Listen:
the infinite echo
of all voices together
in waves of harmony
and disharmony
that create the aria
sung and heard
where union
is accomplished
and includes all
as individuals
in counterpoint
and concert;
a kiss
a touch
redemption.

An Excerpt From the Upcoming Novel Shadow Dancing

Next to me, a boat appears, small but seaworthy.  Stepping into it, I feel my spirit torn asunder.  Like an infinite mirror, I become the deeds of every man, and feel all matter of the earth move through me.  I feel the pulse of my being, involution drawing in, evolution giving out, my worldly conditions alternating between the two activities.  My mind reaches out into form, my heart reaches in to love, and both have limits.  And within these endless limits shines the blaze of eternity that lays my soul to rest.  I reach my hand out and touch the guardian, and in the touch, I am immediately humbled.  All feeling is drained from me.  All thought is gone.  I become the divine vessel, empty and ready.

I close my eyes now, and by releasing the gaze of this guardian, feel it unite with the lesser guardian before it.  In the unity comes the knowing that I am connected to every one, the many are one in all that I am. Everyone is redeemed, and in the redemption is harmony.  My love involves all others, who receive my spirit of love and evolve toward the future.

My eyes open and I am dropped back in time.  Lifting my hand to rub my eyes, I look around my hotel room and wonder where I am.  I notice the clock by the bed reads 2:00 PM, and fall back to sleep after feeling my entire body moan.

Excerpted from Shadow Dancing, a novel by Molly Brogan
Copyright invoked, 2011
Artwork by Jules.  Many thanks. 

A Glimpse at My Upcoming "Early Poems"

If Love Is

If love is, then,

A meeting

And a meaning,

Just one meaning,

One shared meaning,

Then listen gently

To the sound

Of its tender sigh,

Its soothing,

Wind sung note.

Do not look for words,

But the low

Plaintful moan

Of lovers’

Sweet release.

Drink it as I do

With no thought

Before

Or after.

Nip the cool

Sensation

Of hushed

Wet gasps

That echo

When lips meet

And mean

The warmth,

The oneness,

The fusion.

Excerpt from unpublished Early Poems
Artwork by Moira Marshall.  Many thanks. 

Wedding Tribute

-->

All I know of angels

I can see in your eyes.

The deep blue of heaven

Moves me like the sea.

Lifts me up with wings

Of unending possibility,

Into the depths of my soul.

Your love guides and protects me

Like a steadfast guardian,

Sentry at the threshold of my fear,

Banishing all potential harm

Allowing light and love to fill me,

Your golden glow surrounds me

Like a pocket of tender safety.

Your hands reach out to me

And reveal your sacred gift,

So simple and so elegant,

Merely all that I AM

And all that I can be,

Because you love me enough

To let your eyes lead the way.

And so my humble heart opens

And reaches for you in kind,

With an overwhelming desire

To move you completely,

To move you with me in tones,

In the rhythm that is ours

And ours alone.

Within that glorious rhythm

We connect to all creation,

Your angel wings enfold me,

Your gentle spirit infolds me,

And we become the divine creator

And all that is our good experience,

In truth, in love, in faith, through you.

--  Molly Brogan

A Welcome for the New Year

The Call

I stand ready

To embrace

The challenge.

I stand firm

In the truth

Of my soul.

I stand tall

As my heart

Races forward

At unimagined speeds,

Following spirit

Following the call.

I look upward

For a vision

Of my soul’s longing.

I see possibility

So sublime

That is whisks

Me away.

I fill quickly

With emptiness

And wait for you,

Quietly wait,

And wonder

What is real

In the waiting.

Excerpted from A Blaze of Light by Molly Brogan

Artwork by  Alejandro Silveira Bruno.  Many thanks.

The Soothing Power of the Spoken Word

I was honored to be told by my friend Dr. Brenda Carson, that she reads poetry to her mother, Mardine Carson, from my book A Blaze of Light.  Dr. Carson owns an Alternative Health and Wellness Clinic in Detroit, MI, and reads to her mother regularly to facilitate her speedy recovery.

Mardine Carson is 87 years old, and began writing poetry in her 60s.  She has always been a home-body, and very involved with family, friends and church.  Dr. Carson tells me that she knows her mother is enjoying the poetry as she reads it to her by the serene smile on her face.

As a writer, I think there is no greater honor than to hear a story like this.  Thank you both, Brenda and Mardine, for sharing it.  Good health and God bless you both.

We Share Together

Jim said..

I was surprised to find that your poem, We Share Together, was not included in A Blaze of Light. I saw it here on the blog and am wondering if it is another of your books.

Thanks for asking, Jim. This poem is not included any of my published books. It may be included in my next book of poems, now that I know you like it.

I have posted it again here for your enjoyment. I try to change the poems on this blog from time to time to freshen the landscape. I will be glad to discuss the poem further here or elsewhere, if you are so inclined. Molly Brogan

Beauty as the Path to Inspiration

Sioban said...
This is an interesting post. In your books, do you connect beauty and inspiration?

Thank you, for the wonderful question, Sioban. I do think that when we allow ourselves to contemplate the beautiful, we are taking ourselves to the state of connection with spirit. This is a sure and easy path to allow ourselves to feel connected to everything and all that is, which is our God nature. Sustaining this state of awareness puts us in a place to receive inspiration, starts the creative juices flowing. When we are connected to all of creation, we become creation and are moved to express creatively.

I think that usually my poems express a state where everything is coming together into such a flow. My trilogy of novels also, follows the main character as she is able to appreciate and express this more and more until finally, she is living from it. Byron’s “she walks in beauty like the night” is the perfect example of a character that learns to live as the creative force, in a state of inspiration. My third novel, Shadow Dancing, portrays the main character moving beyond her own shadow to fully embrace her own beauty and live from it. Seen from the broad pallet of the trilogy of novels, this character has come a long way from allowing life to happen to her, to creating a life expressed as her own highest potential.

Molly Brogan Books in Development and Soon to Be Released

Janie said...

Are you going to publish more poetry? I've read A Blaze of Light several times and enjoy the spirituality. I wonder if they are primarily love poems because they were from your novels. Do you have poetry that is not simply love poems? Will you publish more?

Thanks for the questions and the interest, Janie. You are right about A Blaze of Light, the poems are from my trilogy that portrays the love and loss experienced in the life journey of the central character. It is the first book of poems that I have published, and although I have a file drawer of poetry written over the years, I have no immediate plans to develop my next book of poetry. I am currently writing the third novel in my trilogy, Shadow Dancing, and some of the poetry from this unfinished novel is included in A Blaze of Light. I am also, after much encouragement from my associates, writing a book about living life as I see it: All About Living. This book is not fiction, but is my first non fiction sojourn, and presents my view into the depth of my spirit. The material is taken from intimate conversations with folks all over the globe concerning explorations of consciousness. Both new books should be available sometime next year. After that, another book of poems is ultimately possible. Thanks so much for the encouragement. Molly Brogan

Writing About Essential Being

Ulysses said...

"energy that moves through the matrix of our being that we can FEEL." Interesting. What do you mean by "being?" I know this is a topic of discussion on your other blog, but I'd like to know what your idea of being is, and how it applies to your books.

The Essene’s think that being is consciousness, and consciousness is everything. Like that, I think being is that part of us that is connected to spirit, and as such, is all of us. Even those parts of us that feel separate from spirit, devoid of spirit, opposed to spirit, are those parts of us that eventually lead us back to spirit, and so, are of spirit. Like the notions of Lucifer being God’s favorite angel, or Judas the favorite apostle of Jesus, or Brahman – being is all pervasive.

That said, I do believe that there is an essential part of being that we can give to our attention. It is that part of us that is the witness to our life, the one that observes before we assign meaning or belief. I think that the more we can move through life posited in this essential part of our being, the more our lives will become what we can conceive is our highest potential. When I say highest potential I mean the best life that we can dream - and better, because spirit is leading the witness always.

I construct my poems from the position of the witness, although I will say, that in order to reach the reader I find that I must include not only observation but interpretation to bring feeling to the experience. I suppose this may be poetic license.

My play, Without a Word, is an examination of being from all aspects of character. It was written to be an exercise in consciousness raising while giving the audience a more holographic than linear experience.

My three novels, when looked at in succession, are one journey to this realm of essential being. On the way, like all humans, the characters make mistakes and self discoveries that create the stories. And they learn, in the end, that we write our own stories. We are the writers, and the readers and the stories and the Logos.

Thanks so much for posing this great question.

There's a Blaze of Light In Every Word

Makram said...

In your book, Chasing Twilight, you begin to explore the role of the artist. Can you say what you consider the role of the artist in society to be, and why you write?

Thanks for the question, Makram. For as long as I can remember, I have written down words that allow me to feel the joy of living in one form or another. I was probably 10 when I put it into the form of a poem and thought about the experience of another reading my words. I have also pondered the divine for just as long. Between the ages of three and seven, my family lived near a large and beautiful church in the Midwest US. I would sit in that church for hours, fall asleep, and the nuns would chase me home.

I believe that the artist inspires our imagination with the works of art that they create. This inspiration can be anything from titillating interest to awakening imagination. We can be inspired in unity or separation but ultimately we are all one expression of the divine, as we are reminded by timeless works of art. It is here that the artist plays a role like no other because our awakened imagination is the key to how we create our reality. We are moved to include new possibility on the foundation of our current belief, and invited into our highest potential. The artist guides us through this movement with an inspiring work of art, transcending the separation between the artist, the work of art, and he who appreciates and allows the inspiration. In this unity process, we awaken. Molly Brogan

Journey of Spirit

Michelle said...
I have a question about your book of poems but did not know where to post it until I found the archives. You might want to have another general post on the mainpage. Where do the poems in "A Blaze of Light" appear in your books? Have the poems in Shadow Dancing been published elsewhere? Why were they included if that book is not published?

Many thanks for the good suggestion, Michelle. I will follow this up with a new welcome post.

The poems in my book, A Blaze of Light, are all from my trilogy of novels. It is true, the third novel, Shadow Dancing, is a work in progress and not yet published. At the time that I considered publishing a book of poems, I was far enough along in the writing of Shadow Dancing to have several wonderful poems ready. I thought that the series of poems was enough to adequetly portray the journey of spirit of the main character of the trilogy. When Shadow Dancing is finally published, it may have more poems than those included in A Blaze of Light, but the poems already included will not be changed or left out. My hope was that the book of poems might pique interest in the third novel, and I will have anticipation for its release. Thanks for asking. Molly Brogan

Discussion on words creating emotion in terms of Neville Goddard's "awakened imagination"

Shirley said...
Hi Molly, I have read A Blaze of Light and must say I could not read more then 4 or 5 poems at a time. They are so thought provoking for me and also bring up HUGE emotions. I need time to think about what you are really saying and must tell you I admire your honesty and your ability to put those thoughts into words. I will come back to your book many times I am sure--You make it OK to feel all of those different levels of life and have a great talent in putting the words to convey the story together .Shirley

Hi Shirley,
I'm VERY happy you like the poems. Thanks so much for your comments. I thought that your insights would be a good way to begin a new discussion, so I posted them here with my response. The notion that poetry invokes emotional response is an important one. If indeed, we create reality with thought delivered through spirit by feeling, emotion plays an important role. As a writer, it is a challenge to convey my experience of the most subtle levels of life. Some would say those levels are beyond words. I don't agree with that idea.

I think that if the words (through logos) can deliver an image and emotion to the reader, imagination can transport them to the realm of spirit. Once comfortable here, the imagination of the reader can awaken. This is the ultimate allure of art, to lead us to what Neville would call, our "awakened imagination," where we become the creators. We are inspired, after allowing ourselves to fully experience the beauty of a poem or story or work of art, to become more than who we are in the moment. We are inspired to create in our own lives. We are moved to create emotions and ideas and relationships and objects of beauty.

The poems in A Blaze of Light all speak to the nuances of relationship. Robert A. Johnson wrote a series of books in the 1980s to "provide an understanding of romantic love" called We, He and She. In his book We, he says, "we see with greater clarity how we have mixed our spiritual aspiration - our urge toward the divine - with our human relationships. This is the secret knowledge that is hidden behind the mystery of romantic love: how to live with and honor both of these powerful energies, which we have mixed together so deliciously and yet so dangerously in the wine of love."

Words of love are the quickest way to sweep us away in spirit and allow us to commune with creation. We all have experience in love, we can all relate on many levels of our being.

Thanks again for sharing, Molly Brogan.