As promised here are the poems from the Soulhood Circle August 2023 sacred gathering.
Enjoy.
With love & gratitude,
🦋Veronica
John Roedel poem
Untitled:
There is no such thing
as “business as usual”
on a spinning wet rock
that is wobbling next
to an enormous burning
fireball in the middle of an
expanding never-ending universe.
We are all in a sci-fi movie
of melodrama and
gunfire and romance
and smiling villains and
saints with filthy mouths.
Everything has a circus life feel
in this big tent of
seven-billion juggling clowns
We fool ourselves
with words like “normal”
and “typical” and “usual”
-those are just the fake
beards we put on our fears
to keep ourselves from being
seduced by the constant chaos
that surrounds all of us.
Normal can’t exist in a
world of sudden heart attacks
or blood clots in our brains.
Nothing can be “typical” when
we are all just a single moment
away from filling our lungs one
last time and falling into the forever light.
There is nothing usual
about this fragile
world of crackling thin ice
and orange fingers on
nuclear buttons.
We are all in the mixing bowl
of life and tears and joy
and family and sex and grief
and redemption and relapse.
The egg beater of time is smashing us
all together constantly.
I don’t know where my insecurities end
and your egomania begins.
This is a strange world
of science and facts that are
forced to be roommates with
mythology and religion to produce
a reality show like non other.
This is a strange world
where we can buy long guns and
pretty little baby shower gifts
in the same box store.
This is a strange world of small
ladybugs napping on giant
sunflowers and explosive autumn sunsets
that invite our imagination
to believe in God again.
This is a strange world
where I can break the
heart of someone else
a half-a-world-away with
the cruelty of a single tweet.
This is a strange world
where an angel can appear
in a chat room or as Facebook
avatar to talk me out of giving
up on myself.
Ours is a planet
that is a constant
vaudevillian show
of moral contortionists
and political tap dancers
and fire-eating preachers.
Step right up!
Step right up!
There is always something
To see here!
Welcome to Earth,
there is more beauty
and more terror than
your prenatal dreams
could have ever
prepared you for.
Here on Earth you
have the equal
chance to hurt
or heal.
Here on Earth
you will probably
have an equal
chance of
dying from a piece
of falling space debris then
you will getting your neighbor
to quit running over your
sprinkler with their lawnmower.
So, try and relax about everything.
This life is all a swirl
of labor pains
~and unpaid bills
~and eye popping midnight kisses
~and protest marches
~and children collecting seashells on beaches
~and kindness
~and cruelty
~and silent screams
and funeral hugs.
It’s a weird planet
and we are all
the resident weirdos.
Even you.
Especially you.
You are a freak.
There is nobody else
like you.
You can choose
to let that information
empower
you or destroy you.
I fought that truth
for years.
No more.
I am a misfit
just like the rest of
you beautiful freaks.
I’m a weirdo
on the weirdest
planet in this
floating field
of exploding stars
and untold mysteries
and I can’t wait to
share this
adventure with
all of you fellow
strange birds.
John Roedel poem
Untitled:
Me: Hello God.
God: Hello…
Me: I’m falling apart. Can you put me back together?
God: I’d rather not.
Me: Why?
God: Because you’re not a puzzle.
Me: What about all the pieces of my life that fall to the ground?
God: Leave them there for a while. They fell for a reason. Let them be there for a while and then decide if you need to get any of those pieces back.
Me: You don’t understand! I’m breaking up!
God: No, you don’t understand. You’re transcending, evolving. What you feel are growing pains. You’re getting rid of the things and people in your life that are holding you back. The pieces are not falling down. The pieces are putting in place. Relax. Take a deep breath and let those things you no longer need fall down. Stop clinging to pieces that are no longer for you. Let them fall. Let them go.
Me: Once I start doing that, what will I have left?
God: Only the best pieces of yours.
Me: I’m afraid of change.
God: I keep telling you: YOU’RE NOT CHANGING! YOU’RE BECOMING!
Me: Becoming, Who?
God: Becoming who I created you to be! A person of light, love, charity, hope, courage, joy, mercy, grace and compassion. I made you for so much more than those shallow pieces you decided to adorn yourself with and that you cling to with so much greed and fear. Let those things fall off you. I love you! Don’t change! Become! Don’t change! Become! Become who I want you to be, who I created. I’m gonna keep telling you this until you remember.
Me: There goes another piece.
God: Yes. Let it be like this.
Me: So…I’m not broken?
God: No, but you’re breaking the darkness, like dawn. It’s a new day. Become!! Become who you really are!
