Monday, December 31, 2012


A woman ironing

She expressed again
what others have known..
the ironing chore found
quietly calming
 bringing sometimes
 bliss to a day..
What is behind this
 smoothing of wrinkles 
which serves such
 wellbeing and peace..?
Perhaps we find here 
in striking resemblance
an old story..
night becomes day
martha becomes mary
as our wrinkles 
are pressed..
With thanks to Bette
her example and sevice
and for this new
ironingboard parable...!

PhotOEMs

photos and poems
a sought for marriage
perhaps a gestalt..
exercising
eye and ear
brings more dimensions
hearing the photo
seeing the poem..
a variety of
Synesthesia...?




Sunday, December 30, 2012



Widening
is there
more to see
out there midst those
lonely rocks and snow..?
artists of vision
find much more..
Van Gogh's rocks and trees
pulsate color and form..
our narrower focus
reveals cold winter pain..
by widening
may we find heat
vibrating the stillness
somewhere between..
thereby we locate
where compassion lies
the joy the light
real beauty's home...
("Our task must be to free ourselves
by widening our circle of compassion
to embrace all living creatures and
the whole of nature and its beauty."
--Albert Einstein)





Friday, December 28, 2012

  
a Seed

so small
yet with unfolding
possibilities as
a cyprus a redwood..
similarity with storied
chicken and egg..
some say
the vast universe 
simply a seed
one more example..
an ovoid shape
with energy flow..
not excluding ourselves
clothed in our
magnetic shells..
might we all
stay home
seeing all 
right here...?

Thursday, December 27, 2012


Gestalt

/ge'SHtalt/
"An organized whole
that is perceived 
as more than
the sum of
its parts.."

the lordly elephant
is that whole
with all of
those strange parts..
do parts perceive
their life subsumed..?

and of our body
and parts
brother elephant is
our model..
but what of our
body as part..?

or the elephant
as part..?
how strange those
whole elephants
must be
up there...!




"The fundamental "formula" of Gestalt theory might be expressed in this way,” Max Wertheimer wrote. "There are wholes, the behaviour of which is not determined by that of their individual elements, but where the part-processes are themselves determined by the intrinsic nature of the whole. It is the hope of Gestalt theory to determine the nature of such wholes" (1924).




decorated

we wake
each day
to decorate..
she saw the
moment
the brief flare..
decorations lit
two candles
one flame..
there and gone
returning to
the day
lingering glow
and the rose...

Tuesday, December 25, 2012


The I am Connections

These Connections
join our I
to our me..
standing alone
me multiplies with 
colors and pain..
I alone is
blinding light..
Connections make
a homeplace:
light and color
with pain
and joy...

(prompted by the following...)



Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time
to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to
Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea
pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and
loving.

I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my
hands,
and I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to, my
people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all
walks of life.
My pain is like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh
This poem I remember often in my attempt to make sense of this world..Mae...


I shone with you today,
felt it, as if
I were seared
into the tender
flesh of the crease
at your scruff.
There, where
sensation
resonated
straight
from your heart
in the
space
of a
moment,
before it became
coloured.

(This from Victoria on Hello Poetry...)
thanks to Charles C


The motif of birth in a cave is . . . very ancient. This symbol is associated particularly with the winter solstice, when the sun has traveled to its farthest point away from the tilted earth and the light is in the nadir of the abyss. That is the date of the birth of the god Mithra, who is lord of light. He was born—we recall that his mother is the Earth—holding a rock-hewn weapon in his hand. Mithra was the principle competitor with Christianity, in the period of the first three centuries. The Christmas date was placed on December twenty-fifth, which was the solstice time, in order to compete with The Lord of Light, Mithra. No one really knows when Christ was born. It was settled on December twenty-fifth for mythological, not historical, reason.

Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That, p. 65

Saturday, December 22, 2012


Joseph's Light

a lonely figure
in silence appears
each Christmas year..
might we make his
 place more secure..?
recall his namesake
in Egypt's deep past..
Joseph the Viceroy
with many travails
observes a descent
with ascent foreseen..
let us then imagine
 this newer Joseph
in silent watch 
pondering his name.. 
with swift recognition
of the ancient Formula
which eternally repeats:
our many steps down
 are concealed within
 that One step up..
 energy so flows 
hidden messianic
 Light...

Friday, December 21, 2012


Christmas Tree

one pine tree
resplendent in symmetry
another year at home
 her snowbound slope..
apparently not destined
 not this year
for light display
with sacrifice death..
roots still grounded
and a treetop pointing
to bright starlight above..
 through a sturdy trunk
 rooted sparks do flow 
upward..rejoining
 the glow..


Wednesday, December 19, 2012


The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Taka (the Great Spirit), and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.

This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this. The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace, which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.

Black Elk - Oglala Sioux


A fire Flickers

cold and snow
without..
fireplace flickers
within..
hot coals stimulate
rising flames with
tips we notice
do not locate...

Imagination

our marching time
holds sway today
and wraps a gift
given long ago..
especially harsh
life's departures now..
the gift unopened
except for children
and artists few..
we await unwrapping
startled to find
separations and strangeness
sudden dancing
in a time
renewed...

Monday, December 17, 2012


Extended Calendar

that linear time
our watches portray
long labored to measure
our history
our transports
our rents
and our stress..
this servant will not
of course
die this Friday..
but may begin
a humble recognition
of its residence
through all ages
within a more unbounded
joyous yet fearful
home..



Sunday, December 16, 2012


Slivers

days of tears
with this darkness..
our reasoning blunted..
repetitions..
layers out there
and within..
beginnings now
Slivers of light...?

Saturday, December 15, 2012



Trace

where one stands
light moment confronting..
the encounter takes root
advice is to hesitate
right there..
the moment contains
pieces of necessity
these forever lost
by walking on..
Preserving the Trace...

Thursday, December 13, 2012


Transport

those daily excursions
travels so necessary
point A to point B
are there grooves
long before emplaced..?
then finding ourselves
in pleasant surprise
driver as passenger
awaking in dream..
finding new vision
this more en-lightened
 Transport...?

Friday, December 7, 2012

grasping Emily


her poems
pierce us 
to our core..
we must surrender
to her choice
of words..
a wrong word
she despairs
 to malaria compares..

perhaps a way inside
enter her two doors..
watch these
switch and intertwine..
heaven/hell
soul/society
light/slant
morning/night..
find ourselves on the  /

 still..
as we wrestle
are we grasping for an
 Emily Ungraspable..?

(preparing for an
Emily Dickinson
discussion..)

Monday, December 3, 2012



feathers

hope
she said is
the thing with feathers
perched and singing
without words..

 words must surely
be deeply hidden
within that song..
can we locate
another perch..?

and ask the feather
what are your words
and your song..?
the words we find
it's shape does bind..

here are the
sharp connectors and barbs..
barbules and hooklets
all of these
to hold a feather form..

and what of a song..?
a central shaft with ending quill
guides nutrition and light..
sacred texts penned
and that majestic flight..

hope extends...

(with appreciation for 
Emily Dickinson's
poem)








Hope     
Hope is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul, 
And sings the tune--without the words, 
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard; 
And sore must be the storm 
That could abash the little bird 
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land, 
And on the strangest sea; 
Yet, never, in extremity, 
It asked a crumb of me.