Continuing the Walk of Bliss with the Beloved, Rumi, Hafiz and Teresa E. Gallion
Reading poetry by Rumi and by Hafiz are blissful life-walks with the Beloved.
Reading poetry by Teresa E. Gallion continues that walk, which soon becomes a hike, reminding us that while the state of living in bliss isn’t always, well, blissful, the Beloved always traverses the varying and often rough terrain of life with us.
Though influenced by hikes in New Mexico, Contemplation in the High Desert: Quatrains inspired by the Poetry of Rumi (Inner Child Press, 2011), is just what it is titled – a contemplative stroll, a walking meditation, as we saunter though the inspiring lyrical pages.
A total of eighty awesome quatrain poems, this book is perfect for reading a poem a day, allowing one’s mind and heart nearly three months of wandering and wondering, while embracing each day.
Written in Teresa’s personal moments of contemplation and originally not meant for publication, another poet, Debbi Brody, urged her to consider publishing the collection. In her preface, Teresa states:
I am blessed to live in a high desert sanctuary where the sun shines more than 325 days a year, where the blue vaulted sky sports the most spectacular clouds and the night sky twinkles with ecstatic brilliance…
When I put the quatrains together as a collection, I realized the significance of what I had been doing for so many years. I was unfolding spiritually at a pace I could handle. Contemplation in the High Desert has become a love offering to all who spend time in quiet reflection, contemplation or meditation. Each quatrain stands alone and may be used to start or end your day. If you are a writer, I hope it provides prompts to jump start your writing. If you are an artist, I hope it stimulates your creative juices. Regardless, I hope these quatrains stimulate your inner journey of self. Most of all, I hope they provide a partner to sit with and simply reflect on life. (vii-viii)
Having such a partner for reflection offers support for our seeking, and finding, each moment as a offering from and with the Beloved.
Being “in the moment” – meaning accepting the gift of life in each moment and being aware of what this moment holds – and finding contentment with what we have can be a challenge at any time, but might be even more challenging during our pandemic “moment.”
Though published nine years ago, here are a few quatrains from Teresa that speak loud and clear to me of learning the power of “being in the moment”:
Burning in the fire of love
We surrender to the moment
Spirit offers a ride
We fly on the wings of butterflies (7)
Additionally, Teresa writes of the complexities of deep human need. For example, loneliness can be debilitating. Anyone who has been truly lonely knows its devastating effects.
Since March, we have been living in isolation and, unless we find some solace in connecting via Zoom or other cyber platforms, we are experiencing acute loneliness for loved ones, neighbors, friends, events and outings.
However, the following quatrain suggests loneliness can also be an opportunity to see that we are never truly alone:
To feel lonely is a failure to see
All the gifts that surround you
Open your eyes
The world waits for your embrace (29)
And, it’s ok to be emotional, as Teresa writes:
When someone reminds you
How emotional you are
Remember the healing wisdom of Spirit
Comes in subtle ways (66)
Yet, facing our fears can become a force of nature in our own lives:
I stared down a wolf
Claiming the edge of the forest
This is not the first time
Courage has dominated my life (77)
Teresa ups the intensity of life terrain with her next book of longer poems, Chasing Light (Inner Child Press, 2013 and 2013 Finalist, New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards).
In three sections – The Pulse of Nature, Sailing on the Cosmos, Traveling the Far Country – the poetry moves from daily existence including visits with family and her childhood, to adventures with adversities and warning signs, to a transcendent place filled with memory or a retelling of other times of existence.
As Teresa explains in the book’s preface:
This collection gives glimpses of my encounters with the sound and light of the planet that impact me at all levels of life. My primary writing influences meet at the intersection of the natural landscape, the writings of Rumi and Hafiz, two great mystic poets, numerous contemporary poets of the 20th century and my personal spiritual journey…
May you find something in my journey that touches and uplifts you at some level as you walk life’s wilderness. (viii-ix)
In these poems, the Beloved often takes on the shapes of nature – mountains, waterfalls, trees, cacti, boulders, clouds, sky, calves, cranes, bluebirds, sunshine, snow, feisty bucks, “the jackrabbit” in the moon, just to name a few. What I read here is that:
When we gaze at nature, nature gazes back.
Our gaze with nature becomes engagement,
with recognition of the Beloved.
Engaging with nature in this way returns us to the essence of creativity, “opens the doors to fantasy,/the rewards of imagination…” As Teresa writes to the moon:
Earth school is hard,
unforgiving in its demands,
but when your smile welcomes the night,
it opens the doors to fantasy,
the rewards of imagination…
…Take away the food, the clothes, the shelter,
but when my eyes look upon the night sky,
show me the jackrabbit and your smile.
It keeps my spirit alive.
(from “Homage to the Moon,” 98)
Nature becomes the muse:
Feisty Bucks carry lantern lights on their antlers
to illuminate the path reflected in your window.
They ask the sparrows to drop lyrics along the trail for you.
(from “Light Beyond the Window, ” 145)
Nature houses the infinite Beloved:
I bite down on a star.
A super nova bursts from my mouth.
I like to show off
just for you.
(from “Bondage” 137)
I want to cruise to nirvana
as milky waves stampede across the sky.
Enfold me in protective bliss
when the hour approaches the edge of night.
(from “Love at the Edge of Night,” 139)
But nature, better off without us, is not the Beloved:
The world stretches.
Butterflies leave the planet.
The water is high. The fires run wild.
A violent fight smothers the earth.
And when the battle is over,
all living matter lies in rigor mortis
and the earth,
the earth is at peace.
(from “Warning Signs,” 9)
Possibly, the ultimate acceptance is of ourselves, of others, of our humanity:
If I take his hand, my skin and his breathe homo sapien.
Why oh why dearest ones do we fear
the miracle of existence—our humanity.
(from “The New Eden,” 140)
I love pondering the above. Could we be fearful of what we also crave? Such as human touch? Such as our humanity, embodied in the miracle of existence? (This is something to consider about life in “normal times,” such as in B.C. — Before Covid-19 —not during this pandemic “moment” when caution tells us to not touch others and to avoid large gatherings of human beings.)
In it all, the infinite Beloved waits for us:
But love waits patiently.
It has no timeframe.
Lifetime after lifetime
it will wait for you
with outstretched hands.
(from “Love Waits Patiently,” 167)
During this pandemic “moment,” as I sit writing this on my lovely, sunny New Mexico patio, I miss people. I miss hugging my children. And, not wanting to be exposed to the virus by driving to hiking locations, I miss exploring nature. Teresa’s poems make me miss hiking and nature all the more.
They also remind me that while nature is fine — even better off — without me, the Beloved, imbued in nature and in each moment, prefers my presence.
P.S. Thanks to video conferencing, you can Zoom in from anywhere you are to meet with Teresa E. Gallion next Wednesday, May 20, 2020, from 5:30 to 6:30 - 6:45 pm MDT in my From the Divine Studio: Creatives in Conversation Hour. Please join us for this lovely way to enrich an hour.
Teresa’s books can be sampled at no charge and purchased as e-books or as print books from her publisher: Inner Child Press.
They can also be purchased on Amazon: Walking Sacred Ground, Contemplation in the High Desert and Chasing Light.
You can find out more about Teresa and her work at her website: http://teresagallion.yolasite.com/
Photo by Jeannette Dauber-Sanchez
Teresa looking stunning at a fantastic overlook in Del Norte, Colorado, with her WOW (Wild Outdoor Women) hiking group in 2019.
Teresa spreading peace from the shores of Greece.
Photo by dee cohen bruno
Teresa at her Chasing Light book launch.
![Final Cover Front[1].JPG](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b86b0eb5ffd208fe4f0acbd/1589378132406-U68NZ1D8YH0GUW0WIA15/Final+Cover+Front%5B1%5D.JPG)
About Teresa:
Teresa E. Gallion was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and moved to Illinois at the age of 15. She completed her undergraduate training at the University of Illinois Chicago and received her master’s degree in Psychology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She retired from New Mexico state government in 2012.
She moved to New Mexico in 1987. While writing sporadically for many years, in 1998 she started reading her work in the local Albuquerque poetry community. She has been a featured reader at local coffee houses, bookstores, art galleries, museums, libraries, Outpost Performance Space, the Route 66 Festival in 2001 and the State of Oklahoma’s Poetry Festival in Cheyenne, Oklahoma in 2004. She occasionally hosts an open mic.
Teresa’s work is published in numerous journals and anthologies. She has two CDs: On the Wings of the Wind and Poems from Chasing Light. She has published three books: Walking Sacred Ground, Contemplation in the High Desert and Chasing Light. Chasing Light was a finalist in the 2013 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards.
The surreal high desert landscape and her personal spiritual journey influence the writing of this Albuquerque poet. When she is not writing, she is committed to hiking the enchanted landscapes of New Mexico.
About the blog author:
Mary Dezember, PhD, is a poet and author of fiction and non-fiction. She earned her PhD in Comparative Literature, specialization in Comparative Arts, from Indiana University in 2000, with PhD minors in Art History and Performance Studies. Professor of English, she teaches Comparative Arts, Art History, Creative Writing and Literature at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Her publications include several non-fiction essays and articles and two books of poetry: Earth-Marked Like You (Sunstone Press) and Still Howling (CreateSpace Independent Publishing). Her novel, Wild Conviction, is in the works to be published by Inkshares. She, like Teresa, loves to hike.