<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Ed ~~~~~~ You are so right on about Riantee’s poetry ~~~~~~ Glad you have started a file ~~~~ <div><br></div><div>What most people do not know is that she is an amazing sketch artist as well ~~~~ I’ve got that file~!! </div><div><br></div><div>w/Love, ~Ron <br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On 15 Mar 2024, at 5:19 p.m., Ed Balldinger via Thespiritexpress <thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font size="4">This poem beams with an easily accessible holiness lifting me into reflective measures of transcendental pause - that moment when spirit embraces placement with ease. Thank you for the wonderful gift of wordsmithing you so freely share with us, Riantee. I personally love chasing <i>"guilt"</i> away where love restores all that seems to be misaligned at times. </font><span style="font-size:large">My Riantee Poetry File is expanding. </span><span style="font-size:large">I treasure your poems. Thank you! </span></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">I'm ready for the light to shine...</font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">~ Ed </font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="4"><br></font></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Mar 14, 2024 at 8:52 PM Riantee Rand via Thespiritexpress <<a href="mailto:thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org">thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>Poem read on Tuesday<div><br><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:12pt"> An Explosion of
Light</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:12pt"> </span><br><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn","serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span> </span></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Tms Rmn", serif;"><font><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:12pt">He remembers an
explosion, was it in Brugge or Brussels?</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:12pt"> </span></font></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>Which museum was he
visiting at the time <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font><span> </span>––there were so many!<span>
</span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>Perhaps it happened
while quietly envisioning a Flemish painting.<span>
</span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>The borrowed light from
ages ago still burned on that day <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>as if coming from a star
long extinct.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>It triggered something
inside him, opened a door <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>and he was invited to
step in.<span></span></font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn","serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span><font> </font></span></span></p><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>He stood in the middle
of a gilded square, in bright light, <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>watching water washing
over the cobblestones.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>The cymbals of sun swirling
in the gutter stunned him;<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>he was struck with a
pointillistic vision.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>Did he lose something,
did he gain?<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>All he knew was that for
an instant the world fell silent <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>and some incandescence
made its way inside of him. <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>It hasn't left him
since.<span></span></font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn","serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span><font> </font></span></span></p><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>It happened in the midst
of an otherwise ordinary scene.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>An crystalline sphere
broke through his ribcage from within,<span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>shot up like a rocket
and disappeared into the atmosphere.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>He felt a lightness he
had never known before <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>as if a dark and dense
being had left him.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>All at once he had no
limits.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>"It was like I had
shed my humanskin," he told his friends later,<span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>"and transmuted
into this all-encompassing being."<span></span></font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn","serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span><font> </font></span></span></p><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>He could look inside as
if he were made of glass.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>Something had been
dislodged there, chased out forever.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>He called it guilt <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font><span> </span>––such is the human language <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>and he saw that someone
had taken up lodging <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>in the empty space, <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font><span> </span>a woman.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>He called her love.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn","serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span><font> </font></span></span></p><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>He has never been alone
since.<span> </span><span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>When he meets
loneliness, <span></span></font></span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>he calls it truth.<span></span></font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn","serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><span><font> </font></span></span></p><div style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Tms Rmn",serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font>He remembers an
explosion.<span> </span>Was it in Brugge or
Brussels?..<span></span></font></span></div>
</div>
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