The Ocean

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

I’m an octopus,

I use my tentacles to sense if everything is ok.

I ramble,

I use words to change the energy between us,

I use words to see if everything is fine.

Is it safe?

I think I can alter the sticky energy you send out, 

by talking,

by saying words,

words that almost make sense.

I ramble,

I talk too fast.

Why?

I thought I was the quiet one.

Words I use to calm the energy around me,

so that I can be at peace.

I’m a bat,

I use sounds to navigate,

is everything ok?

How do you feel?

Are you angry?

Have I done something wrong?

Hardly anyone tells the truth,

so I don’t ask,

because then I have to decipher what the words 

coming out of your mouth really mean. 

When my sounds bounce back,

I can feel if I have managed to smooth the energy, 

smooth it so that I can be at peace,

so that I can be calm.

I feel what everyone is feeling.

I’m a wave in a big ocean.

When the wave close to me gets muddy,

I can feel it.

After all,

we are all the same ocean.

-Nanne Nyander "The Silence of Awareness"

The River of Life

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

Sea of thoughts,

sea of emotions,

ocean of self.

Don’t drown yourself in the sea of oblivion. 

Stay with me,

stay silent,

I’m the river of life.

-Nanne Nyander "The Struggle of Going Nowhere"

Nothing is Holding Together

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

Thoughts moving around in space,

who do they belong to?

Some of them used to be mine,

at least that’s what I thought,

they don’t stay long enough for me to claim them.

One minute they are here, 

the next they’re gone. 

-Nanne Nyander "The Way Back Home"

What am I?


Nothing is holding together anymore. 

Or is nothing holding everything together? 

Am I nothing? 

-Nanne Nyander "The Way Back Home"

The Fire in my Heart

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

War in the mind of the one that is broken, 

broken into tiny pieces.

With the fire in my heart,

I will melt it all together,

and once again, 

we will be one,

one whole,

one.

-Nanne Nyander " The Way Back Home"

-Photo by Nanne Nyander

The Storyteller

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

If I leave everything alone,

will I wake up?

I need to leave that one alone too,

the one who’s leaving everything alone, 

the one who thinks she’s going to wake up. 

How to do that?

It’s all thought, that one does not even exist, 

she’s just a thought.

A very persistent thought.

A thought that has wrapped itself around me, 

suffocating me.

But it’s all a thought.

I’m here,

nothing is suffocating anything.

The storyteller is seen through,

it’s an imposter,

making me believe it’s me.

Me does not exist.

It’s a fascinating story,

hard to let go of,

but it’s still a story,

and so is the one trying to let go.

I can see it, I can feel it.

Why is this not enough?

Why is the illusion still so persistent?

Will I ever wake up?

And, yes,

that one is a thought too.

-Nanne  Nyander "The Silence of Awareness"

Heaven is Near

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

-Photo by Nanne Nyander

Heaven is near, fear no more,

heaven is here, be no more,

lost in thoughts about a better world.

A better world than what’s lurking

in the mind of the seeker.

Heaven is always here,

inside and outside as this nothingness 

we all belong to, we all is.

Nothing is heaven and heaven is nothing

and everything.

Hell is the entrapment of mind,

entangled in thoughts about a better world, 

thoughts about heaven.

Heaven is here.

I’m here,

and so are you,

my beloved angel.

-Nanne Nyander "The Silence of Awareness"

The Dragon

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

-Photo by Nanne Nyander

Far, far away, in an empty castle,
a dragon has been slumbering quietly
for many long years.
Then suddenly something slowly woke it up. 

Now it’s consuming everything I have built up, 

my sandcastle has turned into ruins.
It keeps destroying everything I thought was me. 

Till I suddenly one day realise,
I am the dragon. 

-Nanne Nyander 

from the book "The Silence of Awareness"

Invisible me

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

What would happen to the sky 

if the sky thought it was a cloud?

"The Way Back Home"

Invisible me, no thoughts to see, 

no thoughts.
Invisible me, running past a tree, 

running for the sea. 

Listen,
I’m the sound of rain, 

pouring over me.

 Invisible me, nothing to see,
nothing to be,
nothing. 

-Nanne Nyander

Liberation

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

She who thinks she knows, does not know. 

She who knows that she does not know,

 is on her way to liberation.

-Nanne Nyander "The Silence of Awareness"

Next stop, 

eternal nothingness.

I’m getting off here. 

Will you come with me?

I turn to you, 

here we go, here comes nothing.

I throw myself off into nothingness without thinking. 

Leave thinking behind and join me.

No thinking, no mind, no story,

nothing, no thing.

I left my luggage behind.

I’m finally free.

-Nanne Nyander "The Struggle of Going Nowhere"

Time does not exist

 Nanne Nyander  Poems and Paintings 

The past is not just a long time ago,

 it’s also one second ago.
But the past does not exist,

 time does not exist.
So what’s the difference? 

-Nanne Nyander

The experience of being me is a thought. 

I’m dissolving into nothing.

-The Silence of Awareness

Sleep no more

 Nanne Nyander - Poems and Paintings

Am I trapped in a thought?

Or are thoughts trapped in me,

as an endless loop 

of nonsensical words and images?

-Nanne Nyander

Study for the painting "Unconditional Love" by Nanne Nyander.

Sleep no more.
I’m vigilant of thoughts coming to 

drag me away, 

drag me away, far, far away 

to the land of oblivion.
I’m standing firm and solid in reality.
The mind invites me to tag along
to the most intriguing places.
But I’m on my guard,
I’m not as gullible as I once was.
No more sleepwalking 

in the land of Oblivion. 

I’m the truth,
I’m reality,
I am Awake. 

-Nanne Nyander "The Silence of Awareness"

Endless Journey

 Nanne Nyander Poems and Paintings 

The mind is brilliant,

but now I’m better prepared.

I know its tricks, I know not to get on the train. 

The train of thoughts can take me on an 

endless journey,

mostly to places I don’t find fascinating anymore. 

I still sometimes find myself on the train,

but now I know where the emergency brake is. 

I’d rather sit on a hill far, far away,

and just watch the trains passing by.

-Nanne Nyander