About B Gourley

Bernie Gourley is a writer living in Bangalore, India. His poetry collection, Poems of the Introverted Yogi is now available on Amazon. He teaches yoga, with a specialization in pranayama, and holds a RYT500 certification. For most of his adult life, he practiced martial arts, including: Kobudo, Muay Thai, Kalaripayattu, and Taiji. He is a world traveler, having visited more than 40 countries around the globe.

DAILY PHOTO: Rocky Tops, GHNP

Posted on September 16, 2019 by B Gourley

Taken in June of 2015 in Great Himalayan National Park

POEM: Counting Mysteries

Posted on September 15, 2019 by B Gourley

The boy sat upon temple steps counting mysteries,
but he lost count upon discovering that one mystery is all mystery,
and all mysteries are but one mystery.

They are the word on the tip of one’s tongue.
They are the dream unremembered that leaves a flavor in one’s brain.
They are movement glanced out the corner of an eye,
vanishing when one focuses one’s mind or eye upon it.
They are the unknown, but vaguely felt.
They are an itch amid thoughts, offering nothing to scratch.

POEM: Ubiquitous Jangle

Posted on September 15, 2019 by B Gourley

faintly jingling anklet bells
jarred by lightly padding feet

accompanied by the jangle
of arms bejeweled in bangles

can’t silence be trusted?
each movement must be accounted for?

bells are put on cats to track their mischief
bells are strapped to livestock
so shepherds can track rogues & runaways down the valley

but why bedeck oneself in bells?

is silence more dread than sound?

silence is stillness is potential energy winding tighter
perhaps lost potential is a sacred tragedy,

begging one question:
while squirrel away nuts never to be consumed?

POEM: Schism

Posted on September 15, 2019 by B Gourley

A schism ripped inside my mind.

You could picture a tear in a piece of paper.
But, that would be a lie.

The message on either side of torn paper can be reconciled.
Two halves of a page = one message —
disrupted but not beyond restoration.

When the tear is in the mind,
the further down the page one reads,
the more disjointed the message becomes,
until transformation becomes inversion,
and what one side of the page says is opposite the other.

“You must be reasonable!”

“Reason be damned!”

“It will be your down fall!”

“I have no further left to fall!”