David Bowden writes and performs for non-profits, activist movements, and youth conferences around the country. David is married and living in Oklahoma City, working as the Executive Director of the non-profit Give a Goat.

So this is what it’s like
One moment fear
the next vastness.

Goals cease to be goals
Instead a star-filled night
fills me.

Star Woman
you are me now
as you are every one.

No fear
now love
no contraction    now immensity

I am a dark night full of stars

Yet this is no night,
only shining,
no stars without immense space.

This spot called Earth
one elegant teacher of each
jasmine flower

every scratch of
bird to its
flea bitten wing.

Stop, look how pink is sprayed through the rattan shade
as the copper sun
flowers in the west
open to a single hum
a golden bell
calling one
to velvet
silence.

Robin H. Lysne is a poet, author of three books and a professional medium and intuitive. Her writing has been published in North American Review, numerous anthologies including the Harvest from the Emerald Orchard and in two of her books; Dancing Up the Moon, and Heart Path. Visit her website at www.thecenterforthesoul.com.

Editor’s Note: “The Golden Bell” originally appeared in Heart Path.

The ones to come will have no need for prayer.
Their spirits will ascend like smoke at night
To track the constellations out of place.
They will understand this pain we share,
All this suffering we call all right,
As the sacred in its deepest trace.
Healing in some way we do not dare,
They will sew their wounds with starlight
While the atmosphere bleeds into space.
Whereas we can merely point and stare,
The ones to come will know how to ignite
Infinity in one intense embrace.

Poetry by Stephen Lefebure appears in periodicals and on websites of varying combinations of respectability, spirituality and coolness. It might also be found in the illegal lending libraries of Arabia, or at the pillar of Ashok in Nepal. A print anthology called Wild Song presents Lefebure’s poetry along with poems by famous people.

I am given back to night,
cradled by soft curves in the Milky Way.
The new moon reins in darkness,
and I am free to dream the hidden Beauty,
free to bask in the shadows of spirits.

Companions of Soul unite!
We are like a constellation of stars;
mythic configurations connected at a distance.
Breathe out, like a bellows heating the sun.
Breathe in, the resuscitation of the mysterious.

Jim Price retired to Wisconsin almost three years ago, after a 30-year career in human services that included both counseling and administration. He has been published in Verse Wisconsin, Echoes, Bumbershoot, and Clutching at Straws. Jim has been a shamanic practitioner since 1985, and has practiced meditation since 1973.

Bubbles in my being form and burst
like soft drink fizz.
Wave like ambrosia pummels my psyche.
Honey bees drink from the eternal
and pollinate my persona.
Sipping on sweet savory soma
the Gods have provided leftovers.
Indulging in the indescribable
dissolving into cosmic dissolution
migrating from Maya
to the All Mighty.
Waltzing in wanderlust
I’m the conductor
for the symphony of the self.
An overture of awareness
bassy blasts from behemoths
rock my internal concert hall.
Observing from my psychedelic podium
Seraphim serenade serenity in D minor.

Ian Moore is a graduate of Penn State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English. Moore also holds certifications in creative writing and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). He has taught English in Busan South Korea, Bangkok Thailand and in the United States. He has also volunteered teaching photography to Tibetan refugees and at risk teens in India. Moore has published work for Transitions Abroad, Demand Media, eHow.com and several other online publications.

by Mindie Kniss

life-giving fire
pour sundrops like rain.
let us reflect your glow.
enlighten our path
as we flourish and grow.
let us drink in your heat
and eat from your hand
as we sway in the breeze
as you kiss our skin…
wrap us up
in light and insight
as we spin ‘round again
toward dark.

Mindie Kniss is editor of Awaken Consciousness Magazine and creator of Restart Your Heart.  She contributed to the bestselling compilation, Wake Up Women, and is currently completing a memoir based on her experiences in East Africa.  She holds an MFA in creative writing from Pacific University. “sun lust” originally appeared on Kniss Ink.

I am Chaos
Transcending from that first moment
When One became a victim of a subjected extermination of attachment
Defining the world through a simple word
- Just a grouping of letters and sounds
Wrapped around a concept
When in its entirety is the utterance of death

I am death
Walking as the shadow of the living version of mankind,
Walking behind from the moment of conception
No form of energy or matter is immune
To the castoff from light in the formation of a new beginning

I am the beginning
For nothing can truly commence
Without a point of creation – a gateway into the emptiness
From which to use as a spring-
To rocket through space for a epigrammatic moment in time

I am time
The winding and unwinding
The tick and the Tock
Of a weathering grandfather clock

I am beauty
Surrounded in universal love
Untainted and pure
As a ray of pristine sunshine

I am a cup, outlined in gold
With an overflowing rim
This becomes my blood
– My essence once more

I am a particle of dust,
Which formed in unison makes the sum of man

I see with the eyes of humanity
I bleed the blood of  karma

I am,
In my intimacy
A brief and fleeting glimpse into the truth
Behind the elucidation of
Life

Ashley Morgan has been producing poetry since the age of nine. Her poetry has been inspired by her love for quantum mechanics, astrophysics, astro-biology and seeking spiritual enlightenment. She is dedicated to discovering truth and teaching others about her findings. Currently, she is working on her first collection of poetry, Una Vita (One Life).

A second day of grey.
More rain; more solitude.
My senses are soaking up
what the droplets offer
nearly as fast as the thirsty ground.
Standing outside in the deluge,
its another chance to look within.
My system has been in overload mode.
Now the rain; a steady beat on my face-
A welcome respite,
a chance to learn, to wash away the fear.
To join the flowers of spring,
planting our roots firmly and deep
into the enriching soil.
That is where we find our strength,
the flowers and I;
to express ourselves on the next sunny day,
with confidence, beauty and grace.
Welcoming all who seek
what they think we may hide.
Only to find we truly are
what we appear—
And so much more.

Dean Miller is an FAA air traffic controller who writes a monthly on-line article for Elkhorn Fly Rod and Reel. TROUT magazine is scheduled to publish an article of his in the January 2011 edition.  He resides in Loveland, CO.

The light of God
is people in love

Nahshon Cook’s poems have appeared in literary publications which have included The Houston Literary Review and Post Poetry Magazine. His first collection of poetry A New Beginning was published in January 2010 by Paper Flower Press. He has poems forthcoming in the Salmon anthology Dog’s Singing. He lives in Denver, Colorado.