deepundergroundpoetry.com
MYSELF
Even sovereigns beg forgiveness
Seek cures in kisses and kindness
When sin sinks deep into their skin
On a stained and sainted prayer rug
Supine in monsoon petrichor
prostrate the King beseeched
Teach me to love myself
Love myself the magi said
Why not Fuck yourself
Love your neighbour
And treat him kindly
First instead
Seek cures in kisses and kindness
When sin sinks deep into their skin
On a stained and sainted prayer rug
Supine in monsoon petrichor
prostrate the King beseeched
Teach me to love myself
Love myself the magi said
Why not Fuck yourself
Love your neighbour
And treat him kindly
First instead
Published 23rd Jan 2016
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24th Jan 2016 2:13am
Such wisdom in these lines, Whale!
For in tolerance...and acceptance...and love for others, we begin to gradually forgive our 'personal sins'....and learn to love ourselves.....
For in tolerance...and acceptance...and love for others, we begin to gradually forgive our 'personal sins'....and learn to love ourselves.....
24th Jan 2016 9:05am
Dear enchanting one - absolutely, by loving others we see the one we shall love in ourselves
24th Jan 2016 5:13am
whether made of wood or of words, the master's staff still stings off the side of the head...
Love it!
Love it!
24th Jan 2016 9:13am
Ha ha... Like a thunderclap!
Thank you HepCat - your comment is very much appreciated
Thank you HepCat - your comment is very much appreciated
24th Jan 2016 5:40pm
Reading poems can be like digging for potatoes, there can be a lot happening under the surface. You got me digging, whale. A lot of digging in my garden, a lot to think about.
Forgiveness is a strong word, perhaps a feeble trap, flaunted by conjurers, the blessed and the holy. Acceptance of our actions, acceptance of ourselves, acceptance that life is the earth we dig and we're going to get dirt under our nails.
A lot of potatoes, whale. Insightful poetry you serve. Great stuff.
Forgiveness is a strong word, perhaps a feeble trap, flaunted by conjurers, the blessed and the holy. Acceptance of our actions, acceptance of ourselves, acceptance that life is the earth we dig and we're going to get dirt under our nails.
A lot of potatoes, whale. Insightful poetry you serve. Great stuff.
24th Jan 2016 6:03pm
A real joy to have u on my pages Case - yep we have to dig ourselves out but the best way to do that is to inspire others to dig with you - you're always an inspiration!!!
25th Jan 2016 00:49am
Love the poem, but, is it not written to love thy neighbour as thyself? And in not loving thyself, are we capable of loving our neighbor? It's an interesting perspective you write here, Whale.
25th Jan 2016 4:14am
Hey Ahavati - great query - I've centred my thoughts through a Christian context though many reading may not be (if not forgive me).
I feel that where it is written in the Bible,
"Love your neighbour as yourself", here "as yourself" is an example of how we should love our neighbour not a precondition to loving our neighbour as it is now read. The only precondition in the Bible is that you should love God with all your heart and soul.
After this, the most important thing is to love your neighbour NOT that you must love yourself. Perhaps in that simpler age the latter was assumed or our modern stress on the individual less marked (?) or obsessive(?)
Interestingly, in John's gospel it does not say "as yourself" just that we should love others like Jesus loved us. In Peter and Paul, it just says love your neighbour/another.
Each of us will have our own thoughts on this matter but I certainly wonder whether the injunction would have had the same potency if it had been reversed:
love yourself as much as you love your neighbour :)
In the meantime, as we contemplate these matters the magi (of my poem) says "just be kind".
Thank you again my friend for engaging with this abrasive work
I feel that where it is written in the Bible,
"Love your neighbour as yourself", here "as yourself" is an example of how we should love our neighbour not a precondition to loving our neighbour as it is now read. The only precondition in the Bible is that you should love God with all your heart and soul.
After this, the most important thing is to love your neighbour NOT that you must love yourself. Perhaps in that simpler age the latter was assumed or our modern stress on the individual less marked (?) or obsessive(?)
Interestingly, in John's gospel it does not say "as yourself" just that we should love others like Jesus loved us. In Peter and Paul, it just says love your neighbour/another.
Each of us will have our own thoughts on this matter but I certainly wonder whether the injunction would have had the same potency if it had been reversed:
love yourself as much as you love your neighbour :)
In the meantime, as we contemplate these matters the magi (of my poem) says "just be kind".
Thank you again my friend for engaging with this abrasive work
I too am coming from a Christian third-world missionary background. So we're on the same page there.
I feel that where it is written in the Bible,
"Love your neighbour as yourself", here "as yourself" is an example of how we should love our neighbour not a precondition to loving our neighbour as it is now read. The only precondition in the Bible is that you should love God with all your heart and soul.
Okay, this is where it gets interesting. Does John 10:34 not say, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are "gods"'? And Psalm 82:6 "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." Therefore, if we are to obey the commandment to love God with our heart and soul, does that love not include our self as God's as well? Can we truly harbor fear (I believe the opposite of Love to be fear/not hate and/or apathy), and all broken things within us that we detest, have denied since the conditioning of our birth, shoved into the shadows of closets to be forgotten, hidden from light forever unless we overcome and open the door, and Love our neighbor without projecting ourselves onto them?
Mark 12:31 says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all ... 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:39 as well. And even Leviticus 19:18 "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord."
It would seem to me the way to God is through ourselves first. Is is not written that the Kingdom of God is within us? And that the Truth is within US. Is this not where we should first discover love? The experience of ourselves is to overcome whatever obstacles the world has placed at our feet that we reunite with love, and through that love not forsake our brothers and sisters who are still struggling in the dark closet of their conditioning.
My definition of God differs from most, which is why I separated from the 'flock'. I do not believe we are born 'sinners'. I believe we are born perfect and conditioning taints the light of our childlike being until, for some, it's doused by lack of hope and love as adults. I don't believe we're lost or need to be 'saved' in the literal definition of repeating the "Sinners Prayer" that is required before you give the hungry food, the cold clothing, and the sick medicine before claiming "We 'saved' a hundred people today!!!" Fuck. That. When in actuality, those native had no idea what they were saying or why - they were hungry, cold, and needed medicine. I believe we're exactly where we are meant to be, with our human spirit of experience striving daily toward the illumination of love and light which is still perfectly within us since birth.
I agree with your magi. I used to sing on the mission field and one of my favorites was Robin Mark's "When it's all been said and done."
[...]
When it's all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I've done for love's reward
Will stand the test of time
[...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1llIIhBMCjU
And, of course, there's Jewel...
In the end only kindness matters
In the end only kindness matters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfsS3pIDBfw
Thank you for the discourse. It's refreshing, brother.
I feel that where it is written in the Bible,
"Love your neighbour as yourself", here "as yourself" is an example of how we should love our neighbour not a precondition to loving our neighbour as it is now read. The only precondition in the Bible is that you should love God with all your heart and soul.
Okay, this is where it gets interesting. Does John 10:34 not say, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are "gods"'? And Psalm 82:6 "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." Therefore, if we are to obey the commandment to love God with our heart and soul, does that love not include our self as God's as well? Can we truly harbor fear (I believe the opposite of Love to be fear/not hate and/or apathy), and all broken things within us that we detest, have denied since the conditioning of our birth, shoved into the shadows of closets to be forgotten, hidden from light forever unless we overcome and open the door, and Love our neighbor without projecting ourselves onto them?
Mark 12:31 says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all ... 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:39 as well. And even Leviticus 19:18 "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord."
It would seem to me the way to God is through ourselves first. Is is not written that the Kingdom of God is within us? And that the Truth is within US. Is this not where we should first discover love? The experience of ourselves is to overcome whatever obstacles the world has placed at our feet that we reunite with love, and through that love not forsake our brothers and sisters who are still struggling in the dark closet of their conditioning.
My definition of God differs from most, which is why I separated from the 'flock'. I do not believe we are born 'sinners'. I believe we are born perfect and conditioning taints the light of our childlike being until, for some, it's doused by lack of hope and love as adults. I don't believe we're lost or need to be 'saved' in the literal definition of repeating the "Sinners Prayer" that is required before you give the hungry food, the cold clothing, and the sick medicine before claiming "We 'saved' a hundred people today!!!" Fuck. That. When in actuality, those native had no idea what they were saying or why - they were hungry, cold, and needed medicine. I believe we're exactly where we are meant to be, with our human spirit of experience striving daily toward the illumination of love and light which is still perfectly within us since birth.
I agree with your magi. I used to sing on the mission field and one of my favorites was Robin Mark's "When it's all been said and done."
[...]
When it's all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I've done for love's reward
Will stand the test of time
[...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1llIIhBMCjU
And, of course, there's Jewel...
In the end only kindness matters
In the end only kindness matters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfsS3pIDBfw
Thank you for the discourse. It's refreshing, brother.
25th Jan 2016 7:01pm
Hi Ahavati - let me gestate a little - not in a great place for internet right now but will revert
25th Jan 2016 10:58pm
Absolutely - if God is not everywhere then he is nowhere - if he is not in us then we are no one - this is what connects us and this is how we are made in his likeness.
But this is not a celebration of ourself but of "ourselves"
It is true that contemplation of self can show the way but few tailors can get the measure of themselves - it is easier to see oneself reflected in others.
Certainly one should love oneself but is this truly possible without seeing oneself in all others? No man is an Island (I-land).
I pose the question here as I pose it for myself - this is the seeker's quest and truly ours is an extraordinary journey.
Perhaps we can only discover our errors as we forgive those in others and return to our formless state - I think as you "sin" is an illusion/confusion of our true holy nature ... I continue to work on this
Now going to find these songs - as ever sister - you are a garden!
But this is not a celebration of ourself but of "ourselves"
It is true that contemplation of self can show the way but few tailors can get the measure of themselves - it is easier to see oneself reflected in others.
Certainly one should love oneself but is this truly possible without seeing oneself in all others? No man is an Island (I-land).
I pose the question here as I pose it for myself - this is the seeker's quest and truly ours is an extraordinary journey.
Perhaps we can only discover our errors as we forgive those in others and return to our formless state - I think as you "sin" is an illusion/confusion of our true holy nature ... I continue to work on this
Now going to find these songs - as ever sister - you are a garden!
25th Jan 2016 5:19am
It's a tall order...to love. The magi brings in clarity with a sting. Enjoyed it.. blue angel
25th Jan 2016 7:46am
Thank you Blue - it's hard to love and yet it's all we got to give - really glad u popped by:)
Anonymous
27th Jan 2016 11:09pm
A deep & poignant insight. . .enthralled, is what I am by this piece. . .Thank you, Whale. . .~Devlin.
28th Jan 2016 9:03am
28th Jan 2016 1:11pm
Good Morning Whale......very deep and impressive write.....thought provoking for sure......forgiving and luving yourself as you do another can be a hard thing at times......specially if you've been told most of your life negative things about you.....no one ever gave you hope in life to be somebody......you reach out for the luv you've never had any where you can.....then you wake up one day and realize this is not what you want....isn't right for your soul.....so you look into another souls heart and feel luv as you've never felt it before and then you learn life......a light clicks on way deep within you......then you truly luv yourself and another.....just my thoughts from this.....luv and hugs xo :)
28th Jan 2016 6:46pm
Thanks Flowergirl - great comment much appreciated!!!
Sometimes love is hard but we can all be kind - glad to see u here
Sometimes love is hard but we can all be kind - glad to see u here
