who the hell is Tim Kavi and Why?

Tim Kavi is a name by which I write my poetry, non fiction, and other writings with spiritual or mystical themes. I was a teenage mystic is not a horror movie but was a real experience for me as I became a recognized spiritual being in a group of seekers in the 1970s and early 80s. I soon expanded my views into other traditions outside the limited realm where I was first recognized, and out of which spiritual insights were confirmed as manifested in a ministry experience where I spoke to groups in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Later, I began to use my skills at talking to people and sensing things about them as a professional healer working in the field of mental health. I worked fulltime in that field for over 35 years, and still work part time in a hospital setting and the rest of my time as a consultant.

The bottom line is that I sense deeply that we are all more connected than many of us realize. I am convinced that mind is more than a local phenomenon. I believe very much that "mind is in the world." I will comment upon this in other entries.

My spiritual practice is eclectic, with my leanings being more on the Buddhist or Taoist side, but I am very comfortable in my awareness of the mystical tradition and traditions from a variety of perspectives. I find that I am still aware and in touch with my mystical side, but I do not choose to embrace it in a fanatical manner or otherworldly sense, inasmuch as Buber taught that the sacred is in the everyday. Consequently, I suppose I have been heavily influenced by my early Pentecostal Charismatic influences, as well as Jewish mysticism and existentialism,the latter since I have been a scholar of Martin Buber, and studied directly under his most well known student and biographer, Maurice Friedman, and also attended a private school based upon his teachings. A young Friedman saw himself as a mystic as well as Buber. Consequently Buber, Friedman, have been as much a mystic to me as say St. John of the Cross, Meister Eckhardt, Boehme, George Fox, AW Tozer, Madam Guyon, or William Branham, as Buddhists such as Nagarjuna, Milarepa, or Santideva have been to me as well.

My poetry influences are those who have bravely dared to be different in the face of conventions, not always as a mere rebel, but because like the mystic they had a message that they were compelled to speak, and some were flat out romantics. I would count among these poets, Whitman, Byron, Rilke, Keats, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Rumi, and of course, Rimbaud. Also, Dante, Blake, and Baudelaire cannot be overlooked.

In this blog I will not comment much upon my most recent work, written as Tim Kavi. It may include some comments as to what I hope my work could mean but it is better that I not comment much at all. Let the work speak for itself is a general principle.

Please note that my work listed here cannot ever be exhaustive and include everything. If I publish everything here that I wrote, then there will be nothing new for readers in my published collections. Likewise, note that all of my poems that are in my published collections are likely not here in the blog. They might have been here at one time; and there may be a few exceptions of which I will footnote that my publisher has given permission for them to be here.

I guess in the final analysis I do not want to be known as a mystic, not really, I would rather be known as a writer, and if the utterances of a writer are sometimes similar to those of mystics I am content in that.

Why did I choose the pen name of Tim Kavi? It is simple really. If you look at the words you will discover that the names blend two major spiritual traditions of East and West. In the Christian Bible, there was a Timothy, and  Kavi is a Hindu name and speaks of someone writing poetry. It is hoped that when you read my poetry or other writings as Tim Kavi that you sense this blend between EAST and WEST. However my intent is poetic and not theological in terms of any doctrine, as I am just as likely to refer to the goddess as I am God or angels. Perhaps my work appears to be less masculine in perspective in terms of divinity without masculine pronouns, this is intentional in all of my work. To me the feminine completes the masculine and is the more needed and more powerful force. In much of my work the captive masculine figure always seeks the freeing feminine.

I must implore you to realize that we are not ever who we appear to be in totality, instead, I believe that we very much happen to each other in the present moment and that is a better definition of who I am, and who I am with you, or who we are to each other as we experience one another. When you are reading my poetry I hope you are having a dialogue, and an encounter between person and person. The concrete lived out of that is what happens when you read my work, or better yet when we encounter another human being person to person.

So, finally, it is in my writing as Tim Kavi, that I have blended my life experiences and my fictions fantastic and real into a source of creativity that is not always about what it seems to be on the surface. Many readers will think that I write of love on the plane that is most familiar to us, and perhaps my poetry is about such embodied love at times, but it is as equally about spiritual love for the divine, as it is physical love for a person we love, or the goddess, or in seeking the transcendent. The transcendent is often lost to us unless we seek...after all, so don't be surprised if you see the seeker in my poems, the longing, the devotional, even the worship--as this is also the way of the mystic-poet as well.

Ultimately, I believe that my work is about personal freedom, the assertion of free will, and the struggles and choices we make in finding love, divinity, and trying to make sense out of our own existence. -- TK

Update:  I have other profiles and blogs on the web,  and profiles at Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. You should be able to always find me readily on the web. Just search in a search engine. You can be assured that you will always find samples of my latest work here at this blog.  Happy reading, thanks for reading and blessings to you.  Namaste-- Tim Kavi  -- TK