Wounded Bud: Poems for Meditation

by Alfred K. Lamotte

Wounded Bud - Poems for Meditation by Alfred K. LaMotte The poet Shelley "Every original language near to its source is the chaos of a cyclic poem... A poet participates in the eternal, the infinite, and the one." Ancient cultures recognized that the mystery of creation is the mystery of "original language." So John's Gospel declares, "In the beginning was the Word." And India's Mandukya Upanishad says, "All that ever was, is, or will be is created through the syllable Om." The poems in this volume reflect this ancient science of mantra. "Man" is the Sanskrit root of the English "mind" and "tra" of our suffix "tron," meaning vehicle. A mantra is a vehicle to carry the mind back to the source of creation, divine silence. Here in the heart, love awakens. Fred LaMotte conceives language in this ancient tradition, where poetry is a means of taking us home, taking us Om. Many of these poems also reflect the tradition of the mystical marriage. Poets of Eastern and Western religions understood the intimate play of soul and spirit as the whisperings of Lover and Beloved. They created a common poetic iconography, a love-language both sensuous and mystical, which we find in Sufi poets like Hafiz, Hindu poets like Mirabai, the Biblical Song of Songs, the Medieval troubadours, and the parables of Jesus. Mystical poetry can dis- solve religious conflict. Fred LaMotte offers us a revival of atavistic poetry as meditation, poetry as devotion, or Bhakti, poetry as love-song in the Bridal Chamber of the heart. "In the lover's heart is a lute which plays the melody of longing." Rumi

Genres: Poetry

134 pages, Hardcover

First published November 8, 2013

Reviews

[Aile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's what I said on the jacket of the book:

"Fred LaMotte's poems are passionate and rich, yet unusually spare, sewn together with fine mystical thread into beautiful creatures that breathe and live inside us long after we have met them. Reading his poetry is like drowning in nectar and seeing through liquid gold: we are immersed in the sweet taste of Truth."

I use Fred's poems as gifts... and for writing prompts for my creative writing students. No one's poetry has moved me as Fred's has, since perhaps Rumi and Hafez were translated for the West. If you love the mystics, you will absolutely adore these timeless, yet contemporary, verses of his.

One brief favorite from this collection is "Learn":

To lift one heart uplifts the world:
this is the law within the law.
Therefor learn from the warbler at dawn,
from a pine in the evening breeze,

learn from the clear blue sky,
in whose emptiness the heart

of God dissolves,
how to bow and sing for no reason.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Wounded Bud didn't strike me in quite the same way as Savor Eternity (and that likely has as much to do with me as it does with the material) it was still a beautiful invitation back to a place of quite; creation's silent source. — [2.5]