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Illustration of a bird flying.
  • The Laughter

    DSC_1204In the dim light
    of the silent candle,
    while seated at the kitchen table,
    I heard laughter.
    It rose from the belly of one
    seated at another table
    and hit the ceiling with a loud guffaw.
    The ceiling fan threw the laughter
    out the windows to the winds
    carrying it afar.
    My heart welcomed the sounds
    for safekeeping.

    The girlish giggles in answer
    roamed the table
    and shushed the corners
    of the room
    and I wondered;
    the girls,  where did they go?

    Now I sit and pound my keys
    to a fine fettle
    and ponder the turn of wheels
    that held the world
    at its pivot.

    And wondering what happened
    to the laughter
    and why did it die

    when we were so hungry for it to last?

    12/13

    December 18, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
  • Some Thoughts

    Toward A DestinyOne would think that for human progress to have been more rapid,  a sledge hammer rather than a quill would have been used.

    Unless emotional garbage is released,  it will continue to be contagious.

    The mind set to turn a particular way is already bent.

    The split in man is so dichotomous that his life is one mass of contradictions.

    When advancing age stiffens the limbs and makes the mind less elastic, we will find the inner ear listening to what the heart stirs about.

    To say it is mine to do and do it is to take the bull by the horns.  And to say I will take responsibility for it is to tame the bull.

    Where will the young generation turn if not to those who pride themselves that their advancing years have brought a degree of wisdom?

    Who is going to teach when all about are denying that they are getting older, never mind wiser?

    When one’s strength is honed and sharpened, it becomes a dependable strength.

    The persuasive voice is well trained to manipulate.  Today we call it selling.

    One should not find his bed so comfortable that it is an effort to get out.

    We are given license to steal from ourselves the only thing we have.    Time.

    December 13, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
  • Toward Arms Wide Open

    DSC_1146

     

    I walk now
    toward arms wide open
    to embrace the fabric
    of who I am.

    Centuries
    have gone into
    the craven pot,
    stirring to form
    a compatible formula.

    Looking always
    toward humanity’s good,
    I become with hope,
    a welcome addition

    to my Earth’s classroom.

     

    November,  2013

    photo by John Hallissey

    December 9, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
  • We Are A Mosaic

                                                                               image-1 (2)

    Sometimes our actions seem out of context.  It is as if we are dancing to a song not in the musical library.   It is not heard by anyone else,  just us.   It is not foreign to us,  but seems puzzling to everyone watching.   We know that it is still us,  just not the us that people know.

    All of life and human life especially,  is likened by me to a mosaic.   Bits and pieces here and there of importance but I wonder where some of the pieces come from when they are not of this lifetime.   They have a fit though in the larger picture.   Not that it need flash before my eyes,  but more of a feeling as being part of the whole.   This Veronica has a Veronica who has a Veronica.   Ad infinitum.  My boundaries are no more since my inside has no outside.   What I try to describe is that we are more than we appear to be.   How there is a depth to us always eluding,  never definite, never static.  That if we had the ability to focus differently and some do,  we would see ourselves as a substance far greater than three dimensional.   When we put our arms around beloveds, we are embracing the human family from which we all rise.

    When I heard the term ‘sense of snow’ being described as a one who looks at a footprint in the snow and tells what animal walked, how large, what way the wind was blowing, how far the animal traveled, where he had come from and many other things,   I understood it.   I immediately thought there are those also with a sense of time and a sense of destiny and those things driving one to learn sometimes by osmosis but definitely by study with a keen interest in a subject.   They make connections.   Given a word,  they take it and whip it into the present and use the premise to show how we connect.   This is an area that adds to depth.

    Those who can, read the handwriting on the wall and know who wrote it because they understand the language.   They have a ‘sense of’ we say because everything they see connects with the subject.  A sense of snow.   It is a wonderful term.   It describes fully those with the ability to hear the cries in crisis and those who see themselves as part of a mosaic,  not even consciously realizing where all the pieces come from but knowing it all is part of the greater picture.  We are a mosaic,  within a mosaic,  within a mosaic, ad infinitum.   The sense of it all is vast.

    The nonsense question is who am I.     The real question is who am I not?

    photo  by John Holmes

    December 4, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
  • A Paradox

    Angels We Have Heard - DetailThe silences reveal
    provocative answers
    to questions only
    my heart dares ask.

    In these silences,
    in the pauses between spaces,
    answers bloom like petals
    waiting to be picked.

    I don’t know how many lifetimes
    are required to come to this moment
    where the silences
    resound boisterously.

    What is more clearly so
    is that my heart has aged mightily
    and now finds
    this body too old

    to handle its questions.

    November 30, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
  • A New World

    The mind travelsWaiting For Santa Claus
    the distances inclined
    toward new worlds.
    Here infants are
    preparing for what will be
    their new home.

    For now,  difficult it is
    to chisel new worlds;
    the breaking of rock,
    the scraping of stone
    of encrusted thinking.

    Not here, but elsewhere
    the new beginnings will foster
    new dreams.
    No longer to be
    manifest in this world’s
    propensity for toys,
    in this world’s yen
    for fashionable attire.

    What is dealt
    on a scale unfathomable
    are heart’s yearning
    toward new understanding.

    Of a universe or many
    equipped to handle a multifaceted life
    of undreamed answers,
    to questions giving life to new dreams,
    giving breath to new forms,

    giving heart to life everlasting.

    November,  2013

    November 19, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
  • Some Sayings

    DSC_1201

    The heart will determine what the head sees.   And put into the eyes the meaning of it all.

    Times are now the adults need more rearing than the children require.

    It appears Heaven is an earned order and until one approaches the place where admission is qualified, one cannot enter.

    To gain understanding a lot of footwork seems to be required.

    A creative spirit is fun to watch.   It is one on whom the Heavens bank their monies.

    It would be to everyone’s advantage to know  that when thoughts are worthwhile they are matched and answered.

    It seems we want our Gods only on Saturday or Sunday mornings when we invite Him/Her in.

    We take our pet prejudices and wave them about as justifications for what we do not do and never realize at the same time we reveal what it is we are doing.

    What has been the tower of strength often becomes later the leaning tower.

    The racing around is tantamount to outrunning death.   The happy harvester will harvest no matter how fast the run.

    Wisdom is not tied up in the curved body with tight skin.   Narcissism is.

    Oftentimes appearances are the table at which we eat.

    Appearances are as far down as some people are able to go.

     

    Photo by Josh Hallissey (click on the photo for an awesome view)

    November 17, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
  • The Loving Place

    photo-7-1

    A home, a hearth
    the loving place that nurtures
    the fragile psyche,
    granting each the right
    to perceive the universe
    as is his to perceive.

    Building memories
    year upon year
    and granting courage
    for the hurting moments
    and bearing them.
    Yet yielding to the greater truth
    that life continues to be good.

    Granting the right for each
    to leave and grow away,
    knowing that the warmth and love
    of hearth and home
    can be reached by going inward
    to the loving place

    you helped me build.

     

     

    November 14, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
  • The Long Fast

    (For My  Forever Friend-Cheryl)

    001jpgMorning breaks
    the long fast.
    In the dailyness
    there is beauty.

    In the neat kitchen,
    in the morning silent,
    except for the brewing
    of the fragrant coffee
    in the silver pot,
    in the glancing
    out the dark window,
    to see the neighbors rising.

    In the neatness
    of physical life
    where the morning
    breaks the day
    and night binds it,
    it is beautiful and I will cherish

    this portion of earth life forever.

    January 8, 1990
    Art by Claudia Hallissey

    November 12, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
  • The House Of Many Rooms

    DSC_1144On November 5th, USA TODAY had an article entitled, ‘A discovery out of this world;  Earth-like planets.’  It went on to say that the space observatory, the Kepler telescope has shown that about 8.8 billion stars in our galaxy have planets nearly the size of earth with a surface temperature that could support life.   And probably tens of billions earth like planets in our Milky Way galaxy.  This bit of news should send up flares in all our religious premises that have spoken of  ‘our Father’s house has many rooms.’  How else to say to the mental landscape at the beginning centuries’ count that there are other worlds besides this?  As it was,  this concept could only be grasped by the selected few.

    Even now when tempers rage as to whether we are evolving or were hatched fully grown and believers to boot,   there is no common ground where intelligence can gather itself and say,  we are open to new knowledge.   It is a sad commentary on the work of those who have toiled hard and long to bring us to the place where we can say yes,  the divine spark is harbored in all of life.    God in a rock.   No doubt it will take some cataclysmic event to bring people to their knees and say it is time for all of us to seek knowledge from where it comes.  No need to sell our souls for a pittance.

    There are some who come to earth different than the average person.   These mavericks are placed by destiny here and there to add a richness to the evolution of mankind.   They march to their own drummer and speak with words when questioned that have meaning to those who search themselves for affirmation.   Often they are thought to be behind everyone else, though when questioned possess an intelligence beyond what institutions could teach.   These are the ‘angel unawares’ that the Good Book speaks of that nobody reads but most display.

    Those who speak of life elsewhere generally only envision life like ours.  Perhaps we can entertain thoughts of life in terms of other than linear measurement?   Perhaps we can think of life with illusions not manifest?   In terms of perhaps dreams dreamed and thoughts having their own reality?  Jane Roberts, in her series of Seth books in the 70’s spoke of ‘unknown realities’ where concepts of immortality can only be given meaning in terms of worlds unknown to us.    The knowledge of metaphysics adds a rich layer to physical life and we must revisit  our ancient heritage which  speaks to us of cosmic values.

    It is time for Joseph Campbell’s heroes’ journey for each and everyone.   It starts with one small step inward in search of our common divinity.

    Photo by John Hallissey

    November 9, 2013
    Veronica Hallissey
    Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
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