“I’ve still got a twinkle in me”. – Robert Plant
The spitting old man, just spit some more, sitting near the highway, someone you cannot ignore. His clothes they looked spun from an old weave, the kind done by hand, by a spell, you cannot see. And, everything about him was hard to judge, was he from the past or the future up above. The wrinkles in his face drew a roadway in my brain. A whispered little prayer about something strange. Oh boy, brother, here on thirty-four, on my way to Estes, I have seen you before. For some strange reason Robert Plant’s voice just darkened my door. I hear “Bob” say, “I’ve still got a twinkle” in me today, yes sir that is what I say, right now, my reflection is causing my energy to drain.
The spitting old man, just spit some more, he talks just a little than he talks a little more. The Colorado Cherry Company just lent me their porch, there is a change in his face as a shadow darkens the near door. “You look surprised to see me here”; he says looking up as the shadow draws near. The bones of my future or may be my past look to teach me something, as the shadow disappears it was not meant to last. “I am sent by something”, says the spitting old man, “that walks in beauty, and it sends you a test”. “It asks for self-evaluation, says the mean won’t do, the law of common averages are not for you”. “The “Ancient of Days“, wants to let you judge, if your life is beneficial, before the daemon comes and say’s, you don’t know much”.
The spitting old man, just spit some more, he suddenly stands up his eyes flashing neon, like the sign in the store. He says, “I’ve seen you before”! I know it then, suddenly, as the Big Thompson Canyon starts to roar. I have looked into myself, and seen an elaborate sin. Seen my life growing colder, a lack of excitement within. No longer delving into the mystery of the child in me, to snatch appreciation and turn it to belief. I have strayed a little longer through the web of din, wrapped my arms into the clasp of where pain comes in. Stared a little bit too long into mediocrity, wrote the poem of a blind man that claimed oh woe is me.
The spitting old man, just spit once more, then he began to back away, until he shimmered in the door. He said, “Don’t get me wrong I’m leaving you alone, but I hope you set me free, let me be, one and done”. “For first he built the temple built it right inside of you, and now he builds the walls up higher to protect what’s true. “For I don’t really care, if I ever see you again, for if I ever do I’ll be trapped till the end”.
I looked up all around me standing outside that canyon store, at the mighty rock formations where an eagle goes to soar. And behind me flowed a river carving structure through the land, and I thought myself most fortunate to have seen the spitting old, old man! – 11.19.2017 – דָּנִיֵּאל
King of the mystic story tellers you are, each with a ghostly spin, and I might add a deeper lesson. Fabulous as always Daniel!
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Thank you Stafford, you humble me, I am so fortunate to have people that like to read what I ramble on about. You bless me sir!
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The fortune is usually mine in reading the product you submit, none the less you are welcome Daniel.
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Great characters Daniel, and well put together. It’s a meaningful event to see oneself. 🙂
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Hi Raquel, it is a a special thing I think, when one is able to see ones-self no matter what the way is that one see’s one self. Thank you for a wonderful comment. 🙂
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Your welcome, I agree with you. I think most people are afraid of what they might see unfortunately.
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You are right Raquel, most people have a very dim view of themselves so they avoid mirrors at least spiritually.
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It’s true, that’s the reason the world of make believe is so popular. Most people are fairly shallow. Sometimes me included. 😦
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Lovely prose, with a wonderful deeper meaning, my favorite line, “For first he built the temple built it right inside of you, and now he builds the walls up higher to protect what’s true. ” Well done!
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Thank you Ruthann, i was reading in the Zohar the other day and that line just jumped out at me. I couldn’t forget it. I have been mediating on it ever since.
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Your welcome, I have wanted to read The Zohar for sometime, and have never gotten to it. You mentioning it might be the spark I need!
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It’s a great story Daniel, hymned to perfection and versed with both hidden and extroverted meanings. A new favorite for me. ❤
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Hi Albina, thank you for your kind comment. I like that term you used, “hymned to perfection”. May be you will allow me to use it sometime? 🙂
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Feel free to use it anytime, I would be honored. 🙂
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I spent a good deal of time this morning reading and re-reading this wonderful verse you have penned Daniel. I took much of it to heart, encouraged thinking of this day is a good day to let the inner man live, as if it were “the first day of the rest of my life”, so as to speak. I told you but just a sonnet back, that you were destined, and upon reading this, I know my prediction is true. Well done, Daniel, let those walls be ever higher, your temple is done! Bill
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As always my dear friend, I am honored when you write to me. Your comments fill me with confidence that what I write has some virtue in it. If my destiny through this forum has brought me to me wonderful souls such as yourself. it is enough.
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Thank you Daniel, I feel the same. I believe I have told you before, I print your writings off, and often read them, especially those of a spiritual nature. Destiny is of a great value to one as they grow older.
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A wonderful piece of prose Daniel, written as only a Bard such as yourself can do. ❤
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Thank you Charlie, for the life of me I didn’t know what a Bard was until a couple of years ago when another dear blogger in this forum introduced me to the it. Thank you for giving me the title again, i wear it with pride. 🙂
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I am a first time commenter to your blog. I greatly admire your writing, and find myself coming back many times to read and re-read much of what you have written. Each piece seems to bear meanings of a spiritual depth, that I find intriguing, and wish to learn more about. I look forward to continuing to read your work.
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Welcome to my blog Jen, and thank you for such a wonderful compliment. I look forward to conversing with you in the future. 🙂
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Thank you for such a warm welcome. You do have a wonderful way of writing. I have been perusing through much of your prose going back to 2014. it is all wonderfully crafted.
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The visuals are wonderful Daniel, the backdrop perfect, and the story in rhyme and prose gripping with a wonderful meaning. I loved each word. ❤
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Hi Natalie, thank you so much, I really appreciate you reading and your kind compliment. Most of all I am happy you liked this piece.
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Your welcome, it is one of your best…so far! 😉
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Daniel, the “Robert Plant” quote “I’ve still got a twinkle in me”, never fit anyone better than it does you. I find personally that twinkle available in all you write, no matter what the subject matter is. This piece was wonderful, and I found the inner meaning helpful to my own life as well. Thank you.
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Dear Abigail, I have received a few compliments on this blog, but perhaps none as sweet as that. i loved the quote and of course I am a great Robert Plant fan. 🙂 Thank you.
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Your welcome, it’s true everything you write even your pieces of despair, feel a twinkle in there somewhere. It’s life I suppose, and perhaps great humor. 😉
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Once again my brother you have written a piece that grips my heart and I can apply to my own life. Your mixing of story and spiritual dialogue is uncanny. I recently have been immersed in “The Returning Dove”, From the teachings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai;, which teaches to the exact lesson you have learned from the doppelganger in your own experience. Your temple is ready my friend, for the great wall which Hashem will build with you. Blessing on you my talented brother. Shalom, Den
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Hi my brother, thank you as always for lifting me up, also thanks for telling me about “The Returning Dove”, I shall look for it. The idea of the temple being built first and then the wall is something that just came to me as I was reading the Zohar the other night. Funny growing up steeped in at the time Old Testament stories I always understood the temple was built first but I never thought about it in a personal way. i do so very much now. Shalom, Daniel
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Well put Daniel. This process of returning to our natural and spiritual home, is a very personal one. Often our own holy of holies have been desolated and torn asunder, and we have to rebuild anew starting with the temple. Your writing over the past year as well as personal events in my own life has led me to believe this is what is happening to both you and I, and I would dare say many others whom you influence with your reach. It is a great thing brother. Shalom Den
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This is a tribute to faith Daniel, each word is packed beyond a story with spirituality, that I am somewhat envious and desirous of. It flows from your last post having to do with your son, and continues a charge that I doubt can be stopped. Well written my friend. 🙂
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Hi Ryan, no need to be envious I gather my strength from you. 😉 Thank you for pointing out however the flow from the last post to this one, I really hadn’t thought about that. See I told you, you teach me. 🙂 Thank you my friend.
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Your welcome my friend, I notice a connector between many of your post. I spend time looking for them! 😉
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The story teller and the mystic our combined so well in this piece Daniel. I truly enjoyed it. ❤
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Hi Jamie, thank you do much for your kind compliment. I am humbled by it. 🙂
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Once again you have spun a marvelous story Daniel. The spiritual depth as deep and well meaning as always. I enjoyed this very much.
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Thank you Lynette, I thank you for saying that. I usually don’t see myself as weaving great spiritual missives but depth I will take. 😉
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Well done Daniel, as you always do so well, in placing and linking local landmarks to the great beyond, and your own heart. A fantastic mixture, that many of us aspiring writers are envious of. I enjoyed you meeting your doppelganger very much and learned from it.
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No need to be envious Carmel, I have read your work, and mine pales in comparison. I love to take the local landmarks and find some experience to mix with them. Thank you as always for reading and commenting.
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I remember driving up Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park back in the summer of 2007, a magnificent canyon. Your writing of a personal event there, is maginificient, and having experienced the surroundings, it makes it all the more real to me. Well done!
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Hi Alex, it is truly a magnificent drive. It is closed presently for the second year in a row as the Colorado Department of Transportation mends the canyon road destroyed by the October 2013 floods. Thank you for your comment, and as always I appreciate your continued reading.
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This is another piece you have written, that I find so much in each sentence to think about. Once upon a time I too met my doppelganger, and I was not as enthralled, perhaps I should go back and rethink that event again. 😉 ❤
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Hi Summer, thank you for your comment. You should look up your doppelganger, if only from memory, I would imagine something wonderful was there for you. 🙂
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You might think I’m being naive here, but I wonder where one goes to find one’s doppelganger? Is it a happenstance or a planned opportunity? A ghostly apparition, or real life flesh and bone? So many questions I have Daniel.
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The following is me, “I have looked into myself, and seen an elaborate sin. Seen my life growing colder, a lack of excitement within. No longer delving into the mystery of the child in me, to snatch appreciation and turn it to belief. I have strayed a little longer through the web of din, wrapped my arms into the clasp of where pain comes in. Stared a little bit too long into mediocrity, wrote the poem of a blind man that claimed oh woe is me.” Thank you for waking me up. Loved this! ❤
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Wow, thank you Tatiana, for such a wonderful compliment, there is nothing that makes me feel better than to read what you just wrote. Thanks again.
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Your welcome Daniel, and anytime! ❤
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As always, you have put a mysterious form of words together and they speak to my subconscious or spirit or maybe both. 🙂 Anyway I loved this.
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Hi Elizabeth, thank you, I am so happy you liked this, and I am happier yet that it spoke to you on various levels. What a wonderful thing to say.
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Your welcome 🙂
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Daniel, I hope you never run out of ideas for writing, because I am become so accustomed on a weekly basis to reading your material. The subject matter you choose never fails to amaze m, and I might add interest me. I loved this piece as I love them all. So fair warning if you ever decide to stop I will not be too happy about it! ❤ Ruby
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Hi dear Ruby, no I won’t ever run out of ideas on things to write, I am crazy you see. 😉 I am so happy my friend that you enjoyed this piece, and no I won’t be stopping anytime soon. Thank you for always reading and commenting. Daniel
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Daniel, I will write anything to get you to call me dear. 😉 All joking aside, it does not surprise me that you would have endless ideas to write about. I am a big Stephen King fan, and I often think the man is limitless when it comes to ideas. I see you much the same way.. So what’s next? 😉 ❤
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We will see, something up may be towards the weekend. 😉
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GOOD! 🙂
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An excellent fare for the hungry Daniel. I believe they get better as you go along, with this one being a favorite for me to this point. 😉
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Hi King, so glad to heat from you. Thank you for your comment. I am happy this is a favorite, and happier that it filled you up! 😉
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A lovely piece Daniel, telling a story that has deep and meaningful meanings. I always wondered what it would be like to meet my reflection, its bad enough there’s one of me around. 🙂
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Thank you Lauren for your comment. I would imagine you would learn many things from your reflection, and the first thing it would teach you is it’s a wonderful thing that you are in this world. 🙂
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Thank you Daniel. The hardest critic I have is myself, so I appreciate what you said. Being content with one’s reflection is what I constantly strive for. I am not sure what my doppelganger would say to me, and maybe that is my fear.
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Well put together deep prose Daniel, always consistent, and always worth reading. Thank you for another great piece.
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Hi Wang, as always you give me more credit than I deserve, but I do appreciate you reading and always commenting my friend. 🙂
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All credit is due my friend, humble only gets you so far with me. 😉 It is always my pleasure to read and comment on your writing.
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Beautifully written Daniel! ❤
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Thank you Ariel, I am so happy you liked it. 🙂
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You always present an interesting story filled with metaphors for life in the spirit. I got so much out of this as I always do when I read your prose. Thank you. Great story! ❤ ❤ ❤
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Hi Kat, it is comments such as yours that both humble me, but also make me grateful for the great community that reads my writing, and for wonderful people such as yourself that gain from it. Thank you.
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Great work on this one Daniel, for once the shadows falling outwards, and a way back into the world, shedding old reflections aside. Well written with a fantastic accompanying song.
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Hi Steve, great way of looking at this piece, and I thank you very much for that. I love the concept of shadows falling outwards and with your permission would like to use that if I might. 😉 i too love the David Cook song.
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Use at will Daniel, to me the idea of shadows falling outwards has an appeal to it, letting go I suppose. This was a great piece you did here. Happy Thanksgiving on your side of the pond.
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Hi Daniel, this is another lovely in-depth piece, that probes the soul, and makes one want to look at their own reflection and determine where they are at in their point of life. This was lovely. Shalom, Erin
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Thank you Erin. I am happy that the piece made you think in a reflective way. Each point in life for me has been different and each reflection at that point, is like tossing a coin in the air. 😉 Your comment was wonderful. Shalom, Daniel
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Hi Daniel, I often find reflections on life changing from day to day. It is difficult at times to look at each obstacle or happiness the same, for each requires a different presence of the real me. I believe we are on the same wave length. Shalom, Erin
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Quick, someone get that Old Man a spittoon! He’s going to wreck the porch, and there may be Whitby Ladies crossing it one day.
The past is made present in this prose, and the present must bow its head, with respect. Soon the present will be the past, and therein lies the mettle of the life you are living, Daniel. Me too, but it’s too, soon to know what I will come to.
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One time I tried something called old mule chewing tobacco. Just once mind you. I was so sick after that experiment into the world of chew. Speaking of the present I owe you an email on the Whitby Lady gown with Susan’s input and also I have another Whitby Lady story in the works, for the holidays. 😎
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Sounds good! I’ll send you an email to Susan first about questions I have for Susan. These will be largely technical.
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Okay got it. 😎
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