Poems From the Sacred Bundle
Where Heaven and Earth Meet Complete
By Stephen W. Emerick
Poems From the Sacred Bundle reflects the poetry of Untying the Sacred Bundle (published 2023), and is often used for reflection, meditation, focusing of intention, prayer, healing feelings of separateness from creation, and the forming of new life decisions. Each chamber’s poetry collected here from Untying the Sacred Bundle is introduced by story, metaphor, or vision, followed by the poetry of its respective chamber.
This book, Poems from the Sacred Bundle, invites you to be “broken open” for the four chambers of the heart to enter into a new covenant with Mother Earth and creation itself.
Being Broken Open
By Stephen W. Emerick
I once stood, windblown and alone, in a place among the ancient elder stones of Peru’s Andean cordillera, where wind has free reign, and rain waters wander.
But in winter…quietly but surely, transforming from water to ice, its expansion clicks, cracks, and snaps as mountain opens at the edge of greatness, so that one small and imperceptible sacred space can be made for the breaking of unholy promises at the border of winter and spring.
In this opening of the cordillera’s strength and fluidity the entire Andes shifts on our behalf – in order to guide us! So go ahead. Follow its lead.
Do not be afraid. In that frozen, lonely windblown place inside of you –now –unbeknownst to anyone, let yourself be broken open, disavowing unholy promises made for you by others. And in your breaking welcome your awakening.
For being broken open is the nature of life.
Enter
By Stephen W. Emerick
Here on a lonely night,
alone and in the dark,
with only a sliver of moonlight,
I am about to embark,
into the entrance of darkness
at the opening of the wood.
And like a vessel
setting out to sea,
I take the steps forward
on behalf of none but me.
And found in that very action,
a strange and peculiar reaction.
For stepping into the darkness
with all my fears and wonders
worries, anxieties, and blunders,
what some call the great unknown
I was not lost nor abandoned,
and nor was I alone.
For all who had gone before me
met me on the path that night.
And for the gift of being there
they banished all my fright.
And none of them were strangers,
and none of them unknown.
So, when you step into your night
and approach that dark night’s wood,
remember at the entry there,
many others before you have stood.
And if fear questions entry into
that dark night’s wood,
remember this my friend.
Remember this.
Enter
You
Should
Every Day a Day of Prayer
Do you trust the currents of sacred breath? For breath comes to us as the second messenger of creation. Breath is the second medicine.
By Stephen W. Emerick
Every day a day of prayer
Every day, a day of prayer.
And stepping outside, Creation’s Nature
meets me there – In silence as I pray,
relatives of fur and feather gather in-
Their chatter is a song! Their
chatter is a hymn!
They come so close to sing with me, that
We abide in each other’s skin!
And for the first time I understand why
the Shaman is clothed with skins and
a pastor or priest sings hymns!
Because they take us to the borderlands –
The place of heaven’s hem where we live in trust.
They are in me…and I am in them.
We are in The One. And The One, in us!
Blessed be, are we.
I have a Love
By Stephen W. Emerick
I have a love with whom I speak every day,
upon the Inhale – in the Pause – and in the Exhale
all along the way.
I have a love with whom I speak every day
as moon and stars and sun
move when we sway
upon the weaving strands
of waters, rocks, and sands and sacred breath,
of all nations and lands –
of the loom’s language
forming kisses in my mouth,
swimming the four directions
like speckled blood-filled trout
in absolute faithfulness
to all that is love –
whether deer or fawn, eagle, or dove,
two or four-legged,
finned, skinned or not,
the chord pulls taut, and something
billows in the ancient language that
vibrates, resonates, does not hesitate
to part partition or veil –
like oil surging through shale
wind, rain, and hail.
I have a love with whom I speak every day
on the Inhale – the Pause – the Exhale,
and all along the way…
These are my sweet love’s touch,
that I embrace each and every day and
I have learned like a good lover –
to surrender, let them have their way!
With me, my mouth, my curves and
soft and rounded contours (ours, yours)
takes no detours but lures me as a
fish in a brook that pulls me up and
onto their hook, which gives me wings,
gives me faith, and wherever I am
drops me to my knees
in unfathomable ecstasy –
and find all my kin gathered right here,
right next to me!
I so cherish this love
with whom I speak, every day.
In the Inhale – the Pause – and the Exhale,
and along the way.
Aho
Namaste! Metta! Greetings!
By Stephen W. Emerick
Thanks to all creatures great and small,
for new growth forests and cedars tall.
For wild raspberry bushes and how their roots are
grown.
For the nation of bones and how they hold us on
our way home.
Thanks to those of all creation’s nations,
slithering, flying, walking with sacred skin, wings,
or legs.
For new birth assured that comes, excitedly,
exuding eggs.
For water and air to sustain us as we roam!
For the sea, and its creatures, and its currents
and its foams.
And thank you, how our loving relationships
grant us a feeling of Kinectedness –
And bring a feeling of home.
Water Song
Do you trust the currents of the sacred waters and breath? For water comes to us as the first messenger of creation.
Water is the first medicine but must be sung with sacred breath.
Let all sacred species remember. Let us put this in our stories.
By Stephen W. Emerick
Amethyst grapes gathering –
swaying in the warm southern winds,
suckled by the soft rain’s ripples.
These are the midnight suns
clustered-chlorophyll-choirs
practicing the song to be sung.
The song to be sung
from the tongue of the one who
drinks Mother earth’s soil-nutrient-nectar.
Do it now! Plunge into the fields!
Suckle at the breast of the mother –
then come voice what must be said.
Sing the song that the universe
has seeded within your head.
Let its roots into your heart drop…
As shoots transcend thoughts.
As the grapes in arbor are hung:
Come. Come surrender to the Creator’s harvest.
Come let all that you are be sung!
Wilderness Release
By Stephen W. Emerick
~ May the waters that hold us, and the waters that flow
within us, grow another ring within the tree of life as we
release all bitterness from the wilderness within us.
~ May the secret places we have sequestered memories
of unforgiveness be opened and washed clean.
~ May we see all our harmful thoughts toward others and
ourselves, like flower petals upon water floating, be
carried away downstream upon the currents of our
dreams.
The sacred bundle teaches from within its chambers of
sacred waters, sacred breath, sacred species and sites,
and sacred storytelling, to pray a simple prayer when in
sacred circles:
~ May all that is healed within us be condensed and leap
into freedom so freely given.
~ May all that is hopeful and heartfelt be cleansed
through the deep aquifers of mother earth.
~ May we arise, renewed, in reciprocity’s thanksgiving,
and take our place, among the nations of the creator’s
creation.
Aho.
In the Gathering of Women
By Stephen W. Emerick
I have learned~
There is a fierceness of water
In the gathering of women;
Sensual sisters speaking
Truths that taunt the untrustworthy!
Truths that test the best of Red Medicine~
Of birth from the earth;
As passion of placenta,
Heralding the arrival
Of the Tree of Life…
Fed by the waters of women.
I had wanted to say “Thank you”
For this gift of life you have given.
But my lips remain silent,
As sacred things often, are…
Spoken only in the deep recesses of the heart.
(Thank you)
I Live in a Place
By Stephen W. Emerick
I live in a place
where Heaven and Earth ends,
and Love begins.
And should you gain entry here,
this is what you will find:
A shoreless shoreline
like a trunkless tree.
A skyline with roots,
and vines that grow exponentially free.
Startling starlight and
ancient stones that fly like kites.
A winding river
deeper than the sky
and towering mountains
that swim in your eyes.
And here are languages
you have never heard.
Where words become doors
and dreams become floors.
And geese that slither,
and tiny mice that roar.
A place where everything is
turned upside down.
Things you thought square
become obtuse or round.
Cats bark like dogs and parakeets howl like hounds.
Where students become teachers,
and custodians make Grand Rounds.
As villages slip into the sunset
and constellations become towns.
A place of rapt attention as
raptors rest upon tendons.
And what once brought total confusion
becomes the sun at dawn’s early night.
For this is the home of your imagination,
upon its virgin flight!
