The 60-Second Sabbath

soul

  • This Moment, Expanded

    Stop focusingon what's missingfrom this moment.Focus insteadon what this momentoffers:    texture    color    movement    inspiration    affection    wonder    stillness Your egowants to catalogwhat the moment lacks. Your soulwants to reveal the momentfor what it truly… Continue reading

  • The Lover

    If you are to take a lover,let it be your soul. It desires you;you lust for it. Be ravished by its mystery and power. Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Native Tongue

    English is my second language. Poetry is my first. Do you want to understand me?Do you want to be understood?Engage me with symbol and simile,metaphor and ritual,evocation and allusion,the resonant, resounding play of syllables,the engaging, enriching arc of imagery. This… Continue reading

  • 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

  • Taking Pictures

    You can photograph to showcase pretty things.You can photograph to expose truth, irony or cruelty–    the off-kilter and out-of-whack.You can photograph to bring forward the overlooked.You can photograph to remember.You can photograph to revision, recast, reinterpret.You can photograph for… Continue reading

  • My Soul

    My soulis a temple in ruins.Where thousands once worshippedonly the common starlings–black against the cracked white marble–pace and peck for seeds. Only a soul in ruinsallows in, without constraint,the sun, rain and wind,the incense of pines,the glow of yellow daffodils,the… Continue reading

  • Advent 12

    "You're pregnant," says Gabriel,forcing Mary–unsuspecting teenager–to plunge deeper than ever before(we would assume)soulward for some placeto ground this unfathomable annuciation. Today, what say the angels to youthat turns you inwardto drag out unimagined resourceshidden deep in your own battered soul?… Continue reading

  • At MacDonald’s

    As I eat a cheeseburger and friesat my local MacDonald's,an employee works on all fours,equipped with a bucket, two ragsand a folded piece of cardboard to protect her knees. Like me, she's in midlife.And I, as I slowly chew my… Continue reading

  • Stay Away from the Edge!

    Stay away from the edge!Don't play with matches!Get down from there!Leave that knife alone! Terrible advice for the soul. When we fall, we break open.When cut, fresh blood surfaces.When we burn, we release sweet incense. Dance along the rim.Let the… Continue reading

  • Only the Heroes

    I am  your soul,and this is what I require: silence to  expand;stillness to recall;solitude to connect and confront. You are wise to be afraid;who wants to discover their true selves? Only the bravest among us.Only the prophets and poets.Only the… Continue reading