Dreams
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Las Vegas Bids Me Good Riddance
My apologies to the good folks of Las Vegas,most of whom never make their wayto the Stripunless they work here(or so the few I've talked with have said),and no doubtthere are other seedy, sad, money-grubbing, facile pockets of American… Continue reading
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Slots
I walk through the casinoto get to the pool.Slot machinesin a taped-off area,have been opened uplike patients undergoing heart surgery,their dark, mechanical innards exposed–lights off,sounds silenced,hearts excised. Not playmates.Not friends.Simply gutless machinesprogrammed to fool youinto giving them your money. I… Continue reading
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Just off the Strip
I walk off the Strip,carrying my camera,documenting my experience. Next time you're in Vegas,try this. Two blocks away,you'll find fenced off,walled offrubble. Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
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On the Strip
Clearly,Vegas is not for me–at least not the Strip. I imaginethere's a meditative sideto Las Vegas. But here among the casinos,no one on the sidewalkhands out cards for retreat centers,just cards for call girlsand strip clubs. Snap, snap–they flick the… Continue reading
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Credo
Sleep in the dark awarenessof God as God is–unknowable, waiting, ready. Here we find faith. Here we lose self. Here we become love. Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
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The Compass
She used to own a compass…perhaps now packed awaywith her old Girl Scout stuff–a sash, some badges, a plastic lanyard, an empty cookie box. Now she'd simply lost her way.On which side of the tree does the moss grow?On which… Continue reading
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Falling
This feeling of falling through life–does everyone experience this? And when I near the bottom,will there be arms strong enoughto catch me? Will there be Someonewho wants to? Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
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The Beginning
He saw her for the final time just after sunrise,when autumn's cool morningbetrayed the heat that would manifest by midday. She'd seemed uncharacteristically distracted–diverted from her typical high focus–as she lifted her broad-rimmed straw hatfrom the peg beside the kitchen… Continue reading
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Into the Stream of Consciousness
Dipping my toein the stream of consciousnessI find it oddly cooling–soothing in a wayI didn't anticipate. Next the foot..and soon, stripping to nothing,I take the plunge–waters of cluttered, un-institutionalized freshnesswash over me,tumble me in their turbulent current,bracing,bruising,bathing,revealing… Is this dream or… Continue reading
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That for Which I Long
With every bone, muscle and nerve of this body,I long for God. I ache. Before, above, beyond, beneath– sacred mist, eternal fog, holy haze, the Known, the Unknown, the Unknowable– I want… Continue reading