This is a beautiful tanka which speaks to the need to be mindful of our emotions and know that they can to shall pass.
Emotions cast out
Like a net upon the sea
Unexpectedly
Take on a life of their own
Spiraling out of control
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
When I read e.e. cummings, I am never sure of the message which is great. This way the message can be different each time I read his poetry. Most of all the underlying theme is the uncertainty of life.
who knows if the moon’s
a balloon,coming out of a keen city
in the sky—filled with pretty people?
(and if you and i should
get into it,if they
should take me and take you into their balloon,
why then
we’d go up higher with all the pretty people
than houses and steeples and clouds:
go sailing
away and away sailing into a keen
city which nobody’s ever visited,where
always
it’s
Spring)and everyone’s
in love and flowers pick themselves
Photo: “Hollywood Moon” by Barbara Linkevitch, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I got away from writing poetry, but I felt it nibbling at the corners of that part of me throughout this hectic summer. As I get ready for the next part of the doctoral journey, I spent more time writing purpose statements, editing them, and edging closer to something workable. With a full course load in September, I know my schedule will look different. Something I need daily is silence and pauses where things percolate academically and creatively. I got back to my yoga mat more this last week or two and I feel good with the silence that I find in those moments. It is another meditative space where wisdom comes calling.
Rush,
Seek blindly
Grasp and cling.
Be present—
Pause—
Receive each moment’s gift.
Gently wrapped—
A bow in place—
Wisdom concealed.
In spacious silence—
A wordless symphony—
Plays serene melody.
Unrecognized tailor—
Silence stitches—
Weaves life whole.
Here is a little humour for the day. If only I could cross the road without my motives being questioned?
A beautiful poem in French and English and slide show. Enjoy the sensory overload that is offered.
This blog often combines a beautiful piece of visual imagery alone with a short haiku that brings clarity. If I practice long enough and feel encouraged, I grow as a person. Several posts this morning in my email were about taking a breath and just pausing in the moment. Synchronicity plays a vital role in life. I only have to stop and realize it.
This was a busy day. We head out for the evening shortly to spend time with friends. We ran around to get ourselves organized a good part of the day.
Mark Nepo wrote this lovely poem which is a reminder of the need to slow down and find the silent space of sabbath. The lake offers me a place to light down similar to the heron and find the quiet needed to rejuvenate the spirit. This quiet finds its way into my life without a full awareness sometimes. It just appears and I embrace it as it helps me weave my life together.
My heart was beating like a heron awakened
in the woods, no room to move. Tangled
and surprised by the noise of my mind,
I fluttered without grace to the center
of the lake which humans call silence.
I guess, if you would ask, peace
is no more than the underside
of tired wings resting on the lake
while the heart in its feathers
pounds softer and softer.
This is a simple photo that I probably would pass each day without paying it a lot of mind. Combined with the wonderful poetry below it comes to life. I will never see a wheat field the same again.
Today, as I read, I came across this passage from the work of D. H. Lawrence. It is not a poem, but the words have a poetic quality to them and allow me to consider what life is all about. Life is relational and that is not limited to people. I live in relationship to everything I come in contact with. In the busyness of life, this is a gentle reminder to acknowledge the relationships consciously. I witness pure relationships in these acknowledgement, these accomplishments.
The passage has a Zen quality, but it reminded me that until about 300 years ago our souls were inseparable from our physical being even in western culture.
“If we think about it, we find that our life consists in this achieving of a pure relationship between ourselves and the living universe about us. This is how I ‘save my soul’ by accomplishing a pure relationship between me and another person, me and other people, me and a nation, me and a race of men, me and animals, me and the trees or flowers, me and the earth, me and the skies and the sun and stars, me and the moon: an infinity of pure relationships, big and little, like the stars of the sky: that makes our eternity, for each one of us, me and the timber I am sawing, the lines of force I follow; me and the dough I knead for bread, me and the very motion with which I write, me and the bit of gold I have got. This, if we knew it, is our life and our eternity: the subtle, perfected relation between me and my whole circumambient universe.”
When I talk to students, this is something I try remind them of when they are struggling with how long things take. It is so much better to look ahead and be in the present moment.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 