Seven Poems from “many one”

many one is a collection of poetry and quotations penned by Hartford poet brett a. maddux. Read seven poems and four epigrams from the collection below.

this is a shadow universe we see, a reflection in the mirror of another universe
behind it, & that other universe can be reached by an individual directly,
without the help of any priest or service or communion or even knowing
what they are doing. god is as close as the wall beside me; is within
the wall beside me, concealed by it, as though the wall were a paper mask.

‘the workman is invisible within the workshop.’ a sufi saying. the sufis
would point out, too, that you & i – we are portions of the workshop,
not outside of it somewhere, gazing at it from some external point-of-view.
when you ponder this, you begin to understand, & the invisible body of god
begins to grow & to blossom not only around you, but in you.

the exegesis of philip k. dick

him

you might know me, i’m him, you should come check my pen,
it’s been talking to god again, it’s been taking her messages.

you might know me i’m effortless, like a river that flows,
one that’s branching & infinite, one that’s briefly this flesh
& the thing that’s beneath it.

you might know me, i’m dreaming, you should come check my shadow,
it’s been fading & flickering, in between the dimensions.

you might know me i’m energy that’s converted to mass,
that’s translated as narrative, that’s the story i tell that i think is my life.

you might know me, i’m light, you should come check the fields
of which i am composed, where i’m pulsing magnetically,
where i’m plural with everything.

speaking with my ghost

i wrote this one in the present tense though in the future when i read it
this will seem like it’s the past & then that will seem like it’s the present
which is the same time i am writing this, sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.

i wrote this one in a dream, i guess, though it felt just like it was real,
i couldn’t tell you what its meaning is but i can tell you how it feels,
it starts as red then turns to green & in the end it becomes blue
& like the tide it flows between them.

i wrote this while i was living though by the time i actually read it
it might be that i am dead again & living in my next existence
& it will have the strangest resonance, almost like speaking with my ghost.

i wrote this one down in language though when i sing it to my friends
i will translate it into frequency, i will communicate the thing
that i discovered in the Absolute, where lives the source beneath all energy,
where i’m connected with eternity, where there’s no time or space or you or me.

the river & its waves are one; where is the difference between the river & its waves?
when the wave rises, it is water; & when it falls, it is water again.

kabir

no name

phenomenology of spirit if you would like to come & hear it
my soul is taking all requests,
yes i am more than just the story
that my left head tries to tell its self,
yes i am more than just an instance,
yes i am actually the whole.

if i am actually the future tense of a choice i made unconsciously
somewhere deeper than the language is,
somewhere closer to the meaning,
somewhere closer to the spirit,
somewhere underneath of logic,
somewhere nearer intuition.

if you would like to understand it the thing i speak for has no name
though love is close to what they mean by it,
though love is close to what the feeling is,
though love’s the reason you’ve been dreaming this.

her

you might know me, i’m her, you should come hear the word
of the spirit that moves in me & the song that she’s singing,
you know, the one that never ends.

you might know me, i’m presence, you should come check my senses,
all the visions they’re having & the way that they smell
like the fragrance of flowers, like the sweetness of honey.

you might know me, i’m funny, you should come get the joke
i’ve been learning to tell my self & the way that it ends,
first i die & then i live again, first i’m water then i’m mist.

you might know me, i’m bliss, you should come sit in stillness
& learn to blend in with me, i can show you the way
that it flows like a river, that it pulses magnetically.

you might know, i’m infinity, you should come find the source
from which all things first spring & to which they return
& in between are composed of, in between & with no name.

math/myth

i contain both fact & fiction, both subtraction & addition,
i contain both math & myth, a universe though i’m convinced
that i’m just living in this body.

i contain both no & yes, both the cause & the effect,
both electric & magnetic, a constant present though the story
in my head can’t usually notice.

i contain both left & right, both the darkness & the light,
i contain both death & life, the same though it is difficult
to see that there’s no difference.

i contain both ebb & flow, both the river & the ocean,
i contain both rest & motion, a cycle, one that goes
from nothing back to something back to nothing.

a human being is part of a whole, called by us the “universe”. they experience themselves, their thoughts & feelings, as something separated from the rest – a delusion of their brain. this delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires. our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures & the whole of nature.

albert einstein

where the river’s from

if it is only love for everyone, if when at last my life is done
& i return to where the river’s from, to the source from which i come
& find i never really left it, just got distracted from its presence.

if it is only phosphorescence, if i am just absorbing light
& glowing after it extinguishes, if i contain the place within
where matter forms up out of energy one part or particle of god

if it is only grace for everyone, if when at last my race is run
& i become the seed i started from, when i’m replanted in the sun
where god keeps her favorite flowers before my next resurrection.

you

you might know me, i’m you, you should come feel the moon
& the tide that she’s beckoning through the universal womb.

you might know me, i’m movement, you should come find the stillness,
it’s the one that i am born from which allows me to grow.

you might know me, i’m flow, you should come hear the note
that my god’s usually singing, it sounds kind of magnetic.

you might know, i’m prophetic, you should come find the way
through the entrance to heaven, through the gateway to paradise.

you might know me, i’m , you should come to forget
any names that you’ve given me & blend in with the .

always recognize the dreamlike qualities of life & reduce attachments. practice good-heartedness toward all beings. be loving & compassionate, no matter what others do. what they do will not matter when you see it is a dream. the trick is to have positive intention during the dream. this is the essential point. this is true spirituality.

samadhiraja sutra

photo of brett a. maddux by Jeremy Grier

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