Like there’s a tree in the seed
There is God within me
The Unseen is clearly seen
When the love of Christ has set us free
Just as the drops that make the Ocean
Are full of all the Ocean is
So when we pour out who we are
We are receiving what we give
There is nowhere God is not
To include the reflection that we see
Closer than we could ever imagine
In every breath we ever breathe
© Copyright 2018 Pedro S. Silva II
In our spiritual community at First Congregational Church Boulder, UCC some of our members are reading a small book called, The Art of Being a Healing Presence. Those of us reading it, are part of a small group of people who are choosing to heed the call to embody a healing presence with community members who are open to our invitation. Over the months that we’ve been meeting, my heart has increasingly found joy in our time together encouraging each other as we discover the gift of Visitation together. I wrote the following poem to/for them to both express appreciation for their gifting of themselves and to remind them that when we are being present, every moment counts.
The Visitation
It was only for a moment
It was here and it was gone
But when they think of the Visitation
The Presence lingers on
Breaking into Time-space
Eternity in half an hour
When two or more gather here
We’ve invited in the Power
Never underestimate,
What a moment can unfold
A single earthly encounter
A lasting balm for the soul
You were called to bring the Presence.
Being is what you do.
Giving form to the Love,
That preceded me and you
© Copyright 2018 Pedro S. Silva II
Matthew 18:20
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Words cannot express
What words cannot express
But Silence is compelling me
So I will do my best
Though everything is backwards
There is something coming forth
That is leading us to where we’ve never left
So that we’ll always be on course
It’s fullness is not religious
Truth’s Way will free us from our binds
But first we must deny ourselves
So that our True Selves we might find
That is the Revelation
That so many before us bore
But, we lost our Way living outside in
And always keeping score
The Way Showers wants to free us
But we have to kill them first
Because we refuse to be what we will not see
Thus labeling them a curse
But as soon as we can’t see them
We see them as they are
Exposing what we once denied
That we never were that far
Then suddenly we’re speechless
If only we had known
We’d’ve been deliberate in our reaping
So that our freedom could be down.
© Copyright 2018 Pedro Silva
Into Your hands I commit my spirit
Because I won’t endure this lie
This prison system cannot be True
Built on the illusion that we must die
Death’s nothing more or less than a doorway
Or when a movie changes scenes
Different characters embody roles
But there’s just One Dreamer of these dreams
Yet somehow we’ve conceived to deny this
Even though it makes no sense
In the beginning there was always One
And there only has been ever since.
I struggle everyday to express this
To live wholly in Your call
Knowing that I’m denying One
If I can’t see You in All
This is the fruit of religious life
Bonding body and mind to soul
Forsaking the separate self that never was
And abandoning false control
This is when the journey ends
We’ve found the only thing worth finding
And teaching each other is no longer done
We simply trust in Your reminding
This is what I live this Life for
Every other way must be undone
My spirit in the hands of the All in All
Completes what never had begun
© Copyright 2017 Pedro S. Silva II
There is a path that all flesh must take
We’ve always known this from the start
It’s the very awareness of this fact
That reveals the nature of our heart
For the spirit of immortality
Wrestles with the ways of form
Tempting us with corporeality
As if it were the norm
There are hearts that surrender to this way
As long as we are here
While other hearts struggle with time itself
Certain that eternity is near
The struggling heart will not surrender
It crams eternity into space
Living life with all it has
And in its wake leaves waves of grace
It knows the way that flesh must go
But it and flesh are not the same
And on that day when the two must part
It receives that which is its to gain
© Copyright 2016 Pedro S. Silva II
The poem above was written by request for the Rev. Bruce MacKenzie Pastor Emeritus of the church I serve in Boulder, CO. “The way of all flesh” was a saying Bruce loved to say when referring to anything that is temporary in this world. At one visit I had with him before his passing he said to me, “Soon I will be going the way of all flesh, but you and I know that is nothing to be concerned with. So no tears.” I said to him, “Well we teach that Jesus wept when Lazarus died and he was just about to resurrect him, so I cry when you leave.” He laughed at that and changed the subject. Bruce’s body might have gone the way of all flesh. But though the outer man is beyond our seeing, the inner man remains eternally abiding.
There’s a world we all are living in
But not everyone can see
A World of eternal spaciousness
Where everyone is free
Inside that world is another world
Where people choose to live a lie
“Special people”claim to know the Truth
And teach the “forgetting” we can die
Some of those people know the Truth
And twist it tight for so called gain
Telling us that we can’t get along
And that the Other causes pain
Their clarion call is “SAVE YOURSELF”
So that’s what many of us try to do
We can’t see it’s just a cattle call
And all they want to hear is “MOOOO”
They have no purpose if we’re not scared
“Can’t you see that there’s a threat?”
They know that we will sell our souls
Only as long as we’re fearing death
They tell you they’re here to protect us
That’s the job for which they’re paid
In exchange you can focus on other things
But you lose consciousness in the trade
The world of lies that we think is real
Does not objectively exist
Like a picture of a sumptuous meal
On which no one can subsist
Meanwhile in the eternal world
One is the Truth that always reigns
“divided houses” do not exist
And there is no loss or gain
No one’s seeking for the joy in life
For Joy is the Cause of Life itself
And value isn’t used as we use it here
Since everything springs from eternal wealth
There also is never a use for Welcome
Because there’s never a time that we aren’t here
We can tell ourselves that we’ve gone away
But to Truth we’ve never disappeared
Like children with their hands on eyes
Who think they’re unseen when they can’t see
Here we can choose to chain ourselves
But that doesn’t make us less than free
We’re only bound by the limits that we project
Our own judgments become our jail
But our sentence is never for our entire life
Because the Truth always prevails
The next time that you kill us
Remember we never really die
Suppressing us won’t free you
Because Truth can’t sustain a lie
I know our presence scares you
We make you feel unsure
Nothing can quite prepare you
For seeing your prejudice impure
You’ve been taught we’re inconvenient
You try to hide us from your view
But locking us up doesn’t keep us out
Since you can’t get away from you
Your history of violence
Towards those who look like me
Has left so many people silent
That we barely know how to be
You say that we are valued
And yet you try to hide the Truth
But there’s no escaping what’s evident
We are the living proof
But where does this knowledge leave us
For too many it ushers shame
The one thing no one wants to feel
Because we can’t escape the pain
See that’s not what we’re seeking
What we want to share is hope
But in our face you see a mirror
And hang the image from a rope
Your guilt too, is not of value
It’s just denial in different dress
Which leads to justification
Which fosters anger and unrest
So what is the solution?
Where do we go from here?
How can we live by a better Way,
When we hold on to our fear?
The answer is we cannot
We have to let love win
Or die in the darkness that we choose
And then do it all again
They told him “put your hands up.”
He did and that day he died.
Innocence put to death.
His crime was he complied
The authorities are the ones who killed him.
He must have “fit the right description”
They called him a troublemaker.
Never mind it was a fiction
It wasn’t just the way he looked
It was also the way he saw
He loved outside the rules
To them it violated law
He was out with his friends
No one knows what he did wrong
But they came for him with their weapons
They already had them drawn
Though unarmed and non-threatening,
They started drawing near
To me it’s quite ironic
That they were filled with so much fear
What were they afraid of–
The stories they were told?
“You better watch out with a guy like him.”
“He’s been known to lose control.”
“Have you seen the crowd he hangs with?”
“Let’s look at all the facts.”
“A gang leader if there was ever one.”
“He should have never crossed the tracks.”
“He dines with people known as criminals.”
“He’s friends with women of the night.”
“Believe me he’s not innocent’.”
“Something is just not right.”
That’s the kind of messaging
That makes those like him such a threat
No one ever gets him
And we still haven’t seen him yet
That’s why still today we kill him
In the bodies we see as least
And yet many of us say we follow him
I thought he was called “The Prince of Peace”
He died so we could stop this
But still we choose to pay the price
Because whenever we kill the innocent
We are always killing Christ.
© Copyright 2016 Pedro S. Silva II
No matter what one thinks about Christ, we know what innocence is and what it isn’t in the depths of our being. When we deny that knowledge, we deny all that can be right in this world.
All things to All things
Nothing is denied
But we’re fighting over bread crumbs
Because someone believed a lie
So now we kill each other
In our constant pursuit of more
We believe we are “consumers”
Because we don’t know what we’re for
Infinite Creation
Nothing more or less
But instead destruction follows us
When we put us to the test
Addicted to the thought of conquering
Sixty steps till we unlearn
That the truth of life is obvious
When we’re not looking for our turn
In the mean time there’s confusion
We’re told we have to choose a side
Contests between “us” and “them”
Where the winner doesn’t die
But what if someone told you
That everything is yours
And everything is everyone’s
And no one’s keeping score
The House is not divided
Upon the Rock is where it stands
Never to be shaken
By unreasonable demands
But because it can’t be broken
It won’t resist what it is we do
We can lie all the hell we want to
Because all of it’s untrue
Though we deny the Absolute
It simply continues as it is
Fully realized. No need to strive.
For it’s the life that we all Live
It’s the Bread that’s not devoured
Though we eat it to our fill
Diminishing every sense of loss
Like nothing ever will
Wonder where I’m coming from?
Let me get you up to speed.
If it’s true–God provides
What I want, I don’t need
Being less never is
In the One Source of All
But let the world tell it
We’re divided by our falls
Makes us so small
Man this grift amaze me
Used to say, “We all One”
But they called me, “Crazy”
Now to me it seems lately
It’s the Word of Truth
The lie of separation
Is now busting loose
Because I Am you are
One Light Two Stars
Shining inside out
So we never go too far
Well that’s about it
That’s All I want to say
Now that that’s off my chest
I bow down to pray.
