heart language
speaks in tongues
we cannot translate

its imprecision
is its preciseness

it stirs pots
that mere words
cannot touch

it weaves
what cannot be woven
by earthly minds,
by logic,
and sense

do I not make sense to you?
good
drop your sense
so that your heart may listen

here you'll find
more than the pennies of our logic

here you'll find
real change

a treasure beyond
this moment's impermanence;
a gift of something timeless


*Original poem by Summer Starr - August 2015

The following poem was written while making a new flower essence at Tree Frog Farm as part of a course by Diana Pepper. We were re-making Fairy Rose and our upgrade of this essence has wonderful properties to help work with energetic and spiritual blockages to the collaborative creative process - very much an issue that has been on my mind as of late!

The Heart of Connection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
hold true to
your own charm
speak the words
deepest in your soul
and let what separates
- from purpose
from community -
fall away

and what does not fall away
becomes gifted work
you do not do alone
it is OURS
it is generations
it is a network of beings
and worlds so great
it fills and overflows the imagination

and your simple point
in this great web of connection
is a welcomed place of choice

make the choice
to support the larger work
of all the universes
and you will find
a community 
of open arms
welcoming you
joining you
reaffirming you
like a sweet song
for love and peace

*original poem by Summer Starr, July 2015

to be
that is all that is asked;
seems like a simple instruction
for such a tall order

to be in the face of
desire
destruction
confusion
passion
vulnerability
these things take a different kind of talent

this requires a rawness
most do not want to feel;
it requires a dedication to authenticity
our social constructs have constructed barriers against;
we find we have to take sledgehammers to walls
that have been built unconsciously
admittedly built as a survival instinct
in a world that makes love
conditional


we add to these conditions with our checklists
of what we want to achieve
and bucketlists
of what we want to experience
and criteria
for who we want to love,
thinking that these things will somehow
give us a better life


we don't see how this restricts
real living
life becomes effort to achieve
some item on all those lists
and we actually forget
to actually be
in the moment
with this breath
with this beautiful person
that stands before us
or even as us
ever changing

There is a lifetime of mystery, wonder,
adventure and creation here
but this place too often gets passed by
for that place
that experience
that idea
that love

when will you dive more deeply into
this place
this moment
this idea
this love?
and trade all of that effort
for more of this existence;
an acceptance of what is now
that is not apathetic
but rather insightful
inspiring
and comes directly from the here
from the now
and beyond

*original poem by Summer Starr, July 2015

I feel your pain
in my stomach
deep in my womb
at the center of the cave
                        of my heart

day after day
we toil to pay for
generation after generation
of unconscious
thinking
doing
being

hell we're mad
and sometimes it feels like
this world is spun
out of this thread
of mindless pain
woven into unsympathetic
chaos

so how do we untangle and reweave
given our sick and poor
raw materials?

look closer and you'll see
the glitter of some small potential
a hope sometimes so ridiculous
its mere existence shows
the existence of something deeper

and so we go deeper
into the mind
into nature
into reality
into All That Is

And somehow feeling the pain
is both the way out
and the way in
to a deeper way
of living as a prayer
for the dying
and beyond

*original poem by Summer Starr, July 2015

is the ground of my being
it is beyond all reason
all expectation
all sense

in fact, reason, sense and expectation
may prove
to be its opposite

it is;
just as you are
I am
the world is

it is the molecules of being
the potential of a point of nothing

it is a prayer that makes no requests
a joy that rejoices in nothingness
and what lies beyond

it is a recognition of what is right now
in a way so raw and bloody in its clarity
that to still stand
in the face of everything
can only be called love

*Original poem by Summer Starr, July 2015

A major current life theme for me is centered around the importance of creativity during a time where there seems to be so many problems facing us as a people. We have the wild and inspirational intelligence to create our way out of these seeming stalemates, road blocks, and even our imprisonment in a system that is failing. However, this creativity seems blocked. I feel it in myself. Sometimes it is just a sense of hopelessness that one small person can't do much of anything in the face of EVERYTHING! But I know deep down that isn't true. The Dalai Lama said "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito." And if you are part of a flock of mosquitoes - wow!

What I have started to see as a huge creative block is our own self-criticism. Our comparison of ourselves to others, our wishing we were something more, because "then I could really do something." Insecurity is not something often openly spoken of in our culture and it is a kind of silent sword at the throat of so many. A sword that is unfortunately made stronger by our judgement of each other. I feel this judgement in myself when I find myself get angry over conspicuous consumption or unconsciousness about what is happening in the world. But this kind of "whose doing right and whose doing wrong" or "who is better than whom" is what got us into this mess in the first place...to get out we need to change our thinking.

Climbing Poetree uses their strong, beautiful and penetratingly insightful voices to illustrate this human frailty in their first poem at the Bioneers conference. I hope will give you not just a smile, but hope to you as well - I know it did to me. Accepting and connecting to nature and accepting and connecting to MY true nature...one and the same...and the beginning of a new way of thinking and being in the world - beyond judgement. "Effort give way to existence." Now THAT inspires a creativity worthy of Creation...

On the 5th of July I posted a poem titled "Mother's Fury". I've been dealing with a lot of anger and pain in myself over the environmental changes I am seeing and the unconsciousness of myself and so much of our society over this issue. It feels like I have been trained to act and think in a way that now opposes the fabric of my being as I emerge in my unfolding process. This frustration has left me feeling like my heart is closing and I am becoming bitter and judgmental of myself and others. So this morning's period of contemplation was centered around a prayer for help with this issue and this poem is the result. Enjoy.

the real wrath of God
is the simple laws of nature;
what goes up
must come down
for every action
there is an equal and opposite reaction;
consequences

but if you sit and deeply listen
to the heart of the world
to the hustle and bustle of nature
you'll hear within it a larger heartbeat - 
the sound of creation - 
and there is an unmistakable love there
a bounty, a ridiculous abundance
of wonder, mystery and potential;
see this
let this take your breath away 
with possibilities
with awe!

and it is this heart that breaks a little 
every time her children go extinct
her landscape goes bare
her waters become polluted;
but mostly she weeps for a children
most beloved
who have gone astray
in deed and purpose

this heart has hope
and directs us
if we listen
let today be a prayer
for deeper listening
and our collective anger and grief
a clearing
for greater love

* Original poem by Summer Starr, July 2015

last night I fell asleep
to the bomb blasts
of fireworks
and my neighbors
shouting
'merica! 'merica!

this morning we awoke to
a different type of fireworks
 - the forest kind

the sky looks angry
and the wind whips
with fury

something in me trembles
a taste of what's to come?

this independence day
we realize we are
not so independent
as our green grass
turns brown
a couple of months early
and our water supply dips
to unprecedented lows

my heart cries for mercy as we prepare
for the full wrath of God
when we will all turn in anguish
"mother why have you forsaken us?"
but it is we who abandoned her
in search of our childish dreams of 
a sugar-coated, gun-powder-laced freedom
that will never come

*Original poem by Summer Starr, July 2015

Love creation
      the earth that birthed you
      the process of change
      that unfolds so beautifully
      so mysteriously
      so richly
      around you

Love the divine creator
      who speaks through creation
      telling a story of love
      of sorrow
      of hope
      of renewal

Fall in love with the divine story
      and make it your own
      live closer to it
      open fully to it
      drop your defenses and disguises around it
      and let it change you

And let it change the world
      what has been emptied
      shall be made full
      through spirit (in you)
      and through divinely inspired effort (in the world)


*Original poem by Summer Starr, July 2015.