Please Share & Publish these Poetic Gems

Fresh Haiku Flowing through the pen, from where? Consciousness steady. Craig Louis Stehr 1.IX.'16 Berkeley Liberated Moment Identifying with the spiritual Absolute Watching the mind churn out thought after thought Witnessing this random thinking and not Being that, or its manufacturer, nor the body Which contains the mental factory Is the key to liberation, free from the suffering Of life and its phenomenally appearing modifications! Witnessing eternally, not attached to anything at all. Freedom is within our grasp, just a moment away from Abominable Kali yuga horror stories which fill the pages Of today's news media in color with internet links and Editorials and video footage which shocks and sells more Of the same to the already stunned public who feed on this And live the warring of everyday life, and curse the weather On planet meltdown, and fret constantly over the economic Unpredictability, and the millions of displaced worldwide cannot All be accommodated in a shelter, and they all have to eat. The avatars are due: Krishna as Vishnu's 10th manifestation Kalki on the white horse brandishing a flaming sword to vanquish the Demoniac and return the world to righteousness, and also Maitreya Buddha is due for an appearance, and the awaited Second coming of Christ. No wonder all of the yogis are Applying themselves to practicing mindfulness and being free. Craig Louis Stehr, August 30, 2014 Poem for the Earth Warriors by Craig Louis Stehr Rejoice in the dark phase of Kali Yuga Nonattachment both to elusive peace And discomfort in the face of chaos Liberates the worrying mind From earth plane’s crazy dramatics Delusion’s nets release the dolphins Ensnared in the cold grey seas To roam free and ride the currents From season to season beneath the stars Navigating by moonlight to hidden realms Only to emerge with new messages Listen to the songs of the whales The electric eel brings a warning Undersea volcanoes echo the instructions From the center of the earth which is The real beating heart at its core Deep within and silent Witnessing the movement Of the universal play Millions and millions of miles Of vast space stretch out One beam of light to infinity Bends and curves to return To its origin completing the journey Everything lives in a circular motion Always returning like giant waves That form and crash loudly and go back Shifting sand beds underneath And rocking the coral reefs The great white shark is unmoved It stays above its shadow relaxed and calm Knowing what’s up and it has known For a very long time The reckoning of climate change approaches Temperatures irregular and sea levels varying Storms alter fish migrations and the Undersea plants and deep sea life All the way down to the ocean floor In flux in the murkiness with soundings Rumbling from below bottom dwellers Emissions escape from fissures and trembling Are the code of transmissions sent up to the surface To land dwellers and the myriad species Trees, plants, mountains, rivers, streams Frigid air currents and warm clouds The truth always comes back full circle We are receiving our instructions all the time. Craig Louis Stehr 23.XI.’12 Strong Medicine There's a funny thing about magic It's kinda tricky because if The practitioner doesn't get it right Magic makes a lot of trouble resulting In madness. Unlimited wisdom and power Don't share the credit, so please Watch out if you are the ritualist. Ghost dancers understand this, and After the visions they chill out to Be released from possession and they go Back to their jobs at the hardware store Ready to be used again later, not affected By the power and the magic for having Put on tribal costumes and singing and dancing As the incredible happens in ceremonial circles. The Keystone XL Pipeline-Tar Sands mining Scheme has invaded Indian country from Alberta, Canada through the Lakota's land in The U.S. Dakotas on down through Nebraska Beyond the vast sonoran desert landscape All the way to refineries in southern Texas Where farmers are being coerced off of their Land and all hell has broken loose between Government bureaucracies, the mining companies, and transcontinental construction corporations, Opposed by Earth First! radical environmentalists and Rising Tide climate justice activists, while the Indigenous native councils are in marathon meetings Trying to reach consensus about money and respecting Mother Earth, and what does Wakan Tanka expect? Traditionalists debate the modernists as the ticking Climate clock reminds that climatologists predict a Tipping point near the solar eclipse August 21, 2017 And the men braid tobacco and send prayers upward Carried by the smoke from red clay pipes as the Women beat drums in a story telling circle And the medicine man laughs because he knows. Craig Louis Stehr 8.XII.'12 Not Two Ramana Maharshi said that there is No such thing as "two selves", in other Words "one self that realizes another self" And therefore it is absurd for anyone to Attempt to become enlightened, because You are already the Self. He advised Everyone to abide in the Self always, And to do nothing else, this being the Primary spiritual practice at his ashram In south India, where seekers arrived in Droves seeking the Self, only to be told That they are the Self, and that there was Nothing for them to seek, which left them Sitting quietly at the feet of the Master who Smiled, nonattached to phenomena and Craving nothing at all, which he said was Everybody's inherent condition, there being Nothing else to realize, know, or understand, And thus Ramana Maharshi took walks at the Base of Mount Arunachal lecturing visitors On the identity of their true nature which they Traveled thousands of miles to question him About, which he graciously answered for Them and on and on this went until he Became internationally well known as a Spiritual teacher and his sayings were Published and his living quarters became a Shrine and Mount Arunachal was accepted as The Abode of Shiva and his teachings influenced Generations of spiritual seekers and today Pilgrims from around the world come to his Ashram and meditate there and read the Books and sing bhajans and hear lectures From his devotees and celebrate Shivaratri On the mountain and mindfully circumambulate On the well worn foot paths and hike up to the Peak and light incense and offer flowers and Eat prasadam and finger rudraksha seed beads And finally realize that they cannot abide in the Self, because they are the Self, since there are not Two selves, one to abide in the other, because Brahman, or the Self, is everything! OM TAT SAT Craig Louis Stehr 9.XII.'12 Composed at Saxby's Coffee House University Mall (near George Mason University) Fairfax, Virginia, USA Response from Dao Mountain Clouds steadily moving past here Fierce shapes, soft and powerful Merge into one another to create New shapes wide jawed with teeth Jagged wings and a spiked tail The eyes are large and see everywhere What is it searching for? Who is riding on its back and What does she want, with her Vase of healing water and herbs? Surveying the earth and smiling Softly yet powerful, the ideal Of the mystery which cannot be named Children bring her gifts of Giant peaches and the deer From a magic forest deliver Purple mushrooms of immortality Incense is lit in an old wooden temple Prayers are sent up to her on Curls of smoke from sandalwood coils Priests wear robes decorated with Yi-jing hexagrams and embroidered Cranes and wear ceremonial hats Quietly chanting on strands of beads White pearls with cherry amber spacers The rivers are flooding and the Wind is mean and cold; the sky is angry Calmly the astrologers tend their gardens Far back in the folds of the mountains Yarrow stalks are thrown down in an Urban plaza and examined for esoteric meaning The sage does nothing yet everything gets done Harmony is the way, yet disharmony Is more common, which causes fear That spreads across the land feeding chaos Guan Yin doesn't like war, and her Fire breathing mount reflects the longer term Cause and effect that results from straying From the wide path of light which leads Full circle to the Abode of the Immortals Farmers cultivate and then take rest On mountain tops beneath the circling dragon And its celestial passenger Wayfarers climb the stone staircase Leading up from the valley floor To visit the community that agents from the Cities could not locate for their rulers No trace of it was reported to the court Airplanes were sent out and found nothing At the temple gate wayfarers are greeted with Chrysanthemum tea and cotton slippers A rainbow arches over the inner courtyard Full of poets and a traditional orchestra The mountain festival is beginning Sun and moon yield yin-yang secrets A reckoning is near and cannot be doubted For it is written on the backs of all Tortoises by a grand caligrapher Who serves no one Fools laugh at this But the wise will understand Craig Louis Stehr 24.XI.'12 Shakeout What's good about the spinning top of postmodernism Precisely is the growing realization that success As once defined, is not applicable or even relevant To billions of global citizens who have given up Questing to attain lifestyles that are impossible And may have been an illusion from the beginning Right this moment, there's a dawning upon the creative Imagination to abandon quickly the old urgencies and Free up spirit from attachment to attitudes not ours Release from cultural sticking points not anchored in A social context that we recognize, and let us together Kick out the jams in a mental shakeout that makes Room for the emerging paradigm, brilliant spiral Patterns in a changed world that the historians Detail but cannot measure; this very precious instant Contains all chain of events in a civilization That does not recognize itself, but is studied for clues It is shakeout time, everybody, to rid ourselves of the Encrusted barnacles on these earthly ships, now set Sails for new voyages to distant places and adventures Of consciousness, reflecting truth and dreamed of bliss Shake it out, for the time to make our way has come. Craig Louis Stehr 30.XI.'12 Kali on K Street I saw Mother Kali on K Street Didn't recognize her right away Because she was really black and Her hair was disheveled and she was Pushing a shopping cart past the Statue at McPherson Square I asked her if she'd been part of Occupy DC and she told me that She tented behind the People's Library But after the police raid she moved to Freedom Plaza and washed pots 'n pans When I was on a break writing my reports She had a wig on at the Radical Space Holiday party and critiqued anarchism Then showed up for the big protest march Wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and mic-checked Outside the News Museum to declare our rights I inquired if that was her shrill voice on the steps Of the Supreme Court, threatening to scalp the Appointed who oppose a woman's right to choose She smiled pushing her belongings up K Street Toward Peace House to enjoy a hot mineral bath Craig Louis Stehr 26.XI.'12 Wild Virtue Always at play Whirling circles of light The critical edge Rejoices in victory Unlimited wisdom and Energy surges through The interstices Of time and space Junctures in history Epic stages of control and confusion Rebellion is the constant Because power has no friends Comes a reckoning That shocks awake And washes away The merchants of sweetness and pain Meteor showers in the sky You can smell the rain Laughing, we go back to the places We have loved, again and again Craig Louis Stehr 17.XI.'12 Craig Louis Stehr Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com P.O. Box 34181 Washington, D.C. 20043-4181 Telephone: (202) 832-8317 April 16, 2026 Anno Domini