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Your text is quoted, but no author is given. Is this written by Holger? I find it helpful.

Yes, Jeff Foster from the extreme end of nonduality. The simple question to ask in response to such “teaching” is: if a teacher has no guidance to offer a seeker, if a teacher says that they have no philosophy, no teaching, and that they have no status that is any closer to the goal of self-realization and the elimination of suffering, then what damned good is that teacher? You might as well learn nonduality from a stone or the nonsense coming from your TV. If you follow such an admittedly unqualified teacher, then you are destined for frustration as your goal. You are wasting your time here in the waking state.

The wonderful thing about the teachers who actually teach, and are actually qualified to be teachers, at the other extreme of nonduality, is that you can learn from them and be more likely to achieve self-realization, and with it peace and happiness.

Do you want to lull your mind with extreme intellectual dogma, or do you want to transform your life based on actual experience? That is the important decision facing all of us on this path.

The above is just my opinion. I am not a qualified teacher.

Dear Bill, I love reading your writings. The movement of your lovely horses is wonderful .. and your simplicity shows through in your expression of words and artwork.
Love Sylvie 💞

We are looking forward to seeing you!

Thanks for the close reading, Kevin. The sounds, rhythms, structure are just based on what sounds and feels right to me. Of course, I’m analyzing it after the fact, but I’ll point out a few things.
Look at the first 5 lines. Lines 2, 3, 4 and 5 end in similar sounds: waxing, screen, exfoliating, and clean. There’s a “grating” quality and a tightness. Something has to give.
I try to make the structure, sounds and rhythm fit the meaning, although sometimes, they’re meant to startle or trip the reader.
Notice how many plosives, consonants that stop the tongue (p,t,d,k), are in “…spirit jerked/ my night psyche up by the roots.” To me, it feels like you’re grabbing, pulling, with a release.
Most of these choices are made unconsciously when I write, then more consciously when I edit. For me, the main question is, Does it work in the context?
Yes, the format is as written.
Thanks for the questions!

Walter, a beautiful summation.

Thank you!
Focused or undistracted?
Not to split hairs, foolish words; relaxed openness.

I struggled a lot with effort…
not knowing where to rest attention;
believing “me” needs to get somewhere to survive.
I didn’t see that “me” is a mental buildup.

Three legitimate uses of the mind:
Being practical, celebrating, sharing.

No resistance, for no reason, unburdened.
Peace.

Your understanding of nonduality and the role of the ego appears to be deep, yet you display again and again as a believer in odd beliefs that appear each to have many untrue components, heavily believed in to the point of eager and unrelenting defense. What is the ego value of believing firmly in bizarre and untrue concepts? I ask not because I need an answer, but because some introspection may be of help to you. Of course, I have my limitations, too. But I would hope you would take these words as an opportunity to introspect rather than turn it around as an attack on me.

Deep and dark, Bill. But the poem is ultimately about coming into the light, painful as it seems.
Parts of the poem have a syllabic rythm and other parts do not, are more prose like. Is this intentional? Does the change represent a change in emphasis in the narrative? And one more question: does the format of your poem actually appear as Holger has reproduced it?