Crossroads

 https://songsfromtheriver.com/2020/09/02/crossroads/(opens in a new tab)

New Post Up!

Chase

Chase

Chase beauty and it will find you

Give out love and you will find it

Watch the palm trees sway in the autumn winds

The change of seasons is coming , as it always does, 

And everything is new again

Stop trying to measure the meter

Stop trying to match the rhyme 

Stop trying to know all the secrets 

Listen to your heart speak, sublime

The winds make the waves on the waters

Directing them where they will go

The waters make sounds on the borders

This is the edge that we know

Yet the beyond is calling

9/16/19

Etiology

Etiology

The source of all my troubles is comparison

Comparison always leaves me wanting

Or it leaves me full of pride

It has never placed me in the streams of peace

Never has it put me in the fields of love

Never has it let me sleep the night away

In dreams of wonder and awe

Everywhere I go now

I am judged and compared

I can’t sing like the one on the radio

So I forever stop singing and meekly listen

I’m not beautiful like the one on the gilded screen

So I don’t place my ugly anywhere in the world

Even where it is desperately needed

I can’t write like the laureate 

So I drop my pen

The poems are never born

I can’t dance like the ones on the stage

So I am still

Winds of joy never move over the earth

In other words

I compare

And I die

We wonder why there is such a despair in our world

It’s time to live

It’s time to stop comparing

To stop quitting because I don’t “measure up”

To hell with your ruler

To hell with your rules and measures

I am me

There is no other like me

Never will there ever be

I was planted in this world to grow

That is exactly what I plan to do

To grow right where I am planted

And not worry about the weeds around me

Or the weeds within

I will look to where the sun is

Ever growing toward the light

I will sing

I will laugh

I will dance

I will be who I am

And Life will permeate the earth

I will no longer compare

3/17/19

Stay

I typically write free verse poetry. I can write the classical styles of poetry, but I’ve just always enjoyed a more free style of writing. Today, though, I had a song going through my head. It was Bruce Springsteen’s “Philadelphia.” I’ve always loved this song, and my favorite part of it is the captivating and haunting tune and rhythm of it. So as I had it going through my head, I had some lyrics come to me and I thought, “What the heck. Let’s write a song.” So here is “Stay” and it goes along (mostly) with the tune of “Philadelphia.” 

If anyone out there has some good tunes that need lyrics, let me know. Once I have a tune in my head, I can make the lyrics fit. Who knows? Maybe we’ll win a Grammy some day…

Stay

I wake up to the sunset

The day was dead and gone

I thought about the hills

That used to be my steadfast home

As the daylight of my eyes 

Slowly slipped away

I thought about the future

Thought about yesterday

But couldn’t stay in this moment

Couldn’t stay in this moment where I am me

Couldn’t stay in this moment

Couldn’t stay in the place where I am free

The darkness seems to tumble

Through the bright and golden fields

It seems to overtake everything in its wheels

I know I cannot dwell in this place

This place that isn’t home

So I gather up my children, prepare to roam

Can’t stay in this moment

Can’t stay in the moment where I cannot see

Can’t stay in this moment

Can’t stay in this place where I’m not free

Don’t know where this road is going to take me

But I know I share it with you

Don’t know where this road is going to take me

But I know that here with you, here everything’s new

I sense the shadows falling, the coming of the rain

I can feel the cold and listlessness of the autumn rains

I stare into the doorway, looking for the shore

But all I see is sunlight and nothing more

I’ve gotta stay in this moment

I’ve gotta stay where I am me

I’ve gotta stay in this moment

I’m going to stay where I am free

Going to stay in this moment

Going to stay in this moment

Going to stay

Freedom's Choice

 Freedom’s Choice

Such startling contrasts

Often get our attention

We often question why

When pain and suffering enter in

Yet in the midst of all of that raucous din

We seem to forget to ask why

All the beauty and majesty are there as well

Sometimes as small as the hermit crab’s shell

Sometimes as grand as the redwood

Sometimes in the message of a flower pastel

Who despite the presence of blackened death nearby

Simply shines on in all of its glory

Maybe I should learn the lesson here

Maybe I should hear the story

In spite of circumstances, war, or shame

I can still go on, living my name

Reveling in my freedom to choose the good

11/18/18

Liberation (the unwrapping)

Liberation (the unwrapping)

There’s an app to tell me how well I’ve slept

An app to tell me if I’ve walked enough

An app to keep me on my feet

An app to measure if I’m fit and tough

Yet there’s not an app to help rid me of this anger

Nothing to diagnose this loneliness, this angst

There’s not an app to tell me why I can never seem

To find the level where my soul is ranked

There’s not an app to help me find my tribe

The place where destiny dwells

No

No place amongst the robotic swells

Only life seems to be able to do this

Only living among the living and not amongst the dead

Nor amongst the robotic

So I set my phone down on the table’s bed

I walk outside and I keep on walking

My pedometer thinking I’m just a lazy slob

but the real me is walking into true freedom

This is just what I needed

Each Life

I'm posting this poem today in honor of our son Isaiah's "Gotcha Day."

Each Life

This is what it’s all about

These are smiles of heaven’s shouts

This is life that sets one free

This is life as it’s meant to be

This is a picture of the kingdom of God

A picture that was taken on this earthly sod

This is a picture of heaven on earth

This is a picture of what love is worth

This is a sight of the look in God’s eyes

This is the cost of the most priceless prize

This is the world in the way it should be

This is the way that we set the world free

Each life makes a difference

The Dance

The Dance

I often get so frustrated

That there isn’t an infinite amount of poetry in me

I know I need to write it

I can feel it in my chest

I can feel it even Deeper than that

I can feel it in the places where spirit and soul do flow

Yet there is no bridge between here and there

There is no way there I know

Or is there?

Could it be that infinity really is within?

Could it be that there is a creativity that never has an end?

It could be

I guess anything could be

That’s why we have words like “paradox” and “tension”

That’s why there’s so many unknown dimensions

Things that even quantum physics has a hard time describing

I have the choice to be stone solid or imbibing

The deep red wines of mystery

I have the choice

So though I might not have a language for what is within

I can keep dancing with it

I can keep going back and drinking from the well

I can keep breaking out of this small prison cell

Named, “This is the way it has always been.”

I can make the choice to be wild and free

I like this dance with eternity

1/7/17

Wreck it

Wreck it

In a place of freedom

I have the liberty to dream, to think,

To act

Which is why so many of our wondrous ones are enslaved;

imprisoned, silenced, tortured, wounded, scarred...someone, something

Doesn’t want them dreaming, creating, living...

So who is there to help them if not the ones who are already free?

What will the world look like when there is no slavery?  

It will look like the place I want my children and grandchildren to live

What creative genius is locked behind walls of evil filth?

What bringer of hope and life is shackled under oppressive chains?

Whose daughter has been stolen?  Whose son?

What child’s life has been stomped on and beaten all for the name of a moment’s pleasure?

In a place of freedom

I have the liberty to dream, to think, to write

To act

It is time

K, Duane Carter 7/13/13

Carried

Carried

I spoke into the waters

The waters spoke then into me

My words went into their very mists

Their mists then set me free

I sit amidst the songs of God

Amidst the peace of trees

I welcome gladness into my soul

I rest here on my knees

I’ve walked around the bended path

The sights I no more see

But the roar is still inside my heart

Forever flowing out from me

No silence could ever stop it

K, Duane Carter 10/18/12

Flying (Again)

Flying (Again)

Sometimes I wonder what would happen

If we would just let loose

Let go of this imaginary control we have over ourselves

And ride the winds of free and fanciful

I wonder where that would go

I wonder if the world would know

Just what it would be like to be completely transformed

Into a world of dreamers and dancers

Artists and enchanters

Who simply live the impossible things

Instead of searching for golden rings

By analyzing the metallic content of it all

I sense the wonder, I sense the call

But am I willing to let go of this fear

This strange anxiety that keeps me here

In a land of concrete logic and visible truth

Where wisdom is ignored, and worshiped is youth

Yet I see cracks in the pavement

And the flowers are growing there

Before too long we all will simply let down our hair

And run like there is never to be a tomorrow

For it will always be today

It will be this way on earth today

When we let go of these ballasts called fear

Trading them in for the wings of love

Soaring we’ll go to heights above

Heights where others said we could not go

Peace will be our oxygen flow

The mountaintops envious in their lowness

We dance with might, we dance with zest

We simply dance instead of walking in dreary routine

We don’t see what all of the mysteries mean

But we embrace them all just the same

We blow a kiss, we speak a name

We care not for fortune, we care not for fame

I awake from dreams, never the same

I feel the grass beneath my feet again…

K, Duane Carter 5-31-11

Quiet

Quiet

The wind blows through the sea oats

Flavors and aromas of salt

Water and air

Stirring the feathers, moving the hair

Like a thousand spirits dancing

To the music of the sunlight

All the colors of the rainbow

Exist in the yellows, reds, and blues

But none of the blues exist in me

For within the light, within the wind

I am free

Free to fly when I wish

Or free to stand on the shore and feel water between my toes

Within the grasps and throes

Of movements far beyond my grasping

They are there for just the simple asking

I relish these moment of quiet

And the Quiet relishes me

K, Duane Carter 5-21-11

Drop

Drop

Baste

On the brow

On the brow

Taking thoughts away from me

Seeking life

Seeking life

Where I just want to be

Drop these chains

These dark remains

Of a pain that creeps inside

You won’t win

Won’t win again

For I let you go into the night

Let you go

Let you go

Fly away from my days

Clear away, clear away

Drop the vapor from the haze

I see you now

I see you now

You just run away afraid

You don’t scare me

You can’t scare me

I am walking alive, alive, alive, alive, alive

I am coming alive, alive, alive, alive, alive

Yeah, I drop the chains

Yeah I drop the chains

Only love remains…

K, Duane Carter 5-12-11

What is Real

 

What is Real

I am looking for tethers whose ties are not there

And in the process tethers come that tie me down

I am praying for chains to be broken that do not exist

And in the process I become even further bound

I am looking outside for God when He lives within

And in the process He becomes so much harder to see

I am praying for things He has already done

I am enslaving myself when I’m already free

I look to a world of illusion and shame to find what I think is real

All the while I turn off that which is true by ignoring the Truth that I feel

Is there an answer to this circumstance?  Is there ever a bird that can fly?

The answer is to sit at the feet of the Truth, and there is where you can let out your sigh

For where the sigh is released in spirit and truth, it is there that the true God we meet

It is there where we love, it is there where we live; we are changed as we sit at His feet

K, Duane Carter   5-27-10

I don’t normally explain my poems, but I feel like this one is something from the heart of God and I want to make sure people get it.  I am learning that most of the heartache and hurt and disappointment I have had with God in my life is because of the lies I believed about Him in my head.  For years I have attempted to grasp God with purely my rational mind, and that will only lead to heartache and disappointment and hurt because one ends up with a god no bigger than his/her brain when one tries to comprehend Him that way.  As I go even deeper with Him I have begun to realize that this world I see with my two natural eyes is not the greatest reality in the universe.  The spiritual reality where He dwells, what we would call “heaven”, is the greatest reality and it isn’t the place that defines that, it is the God Who dwells there that defines it.  Heaven is heaven because God dwells there.  Wherever He dwells is heaven.  Now all of a sudden verses like what one reads in Ephesians of how we dwell RIGHT NOW in heavenly places are becoming alive to me because He dwells within me.  Even our little children can understand that He lives within us, but why can’t we understand that we carry heaven with us wherever we go?  When we fail to understand such a truth, we become bound to a lesser reality.  Why can’t we understand that because we dwell with God that we live ABOVE our circumstances, and therefore the enemy CANNOT touch us?  In fact it implies (and there are verses that state it more plainly) that God puts us where we are seen by the enemy but not touched, and this is a torment to our enemy because he sees us receiving the very thing he wants:  authority from our Father.  We are here to PUNISH our enemy by living out a loving relationship with our Father and with our King and our Husband.  “But Duane, what about illness and poverty and disease and death?”  Yeah, what about them?  Jesus kicked their butt on the cross, and took back all the authority over them, and in the resurrection showed us the true power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us and then He gave all that authority back to us with the understanding that this world was created for human beings to co-labor with God and take back what was stolen, but we believe we can’t do it so we chain ourselves right back up again.  Can you see this??  Do we really believe what we say we believe??  NO, we don’t and that is why people stand around asking questions and moaning and complaining instead of delivering the Answer.  That’s why we stand around wondering about all the problems and we don’t deliver the Answer.  It’s time to believe and exercise real faith.  It’s time to simply sit at His feet and release these sighs, and then let Him release those awesome words that He sends to heal us, free us, and empower us.  I am sick of powerlessness.  The greatest power in the universe, and the greatest reality is Love.  It is time to release that.  I’m not kidding.  It is time RIGHT NOW to release it.

Pierced

I see the shafts of light
Piercing the darkness through
The dragon’s head is severed
And light keeps shining through
I see the ocean coming
In a never ending wave
I see the blue skies see it all
And it’s beauty I start to crave
These shafts of light are piercing
Even into me
But darkness now has been destroyed
And I have been set free
The cloud of glory is coming
To rest on this hardened earth
The light, the wind, the water
Will bring it into a glorious birth

And we will know Him in all His glory and wonder

K. Duane Carter 6-22-09

Cage of Lights

Cage of Lights

I am sitting in a cage of lights
Yet pretending I am unseen
Looking out at those looking in
And wondering what it means
I sit here in my sleeping dreams
Releasing all of my doubt
I wonder when the Sun will rise
And cast the darkness out
I am sitting in the silent noise
That speaks but doesn’t say
I am wandering as a little boy
Just wondering how to pray
I live in a land of wonder here
And when I open up my eyes
I hear the sunlight coming through
My heart is mesmerized

I am free


K. Duane Carter

3-16-09

The Cascade

The Cascade

you don’t have to tell water to flow
it just does
you don’t have to tell the waterfall to be beautiful
it just is
you don’t have to instruct the trees to praise
they simply do so with no striving at all

you don’t have to tell me to dwell with God
I just do

you don’t have to tell me to be His son
I just am

you don’t have to teach me what to do to please Him
I simply do so

I simply do so by being what He has made me to be
Just like the water
Just like the waterfall
Just like the tree
Just be

K. Duane Carter
12-27-08

Tethered

Tethered

I am here at this place
A place where I feel tethered down
Yet resting in the waters
I have risen above the waters to see Your glory
And though it is so bright no man can look upon it
Yet I rest in the peace of this water
Knowing my chains are loosed
Knowing I am not tethered anymore
Awaiting my moment to fly over those mountains
That were always so large and daunting before
Yet now they are only beautiful things
That I will be able to fly over
To get to that place that is closer to Your brilliance,
Your majesty and Your power
I am here at this place
A place where even though I feel tethered down
The Truth is right there before me
And I choose to believe Him
Over what I feel

kdc 9-14-08