Meditations of the Heart: Poems for a Spiritual Journey
By Jack Zaffos
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About this ebook
Th is is an uplifting compilations of poems. Th ese are meditations, statements and chronicles of a spiritual journey. Th is collection is a collection of clear and heartfelt works by the poet with accessible language and relatable themes. It is the poets sincere conviction that spiritual growth and becoming a compassionate human being is a life long process. In the third section , Poems from a Beit Midrash(house of study) , the poet relates this growth process through the lens of the Jewish Spiritual Tradition. Th e themes are universal and are a calling for an increasingly mindful and compassionate world.
Jack Zaffos
Jack Zaffos has been creating poetry since he was18. He is retired from the New York State Office Of Mental Health as a Therapeutic Recreation Specialist and an Intensive Case Manager. He is the author of Songlines In The Wilderness, and Meditations Of The Heart. He has also appeared in various anthologies. He is the Calendar coordinator for a Long Island Poetry Organization called Performance Poets Association. He is affectionately known as The Calendar Guy. He has won awards from the 2018 and 2019 PPA Haiku Contests. Many of his works can be characterized as Contemplative Poetry.
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Meditations of the Heart - Jack Zaffos
After The Rain
by Jack Zaffos
After the rain,
The moment of quiet.
Of expectation.
Grey clouds separate,
Become lighter,
As the deep blue
Is anticipated.
What happens next?
What does this momentary pause
Lead to?
In a distance,
Dry zephyrs
Can be heard rustling
The green leaves.
The white clouds spread out
And the anticipated blue
Is majestically presented.
Dry zephyrs
Rustle the shrubbery.
And now flower-fruit fragrances
Dance in the air.
After the rain,
A new dance emerges,
To soothe an observing soul.
A November Dusk
By Jack Zaffos
The sun goes down,
Blue wispy cloud layer,
Caresses gently
The November night again.
Perhaps this is a night of becoming.
Like bare trees standing,
Waiting for winter’s entry
I await some kind of event.
A Winter Solstice
By Jack Zaffos
Open fields, frosty air;
The cold night.
Under a roof, under a blanket;
Hibernating for a night.
One night’s escape from the tumult.
Wounded and confused but resting, protected.
Nourished by food, Spirit and Love.
The cold darkness bears a light,
Flickering in the quiet chill.
As the darkness blankets the wetlands,
Fields, shores and ocean.
A fresh salmon dinner does wonders
For the battered body, the weary soul.
The Solstice has come upon us,
Resulting in the dark cold night
As tired souls spark again with an Inner Light.
Cloud Trance
By Jack Zaffos
Dark clouds and storms
Pound the soul.
Rain and wind
Blow and bluster,
As I also meet
The blue sky essence
Beyond the blustering noise of chatter.
I sit, breathe, waiting to enter the stillness,
The quiet essence.
The shelter from the frantic storm.
Turbulence blows the driving rain of thoughts
In high charged desperation,
With what if
fantasies worries and frets.
I sit and welcome the stillness
Of the beauty,
Of the peaceful awareness
Calming, receiving in Love.
The clouds break,
The bright blue essence
And the golden light enter through,
Dissipating and calming the storm.
Loud petty tempests yield
To the calm,
To the gentle flows of the breath of peace…Shalom.
Another November Poem
Jack Zaffos
In Silence,
I sit,
The silence needed,
Quiet
Peace
Rejuvenating souls.
There is exquisite beauty
In a gray November Day.
An acquired taste perhaps,
Hearing songs of being
In windswept rustling leaves.
Cycles come and go.
Winds blow
The cold, the gray
The white and the blue.
If we are fortunate,
We can sit with friends,
And sit with Holy Words
And savor hot tea.
December, 1999
By Jack Zaffos 12/12/99
Dancing light.
Vibrant.
Celebration of Blessing.
Washing fountain,
Splashing in Existence.
Vessel of surging Life Force
In rhythm; pulsing,
Dancing in celebration,
Blessed.
Praying electric violins,
Sliding through scales,
Like a laughing child in glee.
Playing, teasing,
Carrying me to joyous places.
Perhaps Holy Places.
Deep Winter
Jack Zaffos
Deep winter begins to
Make its presentation.
Sky blue, clouds of white
Set the stage
As a soul looks on.
Sunlight gently lights the Earth.
At an angle oblique.
Hours later
Darkness will set in.
The cold darkness
That calls for a light.
No deep darkness,
Can extinguish a glowing light.
I have held that faith
From the young days.
It still seems so clear,
Yet this is not faith but fact,
That has connected