In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.
What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.
To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.
You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.
Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?
Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the writing desk?
-David Whyte
What to Remember When Waking
The Stone Garden
Ryoan-ji, fifteenth century
When the world is reduced
To clusters of rock
Strewn on bare and,
World becomes essence.
When tame sand is raked
Into algebras
Of orderly lines
And orderly circles,
The wildness is framed -
Each rock is a magnet.
And each has been threaded
As if by haphazard
And grouped into five
Spaced constellations
The mind hovers here
On the brink of creation.
Energy flows
From the magical scene,
So changeless and changing
It is never exhausted.
In autumn a leaf falls
And makes a notation.
Sun shafting cloud
Touches one rock alive.
Spring shadows delve
Pools here and there.
A snow-thatch in winter
Makes other distinctions.
All things are suspended
In shifting light and shade -
All but the themes itself:
Fifteen rocks and sand
Weaving a silent fugue
down through the centuries,
So changeless and changing
It is never exhausted.
-May Sarton
Song
The sun is mine
And the trees are mine
And the birds that inhabit the air
are mine
Their voices upon the wind
are in my ear.
-Robert Hogg
And the trees are mine
And the birds that inhabit the air
are mine
Their voices upon the wind
are in my ear.
-Robert Hogg
Aesthetic Curiosity
Does an owl appreciate
The colors of leaves
As they fall about him
In the staggering nights of Autumn?
-A. M. Klein
The colors of leaves
As they fall about him
In the staggering nights of Autumn?
-A. M. Klein
Freeze-Up
I wonder at what exact moment
(I wish I'd been there)
something or someone said
"That's the very last drop going over."
And the startled waterfall
suddenly couldn't budge
and knew it was so.
-Raymond Souster
(I wish I'd been there)
something or someone said
"That's the very last drop going over."
And the startled waterfall
suddenly couldn't budge
and knew it was so.
-Raymond Souster
The Hold Up
Stripped of leaves,
surprised -
the trees
scrape the grey winter sky
with veined brittle arms.
-M Nourbese Philip
surprised -
the trees
scrape the grey winter sky
with veined brittle arms.
-M Nourbese Philip
Winter Walk in Forest
All else
is so
perfectly still
my breathing sounds
like gusts of wind
my joints
like frozen branches
cracking
All around me
invisible animals
must also be listening
But only
to how close
my boots
snap the snowcrust.
-George Swede
is so
perfectly still
my breathing sounds
like gusts of wind
my joints
like frozen branches
cracking
All around me
invisible animals
must also be listening
But only
to how close
my boots
snap the snowcrust.
-George Swede
Munchausen in Alberta
Our first winter in the settlement,
the old man said,
January was so cold
the flames in the lamp froze.
The women picked them like strawberries
and gave them to the children to eat.
That's the only time
I was ever a fire-eater.
-Elizabeth Brewster
the old man said,
January was so cold
the flames in the lamp froze.
The women picked them like strawberries
and gave them to the children to eat.
That's the only time
I was ever a fire-eater.
-Elizabeth Brewster
Surprise
I feel like the ground in winter,
Hard, cold, dark, dead, unyielding.
Then hope pokes through me
Like a crocus.
-Jean Little
Hard, cold, dark, dead, unyielding.
Then hope pokes through me
Like a crocus.
-Jean Little
North Stream
Ice mothers me
My bed is rock
Over sand I move silently.
I am crystal clear
To a sunbeam.
No grasses grow in me
My banks are clean.
Foam runs from the rapid
To rest in my dark pools.
-F. R. Scott
My bed is rock
Over sand I move silently.
I am crystal clear
To a sunbeam.
No grasses grow in me
My banks are clean.
Foam runs from the rapid
To rest in my dark pools.
-F. R. Scott
from On a Shell-strewn Beach
I have come seeking
The infinite cipher
And sum of all wisdom
Inscribed on a grain
Of sand that can lie
In the palm of my hand.
-Kathleen Raine
The infinite cipher
And sum of all wisdom
Inscribed on a grain
Of sand that can lie
In the palm of my hand.
-Kathleen Raine
Confessions
Wanting to know all
I overlooked each particle
Containing the whole
Unknowable.
Intent on one great love, perfect,
Requited and for ever,
I missed love's everywhere
Small presence, thousand-guised.
And lifelong have been reading
Book after book, searching
For wisdom, but bringing
Only my own understanding.
Forgive me, forgiver,
Whether you be infinite omniscient
Or some unnoticed other
My existence has hurt.
Being what I am
What could I do but wrong?
Yet love can bring
To heart healing
To chaos meaning.
-Kathleen Raine
I overlooked each particle
Containing the whole
Unknowable.
Intent on one great love, perfect,
Requited and for ever,
I missed love's everywhere
Small presence, thousand-guised.
And lifelong have been reading
Book after book, searching
For wisdom, but bringing
Only my own understanding.
Forgive me, forgiver,
Whether you be infinite omniscient
Or some unnoticed other
My existence has hurt.
Being what I am
What could I do but wrong?
Yet love can bring
To heart healing
To chaos meaning.
-Kathleen Raine
A Spell For Creation
Within the flower there lies a seed,
Within the seed there springs a tree,
Within the tree there spreads a wood.
In the wood there burns a fire,
And in the fire there melts a stone,
Within the stone a ring of iron.
Within the ring there lies an O,
Within the O there looks an eye,
In the eye there swims a sea,
And in the sea reflected sky,
And in the sky there shines the sun,
Within the sun a bird of gold.
Within the bird there beats a heart,
And from the heart there flows a song,
And in the song there sings a word.
In the word there speaks a world,
A world of joy, a world of grief,
From joy and grief there springs my love.
Oh love, my love, there springs a world,
And on the world there shines a sun,
And in the sun there burns a fire,
Within the fire consumes my heart,
And in my heart there beats a bird,
And in the bird there wakes an eye,
Within the eye, earth, sea and sky,
Earth, sky and sea within an O
Lie like the seed within the flower.
-Kathleen Raine
Within the seed there springs a tree,
Within the tree there spreads a wood.
In the wood there burns a fire,
And in the fire there melts a stone,
Within the stone a ring of iron.
Within the ring there lies an O,
Within the O there looks an eye,
In the eye there swims a sea,
And in the sea reflected sky,
And in the sky there shines the sun,
Within the sun a bird of gold.
Within the bird there beats a heart,
And from the heart there flows a song,
And in the song there sings a word.
In the word there speaks a world,
A world of joy, a world of grief,
From joy and grief there springs my love.
Oh love, my love, there springs a world,
And on the world there shines a sun,
And in the sun there burns a fire,
Within the fire consumes my heart,
And in my heart there beats a bird,
And in the bird there wakes an eye,
Within the eye, earth, sea and sky,
Earth, sky and sea within an O
Lie like the seed within the flower.
-Kathleen Raine
Maples
How much of magic
still lies between
first-sipped rain
and the soon-to-follow
branch-shy showing
of the buds?
-Raymond Souster
still lies between
first-sipped rain
and the soon-to-follow
branch-shy showing
of the buds?
-Raymond Souster
Change
Change
Said the sun to the moon,
You cannot stay.
Change
Says the moon to the waters,
All is flowing.
Change
Says the fields to the grass,
Seed-time and harvest,
Chaff and grain.
You must change said,
Said the worm to the bud,
Though not to a rose,
Petals fade
That wings may rise
Borne on the wind.
You are changing
said death to the maiden, your wan face
To memory, to beauty.
Are you ready to change?
Says the thought to the heart, to let her pass
All your life long
For the unknown, the unborn
In the alchemy
Of the world's dream?
You will change,
says the stars to the sun,
Says the night to the stars.
-Kathleen Raine
Said the sun to the moon,
You cannot stay.
Change
Says the moon to the waters,
All is flowing.
Change
Says the fields to the grass,
Seed-time and harvest,
Chaff and grain.
You must change said,
Said the worm to the bud,
Though not to a rose,
Petals fade
That wings may rise
Borne on the wind.
You are changing
said death to the maiden, your wan face
To memory, to beauty.
Are you ready to change?
Says the thought to the heart, to let her pass
All your life long
For the unknown, the unborn
In the alchemy
Of the world's dream?
You will change,
says the stars to the sun,
Says the night to the stars.
-Kathleen Raine
The Muse as Medusa
I saw you once, Medusa; we were alone.
I looked you straight in the cold eye, cold.
I was not punished, was not turned to stone.
How to believe the legends I am told?
I came naked as any little fish,
Prepared to be hooked, gutted, caught;
But I saw you, Medusa, made my wish,
And when I left you I was clothed in thought…
Prepared to be hooked, gutted, caught;
But I saw you, Medusa, made my wish,
And when I left you I was clothed in thought…
Being allowed, perhaps, to swim my way
Through the great deep and on the rising tide,
Flashing wild streams, as free and rich as they,
Though you had power marshaled on you side.
The fish escaped to many a magic reef;
The fish explored many a dangerous sea–
The fish, Medusa, did not come to grief,
But swims still in fluid mystery.
Forget the image: your silence is my ocean,
And even now, it teems with life. You chose
To abdicate by total lack of motion,
But did it work, for nothing really froze?
It is all fluid still, that world of feeling
Where thoughts, those, silent, feed and rove;
And, fluid, it is also full of healing,
For love is healing, even rootless love.
I turned your face around! It was my face.
That frozen rage is what I must explore -
Oh, secret, self-enclosed and ravaged place!
That is the gift I thank Medusa for.
-May Sarton
Address to My Soul
My soul, be not disturbed
By planetary war;
Remain securely orbed
In this contracted star.
Fear not, pathetic flame;
Your sustenance is doubt:
Glassed in translucent dream
They cannot stuff you out.
Wear water, or a mask
Of unapparent cloud;
Be brave and never ask
A more defunctive shroud.
The universal points
Are shrunk into a flower;
Between in delicate joints
Chaos keeps no power.
The pure integral form,
Austere and silver-dark,
Is balanced on the storm
In its predestined arc.
Small as a sphere of rain
It slides along the groove
Whose path is furrowed plain
Among the suns that move.
The shapes of April buds
Outlive the phantom year:
Upon the void at odds
The dewdrop falls severe.
Five-petalled flame, be cold:
Be firm, dissolving star:
Accept the stricter mould
That makes you singular.
By planetary war;
Remain securely orbed
In this contracted star.
Fear not, pathetic flame;
Your sustenance is doubt:
Glassed in translucent dream
They cannot stuff you out.
Wear water, or a mask
Of unapparent cloud;
Be brave and never ask
A more defunctive shroud.
The universal points
Are shrunk into a flower;
Between in delicate joints
Chaos keeps no power.
The pure integral form,
Austere and silver-dark,
Is balanced on the storm
In its predestined arc.
Small as a sphere of rain
It slides along the groove
Whose path is furrowed plain
Among the suns that move.
The shapes of April buds
Outlive the phantom year:
Upon the void at odds
The dewdrop falls severe.
Five-petalled flame, be cold:
Be firm, dissolving star:
Accept the stricter mould
That makes you singular.
-Elinor Wylie
from Another Song of a Fool
This great purple butterfly,
In the prison of my hands,
Has a learning in his eye
Not a poor fool understands.
-William Butler Yeats
In the prison of my hands,
Has a learning in his eye
Not a poor fool understands.
-William Butler Yeats
Amo Ergo Sun
Because I love
The sun pours out its rays of living gold
Pours out its gold and silver on the sea.
Because I love
The earth upon her astral spindle winds
Her ecstasy-producing dance.
Because I love
Clouds travel on the winds through wide skies,
Skies wide and beautiful, blue and deep.
Because I love
Wind blows white sails,
The wind blows over flowers, the sweet wind blows.
Because I love
The ferns grow green, and green the grass, and green
The transparent sunlit trees.
Because I love
Larks rise up from the grass
And all the leaves are full of singing birds.
Because I love
The summer air quivers with a thousand wings,
Myriads of jewelled eyes burn in the light.
Because I love
The iridescent shells upon the sand
Takes forms as fine and intricate as thought.
Because I love
There is an invisible way across the sky,
Birds travel by that way, the sun and moon
And all the stars travel that path by night.
Because I love
There is a river flowing all night long.
Because I love
All night the river flows into my sleep,
Ten thousand living things are sleeping in my arms,
And sleeping wake, and flowing are at rest.
-Kathleen Raine
The sun pours out its rays of living gold
Pours out its gold and silver on the sea.
Because I love
The earth upon her astral spindle winds
Her ecstasy-producing dance.
Because I love
Clouds travel on the winds through wide skies,
Skies wide and beautiful, blue and deep.
Because I love
Wind blows white sails,
The wind blows over flowers, the sweet wind blows.
Because I love
The ferns grow green, and green the grass, and green
The transparent sunlit trees.
Because I love
Larks rise up from the grass
And all the leaves are full of singing birds.
Because I love
The summer air quivers with a thousand wings,
Myriads of jewelled eyes burn in the light.
Because I love
The iridescent shells upon the sand
Takes forms as fine and intricate as thought.
Because I love
There is an invisible way across the sky,
Birds travel by that way, the sun and moon
And all the stars travel that path by night.
Because I love
There is a river flowing all night long.
Because I love
All night the river flows into my sleep,
Ten thousand living things are sleeping in my arms,
And sleeping wake, and flowing are at rest.
-Kathleen Raine
from Renascence
The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,—
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat—the sky
Will cave in on him by and by.
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,—
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat—the sky
Will cave in on him by and by.
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Outwitted
Outwitted
He drew a circle that shut me out –
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
-Edwin Markham
He drew a circle that shut me out –
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
-Edwin Markham
A Ritual to Read to Each Other
If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.
And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.
And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider--
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give--yes or no, or maybe--
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
-William Stafford
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.
And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.
And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider--
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give--yes or no, or maybe--
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
-William Stafford
You Say I am Repeating
You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.
-T. S. Eliot
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.
-T. S. Eliot
Account
The history of my stupidity would fill many volumes.
Some would be devoted to acting against consciousness,
Like the flight of a moth which, had it known,
Would have tended nevertheless toward the candle's flame.
Others would deal with ways to silence anxiety,
The little whisper which, though it is a warning, is ignored.
I would deal separately with satisfaction and pride,
The time when I was among their adherents
Who strut victoriously, unsuspecting.
But all of them would have one subject, desire,
If only my own -- but no, not at all; alas,
I was driven because I wanted to be like others.
I was afraid of what was wild and indecent in me.
The history of my stupidity will not be written.
For one thing, it's late. And the truth is laborious.
-Czeslaw Milosz
Some would be devoted to acting against consciousness,
Like the flight of a moth which, had it known,
Would have tended nevertheless toward the candle's flame.
Others would deal with ways to silence anxiety,
The little whisper which, though it is a warning, is ignored.
I would deal separately with satisfaction and pride,
The time when I was among their adherents
Who strut victoriously, unsuspecting.
But all of them would have one subject, desire,
If only my own -- but no, not at all; alas,
I was driven because I wanted to be like others.
I was afraid of what was wild and indecent in me.
The history of my stupidity will not be written.
For one thing, it's late. And the truth is laborious.
-Czeslaw Milosz
Who Shall Deliver Me?
God strengthen me to bear myself;
That heaviest weight of all to bear,
Inalienable weight of care.
All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.
I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?
If I could once lay down myself,
And start self-purged upon the race
That all must run! Death runs apace.
If I could set aside myself,
And start with lightened heart upon
The road by all men overgone!
God harden me against myself,
This coward with pathetic voice
Who craves for ease and rest and joys:
Myself, arch-traitor to myself;
My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe,
My clog whatever road I go.
Yet One there is can curb myself,
Can roll the strangling load from me
Break off the yoke and set me free.
-Christina Rosetti
Canto CXX
I have tried to write Paradise
Do not move
Let the wind speak
that is paradise.
Let the Gods forgive what I
have made
Let those I love try to forgive
what I have made.
-Ezra Pound
I Am Not I
I am not I.
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And at other times I forget.
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
The one who will remain standing when I die.
-Robert Bly
Don't Make Lists
Every day a new flower rises
from your body's fresh soil.
Don't go around looking
for fallen petals
in a fairy tale, when you've
got the golden plant
right here, now,
shooting forth in light from your eyes,
your awakening crown.
Don't make lists,
or explore ancient accounts.
Forget everything you know
and open.
-Dorothy Walters
from your body's fresh soil.
Don't go around looking
for fallen petals
in a fairy tale, when you've
got the golden plant
right here, now,
shooting forth in light from your eyes,
your awakening crown.
Don't make lists,
or explore ancient accounts.
Forget everything you know
and open.
-Dorothy Walters
He Drew Windows Everywhere
He drew windows everywhere.
On walls too high,
on walls too low,
on blunt walls, in corners,
on air and even on roofs.
He drew windows as if drawing birds.
On the floor, on nights,
on glances tangibly deaf,
on death's outskirts,
on tombs, trees.
He drew windows even on doors.
But he never drew a door.
He didn't want to enter or leave.
He knew one can't.
He only wanted to see: to see.
He drew windows.
Everywhere.
-Roberto Juarroz
On walls too high,
on walls too low,
on blunt walls, in corners,
on air and even on roofs.
He drew windows as if drawing birds.
On the floor, on nights,
on glances tangibly deaf,
on death's outskirts,
on tombs, trees.
He drew windows even on doors.
But he never drew a door.
He didn't want to enter or leave.
He knew one can't.
He only wanted to see: to see.
He drew windows.
Everywhere.
-Roberto Juarroz
Last Night I Was Sleeping
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvelous error! -
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvelous error! -
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvelous error ! -
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvelous error! -
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.
-Anthony Machado
I dreamt - marvelous error! -
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvelous error! -
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvelous error ! -
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt - marvelous error! -
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.
-Anthony Machado
I Talk to My Body
My body, you are an animal
whose appropriate behavior
is concentration and discipline.
An effort
of an athlete, of a saint and of a yogi.
Well trained,
you may become for me
a gate
through which I will leave myself
and a gate
through which I will enter myself.
A plumb line to the center of the earth
and a cosmic ship to Jupiter.
My body, you are an animal
for whom ambition
is right.
Splendid possibilities
are open to us.
-Anna Swir
whose appropriate behavior
is concentration and discipline.
An effort
of an athlete, of a saint and of a yogi.
Well trained,
you may become for me
a gate
through which I will leave myself
and a gate
through which I will enter myself.
A plumb line to the center of the earth
and a cosmic ship to Jupiter.
My body, you are an animal
for whom ambition
is right.
Splendid possibilities
are open to us.
-Anna Swir
from On Angels
There, where the world is turned inside out,
a heavy fabric embroidered with stars and beasts,
you stroll, inspecting the trustworthy seams.
-Czeslaw Milosz
a heavy fabric embroidered with stars and beasts,
you stroll, inspecting the trustworthy seams.
-Czeslaw Milosz
from The Ninth Elegy
Earth, isn’t this what you want: to arise within us,
invisible? Isn’t it your dream
to be wholly invisible someday? –O Earth: invisible!
What, if not transformation, is your urgent command?
Earth, my dearest, I will. Oh believe me, you no longer
need your springtimes to win me over–one of them,
ah, even one, is already too much for my blood.
Unspeakably I have belonged to you, from the first.
You were always right, and your holiest inspiration
is our intimate companion, Death.
Look, I am living. On what? Neither childhood nor future
grows any smaller . . . . . Superabundant being
wells up in my heart.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
invisible? Isn’t it your dream
to be wholly invisible someday? –O Earth: invisible!
What, if not transformation, is your urgent command?
Earth, my dearest, I will. Oh believe me, you no longer
need your springtimes to win me over–one of them,
ah, even one, is already too much for my blood.
Unspeakably I have belonged to you, from the first.
You were always right, and your holiest inspiration
is our intimate companion, Death.
Look, I am living. On what? Neither childhood nor future
grows any smaller . . . . . Superabundant being
wells up in my heart.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
The Sun
All colors come from the sun. And it does not have
Any particular color, for it contains them all.
And the whole Earth is like a poem
While the sun above represents the artist.
Whoever wants to paint the variegated world
Let him never look straight up at the sun
Or he will lose the memory of things he has seen.
Only burning tears will stay in his eyes.
Let him kneel down, lower his face to the grass,
And look at the light reflected by the ground.
There he will find everything we have lost:
The stars and the roses, the dusks and the dawns.
-Czeslaw Milosz
Any particular color, for it contains them all.
And the whole Earth is like a poem
While the sun above represents the artist.
Whoever wants to paint the variegated world
Let him never look straight up at the sun
Or he will lose the memory of things he has seen.
Only burning tears will stay in his eyes.
Let him kneel down, lower his face to the grass,
And look at the light reflected by the ground.
There he will find everything we have lost:
The stars and the roses, the dusks and the dawns.
-Czeslaw Milosz
from Time's Passage
To feel everything in every way,
To live everything from all sides,
To be the same thing in all ways possible at the same time,
To realize in oneself all humanity in all moments
In one scattered, extravagant, complete and aloof moment.
-Fernando Pessoa
To live everything from all sides,
To be the same thing in all ways possible at the same time,
To realize in oneself all humanity in all moments
In one scattered, extravagant, complete and aloof moment.
-Fernando Pessoa
Follow Your Destiny
Follow your destiny,
Water you plants,
Love your roses.
The rest is shadow
Of unknown trees.
Reality is always
More or less
Than what we want.
Only we are always
Equal to ourselves.
It's good to live alone,
And noble and great
Always to live simply.
Leave pain on the altar
As an offering to the gods.
See life from a distance.
Never question it.
There's nothing it can
Tell you. The answer
Lies beyond the Gods.
But quietly imitate
Olympus in your heart.
The gods are gods
Because they don't think
About what they are.
-Fernando Pessoa
Water you plants,
Love your roses.
The rest is shadow
Of unknown trees.
Reality is always
More or less
Than what we want.
Only we are always
Equal to ourselves.
It's good to live alone,
And noble and great
Always to live simply.
Leave pain on the altar
As an offering to the gods.
See life from a distance.
Never question it.
There's nothing it can
Tell you. The answer
Lies beyond the Gods.
But quietly imitate
Olympus in your heart.
The gods are gods
Because they don't think
About what they are.
-Fernando Pessoa
Song
Song
There are those who are trying to set fire to the world,
We are in danger.
There is time only to work slowly,
There is no time not to love.
-Deena Metzger
There are those who are trying to set fire to the world,
We are in danger.
There is time only to work slowly,
There is no time not to love.
-Deena Metzger
from Ft. Hood - Nidal Malik Hasan
It is so simple, my dears,
if we love murder,
it will love us back.
-Deena Metzger
if we love murder,
it will love us back.
-Deena Metzger
Rift Valley
Between one world and another,
Lies the rift and the increasing separation,
As the plates of one mind slip away
From the plates of another mind.
I do not question which way I am to go,
But call to my heart to act on the decision made
To follow the soul
Or I will be split apart too,
As so many are,
Between violence
And Beauty.
The violent demands of our everyday life
And the strange beauty of Spirit afar.
I must choose Beauty
No matter the cost in this life.
I must choose and leap
Across the widening valley;
We cannot rest between.
Leap!
Ah Beauty! Receive me in your open arms.
-Deena Metzger
Lies the rift and the increasing separation,
As the plates of one mind slip away
From the plates of another mind.
I do not question which way I am to go,
But call to my heart to act on the decision made
To follow the soul
Or I will be split apart too,
As so many are,
Between violence
And Beauty.
The violent demands of our everyday life
And the strange beauty of Spirit afar.
I must choose Beauty
No matter the cost in this life.
I must choose and leap
Across the widening valley;
We cannot rest between.
Leap!
Ah Beauty! Receive me in your open arms.
-Deena Metzger
from Fire Over Wood
It takes a long time for the fire to catch.
Then the entire stove is enflamed.
Every piece of wood,
alongside the first log, will burn.
Afterwards, there will be coals
to ignite another tender log, and so it goes.
The steadiness of the eternal flame
to stay alight, if sheltered, also in the rain.
***
Be with what you love.
Be immoderate. Avoid caution. Burn steady
so you pass on the heart’s flame.
Yet be vigilant, do not burn the forest down.
-Deena Metzger
Then the entire stove is enflamed.
Every piece of wood,
alongside the first log, will burn.
Afterwards, there will be coals
to ignite another tender log, and so it goes.
The steadiness of the eternal flame
to stay alight, if sheltered, also in the rain.
***
Be with what you love.
Be immoderate. Avoid caution. Burn steady
so you pass on the heart’s flame.
Yet be vigilant, do not burn the forest down.
-Deena Metzger
The Stream's Song
Make way, make way,
You thwarting stones;
Room for my play,
Serious ones.
Do you not fear,
O rocks and boulders,
To feel my laughter
On your broad shoulders?
So you not know
My joy at length
Will all wear out
Your solemn strength?
You will not for ever
Cumber my play:
With joy and son
I clear my way.
Your faith of rock
Shall yield to me,
And be carried away
By the song of my glee.
Crumble, crumble,
Voiceless things;
No faith can last
That never sings.
For the last hour
To joy belongs:
The steadfast perish,
But not the songs.
Yet for a while
Thwart me, O boulders;
I need for laugher
Your serious shoulders.
And when my singing
Has razed your quite,
I shall have lost
Half my delight.
-Lascelles Abercrombie
You thwarting stones;
Room for my play,
Serious ones.
Do you not fear,
O rocks and boulders,
To feel my laughter
On your broad shoulders?
So you not know
My joy at length
Will all wear out
Your solemn strength?
You will not for ever
Cumber my play:
With joy and son
I clear my way.
Your faith of rock
Shall yield to me,
And be carried away
By the song of my glee.
Crumble, crumble,
Voiceless things;
No faith can last
That never sings.
For the last hour
To joy belongs:
The steadfast perish,
But not the songs.
Yet for a while
Thwart me, O boulders;
I need for laugher
Your serious shoulders.
And when my singing
Has razed your quite,
I shall have lost
Half my delight.
-Lascelles Abercrombie
Roll the Dice
if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start.
if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.
go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,
isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance, of
how much you really want to
do it.
and you’ll do it
despite rejection and the worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.
if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like
that.
you will be alone with the gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.
do it, do it, do it.
do it.
all the way
all the way.
you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter, its
the only good fight
there is.
-Charles Bukowsi
To Be Great, Be Whole
To be great, be whole: don't exaggerate
Or leave out any part of you.
Be complete in each thing. Put all you are
Into the least of your acts.
So too in each lake, with its lofty life,
The whole moon shines.
-Fernando Pessoa
Or leave out any part of you.
Be complete in each thing. Put all you are
Into the least of your acts.
So too in each lake, with its lofty life,
The whole moon shines.
-Fernando Pessoa
from Desmond's Song
Hath the pearl less whiteness
Because of its birth?
Hath the violet less brightness
For growing near earth?
-Thomas Moore
Because of its birth?
Hath the violet less brightness
For growing near earth?
-Thomas Moore
Housing Shortage
I tried to live small.
I took a narrow bed.
I held my elbows in to my sides.
I tried to step carefully
And to think softly
And to breathe shallowly
In my portion of air
And to disturb no one.
Yet see how I spread out and I cannot help it.
I take to myself more and more, and I take nothing
That I do not need, but my needs grow like weeds.
All over and invading, I clutter this place
With all the apparatus of living.
You stumble over it daily.
And then my lungs take their fill.
And then you gasp for air.
Excuse me for living.
But, since I am living,
Given inches, I take yards,
Taking yards, dream of miles,
And a landscape, unbounded
And vast in abandon.
And you, dreaming the same.
-Naomi Replansky
I took a narrow bed.
I held my elbows in to my sides.
I tried to step carefully
And to think softly
And to breathe shallowly
In my portion of air
And to disturb no one.
Yet see how I spread out and I cannot help it.
I take to myself more and more, and I take nothing
That I do not need, but my needs grow like weeds.
All over and invading, I clutter this place
With all the apparatus of living.
You stumble over it daily.
And then my lungs take their fill.
And then you gasp for air.
Excuse me for living.
But, since I am living,
Given inches, I take yards,
Taking yards, dream of miles,
And a landscape, unbounded
And vast in abandon.
And you, dreaming the same.
-Naomi Replansky
The Labor Pains of Creativity
I'm like a hive of eggs walking around
bumpy with pregnancies
My experiences collect the honey
My ideas are hatched
by the heat of imagination
incubated in passion
My eggs are in various stages of growth
ready for different times of birth
Some are twins
not identical, but opposites
called Con-flict
neither one will allow birth
Then there are
my identical twins
named Con-form
Each conning their form
to remain form-less
Refusing earthly life
swallowing me
Bearing me down
with their symbiotic dependencies
Having the labor pains
but no delivering
realizing only I can liberate myself
from the greedy needs
of them, me
So pregnant with myself
with the bustling voices
of my hive
Wanting to give birth
Cut the cord
Break the shells
Panicked
that my hive is larger than i
Aware
I must wing my powers
Must deliver
or - be poisoned by my own unborn.
-Carolyn Mary Kleefeld
bumpy with pregnancies
My experiences collect the honey
My ideas are hatched
by the heat of imagination
incubated in passion
My eggs are in various stages of growth
ready for different times of birth
Some are twins
not identical, but opposites
called Con-flict
neither one will allow birth
Then there are
my identical twins
named Con-form
Each conning their form
to remain form-less
Refusing earthly life
swallowing me
Bearing me down
with their symbiotic dependencies
Having the labor pains
but no delivering
realizing only I can liberate myself
from the greedy needs
of them, me
So pregnant with myself
with the bustling voices
of my hive
Wanting to give birth
Cut the cord
Break the shells
Panicked
that my hive is larger than i
Aware
I must wing my powers
Must deliver
or - be poisoned by my own unborn.
-Carolyn Mary Kleefeld
Waiting
You keep waiting for something to happen,
the thing that lifts you out of yourself,
catapults you into doing all the things you've put off
the great things you're meant to do in your life,
but somehow never quite get to.
You keep waiting for the planets to shift
the new moon to bring news,
the universe to align, something to give.
Meanwhile, the pile of papers, the laundry, the dishes the job --
it all stacks up while you keep hoping
for some miracle to blast down upon you,
scattering the piles to the winds.
Sometimes you lie in bed, terrified of your life.
Sometimes you laugh at the privilege of waking.
But all the while, life goes on in its messy way.
And then you turn forty. Or fifty. Or sixty...
and some part of you realizes you are not alone
and you find signs of this in the animal kingdom --
when a snake sheds its skin its eyes glaze over,
it slinks under a rock, not wanting to be touched,
and when caterpillar turns to butterfly
if the pupa is brushed, it will die --
and when the bird taps its beak hungrily against the egg
it's because the thing is too small, too small,
and it needs to break out.
And midlife walks you into that wisdom
that this is what transformation looks like --
the mess of it, the tapping at the walls of your life,
the yearning and writhing and pushing,
until one day, one day
you emerge from the wreck
embracing both the immense dawn
and the dusk of the body,
glistening, beautiful
just as you are.
-Leza Lowitz
from The Object
Settle for
Settle for nothing
Settle for nothing less
Settle for nothing less than
Settle for nothing
less then the
object of your
desire.
Desire. The weight of. The weight of our
desire.Then laugh, cry, but laugh
more than you cry, and when you hold
the world in your hands, love Her.
-Alma Villanueva
Settle for nothing
Settle for nothing less
Settle for nothing less than
Settle for nothing
less then the
object of your
desire.
Desire. The weight of. The weight of our
desire.Then laugh, cry, but laugh
more than you cry, and when you hold
the world in your hands, love Her.
-Alma Villanueva
from The Light of Asia
Fair goes the dancing when the sitar's tuned;
Tune us the sitar neither low nor high,
And we will dance away the hearts of men.
The string o'er stretched breaks, and the music flies;
The string o'er slack is dumb, and the music dies.
Tune us the sitar neither low nor high.
-Edwin Arnold
Tune us the sitar neither low nor high,
And we will dance away the hearts of men.
The string o'er stretched breaks, and the music flies;
The string o'er slack is dumb, and the music dies.
Tune us the sitar neither low nor high.
-Edwin Arnold
Faith - is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not -
Too slender for the eye
It bears the soul as bold
As if it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side -
It joins - behind the Veil
To what, could We presume
The bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.
-Emily Dickinson
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not -
Too slender for the eye
It bears the soul as bold
As if it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side -
It joins - behind the Veil
To what, could We presume
The bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.
-Emily Dickinson
Halfway to Silence
I was halfway to silence
Halfway to land's end
When I heard your voice.
Shall I take you with me?
Shall we go together
All the way to silence,
All the way to land's end?
Is there a choice?
-May Sarton
The Silence
Listen my child, to the silence.
An undulating silence,
a silence
that turns valley and echoes slippery,
bends foreheads
toward the ground.
-Federico Garcia Lorca
An undulating silence,
a silence
that turns valley and echoes slippery,
bends foreheads
toward the ground.
-Federico Garcia Lorca
Waiting
The jeweled cloud sways overhead,
waiting.
Meanwhile, our cells are turning to air,
finer and finer arrangements of light.
-Dorothy Walters
waiting.
Meanwhile, our cells are turning to air,
finer and finer arrangements of light.
-Dorothy Walters
After Long Silence
Speech after long silence; it is right,
All other lovers being estranged or dead,
Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade,
The curtains drawn upon unfriendly night,
That we descant and yet again descant
Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song:
Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young
We loved each other and were ignorant.
-William Butler Yeats
All other lovers being estranged or dead,
Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade,
The curtains drawn upon unfriendly night,
That we descant and yet again descant
Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song:
Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young
We loved each other and were ignorant.
-William Butler Yeats
Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
-Derek Walcott
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
-Derek Walcott
The Pure Rose
The pure rose
Knows no soil
It grows on an alter
To itself. Petals unwilting
Roots white
As angels' tusks.
The pure rose
Feeds on no dew
It distills, rather,
A nectar of silence
Is nourished on light
On light of a luminous vacuum
The pure rose
Knows no hue
Its petals white
As whitest stars
I shall plant
The pure rose
Within the walls
Of oblivion's garden
Where it shall birth
A white weather
-John Sandbach
Knows no soil
It grows on an alter
To itself. Petals unwilting
Roots white
As angels' tusks.
The pure rose
Feeds on no dew
It distills, rather,
A nectar of silence
Is nourished on light
On light of a luminous vacuum
The pure rose
Knows no hue
Its petals white
As whitest stars
I shall plant
The pure rose
Within the walls
Of oblivion's garden
Where it shall birth
A white weather
-John Sandbach
from My Delight and Thy Delight
My delight and thy delight
Walking, like two angels white,
In the gardens of the night.
-Robert Bridges
Walking, like two angels white,
In the gardens of the night.
-Robert Bridges
The Creed of My Heart
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