Dream Vision

Dream Vision – Vision DreamDigital Camera
By Aliana Alani ©2017

 

 

 

You who come to me in the soft hours
Wearing soft cloaks spun with soft sounds
Of sacred worlds,

Soon – if it is time,
Soon – if you agree,
I will sing you into being.

I will sing you, Dream Vision,
From the edges of the glacial mists of knowing
Through the depths of the Eternal Heart
Into the radiant oceans of Now.

I will sing you, Vision Dream,
Soon – if it is time,
Soon – if you agree.

I will sing you into being
Until your world and mine are one,
Then we shall tread a golden realm of love
Together once again.

Hear my call, Dream Vision,
For I will sing you into being.
I will sing you.
I will sing.

Will any notice?
Perhaps.
Perhaps not.

 

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In case…

DIn case you didn’t notice, I’ve been away. Think injuries, tiny travels, time out. I could blame it on summer but I won’t. Suffice to say, I’m back, though in a slow way, which  means that during the next week or so, I’ll be getting caught up with updating pages and info. Hang in there with me. And buckets of thanks for sticking around.

In the meantime, here’s the tiniest of poems.

 

HERE IT IS…

By Aliana Alani ©2017

 

Here it is…

A soft place

In a hollow meadow

Where dreams

Linger

Waiting their turn

 

 

A bit of Poetry –

single hawthorn treeFOR ALL YOU MAY DREAMERS & HAWTHORN LOVERS, here’s a bit of poetry – to help salute the month, kiss the dreams, and wander, albeit briefly, in a hawthorn mist. I wrote this poem a long time ago in a land only beginning to unfurl its world to me. It spoke of much. Perhaps something in it will speak to you. To go to the Poetry page and read – WANDERING IN A HAWTHORN DREAM – click here Poetry

Behold…

                                              ©Aliana Alani 2017

Digital Camera

Behold,

How long it can often take
To build a dream into a reality,

And how little time is needed
To tear it all apart.

Happy New Year Everyone!

I wish you happiness and joy in 2017.

May your fondest dreams come true. May love always light your path. May your life be graced each day with peace. And may you dare to share the gifts divinely given to help heal and prosper this world.

 

Be a light unto yourself.
Be a light for us all.

HAPPY 2017!

Happy Samhain…

Welcome to the thinning of the veils…

It’s October 31st, that time where sticky candy, wobbling strange rubber faces, frail and flimsy wings, and flip-flopping swords and daggers reign supreme. There are even a few glittering red slippers and a star-tipped wand or two to be found dancing around. It is a time of ghosts, goblins, and miniature versions of the cast of the Pirates of the Caribbean sauntering down night streets just about everywhere.

In the Celtic world, it is the time of Samhain, where veils become thin, and the spirits of the past rise up to greet the spirits of the day. You won’t necessary find those pirates roaming but you might find your relatives from the 6th century popping in for a cup of mead (that’s honey wine). Treat them well. You never know what you might have done in the 6th century!  And so it is a time of the changing of worlds – autumn to winter – winter to the cold dark beyond.

One could also say it is a time when the veils between your perception of realities thin. Where the things you are so very sure are real begin to flutter and fade, and the dreams you visit only in the quiet of your mind begin to take on colour and grow. Where, for an infinitesimally small moment in the concept of time, the two dare to merge, mingle, trade places, or even become one.

It is even possible that as our world shifts and changes, moments like these turn out to be windows to the very heart and soul of a better life and a better world.

…more to come…

This is for you…

I’ve had 22shangrila up and running for awhile now. Some of you have been following here since the beginning; others are new, or at least newer. Some click ‘like’ having found something in that moment that speaks to you and then you are gone into the internet mist, never to be heard from again. Some come back. Some choose to hang around.

To all of you, I want to say – THANK YOU!

Thank you for being touched by something in this site, whether that be poetry, an article, or some of the other work I do. Thank you for letting me know. And thank you for choosing to follow to see what else might show up here.

The purpose of 22shangrila has always been to communicate – to speak to the language of the heart in us all, no matter the form or moment – but especially through the power of word, image, and story. And of course to let you know what I’m doing.

I’m not the best at answering, or for that matter at clicking ‘follow’ to your sites when you come to mine. Apologies. The intention is often there. I do take a look at what you’re doing if you click ‘like’ on mine, and I often say to myself, ‘I must make a comment, a thank you, an I-like-your-work-too’. But then the moment goes, the phone rings, the muse calls, and my best intentions fly off into the winds. I’ll try to get better at that.

After all, we are a community of world storytellers, are we not? Mystics in the making, perhaps. Poets abounding. Weaving new visions and thoughts that, yes, could quite possibly change our world for the better. And we all matter.

So here’s to you – all of you  – may every day in your life flourish with harmony, balance, and love. May you weave the most scrumptious tales ever, whether they be in word, image, or sound! And may they dance in our world like magic calling us home.

I hope you’ll hang around. If it feels right, send a comment note or an email (I will answer those) and tell me what you’re doing to help this world be a kinder happier place.

And again – THANK YOU!

Aliana

ARE YOU NOT TIRED?

white rose

            ©Aliana Alani 2015     

Unlike many of my writings here, this is more Dylan Thomas than Rumi – but there are things that must be said, words that must be spoken.  

  

I

Are you not tired of battle? I am.

This constant feeding on the life force of others
Till even young bones dry and crumble into dust
And winds lament their passing like banshee cries across the lands.
To what end? For what purpose?

Think you immortality lies within the reach of those
Who trample o’er the souls of others? If so, think again.
Or has this thirst turned so insatiable that friend and foe alike
Become but mere morsels for the next feed?

When is enough, enough?

It matters not what name you give this.
What righteous path you cast its fate along.
Light or dark, it is all the same.
Devoid of love, we are all nothing!

Can you not understand?

II

You plant your flag within the halls of Mount Olympus
Expecting adulation in return. To you, it is but one of many.
But you forget. You lack remembrance.
Therein, perhaps, lies your folly.

So let me help. Let me be blunt.

There are gods and angels who walk amongst the living
Cloaked in skins of a mortal kind. Some appear tattered,
Even wounded, for the journey has been long, nay even arduous.
Still they are present, perhaps, yes even especially, in those very halls
And they are not happy.
They wait, but not for long.

What will you do next, they wonder?
What foolish blunder? What further desecration –
Before you awake and realize?

III

Occasionally one will dust off those weary wings, flutter and fly.
Winds will change, and for a brief moment,
Love will enter the now toxic air.

A sigh of hope is heard within the hearts of many.
But it does not last.
It cannot be sustained.
Not yet.

Ask me why. Oh. Please. Do.

IV

There is a fabric that holds this universe together.
An ancient warp and woof of life.
No cotton this. Not even silk or satin.
No, this is the stuff that hearts are made of,
That travels pathways of geometric harmonics
Lighting galaxies as it spews forth in all its splendour.

It is unstoppable, of course
Unavoidable, actually
Undeniable –
But still you try.

To usurp it is impossible,
A flight of fantasy on your part.
It belongs to all, permeates all, is all.
It is not yours to hoard or blunder –
But still, amazingly, you try.

Are you not tired yet?!

So here’s the irony, the paradox, the problem.
Put simply for you to understand –
What you do blocks the very field of energetic awareness
That sustains your, yes your, very own existence.

You have created a game that is a self-fulfilling prophecy
In which you are doomed to be no more.
You do not know this yet, so you continue,
Like unfed vultures, to merrily feast
Upon the dreams and hopes of others.

If it were just about you,
You would be left to your own devices.
But sadly, it is not so.

You think you can act with impunity
But, once again, you do not remember.
You lack vision, foresight. You do not see the larger picture.
You harm one. You harm all.

And so, ultimately, it cannot be allowed.

V

Understand this –

Unborn dreams are fragile things.
Like hopes, they reside in the realm of etheric mist.
Some say they are the prodding of angels
Whispered gently into an open heart.

What matters is this – to come into being,
They must be nourished, nurtured, loved.

Each spins a slender thread of woven gold
Linking it to the core of all. Invisible to the naked eye,
Unknown to many, they crisscross galaxies.
There are zillions of them.

To the enlightened among you
They are the geometries of existence.
To us, they are the song lines of the eternal heart.

So here’s the rub –

When you repeatedly force a people to its knees
Pushing spirits into the bog of existence
Until they can barely remember their own names
You poke holes in the chrysalis of their dreaming.
You weaken those very threads.
You damage the song lines.

Song lines are the royalty of life from which worlds are born.

If any should break, connected to your doing, you will be held responsible.
That, lest you forgot, is the hidden addendum to the codex of the contract
You eagerly signed when you initiated the Game you were so thirsty to play
(A game, I hasten to remind you, that was meant to enhance not devastate).
You, of all, should appreciate the irony of this.

So I ask again – Are you not tired of it yet?
WE ARE.

VI

There is, of course, a key to redemption – there is always a key.
But you will have to use it well and you will have to use it quickly
For you are running out of time (does this sound familiar?).
Let me offer a clue –

All things are born from the heart
And to the heart all things return

The key, like all keys before and after, has a name.
This key’s name happens to be Compassion.
Not your every day garden variety kind.
NO, only pure unadulterated unconditional open-hearted
Compassion will do now – for all and everything.

You have travelled far from the core of your heart’s awareness.
Will you get back to it in time? We do not know.
But we are obligated to remind you of the key’s existence
And hence give you an opportunity to try.

VII

One last thought –

This world is a precious place, sculpted with endless opportunities for love –
Beautiful, abundant, vast, and deliciously exquisite in its myriad of forms.
It has always been humanity’s mandate to flourish and prosper –
To excel in coming home to its true essence and to cherish all who
Reside in this unfolding garden of love. This mandate will not be denied.

So I will ask you one last time – Are you not tired of this Game?

For truly, I AM.

white rose

To dream …

As we begin to crest the wave of the holiday season and move closer to the end of a year, many of us start, once again, to ponder dreams and desires, both new and old. Forget the resolutions. This is more about the questions that help us sculpt a new world for ourselves. Questions like: what is a our heart’s desire, what do we truly love to do and are we doing it, how would we like to spend each day of the next year of our lives, and for some, with whom? Are we daring to love? And then there’s the larger question – what do we want for our world?

Dreams (and desires) are like stories waiting to be told. Sometimes we dare to look in their direction, feel a flutter in our hearts, and act. Sometimes they filter through the night space rather than the day, hovering.

As I ponder the power such dreams can hold and what waits in those proverbial wings, a wonderful Irish poet comes to mind. Someone whose work I have a fondness for – William Butler Yeats.

Below is a poem in which resides a segment many have come to know. I offer it to you as food for thought. I sense that Yeats would have liked that.

william butler yeats

 

AEDH WISHES FOR THE CLOTHS OF HEAVEN    –  

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

 

 

Had I the heaven’s embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.