Wednesday, October 31, 2012

guest house



this being human is a guest house
every morning a new arrival.
a joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
welcome and entertain them all!
even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
he may be clearing you out for some new delight.
the dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.


rumi

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

the empty branches


don't grieve, anything you lose comes round in another form.

rumi

Monday, October 29, 2012

autumn pushes forward



autumn moves on inexorably with its falling leaves and blowing winds and steel blue water and grey scale skies and children wearing more and more and showing up to play on the schoolyard before school later and later and a feeling of reluctance to go outside and a layering of clothes when i bike anywhere and shoes and gloves drying over heating vents and the sound of city trucks picking up leaves at all hours and i feel this sadness as the last vestiges of summer wrapped in gold and crimson and washed out brown fall and disappear but then - this brave friendship . . . these two trees somehow merged and ignoring the imperative, carry on with their lives as if nothing . . . nothing else matters . . . . .

Sunday, October 28, 2012

onlyness


two weeks ago . . . 

i rode by her and then went back because 
she was truly beautiful

and now she's entirely 
dropped
her leaves to the ground
where they have been raked and bagged
and sent to the composting site

and i know 
as i ride by her
that she's inside
her body

feeling 
the bareness
the stark thin
spindly
onlyness
of her winterbody

Saturday, October 27, 2012

all the small petals



in the soft
centre
of the garden
of your heart

rest the colours
and
all the small petals

of all that you have loved
and love

Friday, October 26, 2012

riches



real wealth
glows

Thursday, October 25, 2012

little lake



i ride past this scene each morning and most evenings.

it changes each and every day.

the slight expansivenesss of it always makes my heart swell

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

and away . . .





i especially love the days when i feel as if i am falling upwards . . . 

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

self-completing



happy the self-completing tree
that brews, in secret,
its own seasons . . .

   (excerpted from)   dorothy livesay, "the land,"

Monday, October 22, 2012

morning song




Sunday, October 21, 2012

away light



the away light signal
crossed and bare -

 a fractured kind of colour
held momentarily
still
as soft pink salmon flesh
and vanilla ice cream
and the palest flares of leaves
still holding

Saturday, October 20, 2012

these colours that wash


in the morning, i come down the stairs and past this window. 
if i pass this window at the right time
the sun passes through
the stained glass and throws
a tiny film of coloured light
across the banister
and if i stand behind the banister
the colours wash across my face

i think

because i can't see myself of course

with all the little colours
washing

across my face

Friday, October 19, 2012

ruth's eighty first birthday!




this is a special day for me. more special even than most. you see my mum - ruth - is celebrating her eighty first birthday today.

she doesn't quite match the image of eighty one that i and perhaps you might see in your mind's eye.

today, yes on her birthday, she's flying to england for the weekend to visit with adoring good friends, do some shopping and to travel around to see some special places.

what she'll return to is her role as a walker at the local dog shelter, a supporter of the local donkey sanctuary, a preparer of gift baskets used to raise money for the huntington's foundation, loving tenderer of her garden, bottler of all sorts of awesome preserves (especially pickled beets which i could eat 'till i was sick) friend to many, sister in law to her closest friend margaret, gramma to alan, dawson and lexie, and of course mum to myself and my brother david.

my mum is (among many other things) well read, well movied, well musicked,
thoughtful, reflective, sensitive, and i would underscore several times - driven!

there's lots more about her but really, you get my drift. she's not sitting around any more than she has to. 
actually i don't think she knows how!

i'm very grateful for my mum - she brought me into this world at great personal effort - a couple of days of work . . . . . and stuck with me from then on, through thick and thin.

have you had a "difficult" child? then you know what ruth dealt with while pursuing a career, and managing the rest of her not entirely easy life!!!

nope, it's not been easy but then i think that my mum would ask "why should it be?" and then go after whatever's next in her line of sight.

much of what i value in myself has its roots in my mum. either she showed me how to be or i figured it out by standing on her shoulders and having a look-see.

i love you mum, no more this day than any other but this one is special for the most obvious of reasons!


Thursday, October 18, 2012

the wires


one morning i woke up and saw the wires that bring all the goodness from brother sun 
and help spread it across the world . . . 


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

looking out

i live on a very quiet street.

filled with falling leaves, squirrels running every which way, and today - rain falling. 

among the many fortunes of my life is this little portion of what i see from my front porch . . . 


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

words to the boomers - hey thanks!


i think the great magical thing about the boomers is that they brought so much magic back to the forefront - well maybe i should be cautious and say - some of them brought so much magic to the forefront and then they pushed the envelope of understanding and perception and welcomed back pieces of the earth and her spirit and then also the spiritual - into this place and i am the grateful recipient of this wave of loving energy that is likely the first little pieces of wood on the great bridge that we as people (for now) are creating between what was and what will be and i cannot and don't really wish to forget the past but i can't settle into it's sometimes but not always and in every way sorry sad messed upness for too long because there's work to be done that doesn't benefit from me looking over my shoulder for too very long, so, i look forward and try my damndest to recognize my place in the great work and help get it done . . . cuz some day someone will wake up and not know about war or dopiness or malice or spite and i'd so like to think that perhaps through the collective efforts of people living their own simple lives in good ways and bringing whatever goodness they can into this world, that this simple vision . . . this simple possibility . . . can become what is. peace. love. out!

Monday, October 15, 2012

all the colours you are



i dance
in the wild garden
that is 
you

Sunday, October 14, 2012

thinking ahead




who'll know this life of mine
who'll care enough to wonder
who'll wish they'd asked me questions
who'll wonder what i did
will i 
have done
all that's necessary
to merit
their interest

Saturday, October 13, 2012

my ordeal



my ordeal in you is that
     i take no heed of my ordeal.
your nearness is like your farness.
     when is the moment of my rest?

Friday, October 12, 2012

of many distances



silent friend of many distances, feel
how your breath enlarges all of space.
let your presence ring out like a bell
into the night. what feeds upon your face

grows mighty from the nourishment thus offered.
move through transformation, out and in.
what is the deepest loss that you have suffered?
if drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine.

in this immeasurable darkness, be the power
that rounds your senses in their magic ring,
the sense of their mysterious encounter.

and if the earthly no longer knows your name,
whisper to the silent earth: i'm flowing.
to the flashing water say: i am.

rainer maria rilke

Thursday, October 11, 2012

strange flares


o lamps of fiery lure,
in whose shining transparence
the deep cavern of the senses,
blind and obscure,
warmth and light, with strange flares,
gives with the lover's caresses!

how tame and loving
your memory rises in my breast,
where secretly only you live,
and in your fragrant breathing,
full of goodness and grace,
how delicately in love you make me feel!

john of the cross

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

we fall into each other with such grace




at night we fall into each other with such grace.
when it's light, you throw me back
like you do your hair.

your eyes now drunk with God,
mine with looking at you,
one drunkard takes care of another.

rumi

Monday, October 8, 2012

without a plan



the sweet and colourful
cacophony
of autumn

Sunday, October 7, 2012

petalled threshold



the altar

let us build here an exquisite friendship,
the flame, the autumn, and the green rose of love
fought out their strife here, 'tis a place of wonder;
where these have been, meet 'tis, the ground is holy.

ezra pound

Saturday, October 6, 2012

worlds within worlds




while listening the singing


like a wind, voice of woman is flying,
seems the black one and wet and of night,
and the things it is easily touching –
all become of the other one kind.
it floods all with the diamond glaring,
somewhere something it silvers for flash,
and, with its unbelievable dressing
of a silk, it is making a splash.
and such strengths, such unusual powers
carry forward the spellbound voice,
as if farther is not grave of ours,
but a ladder the heaven across.

anna akhmatova

Friday, October 5, 2012

hardship


i admire this man so deeply . . .the dalai lama . . .

he said on september 24th . . . "hardship, in forcing us to exercise greater patience and forbearance in daily life, actually makes us stronger and more robust. from the daily experience of hardship comes a greater capacity to accept difficulties without losing our sense of inner calm. of course, i do not advocate seeking out hardship as a way of life, but merely wish to suggest that, if you relate to it constructively, it can bring greater inner strength and fortitude."

much of the work of tearing ourselves away from the features of our past that have held us in check . . . or maybe it would be more truthful to write . . . that we hold ourselves in check for in order to maintain their 'integrity' . . . have contained and bring into play, considerable hardship for each of us.

the work of building bridges away from that past and then reaching across the great space between the present and the future also involves degrees of hardship . . . but it's a quality of hardship that contains love and goodness and creativity and most especially . . . hope . . .


my view in this moment is that hardship that evokes hope,
is entirely worthy . . . . . .  and desirable

Thursday, October 4, 2012

life as art



“the purpose of art is not the release of adrenaline but rather the gradual, 
lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.”

glenn gould

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

so near



it feels
as if
we need each other
this much
while 
needing each other
this little

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

facing



this tree

this man

watching
each the other

blur
into discontinuity

Monday, October 1, 2012

mirror skewed



i was sitting by a slow moving shallow river
watching the sky being just so
and forming into tender sweet clouds of white mist
oh so perfectly mirror skewed in the little
close to the shore ripples
of water stirred up by my children
whose excitement was whorled into
an oily smear carried
like a holy and other
completeness
until
washed out thin
and dissipated
it drifted
downstream