deeper than our senses know,

      Which only recognize what nerves express,

      Not what the soul perceives and visions show.

           If life on fragile Earth is to survive,

           The Cosmos then must teach us how to thrive.

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