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THE ALCHEMIST

 

THE ALCHEMIST

  

I feel like an alchemist
In a brutal sultan’s hideaway
Not turning water to wine
Or metals to gold
But sadness to joy
Fear to hope.  

  

Create not a fantasy
But a reality of optimism
Vision of harmony
As gentle rain, fragrant breeze
Oceans teaming with time
Deep rooted, enduring and firm.   

  

Dancers under olive trees
Branches emanating melody
Evocative, suggestive, and declaring
To cheer away the misery
Free the freed and
Liberate that which is not.

  

                                                   Reza Ghadimi

MEMORIAL DAY

MEMORIAL DAY 

5/26/2025 


 

The following is an excerpt of the page on Memorial Day, from my book: Practicing From the Heart in the Age of Technology. Perhaps we should make this, a day to remember the victims of broken societies as well.
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Memorial Day is when we remember  those who gave their lives to defend our country.  It is noteworthy that  a year after the end of the Civil War, in April 1866, four women of  Columbus, Mississippi gathered together to decorate the graves of the  Confederate soldiers buried in their town. They also felt moved to honor  the Union soldiers buried there and to note the grief of their families  by decorating their graves as well. The story of their gesture of humanity and reconciliation is now told and retold in Mississippi as  being the occasion of the original Memorial Day.
 

Another heart-warming Memorial Day  story is that of the Vietnam Veterans Peace and Brotherhood Chapel in  the mountains north of Angel Fire, New Mexico.
Following the death of their son, U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant  Victor David Westphall III, Jeanne and Dr. Victor Westphall decided to  build a memorial in his honor and the fifteen men that died with him  near Con Thien, South Vietnam on May 22, 1968, and the Vietnam Veterans  Peace and Brotherhood Chapel in Angel Fire, New Mexico was erected. The  Chapel was dedicated on May 22, 1971, the 3rd anniversary of the death  of their son. It was the first major memorial created to honor the  veterans of the Vietnam War and inspired the establishment of the  Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which was completed ten  years later in 1982.
 

In circa 1982, a group of veterans  and motorcycle enthusiasts made a pilgrimage to the site to honor their fallen comrades and to visit the one of a kind memorial. Somehow the  word got out in that era of no internet and many more made the trip the next year and every year since, so that last year's (2024) Memorial Day event attracted ~40,000 to  Angel Fire, New Mexico.
 

We salute all veterans everywhere who honor us with their devotion, patriotism and sacrifice. 


                                                                                    Reza Ghadimi (USAF 1967-1971 Veteran)

SPRING TEASE

        

   Spring,
   she is a teaser!
   With her tormenting winds, she plays with man and nature alike.
   Showing a cleavage of summer and uplifted windblown skirt, she
   excites and arouses the world with fantasies of
   pleasure of the months yet to come. 

     

    Winter hangs on to her flowing skirt as she flirts with the     sun and sky.
   Every peek of the sun brings a warmth to the coldness of plant and animal     alike.
   And with every rise in temperature, blades of grass peek through the
   snow and buds open on the trees as they dance back and forth
   to the tempo of the wind. 

     

    After every use, I clean the fire stove in anticipation of the     coming
   warm days only having to run back into the forest in search of scraps
   of wood to make one more fire, and watch her giggle and tease by
   blowing snowflakes into my face. 

     

    It is May and there is ice on the pond. The lilacs spread     their aroma through
   the snow, and apple blossoms shiver and smile with every blow of the wind.
   I too, play hide and seek with my winter and summer clothes as I wait
   for her to stop her teasing games, and in anticipation of the coming
   summer, I open the windows a tad more. 

     

                                                    Reza Ghadimi

THE SUMMER AFTER MED SCHOOL

I head out west

Needing to get far away from 

Smugness of NY and its people.

My VW bus packed with

Everything I owned

And mostly didn’t need

I drove on, till I crossed the border

Into Colorado. The WELCOME TO …

Sign felt especially heartwarming.

Boulder was as I remembered 

Quaint and comforting

I rented an apartment on Walnut St.

On the way back from dinner that first night

I bought some books

Back in the room, the books looked menacing 

As the walls closed in 

Reminding me of toil of the past months

Reading, memorizing, testing

Over and over again.

A crack of thunder over the Rockies

Called my attention.

As I watched the sunlight fade

And the shadow of the mountains

Fall over me, I realized why I was there.

I dug through boxes and extracted

What camping gear I still had.

The next day, I spent shopping for what I didn’t.

Morning next, geo maps in hand

I head for the Continental Divide.

The first night under the starry skies

Overwhelmed by the surrounding nature

I lay awake till Cygnus flew behind the

Western hills and call of an owl and rustle 

Of a marmot finally put me to sleep.

Most of that summer, I spent

Hiking the trails from Mount Blanca

To Arapaho Forest, as I recharged

The wild desert in me.

The cold winds of fall arrive early

In the Rockies and I had a stack

Of job offers to consider.

Reluctantly, I left the rivers and 

Mountain critters to consider the future

The West has been home ever since.

School years are but a memory now

Though writing this note takes me back

Regretting not the gone times

But wondering how I survived 

Living with those who know this not.


                            Reza Ghadimi

OF BODY AND SOUL

When I was a little boy

I had a globe for a toy

I wanted to fly to the moon

Cross the scary and dangerous wood.


As a teenager I wanted the world

Climb the mountains, for I was bold

Sailed the oceans till I discovered

Mysterious Islands, with magical things to uncover.


As a young man I was a patriot

Cared for country, flag and compatriots

Protect the motherland and fight

For the freedom that I was taught.


Later when I had my kids

Their protection was what I cherished

I taught them all that I knew

Bought them everything anew.


As a medicine man, I cared for all

Never mind color, tongue or national

I even went to mountains too

Jungle, war, and Sahara to cure.


Now in my olden days

Thinking back to my Gone Days

I am content to have done some good

Writing about it brightens my mood.


For life is too short to think too hard

On politics, views, or issues too brutal.

I want to enjoy the birds and the bees

Flowers, ocean, simple meals and a beer. 

I will pray to gods and powers to be

To give our leaders some sanity.

IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?


                                     Reza Ghadimi  

Practicing From the Heart

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