clear and sweet is my soul,
and clear and sweet is all
that is
not my soul.
walt whitman song of myself
the precious nature of all things
he ate and
drank the
precious words –
his spirit grew
robust –
he knew no more
that he was poor;
nor that his
frame was
dust –
he danced
along the dingy
days
and this bequest
of wings
was but a book –
what liberty
a loosened spirit
brings –
emily dickinson
seeking beauty
as long as i love beauty i am young,
am young or old as i love more or less
words excerpted from john davies' "seeking beauty"
fading
thin fading dancers
small tattered edges
caught in the wind
their silvered bodies
carve
smaller arabesques
their songs
now sung
in grey whispers
in the autumn wind
in the autumn wind,
hark! voices raised with the sails,
these boats approaching
cross from a skybound shore:
the geese are here.
words by an anonymous poet who entered a poetry competition held by
her majesty the empress during the kanpyo era
the fitful tracing
a season's fallen bounty still ripe with colour
beauty is momentary in the mind
the fitful tracing of a portal
words excerpted from "peter quince at the clavier" by wallace stevens
madrigal sky
it appears, with considered judgement, bears the light beneath the rifted clouds
the indivisible shared out in endless abundance
words excerpted from "bearing the light" by denise levertov
when colour goes home
when colour goes home into the eyes,
and lights that shine are shut again
with dancing girls and sweet birds’ cries
behind the gateways of the brain;
and that no-place which gave them birth, shall close
the rainbow and the rose
still may time hold some golden space
where i’ll unpack that scented store
of song and flower and sky and face,
and count, and touch, and turn them o’er,
musing upon them; as a mother, who
has watched her children all the rich day through
sits, quiet-handed, in the fading light,
when children sleep, ere night.
she left her voice behind
the sun
still new to the day
rose soft
and orange
over the river
a sudden flurry of movement
like the hurried flapping of a small bird's wings
caught at my shirt sleeve
causing it to pull
ever so gently
in the eddies and whorls of her passing by
a soft whispering voice
soft as the brushing of petals
the little house
there is a house that is no more a house
as for the woods’ excitement over you
that sends light rustle rushes to their leaves
charge that to upstart inexperience.
where were they all not twenty years ago?
then for the house that is no more a house
but only a belilaced cellar hole.
your destination and your destiny’s
a brook that was the water of the house
cold as a spring as yet so near its source
here are your waters and your watering place.
drink and be whole again beyond confusion.
excerpted from "directive" by robert frost
arriving at letting go
arriving at simplicity is a very complex process
(i saw in the mist a little village of a few tiled roofs and joyfully admired it.)
there's a stream, and there's bamboo,
there's mulberry and hemp.
mist-hid, clouded hamlet,
a mild, tranquil place.
just a few tilled acres.
just a few tiled roofs.
how many lives would i
have to live, to get
that simple
dappled
when my heart came to rule
in the world of love,
it was freed
from both belief
and from disbelief
on this journey,
i found the problem
to be myself
when I went beyond myself,
the pathway finally opened
mahsati ganjavi (12th century)
heaven over water
hexagram 5 hsu - waiting
heaven over water
now is the time to wait and have faith in the natural order of things.
take stock of yourself and your situation,
and work on any insecurities that cause internal imbalance.
~
transience
it wraps like a ribbon
around your licked finger
when you point it at the sky
awakening the swan
"the swan" milton resnick
the sleeping swan . . . mirra lokhvitskaya
my earthly life is a ringing,
an indistinct rustle of rushes
it lulls the sleeping swan
my disquieted soul.
far off one catches a glimpse of hurrying ships
greedily plying.
peacefully in the midst of the bay,
where sadness breathes like the weight of the world.
but the sound, born of trembling
blends with the rustling of the rushes
and shakes the awakening swan
my immortal soul.
it surges into a world of freedom
where the waves echo the sighing storms
and where the ever changing waters
reflect eternal azure.
from birth to death people sleep.
one day, you begin to wake up. you become aware of several "i's", each with its own demands and expectations.
john bennett describes this awakening . . .
"you have to ask yourself: "what do i really want? who is it in me that want?" each of your centers wants different things. every 'i' in you wants something for itself. there are some things that you really need; for example, you need not only food and clothing and the direct requirements of your bodily life, but you also need certain kinds of impressions. if you do not get those impressions, your spiritual life remains hungry. it can even be starved.
but you have to realize that life can never give you all that you want. it cannot even give you all that you need. if you are hungry for one kind of impression which you cannot get, you have to be clever and try to find what other impressions will give you the food you need. it is true that you need food of impressions. life sometimes will not give us the impressions we need. It is not only that life can deny us impressions and experiences that we want. it often will not give us impressions that are really necessary as food for us. we must study ourselves. we have to learn what kinds of impressions are necessary for work. It is always possible to get what we need if we know how to look for it."
extract from talk j.g. bennett
and now
i'm sure i am like you
in having moments of such blinding clarity
that i wonder how i've made my way through life -
with my eyes closed?
sometimes my eyes open wide and then i see what i wish i could see all the time.
i think that for the most part
it's like what rabindranath tagore says -
"what you are you do not see,
what you see is your shadow."
"arise the other" tissue collage karen stefano
"dectesuque" tissue collage karen stefano
setting sail
fu hsuan who lived between a.d. 217 and a.d. 278 was born into poverty.
he became wealthy through his writing.
the world also became wealthy through his writing, but in a different way.
~
a gentle wind
a gentle wind fans the calm night; a bright moon shines on the high tower. a voice whispers, but no one answers when i call; a shadow stirs, but no one comes when I beckon. the kitchen-man brings in a dish of bean-leaves; wine is there, but i do not fill my cup. contentment with poverty is fortune's best gift; riches and honour are the handmaids of disaster. though gold and gems by the world are sought and prized, to me they seem no more than weeds or chaff.
there are watershed moments in our lives that feel like we're setting sail - the journey unfolds like a carpet rolling out across a floor . . . like a prayer flag unravelling in the wind . . .
emily dickinson knew this moment . . . .
setting sail.
exultation is the going
of an inland soul to sea, --
past the houses, past the headlands,
into deep eternity!
bred as we, among the mountains,
can the sailor understand
the divine intoxication
of the first league out from land?
anne packard knows this moment . . .
"sail"
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