Star Autumn Twilight: Meditations on the Life of the Spirit

By Todd Erick Pedersen

“As a psalm written to the heart of the Spirit, in which the silver veins of dreams, return to dwell in the turning seasons of the year, and to reveal again that what matters the most, in our search for the soul, are not only the invisible patterns of grace and the promises they portend, but at last the unforgettable ways, in which they mature into what is real, drench with their light the weft of our world, and thus lend their life to the one heart that breathes inside us all.”

Poetry for contemplation, Star Autumn Twilight will sneak up on the consciousness of the reader only to evoke, in the end, an authentic sense of ineffable peace, holy wonder and sublime hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jun 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781982271282

Todd Erick Pedersen

Todd Erick Pedersen is a poet-essayist and novelist whose writing strives to evoke the cross-section between our dreams and the spirit, with a natural sense of wonder and the turning seasons of the Earth. Thus, his poems, his essays, and his stories are an invitation to any reader to explore this timeless terrain for oneself. His home is in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley, in Stevensville, Montana.

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 Todd Erick Pedersen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

without the written permission of the author except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

844-682-1282

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use

of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical

problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The

intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help

you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use

any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional

right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are

models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7124-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-7128-2 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 06/30/2021

Contents

New Life

The River

One Love

The New Art of Dreams

The Hidden Flame

Canticle

This Divine Realm

Green and White and Blue and Gold

The Weal of the Heart

Beneath a Still December Moon

I Speak of the Subtle Stars

The Spiral Arms

The Artist

Autumn Twilight

A Mystic Simple Touch

To Each Thing a Season

The Gift of Life

As Stardust on Redwood

Apparitions of Grace

The Value of What I Do

Our Own Wide Wings

The Flame of the Runes

Star-Plights and Rhyme

The Deeper Rings of Grace

Essence of Gold

The Unfolding of a Rose

Beauty, Wisdom and Power

Autumn Snows

The Sacred Mill

The World Is A Temple

The Heeded Heart

The Psalm of the Poet

The Easy Rise of the Sun

The Quiet Psalm

Poetry and Mysticism; or, The Wisdom of the Soul

Tree of Life

Phoenix

Of Grace and Of Simplicity

Winter

Spiritual Formations

The White Silent Fuse

Autumn Leaves

The Silver Veins of Dreams

The Tempests and the Idylls

Like Gold or Silver

The Silver Bird

The Forge and the Crucible

The Heart of the Prophet

As Ever Alone in the Fall

Whether Young or Old

The Divine Beloved

With Soft Eyes

Metamorphoses

An Old Remembered Friend

The Forgotten Grain

The Quiet Lamp

Who Once Having Looked

Nameless Something

The Art of Revelation

Careful Lines

Turning Beneath the Sea

The Wisdom of Allowing

Only By Fire

Breaking Waves

To Sit Quiet and Breathe

This Wide Holy Realm

For God So Loved the World

The Shade of the Summer Twilight

White Cloud, Blue Mountain

This World

The Dying Star

The Form of the Divine

Where Is Today Your Home

Salvation

Cloudlets of Passing Rain

No Trail Through the Woods

Approach Quietly the Threshold

Chrysalis

Love’s Presence

The Archetypal Conversation

Some Vestiges of the New Life, A Retrospective

Trailblazer

The Road

Deep Night, Lonesome Bird

The Dreamcatcher

A Blue Dream

Snow on the Ponderosa Pines

The OmniSoul; or, Stars in the Blood

The Stars In the Fall

The Spirit

A Deeper Bow

Unicorn

A House Beneath the Stars

The Star in Your Heart

27506.png

New Life

The still resounding bloom of New Life, trembles in the deep green pines; sparkles its sublime truth in the blue-silver surface of the high mountain lake; or whispers its irresistible call to the returning soul, like the glimmer of words which form themselves into golden leaves, only to drift down from their boughs in the sweet November rain.

Until one wonders, again at the preciousness of a single poem, as though it were evidence enough in itself, of a new pulse in the blood, or the revival of the heart’s rhythms which will not allow, one to dream anymore of staying sadly in the same ways, nor to miss the meaning, of the turning seasons and the white-flying days.

One does grow from the depths, like an epiphany or even a remembrance. One blinks one’s eyes and looks, seeking again for the on-rushing river of life, which slips away from oneself like the phases of the moon, but which nevertheless runs through time only to enter into the center of the soul, and to enliven the heart with a song.

27506.png

The River

A wide, holy stream silvering along beneath the wind. The subtle psalm of the waters, which possess such a rich speech of their own, and indeed seem to poignantly say, to our attention, and if nothing else, that we are here. And are we to overlook this word? For the river is the source of a timeless wisdom, which represents a final running-together, of all opposites. Because our simple presence, or as if, our mere existence, to which in its timeless turning, the river is a fluid, crystal key, which can then open up to us, the awakened recognition, that yes, our only being here, is a fact altogether irreducible, stark, at once in the plainness of its mystery, and in its ultimate nonduality.

27506.png

One Love

As a psalm written to the heart of the Spirit, in which the silver veins of dreams, return to dwell in the turning seasons of the year, and to reveal again that what matters the most, in our search for the soul, are not only the invisible patterns of grace and the promises they portend, but at