Daughters of Shim Jung—personal poems from @utblog, November 2014

2014-11-16

cultured and immersed

long ebbing tide now emerged

irised, denuded

Morpheus and Iris, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1811

2014-11-12

swans of Thanksgiving

light in disguise on dark days

unto death singing

2014-11-09

she comes in the Fall

after first frost stripped naked

binding limbs til thaw



2014-11-05

beginning again

as if time didn't exist

imagined in Him



2014-11-03

losing paradise

glint dance kissing blue water

white winged dreams take flight

                

Daughters of Shim Jung — personal poems — October 2014

From http://twitter.com/utblog

2014-10-25

eternity blue ~~ ocean mother crying pearls ~~ long listens for you


2014-10-25

lone flyer calling ~~ echoes from autumn's new moon ~~ like the first evening

2014-10-24

"hast Thou forsaken?" ~~ "though slay me, yet will I trust" ~~ much I have taken

2014-10-22

no elder son john ~~ just another one who loved ~~ singing of the strong


2014-10-20

being as I am ~~ conceived out of many, one ~~ an American


2014-10-16

preparing for war ~~ ekklesia nods solemnly ~~ reckless love, horror


2014-10-13

"I and my Father" ~~ exists forgetting to be ~~ one or the other


2014-10-11

afterlife today! ~~ did I kiss you and hold you? ~~ give up time in play


2014-10-08

ol' archangel wise ~~ beholding evening's warm light ~~ she's Apollo's bride


2014-10-08

tokens red and green ~~ pedagogic abstractions ~~ kindness intervenes


2014-10-07

Columbia come ~~ wash away time's golden dreams ~~ carry home your son


2014-10-03

where's the flaming sword? ~~ talk to me from paradise ~~ save me with your words

Daughters of Shim Jung — personal poems — September 2014

From http://twitter.com/utblog


2014-09-30

universal dance ~~ in separate orbits breathe ~~ air impermanence

2014-09-25

poetic license? ~~ spring too stands on cold shoulders ~~ reaching radiance


2014-09-21

I love you for you ~~ universe conceived unique ~~ sovereign of two


2014-09-20

where's eternal love? ~~ knot in some other place-time? ~~ an alighting dove


2014-09-20

preparing for war ~~ ekklesia nods solemnly ~~ reckless love, horror

Tarawa November 1943, the U.S. Marine Corps

2014-09-18

when they close my eyes ~~ lord I dissolve in the sea ~~ fond thoughts kiss goodbye

2014-09-15

just in being me ~~ seems to cut against the grain ~~ my own calvary

2014-09-13

wars and war rumours ~~ endless story love by force ~~ no sense of humour


2014-09-13

Friday without Fri ~~ love, beauty, prosperity ~~ nameless day, no sky


2014-09-10

Pinocchio's dream ~~ to be real as Geppetto ~~ by cutting the strings


2014-09-06

imperfect motives ~~ desiring to possess ~~ imperfect knowledge


2014-09-04

why stand in the cold ~~ shy peering through the window ~~ heart within is warm

Daughters of Shim Jung - personal poems from http://twitter.com/utblog - August 2014

2014-08-29

crossing south to north ~~ tropic warmth to clear clean cold ~~ except for the torch


2014-08-27

green grows the grass both ~~ tear down the fence that divides ~~ one wheat, other oats


2014-08-27

our fates somehow bound ~~ it's a mystery to me ~~ sacred treasure found


2014-08-26

my darling sister ~~ only an American ~~ true to each other


2014-08-22

little Friday ode ~~ Venus away spinning clouds ~~ Apollo wont show


2014-08-22

blue court musical ~~ audience breathes sacred air ~~ affection primal


2014-08-20

why stand in the cold ~~ shy peering through the window ~~ heart within is warm


2014-08-19

there's no going back ~~ innocence a shining dream ~~ ever windward tack

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), Winslow Homer, 1873–76, National Gallery of Art, Wash DC

2014-08-14

Adam looks once more ~~ ""creative or commanded?"" ~~ Eve waits at the door


2014-08-12

though time take us west ~~ and the moon dance through phases ~~ will always be blessed


2014-08-12

creative power ~~ channeled within young or old ~~ a sacred honor


2014-08-10

sticks and stones in mud ~~ purity is clarity ~~ understanding flood


2014-08-08

why stand in the cold ~~ shy peering through the window ~~ heart within is warm


2014-08-05

our eternal dance ~~ intertwined in bliss and pain ~~ pray return again


2014-08-04

why stand in the cold ~~ shy peering through the window ~~ heart within is warm

Daughters of Shim Jung - personal poems from http://twitter.com/utblog - July 2014

2014-07-30

purity pretense ~~ up, down, east, west, north or south ~~ no one's on the fence


2014-07-30

creative power ~~ channeled within young or old ~~ a sacred honor


2014-07-29

why stand in the cold ~~ shy peering through the window ~~ heart within is warm


2014-07-29

seeing eye to eye ~~ everything on the table ~~ shining side by side


2014-07-28

not hard to love pure ~~ easiest thing in the world ~~ Christ knew it for sure


2014-07-27

interest to roam ~~ circle the Colosseum ~~ this will too come home


2014-07-25

friendly game of chess ~~ when kings and queens sacrifice ~~ everyone is blessed


2014-07-24

waiting so purely ~~ one in white, the other black ~~ what ends too early


2014-07-22

was not fear or shame ~~ you bet, could be more humble ~~ chesed is to blame


2014-07-21

one dimensional ~~ when only surface measured ~~ inward eternal


2014-07-20

soul's impression deep ~~ evening in empty spaces ~~ presence longing keeps

A&Q: Is There an Afterlife? - and other questions about the Unification Church teaching on the "spiritual world"

I always have an urge to raise my hand and ask questions after I hear a sermon. My wife tells me it's a bad habit. I'm always saying "yeah-but." Please forgive me. I mean well. In my view there is an afterlife, but for me it's in a poetic, symbolic and metaphorical sense. I do respect other's beliefs in an afterlife, but I think it's important to ask questions.

QUESTION: Is there an afterlife?

Well, it seems to me, if we're going to ask that question, it begs more questions:

* Does one need to believe in an afterlife in order to be religious and love God?

* Does one need to believe in an afterlife in order to be a complete child of God?

* Does one need to believe in an afterlife to value this life?

* Does one need to believe in an afterlife to value and "love your neighbor?"

* Is there an afterlife after the afterlife?

* Is there an afterlife after the afterlife after the afterlife?

* Is there a before-life?

* Is there a before-life before the before-life?

* Aren't these kind of questions an endless argument?

* If the afterlife is "eternal," doesn't eternal mean timelessness, no beginning and no end?

* If there is no beginning, doesn't "eternal life" mean that in this present life we are eternal?

* Does our eternal aspect really require another "world" besides this one? (e.g. "spirit world")

* Aren't these discussions about an afterlife largely symbolic and metaphorical?

* Isn't this symbolic and metaphorical nature of afterlife expressed in verses like:

"Let the dead bury their dead" 
~Luke 9:"60?

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"
~Galatians 2:20?

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it."
~Mark 8:35?

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
~John 12:24?

"so shall it be in the end of this world."
~Matthew 13:40?

* Doesn't speculating on a literal afterlife harm our ability to be truly present in this life and live in this present moment?

* Doesn't speculating on a literal afterlife harm our ability to truly value the precious and fleeting relationships we share with loved ones?

* Could the discussions about a "spirit world," in the Unification Church Divine Principle be symbolic and metaphorical?

* Isn't the most important thing we learn from any religious teacher expressed in the Golden Rule? (whether in this life or any other) :

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."
~Matthew 7:12 

* Doesn't science tells us that all energy is conserved and cannot be created or destroyed?

* Isn't eternal life really an expression of our (already existing) eternal "oneness" with God?

* Doesn't oneness really mean oneness?

* Doesn't our dreamless sleep each night give us a kind of daily hint (practice) about the afterlife?

* Don't people's ideas about the afterlife and God vary from faith to faith, and even within faith groups, and don't people have inherent intrinsic value above and beyond and independent of anyone's particular religious beliefs? 

* Wouldn't a loving parental God feel that each of his children had irreplaceable and unique intrinsic value regardless of whether He/She was around or not and independent of Him or Her?

Respectfully and with love
Thank you for listening