Grounding: Two Poems

Grounding

My search is for grounding

for the deep-down of things

where freshness of living

is to be found

that’s where I can stand

when my world spins

beyond my comfort zone

twists in forms beyond

my understanding

call it really real

where there’s a center

that holds where chaos

is calmed where

everlasting arms

reach to hold me

firm

where is this ground

how will I find those arms

perhaps in heaven above

or a memory of a past love

or best of all in you dear friend

(cPhil Hefner 1/17/2023

Grounding: a sonnet

My search is for the deep-downness of things,

Where streams of life flow unimpeded, strong

And undergirded by rock-solid earth. I long

For the center that holds when chaos brings 

Fears and shakes me from my comfort zone.

Twisting my world in ways beyond my ken.

I reel and falter, in a state of vertigo. And then

It dawns on me: I seek the really real, the tone

Of the cantus firmus, the melody that grounds

And envelopes me with its resonating sounds—

like the mother-God’s everlasting arms—

Protecting me from all besetting harms .

Where do I find grounding —over the rainbow in skies of blue?

In the memory of past love? Or, dear friend, in you?

(c) Phil Hefner 1/26/2023