Alive Within Your Heart

An experience I received and that I cherish deeply — and pray to keep alive and powerful within my mind

Artwork by Holly Rose Thomas | The author retains all rights and permissions for the use of this image

Let me be created by you
On this day and every day
Let my heart be opened 
By the voice that paves the way

In this blessed instant
To the love I’ve always craved 
Opening, awakening to
Your beauty and your grace

No more do I depend
On those who walk in form
Now I am complete
Within the heart that’s ever warm

Ever rich in comfort
Ever offering me its own
Light that flows in rivers strong
That feeds the seeds it’s sown

Now I know your nourishment
Your warmth and gentle grace
Ever strong within me
All my darkness to replace

Now I know the strength of those 
Who walk within your love
Never more will care be worn 
While this mind’s thinking of…

Pondering and resting on,
Receiving what you are
I’ll never be alone
Now you’re alive within my heart

The Only Thing That Can Be Loved

Are you ready…?

Photo by Hamish Weir on Unsplash — thank you

The only thing that can be loved
That which is wholly real
The only thing that can’t be judged
It lives beyond impatient zeal…

To manifest a life of ease
Within the nothingness of form
It lives upon the grace
That is, beyond this world, the norm

It’s only to be known and seen
And felt, received, and helped to grow
Within the self that judges not
The seeds that it has sown

The only thing that can be loved
Is love itself, you are
Within this holy instant
The perfection of the heart

Within this breathless sanctitude
You are the life that leads
Gently, through the gathering dusk,
To all the soul could need

The light that shines upon me
From your dedicated mind
As you offer yourself
To that which swims in the divine

You offer all you are
To all the beauty you’ve been shown
As hearts that open wide
Become the One upon the throne

True majesty bequeaths its favour
Everywhere it goes
It knows not who or what it sees
But loves as it’s been shown

The love that’s been allowed is given,
Nothing else is seen
A torrent of such blessings
Reigns and rains and is received

Everywhere, in everything,
These blessings sprout and grow
The merging of the self
Becomes the torrent of the flow

The light that pours incessantly
From your devoted soul
That climbs in climax
Roars in ruth, explodes the paths of old

It tumbles over rocks and sandy bottoms
Gurgling on
The course that you have taken
Now delivers you in song

To tempests raging wild
Upon the waves that crash the shore
But for a moment all is still
As you are shown the door

The chasm, joyful opening
The bird pecked estuary
That, calm, awaits the moment
Of your joining with the sea

And as the moon awakens
As she rises and then shines
Reflecting beauty of the Father Sun
Within her mind

The waters rise within you
But you are no longer scared
You stand with arms wide open
With your mind alive in prayer

You whisper deep within the soul
Of what you’ve always been
“I’m ready to be taken out
Forever from this dream”

Begin

Beginning to believe

Photo by Holly Rose Thomas | The author retains all rights and permissions for the use of this image

When you say I paved the way
For all that’s happening now
The breath that courses into me
And beats upon my brow
Mistakes me for the one who recognizes
All the gifts they’ve sown
In heaven’s secret places,
In my precious heart of stone

The seeds that fell upon the rubble
Or the misty shoal
Admit the past and seek to feed
Its creases and its wolds
But those that fell within the heart
That looked so cold and bare
Went troubling its cracks
And took their humble roots in there

The stone cold circle rumbled
As the roots were gathering brawn
And suddenly a piercing cracking
Ripped apart the dawn
A river flowed where none had known
It’s raging path before
And I arose, a chalice held aloft
With glowing core

The gifts that had been given
Ever deigning to receive
The fruits of many labours
That had seemed to crush and wreathe
That finally built a circle
That could be seen and believed
That mystified but never sought
To chasten or recede

If you say I paved the way
Your blessings I can feel
If you acknowledge
What I have denied, I know it’s real
If you believe that I have given
More than I could see
Then I’ll believe you, as I begin to
Believe in me

All There Is To Find

The seeking heart must some day find its gold

Under the surface of the sea, light rays shining in, beautiful clear water but you can feel the weight and the depth at the bottom
Photo by Cristian Palmer on Unsplash — thank you

I want to tread the deeper dives
Where blessings hold beneath the flow
The stillest waters, richest tides
A sweetness brought to light, sublime

A travesty it feels to give
Only this superficial slant
Fragmented personality
Divorced from what I can’t reveal

I want to tread the deeper dives
And stem the tide of surface flow
That, jesting, as its joker’s wont
Has ridiculed the depths I know

I want to be a truthful one
Who shows the innards of its own
Who casts an acted part aside
Its timbre ceased, its wings unflown

I want to ride the waves of flow
That authenticity has wed
To leap unbridled on the growing
Self that has straight past me sped

I want to know what lies beyond
Within and at the core of me
I want to let the self be dead
That still affronts, entangles me

I want to feel the death, complete
Of all that I have willed and known
I want to leap, unfathomed depths
Beneath me as I fall below

I want to hurry to the cliff 
And wrest this putrid body home
And catapult the self that shames itself
Upon the rocky road

I want the death that’s promised me
Within the pages of the tomes
The script that’s written, hands of light 
Bequeathing all the joy they know

I want to die a thousand deaths
To everything that I have made
And watch with gentle gratitude
As what I truly am is cradled

Gently by the opening shaft
Of sunshine that has borne the child
That I have never known before
Whose smiling beauty makes me wild

With happiness, an opening hearted
Calmness and tranquillity
Encompasses the instant
That I finally feel free

So if you look to find me
And you see that I have gone
And all that’s left is peacefulness
A gentle hearted song

All you can find is writing
Carved upon an ancient wall
This joyful death, with life becoming
Everything and all

If all you find within the tomb
Of death defying Will
Is that which troubles heaven
Not a syllable or swell

If all you find is gratitude
Within a peaceful mind
You’ve found the place where I discovered
All there is to find

Your Own

In gratitude for perseverance through perceived adversity

Stalks and leaves of a tall plant and their sharp edged shadows dancing on a sunshine yellow wall, overlaid with the softer shadows of the leaves of a nearby tree
Photo by Holly Rose Thomas | The author retains all rights and permissions for the use of this image

I’m sorry that you missed it
I’m sad you didn’t see
The blossoming of beauty
That has come alive in me

I’m sorry that you didn’t feel
The draw to carry on
That you decided to begin
A different life alone

I’m sorry that your heart
Was never open to receive
The joyful understanding
That you’re being loved, received

I’m sorry your experience
Got twisted in your mind
That you believed the lies you told
Pulled up the blanket, remained blind

I’m sorry you’re not here to witness
What could have been clear
A blossoming of fruitful understanding
Past the fear

I’m sorry you weren’t brave enough
To sit it out and know
That all your indignation
Was a block to harvests grown

That all your insignificance
Was only in your mind
That no one was attacking
The defence that kept you blind

And everything you had received
Was your own story, told
A billion times before
An ancient history, dead and cold

And life itself was waiting
In mysterious certainty
There within the grievances
That stopped you being free

If you’d been willing to discover
All that lies within
Deep inside the core of guilt
And anger, hated sin

If you’d been willing just to look upon
The feared grime
That smeared and blurred your vision
And that kept you here in time

If you’d been willing to expose
The fractures of your heart
That, crumbling, could have freed you
From the life you held apart

If you’d been willing to decide
To question what you knew
Then all your indecision
Would have breezed away, blown through

And you would have been standing
In the space I know as me
Beyond the terror foisted on myself
By what I’ve been

Beyond the death, calamity
The direst treachery
That spread like eagles’ wings
Across the landscape of my dream

If you’d been able to stand still
And trust the path you’d sown
Then you’d have found me standing here
Your gentle love, your own

The Portal Is Open

The mind is free

A shady path leading into the forest with the sun pouring down in the foreground
Photo by Holly Rose Thomas | The author retains all rights and permissions for the use of this image

If I’d been willing to open my heart
To recognise all that was crumbling and dark
To welcome the demons that wrested the swell
From the power that rose up to vaporise hell

If I’d been willing to set my heart free
From the hopeless becomings that conjured a dream
If my light had been shining, my will had been true
I would have made this so easy for you

If I’d been faithful and followed your word
If I’d marched to the beat of the drum that you heard
If I’d been firm through resistance and mire
To dismiss the beliefs that bedeviled the pyre

Of the corpses that past culminations had sown
Into patterns unchanging and restless, ungrown
That were clearing so beautifully, turned by the flames of forgiveness
To smoke signals, peaceful and sane

I’m troubled in turns by the reams of regret
The temptation to focus on failure, to let myself
Fall from the grace of the sweet moment’s gift
To resist the becoming, the swelling, the lift

If I’d only been present, I’d only been whole
If I’d only discovered the grit of my soul
If I’d only been willing to set them all free
Then my mind would have been in divine industry

But the power to be and the power to give
Are recognised only the instant that is
Are understood solely and only right now
Are redundant in pasts that are gone as we plough

Through the depths of the karma, revealed and released
Till a space, wide and precious, fertility’s feast
Lies there before us, fresh seeds can be sown
In the mind that has sent all its past troubles home

So “If only I’d been in the present with you”
Is denial right now of the powerful truth
That we’ll always be joined in our heavenly task
Of becoming the present, releasing the past

We’ve always been here, the unmasking of time to eternity
Happens each moment, divine,
That I welcome the beauty of wholeness and see
That the portal is open, the mind it is free

I Entered In

The gifts that greet the grateful soul

Pink centred sun, womb, fire, abstract beauty
Author image, thanks to NightCafe AI

I entered in the womb of God
It was your body, opened wide
From base to crown an opening of light
Arose before my eyes

It beckoned me to enter in
And taste the pleasures of the soul
And feel the glorious pressure 
Of the mind becoming whole

I entered in the womb of God
And at your heart that opened wide
A blessing to consume me
As I stripped to bare and dived

A flow, innate, of gratitude
Did humble me wherein I knew
The love of God surrounding me:
Synonymous with you

The walls were lush and turgid
As between them I did glide
Ever moving inward to the
Sacred space inside

A space where I am nourished
To the essence of my core
A comfort of such density
Aliveness, gentle warmth

The walls they hold me centred
Their pressure meets my need
For comfort and security
My everlasting greed

Insatiable desire
To be held, to feel at home
To lie and rest in certainty
That I am not alone

I feel the grateful rhythms
Of a heart that’s guiding true
Every mind that comes to him
For comfort and for ruth

I rest within a body
That body is your mind
I have a cord that feeds me
Without forage or find

I rest within your gentleness
Your peace is all I know
I rest within your certainty
Within your peace I grow

I enter in your kingdom
To rest a while from form
Till I’m released from density
Then from this place I’m born

Beyond the Boundaries

Surrendering it all

Nebula clouds, space, beautiful colours, textures
Author image, thanks to NightCafe AI

I give every moment 
Of this life I’ve made to you
Take it, hold it, mould me
To the truth I am in you

I’ll no longer listen 
To the obstacles I’ve made
Deep within the mind 
That wanted only to betray

Open me with blessings
Or with scalpels, as you need
Take a wrecking ball
And smash apart the games I’ve played

Tear off masks of hopelessness
My folly and my woe
And bring me to the memory
Of the beauty that you sow

In the recognition
Of the heart that holds the prize
Waking in the centre
Of the mind ceasing to try

Lies the joyful mystery
That is finally opened wide
Clear to see, impeccable
In light within my mind

Here’s the burning passion
Of the one that cries to know
Anguished heart that rises far
Beyond its stories sown

Reaching past the quandary
Of the self it chose to be
Out into the universe
Of breathtaking simplicity

Out into the widest breadth of mind 
That it can go
Taken far beyond itself
As now it seeks to know

All that it has hidden from
And all that it can be
Out beyond the boundaries
Of a faded, hopeless dream

Dear John

Lyrics and video for one of my songs

Blue sky above the cloud line with the earth far below.
Author photo | All rights and permissions reserved

Dear John 
By which I mean the planet I’ve been living on 
For so long 
Dear John

Dear John 
By which I mean the fear that has been so strong 
In my mind 
So long

Dear John 
By which I mean the planet I’ve been living on 
For so long 
So long

Dear John 
By which I mean the body I’ve been speaking from 
The idea in my mind that kept my fear strong 
So strong 
So long

Dear John 
By which I mean the planet I’ve been living on 
The beings I’ve shared ideas of identity through physicality 
With for so long 
So long

If you look at me quantumly you’ll see I’m gone 
Was never here 
I’m gone

The love we’ve shared in truth is all that’s still strong 
Ideas of physicality are long gone 
Long gone 
Dear John

And I’ve come here to share a new idea so strong in me 
It’s so strong 
To tell you if you’re fearful or you’re lonely 
That it won’t be long

I’ve come to share my certainty that truth is all that’s left of me 
That I was wrong 
I’ve come to share my certainty that we were only ever free 
To love and loose the bounds of time 
From all that we had thought we’d seen 
Dear John, dear John

And now we dance forever to the songs we wrote together in eternity 
We’re free, dear John 
Dear John, we’re free 
Dear John

Dear John 
If you look through the eyes that can see quantumly 
You’ll see, we’re gone 
With love, Dear John

Always

In gratitude for those who’ve walked this way before

A path between grassy verges, trees and mountains
Author image, thanks to NightCafe AI Art Generator

There’ll always be poems for you
The one who has held me, encouraged me through 
A myriad distractions, a myriad of days
On paths that felt stony although they were paved
With the certainty of those who’d walked them before
And left in each footstep a beautiful star

There’ll always be poems for you
The one who has stood still and shone your light through
The darkest of terrors, the stormiest nights
Your beam ever present and clear in its sight

There’ll always be poems, there’ll always be stars
For those who have loved me while I fell apart 
And cradled my soul as I crashed to the floor
And welcomed me, whole, as I rose, as I soared

There’ll always be poems of love in my heart
For the brothers that know me beyond where I start
For those who are centred, their clarity breathes
The verdure of life in my heavenly leas

A corner’s been turned in the misty air’d fall
I believe I feel life, I believe I see dawn 
Up ahead breaking into the heart that has learned
Finally to give away all it earns

There’ll always be poems for you
In beauty and power and infinite truth
They well up inside me and break their way through
All troubles are quenched as their river runs true

Yours are the hearts that have shown me the way
Intrinsically fearless as love takes its place
In the mind that was hoping but couldn’t be sure 
Now your light is my clarity, happiness, law

There’ll always be poems and deep gratitude
For the ones who have voyaged before me to truth
Who’ve conquered their demons and wrested their scars 
From the jaws of the tempters and lifted their hearts

To the ones who’ll devour them until you stand
Vulnerable. Beating, it rests in your hand
Peaceable, strong, in the knowledge so clear
That the only thing left to attack you is fear

They’ve stood at the altar and laid themselves down
And discovered the sword was dismissed with the crown
They’ve torn down their statues again and again
Stepped into the fire of the purging of men

There’ll always be poems, there’ll always be songs
For the ones who’ve discovered as they marched along
In the discipline of their surrendering minds
The peace that surpasses the self they’ve declined

There’ll always be poems for all that you are
As evolved revolutions of wakening hearts
Are roused at their centre, welcomed and hugged
The poems that flow through for you are my love


“And left in each footstep a beautiful star” — This is an idea taken from the Course.

His step is light, and as he lifts his foot to stride ahead a star is left behind, to point the way to those who follow him.

A Course in Miracles, Lesson 134