Hello sun in my face. Hello, you who made the morning and spread it over the fields. Watch now how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.
What I want in my life is to be dazzled- to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery; to believe that the imperfections are nothing- that the light is everything- that it is more than the sum of each flawed blossoms rising and fading. And I do! Mary Oliver
Poetry has its own laws speaking for the life of the planet.. It is a language that wants to bring back together what the other words have torn apart. We are looking for a tongue that speaks with reverence for life, searching for an ecology of mind. Without it, we have no true home, no place of our own within creation. It is not only the vocabulary of science we desire. We want a language of a different yield. A yield rich in the harvests of the earth, a yield that returns us to our sacredness, to a self-love and resort that will carry out to others.’ L. Hogan from her book ‘Dwellings’
I look for poetry that speaks to people and brings people together and offers insight and allows for inspiration and encourages people to be brave and to connect with each other.
‘Poetry soothes the soul and emboldens the heart to accept Mystery.’ John Keats
Rachel Carson, one of the first environmental activists and marine biologist, wrote, "If there is poetry in my book about the sea , it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry." She is speaking of her last book ‘Silent Spring’ released two months before she died of cancer.
Oh my God Christopher: the less is more Zen, for people's short attention span of the theatre of mass media! Fuck I love that. That really made me laugh because it is so true, but you know it! To know of not knowing. Lao Tzu. I was actually surprised by how much understanding of the Tao. Even Zen is a bugaboo for those who don't understand. And I see that you sent me all of your conversations, and I was planning on asking if I could access. keep writing. Don't stop. You're a good writer. Thanks Colin
When we are young we feel that the path should be clear with no obstacles in our way. The only environment in the natural world where this would hold true is in an arid desert, devoid of all life. So the path disappears again and again from view. There will be many times when we simply do not know how to proceed, where to go. Again, these are the times when we push through despite the fact that we do not know where the path will lead us. These are the times on the journey of life where all we can reasonably do is to simply stand in the ground of our own life, our own being, without trying to abstract ourselves into a strategic future so that we don’t have to deal with the heartbreak of our lives; a vain attempt to escape the reality of our life. Life is complex. Each of us must make his or her own path through life. There are no self-help manuals, no formulas, no easy answers. The right road for one is the wrong road for another. The journey of life is not paved with blacktop; it is not brightly lit and it has no road signs. It is a rocky path through the wilderness. But, if we know exactly where we are going, exactly how to get there, and exactly what we’ll see along the way, we won’t learn anything.
And as we get older, there comes a point in our lives when all we can reasonably do is simply stop and stand where we are and realise that we, ourselves, are the journey- that the mere fact that we sought a path, a way through the darkness is enough. There is beauty and courage in that; the fact that we tried to seek a way through the wilderness. The most important lesson here is that the journey or path, itself, is really the goal- not some faraway abstract destination in the remote future or lofty ideas of becoming ‘enlightened’.
INTERBEING: ‘If you are a poet, you will see that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees can’t grow, and without trees we can’t make paper. The sunshine is also here, the logger, wheat for the logger. As a reader your mind is here as well as mine. Everything is here in this sheet of paper. When you look deeply you will find that you can’t point to one thing that is not here- time, space, earth, rain, minerals, sun, cloud, river, heat.’ Thich Nhat Hanh
‘In a real sense all life is interrelated. All people are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.’
Martin Luther King Jr. / Written in a letter from Birmingham Jail.
Astrophysicist Neal Degrasse Tyson explains that when a star or a supernova explodes, when it disintegrates, all the elements of the Periodic Table- i.e. all the elements that form our planet and therefore, us, are released. So we are not just metaphorically, but literally made of stardust.
INTERBEING: ‘If you are a poet, you will see that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees can’t grow, and without trees we can’t make paper. The sunshine is also here, the logger, wheat for the logger. As a reader your mind is here as well as mine. Everything is here in this sheet of paper. When you look deeply you will find that you can’t point to one thing that is not here- time, space, earth, rain, minerals, sun, cloud, river, heat.’ Thich Nhat Hanh
‘In a real sense all life is interrelated. All people are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.’
Martin Luther King Jr. / Written in a letter from Birmingham Jail.
Astrophysicist Neal Degrasse Tyson explains that when a star or a supernova explodes, when it disintegrates, all the elements of the Periodic Table- i.e. all the elements that form our planet and therefore, us, are released. So we are not just metaphorically, but literally made of stardust.
INTERBEING: ‘If you are a poet, you will see that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees can’t grow, and without trees we can’t make paper. The sunshine is also here, the logger, wheat for the logger. As a reader your mind is here as well as mine. Everything is here in this sheet of paper. When you look deeply you will find that you can’t point to one thing that is not here- time, space, earth, rain, minerals, sun, cloud, river, heat.’ Thich Nhat Hanh
‘In a real sense all life is interrelated. All people are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.’
Martin Luther King Jr. / Written in a letter from Birmingham Jail.
Astrophysicist Neal Degrasse Tyson explains that when a star or a supernova explodes, when it disintegrates, all the elements of the Periodic Table- i.e. all the elements that form our planet and therefore, us, are released. So we are not just metaphorically, but literally made of stardust.
While the Vibe is Still Good is Right! I've had my moments of feeling the reeling of Substack being sucked into a black hole. It could still happen...but in the meantime, since this is all temporary anyway -let's have a go. And I do believe I am familiar with the bench you are sitting on in Central Park? I used to massage people on my massage chair in the park. GREAT POEM!
HOPE-SILENCE TURN OFF THE SIGNAL/WIPE OUT THE NOISE
Silence is a great source of strength
To the mind that is still-
The whole universe surrenders. Chuang Tzu
Silence is like a cradle holding our endeavors and our will; a silent spaciousness sustains us in our work and at the same time connects us to larger worlds that, in the busyness of our daily struggles to achieve, we have not yet investigated. Silence is the soul’s break for freedom. Mary Oliver
KEEPING QUIET
For once on the face of the earth
Let’s not speak in any language;
Let’s stop for one second
And not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic movement
Without rush, without engines.
We would all be together
In a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
Would not harm whales,
And the man gathering salt
Would look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
Wars with gas, wars with fire
Victories with no survivors
Would put on clean clothes
And walk about with their brothers
In the shade doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
With total inactivity.
Life is what it is about.
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
About keeping our lives moving,
Perhaps a huge silence
Might interrupt this sadness
Of never understanding ourselves
And of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
As when everything seems dead
And later proves to be alive. Pablo Neruda
Excellent- love PABLO - what a heart
Hello sun in my face. Hello, you who made the morning and spread it over the fields. Watch now how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.
What I want in my life is to be dazzled- to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery; to believe that the imperfections are nothing- that the light is everything- that it is more than the sum of each flawed blossoms rising and fading. And I do! Mary Oliver
WHY I LOVE POETRY
Poetry has its own laws speaking for the life of the planet.. It is a language that wants to bring back together what the other words have torn apart. We are looking for a tongue that speaks with reverence for life, searching for an ecology of mind. Without it, we have no true home, no place of our own within creation. It is not only the vocabulary of science we desire. We want a language of a different yield. A yield rich in the harvests of the earth, a yield that returns us to our sacredness, to a self-love and resort that will carry out to others.’ L. Hogan from her book ‘Dwellings’
I look for poetry that speaks to people and brings people together and offers insight and allows for inspiration and encourages people to be brave and to connect with each other.
‘Poetry soothes the soul and emboldens the heart to accept Mystery.’ John Keats
Rachel Carson, one of the first environmental activists and marine biologist, wrote, "If there is poetry in my book about the sea , it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry." She is speaking of her last book ‘Silent Spring’ released two months before she died of cancer.
Excellent! 👍💥🔥
Moons and Junes and Ferris Wheels
The dizzy dancing way that you feel
As every fairy tale come real
I’ve looked at love that way
But now it’s just another show
And you leave ‘em laughing when you go
And if you care, don’t let them know,
Don’t give yourself away.
I’ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take and still somehow
It’s love’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know love
I really don’t know love at all.
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say, ‘I love you’ right aloud.
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I’ve looked at life that way.
Oh, but now old friends they’re acting strange
They shake their heads and they tell me that I’ve changed,
Well, something’s lost, but somethings gained
In living every day…
I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life's illusions I recall
I really don’t know life
I really don’t know life at all. Joni Mitchell
Oh my God Christopher: the less is more Zen, for people's short attention span of the theatre of mass media! Fuck I love that. That really made me laugh because it is so true, but you know it! To know of not knowing. Lao Tzu. I was actually surprised by how much understanding of the Tao. Even Zen is a bugaboo for those who don't understand. And I see that you sent me all of your conversations, and I was planning on asking if I could access. keep writing. Don't stop. You're a good writer. Thanks Colin
When we are young we feel that the path should be clear with no obstacles in our way. The only environment in the natural world where this would hold true is in an arid desert, devoid of all life. So the path disappears again and again from view. There will be many times when we simply do not know how to proceed, where to go. Again, these are the times when we push through despite the fact that we do not know where the path will lead us. These are the times on the journey of life where all we can reasonably do is to simply stand in the ground of our own life, our own being, without trying to abstract ourselves into a strategic future so that we don’t have to deal with the heartbreak of our lives; a vain attempt to escape the reality of our life. Life is complex. Each of us must make his or her own path through life. There are no self-help manuals, no formulas, no easy answers. The right road for one is the wrong road for another. The journey of life is not paved with blacktop; it is not brightly lit and it has no road signs. It is a rocky path through the wilderness. But, if we know exactly where we are going, exactly how to get there, and exactly what we’ll see along the way, we won’t learn anything.
And as we get older, there comes a point in our lives when all we can reasonably do is simply stop and stand where we are and realise that we, ourselves, are the journey- that the mere fact that we sought a path, a way through the darkness is enough. There is beauty and courage in that; the fact that we tried to seek a way through the wilderness. The most important lesson here is that the journey or path, itself, is really the goal- not some faraway abstract destination in the remote future or lofty ideas of becoming ‘enlightened’.
If a man is crossing a river
And an empty boat collides with his own skiff,
Even though he be a bad-tempered man,
He will not be angry.
But, if he sees a man in the boat,
He will shout for him to stay clear.
If the shout is not heard, he will shout again
And yet again, and begin cursing.
And all because there is somebody in the boat.
Yet, if the boat is empty
He would not be shouting and not be angry.
If you can empty your own boat
Crossing the river of the world,
No one will oppose you,
No one will seek to harm you. Chuang Tzu
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
You must travel where the Indian in the white pancho
Lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you.
How he, too, was someone
Who journeyed through the night with plans
And the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
Then, it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
Only kindness that ties your shoes
And sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread.
Only kindness that raises its head
From the crowd of the world to say,
“It is I that you’ve been looking for.”
And then goes with you everywhere
Like a shadow or a friend. Naomi Shihab Nye
There is HOPE!
BUDDHISM:RIGHT THOUGHT
INTERBEING: ‘If you are a poet, you will see that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees can’t grow, and without trees we can’t make paper. The sunshine is also here, the logger, wheat for the logger. As a reader your mind is here as well as mine. Everything is here in this sheet of paper. When you look deeply you will find that you can’t point to one thing that is not here- time, space, earth, rain, minerals, sun, cloud, river, heat.’ Thich Nhat Hanh
‘In a real sense all life is interrelated. All people are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.’
Martin Luther King Jr. / Written in a letter from Birmingham Jail.
Astrophysicist Neal Degrasse Tyson explains that when a star or a supernova explodes, when it disintegrates, all the elements of the Periodic Table- i.e. all the elements that form our planet and therefore, us, are released. So we are not just metaphorically, but literally made of stardust.
We are stardust.
Billion year old carbon-
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the Garden……… Joni Mitchell ‘Woodstock’.
BUDDHISM:RIGHT THOUGHT
INTERBEING: ‘If you are a poet, you will see that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees can’t grow, and without trees we can’t make paper. The sunshine is also here, the logger, wheat for the logger. As a reader your mind is here as well as mine. Everything is here in this sheet of paper. When you look deeply you will find that you can’t point to one thing that is not here- time, space, earth, rain, minerals, sun, cloud, river, heat.’ Thich Nhat Hanh
‘In a real sense all life is interrelated. All people are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.’
Martin Luther King Jr. / Written in a letter from Birmingham Jail.
Astrophysicist Neal Degrasse Tyson explains that when a star or a supernova explodes, when it disintegrates, all the elements of the Periodic Table- i.e. all the elements that form our planet and therefore, us, are released. So we are not just metaphorically, but literally made of stardust.
We are stardust.
Billion year old carbon-
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the Garden……… Joni Mitchell ‘Woodstock’.
BUDDHISM:RIGHT THOUGHT
INTERBEING: ‘If you are a poet, you will see that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees can’t grow, and without trees we can’t make paper. The sunshine is also here, the logger, wheat for the logger. As a reader your mind is here as well as mine. Everything is here in this sheet of paper. When you look deeply you will find that you can’t point to one thing that is not here- time, space, earth, rain, minerals, sun, cloud, river, heat.’ Thich Nhat Hanh
‘In a real sense all life is interrelated. All people are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.’
Martin Luther King Jr. / Written in a letter from Birmingham Jail.
Astrophysicist Neal Degrasse Tyson explains that when a star or a supernova explodes, when it disintegrates, all the elements of the Periodic Table- i.e. all the elements that form our planet and therefore, us, are released. So we are not just metaphorically, but literally made of stardust.
We are stardust.
Billion year old carbon-
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the Garden……… Joni Mitchell ‘Woodstock’.
Nice ! ! !
While the Vibe is Still Good is Right! I've had my moments of feeling the reeling of Substack being sucked into a black hole. It could still happen...but in the meantime, since this is all temporary anyway -let's have a go. And I do believe I am familiar with the bench you are sitting on in Central Park? I used to massage people on my massage chair in the park. GREAT POEM!
HOPE-SILENCE TURN OFF THE SIGNAL/WIPE OUT THE NOISE
Silence is a great source of strength
To the mind that is still-
The whole universe surrenders. Chuang Tzu
Silence is like a cradle holding our endeavors and our will; a silent spaciousness sustains us in our work and at the same time connects us to larger worlds that, in the busyness of our daily struggles to achieve, we have not yet investigated. Silence is the soul’s break for freedom. Mary Oliver