Jerusalem – The Church Of All Nations

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A number of people have asked me why, as an antitheist, am I so obsessed with temples, cathedrals and mosques.

That’s simple. I love art, beauty and ancient monuments. The state and religion have had all the money and power. They have set out to prove their dominance, to impress and put us in awe of them.

The palaces, temples, cathedrals, castles, mosques, mansions and abbeys are the places where artists, architects and designers have excelled. The powerful always employ the best.

I can marvel at the beauty and majesty of human creation. It’s spiritual not religious.

As far as I’m concerned religion is about power and causes division and hatred. One of our worst inventions. Yet it has spawned some magnificance.

Poetry – Writing symphonies

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Writing symphonies

I’m writing symphonies to the sun

And dancing to mother moon.

I’m writing odes to rocks and trees

And singing the whales a tune.

I’m laughing with the sun and sea

And gasping at the sky;

With dramatic gestures to chimpanzees

Asking the question why.

My life is spent on a thin crust,

Beneath a cosmic whirl,

Creating poems of endless joy

For every boy and girl.

Opher – 10.4.2020

Nature never ceases to amaze me and fill me with awe.

I love watching wild animals and staring up at skies. I love clouds, mountains, trees and snakes.

Seventy years ago I opened my eyes into a wonderland that we take for granted. It is mysterious and fabulous.

Every aspect is incredible.

I write odes of joy to the wonder that surrounds me.

Poetry – Spirituality Reigns

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Spirituality Reigns

Trees and rocks and rainbows

Within the spiritual arc.

Seas and skies, cosmic glows,

Along with leaves, flowers and bark.

The insects, fish and birds

A tapestry of wonder.

Divine sun, moon and stars

To split the mind asunder.

The beauty of this life

In all its great mysteries.

The mind and consciousness,

Universe of histories.

Five senses to reveal

A majesty in seconds

So time enough to try

As infinity beckons.

Opher – 15.12.2019

We open our eyes into this universe for a brief period in infinity. We close them and we are gone. It ceases to exist.

In the midst of this amazing spiritual adventure, through the might of the cosmos and the spectacle of life, we are fortunate enough to have senses to experience it and a mind to appreciate it.

Infinity is a long time.

Our life is a blink, a brief flicker.

To make the most of those fleeting moments, to understand, to rejoice and to wonder – that is all we can do.

Every second is a mystical joy.

Poetry – Jimi

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Jimi

A sorcerer

Changing a guitar into a bomb,

A machine gun,

A helicopter gunship,

A roaring machine of death

Or a vehicle of love.

Harnessing feedback

Through a tremolo arm,

With an elbow,

The back of a hand,

Teeth and soul.

Creating sounds

That had never been heard;

A tsunami of emotion

And wonder.

A magician

Towering over

The vibe

Of our alternative

Vision.

Opher – 16.8.2019

I was fortunate enough to catch a look at the film of the Woodstock festival recently. It took me back to the ideals of my youth. We were so naive – but brave, so optimistic and full of hope, so earnest and determined.

This is the new world we built.

We fought for freedoms, nature, equality and an end to racism, sexism and elitism with big dollops of love and fun.

It’s a battle that is still going on.

I watched Jimi play, all those years ago, at Woodstock – not long before his death. He brought reality and Vietnam into the fight. War is the result of all that greed and inequality. He conjured up great emotion.

We had the alternative vision and Jimi was our magician.

He worked his magic in our ears and minds and helped open our eyes to what was wrong in society.

Poetry – There Are No Answers

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There Are No Answers

There are no answers

To the heavens,

To life,

To thought.

There are no answers.

There are no answers

To death.

There are no reasons

To be found

For being,

Seeing

Or wondering.

There are no answers.

But there are mighty questions

To be wondered at.

Opher 1.8.2018

To sit among the wonders of infinity and wonder – that is remarkable. I find myself surrounded by questions with no answers in sight.

But it is good to wonder.

Poetry – Mystery to Misery

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Mystery to Misery

Rocks, Stones, Moon and Sea

Mystery, Mystery.

Sun, Lake, Sky and Tree

Mystery, Mystery

Stand the Stone, Eyes that See

Mystery, Mystery.

Locked in Books and Decree

Hypocrisy, Misery.

Opher 13.6.2017

I woke up this morning with this poem in my head. I think it sums up my feelings about spirituality and religion. There is a vibration that runs through the universe. It is something to marvel at. It seems to vibrate through nature. I can become ecstatic at the sight of a rock formation or sunset. I feel the power of the sky and sea. It connects. It is when humans try to give that mystery a name, call it a god and worship it, try to load their psychological needs on to it and lock it in words, holy books and decrees that they reduce it, misrepresent it, and begin to use it for their own power. Spirituality good; religion bad.

The words in those holy books are written by people who seek dominion, ownership and authority over something that cannot be confined, defined or reduced.

We are all part of that mystery. It exists within us and without us – as George so succinctly put. People whose minds are limited by the texts are imprisoned by their own limitations.

Poetry – Miniscule in Reality

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Miniscule in Reality

Glowing dawns and standing stones,

Mystic storms, vibrations in the wind

And majestic trees.

Skies that swirl with stars,

Chasms of glowing rock at sunset

And crashing seas.

There’s a wonder at work –

A celestial spectacle of awe.

There’s a mystery in the mind

That’s knocking at our door.

Standing before the horizon

Outlined against infinity

Feeling large against the sky

But miniscule in reality.

Opher – 1.8.2016

Miniscule in Reality

I am always in awe of nature; there’s a wonder at work. Infinity with its swirling galaxies, spinning atoms and amazing mysteries of consciousness is inspiring, is full of majesty, is uplifting.

There is a harmony in a sunset, rainbow and the glow it produces. There is a spirit in the rocks, trees and seas. To sit beside the crashing waves and feel the breeze in ones face connects us to the universe. To feel the sun upon the face and bask in its benevolent warmth is to feel the congruence.

There is a mystical force that is natural, beyond religion, and integral to that dynamo of nature through which we are all one.

Calm and peaceful, without barriers as the vibration of energy

flows through and on, forever.