d r i p

shitataru
(drip)

leak

so as to cover.




bigheartedness.

nought thought

what is given
to get up
and out


naught

(zed)

led

to (two)

thrice

nice tip

no

what's

below

zero

four years
birth and death
behind
I find
isn't easier

fee bee
see
male chickadee
sing
spring
is coming

truthfulness, restraint, non-violence and self-control...
19.260,261



gull
flight feather
downy carnage

peregrine
(perhaps)

more likely
building blinking
stunned it

falling down to ground

found

white grey,

red fur

things
held so tightly
lost
cost
of this,

life




things
held
too tightly
cause
loss
of this-

life.

without sleep
unsettled
listing
in this
wisdom
won
by
failure

At six
I sit
upon a spit
where the river meets the lake
far but calling close
to uncle and father

those moments
of lapping water on a cool afternoon
free of midges
the fish feeding elsewhere

my uncle and father, baritone and bass
beer and elbows on the picnic table
facing the shore
they more musing
than conversation
more away than with each other

as I
out on that rocky point
wash out
among shipping lanes
to another deeper sea


the older me
sixty years
revisits
men still sit at
that table or another
worn grey as lowering sky


I sit
upon the spit
where the river meets the lake
the place
I first
widened
to here.

d i a l o g u e

Οὖτις  O h   't i s   N o b o d y     





"Mi nombre es Nadie, dice Ulises, y esto lo salva del Cíclope".




"My name is Nobody, says Ulysses, and this saves him from the Cyclops."

51. A Manuscript of Ashes. Antonio Muñoz Molina

“Οὖτις ἐμοί γ ' ὄνομα· Οὖτιν δέ με κικλήσκουσι
μήτηρ ἠδὲ πατὴρ ἠδ᾿ ἄλλοι πάντες ἑταῖροι.”


“… My name is Noman; Noman is what my mother and father call me; so likewise do all 

my friends.” 

Odyssey 9.360...420


Nobody is my name. My father and mother call me Nobody, as do all the others who 

are my companions.

9.366-367. The Odyssey

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!
260. Emily Dickinson, 1830 - 1886

Greek has two ways of saying “nobody”. Syntax determines whether the speaker says οὖτις or μή τίς. Both expressions mean “nobody”.  The name of Athena’s mother, Metis (Greek Μῆτις), is is where the pun plays out. Odysseus uses a pun to show his cleverness.

http://cal.byu.edu/macfarlane/Odyssey/outis_in_cyclops_cave.pdf

The four aspirations

beatus ille  - praise of the simple and detached life of the field in front of the life of the city. 
carpe diem
locus amoenus - pleasant place, idealization of reality 
tempus fugit -  running time, awareness of it.

Beatus ille qui procul negotiis, ut prisca gens mortalium  paterna rura bobus exercet suis, solutus omni faenore, neque excitatur classico thousands truci neque horret iratum mare, viticulture et superba civium potentiorum limina.

Blessed is he who, far from business,  like the old race of men,  spends his time working the father's fields with his own oxen,  free of all debt,  and does not wake up, like the soldier, upon hearing the bloody trumpet of war ,  nor is it frightened by the anger of the sea,  staying away from the forum and the proud thresholds  of powerful citizens ».

Horace , Epodos , 2, 1.

past

passing

those I wish to remember

to not fall away from the teaching

resolute

attentive

disciplined

she an island

no flood can

overwhelm

2.25 dhammpada

again

doesn't

begin to

never

will.

g r i e f

The mouth

with

too many words is

closing the door.

The lips

clamp shut

but

the tongue races

from roof to floor.

Departures

steadily increase.

Around the jaw,

laws of motion

set sounds

moving south.

The throat,

a drawer

where

more than this

is kept,

opens.

Sound

moving down

unfolds.

Put it on.

Pursue the syllabic.

Unafraid

follow

and fall apart,

below the heart,

into a voice that is yours alone.

Conscience is
a knawing at the heart
forging oneself
strong, resilient,
right-minded


rise up
cut through
as diamond upon stone

re doubt able