Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Monday, December 30, 2019



Swim for your life, goddess of the sea!
Poisoning angels surround you.


Saturday, December 28, 2019

post-poems

A waning crescent present
as rain meets sleet.
Some slandering done
between them.
Sleet's won.

Slate streets,
Lamplight lit,
cold blue, old yellow.
A bridge slants up, a ridge
rising, bricked, nicked with
black rectangles.

River runs under thin ice,
and above, a white sky as dark as,
as dankly thick as a
wet stone.

Cold.

___________________________

a street poem passage

red hand
white walker
decorated trees
(these faintly it)
alongside, signs -
coraga, in Hindu
"Will do"
ede, in haitian Creole,
"help"
saba, in Swahili,
"seven"
Will do. Help seven.
Give Michigan back
its pure water.
Alem, in Arabic,
is a world, a scientist,
a scholar.
Altered -
a "convenient corner" now exists in the middle
of the block.
Lots of languages line this street.
Meet
black hands,
brown walkers,
end in water.
Step through time,
glass, alongside prime numbers -
indivisible.
Signs off.
Water rises.

_____________________________________

On Ebay,
someone's selling
an AMPUTEE's
left women's shoe
an 8
condition new,
true to size.
Few may, but I find it
touching,
something, say,
optimistic.
It's soft suede,
pup-colored
taupe,
this slipped on,
one-off.

_______________________________________

Hit or hiss?
Missed
"Clinton" as
"Clitori"
Slipped!
Fehlleistungen,
a faulty functioning
tongue.
One woman's mores
when speaking about hate? Too late to shut up, had to go on.
Signorelli paraphraxes are
wrong creations of English translation, but, butt,
the body remains
here.
We're, I'm, conscious of it,
in your overactive, young man's imagination.
Let's look to another meaning
because I don't want you, or Hilary.
Perhaps
revisit
Dostoyevsky's
white bear
at the door?
No.
So, instead,
look to
errors, 1-2,
few,
for every 1,000 words said.
Rudolph Meninger.
Sir,
please continue on about
"intrusions of letters
not meanings" or flesh.
Less sex, more vowels.

s p o o n e r i s m s
_________________________________________________

How to construct a story so that the story is large and the writing is small.

Tall order.

__________________________________________________

Bob, barely audible,
not in bed but chair,
said
in "A"
there are passages,
very remarkable,
in Chapters 22 through 24.

__________________________________________________









Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Santa is a bad-ass warrior,
riding around
this troubled world
without a gun.
Yeah, he's loaded,
all right,
breaks into homes,
to give, not take.
Still, surely shooting him
is a property right.
He could be cited for
violating ordinances,
late night loudness,
reindeer shit on roofs,
littering lawns with lost bows
and god-knows-what.
All night long,
and heading home at dawn,
I'm sure he speeds,
needs to at least be cautioned.
But who wants to confront a
magical old man in red and white?
That fight's lopsided, in his favor.
He's a flight risk, for sure.
That herd of deer he's trained?
They fly,
would definitely rescue the guy
from any cell, no matter how secure.
So yeah, I guess
we'll just
wait for him to go
back to the Pole,
the old troublemaker.



Monday, December 23, 2019

Saturday, December 21, 2019

from Underland by Robert Macfarlane:

Undersight -
he found
the gruffy ground
of Mendip Hills, 
and the Aveline Hole,
full of it.

After ruckled rock,
above
a swallet,
nine barrows, sun,
and Persephone green.

The silver cube in Yorkshire,
down deep,
seeking the star's dark matter.













Doctor Rebecca Elson, dark matter seeker, 
says it's as if
"all there were were fireflies,
and from them you could infer the meadow." .58

____________________________________

WIMPS weakening interacting massive particles
and neutrinos are called
ghost particles.

Yet to them we, the small percentage of things made of baryonic matter,
are the ghosts and they flow through us endlessly.
"the blue aura left that ghost-struck atom (us, I say to myself, us!) - annihilation's afterglow .59



_______________________________________

"how to weave a net that might catch these quick fish" .58
(subatomic dark matter particles)

______________________________________







1

It isn't what you think.

2

By the way, I'm not.

3

You may think so.

4

As if you knew who knew.

Do you?

5

Still, ...

6

You'd better ...

7

If I had known ...

8

So from now on ...

9

There's no use in ...

10

Might as well ...

11

Yeah.

12

I thought you'd say that.






what to do with nothing
the self limitations of something

the everything in anything 

Thursday, December 19, 2019

poems - upon waking/ found

0
Catholics
are afraid of
falling, falling
heights and bridges
My bridges over
Muybridge's waterfalls


1

Old Eusebius
who will kill
without skill
while I remember others
emptied of promises


2
 (a holiday)

Raise
a full cup,
witness
an orphaned calf,
as the whole moon
embraces
sun-culled
beasts.
Feasts are
funerals.

A mound
half round
was once a dun.
Ruins.
Fortresses fall.

3

Gilded edges,
books, clay, stone,
words alone
mean nothing.
Yet I write,
fight
for solicitude.

I came to this world of reading
but was not completed
as I imagined.
The longing that exists between things
has remained with me.
It has always been my guide.

4
私たち 
we are
polyrhthymic
intrapersonal
intelligences.
respect our
b o u n d a r i e s.

a map

abhidharma

Abhidharma (Sanskrit) or Abhidhamma (Pali) are ancient (3rd century BCE and later) Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic reworkings of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist sutras, according to schematic classifications.
Pali: अभिधम्म
Sinhala: අභිධර්ම; (abhidharma)
Sanskrit: अभिधर्म
English: higher teaching, meta-teaching

5
私たちが考える全てを信じない!
watachitachi ga  kangaeru   sugete   o       shinjinai
Not believing everything we think!

6
(found on an abandoned theatre marquee in Sagamihara near the Yabe St. (Sagami) army base)

It's impossible to change into something you long for.
You could be able to change the future on your own.
That's the reason why we continue to something exciting.









Monday, December 16, 2019


breathe in
sounds
of a house
falling down
around its edges
unearthed dirt
underneath
a century



hornehinde





Fuchs Dystrophy



(hornehinde)

Der er mere end en blindhed i alderdomme.

(cornea)

There is more than one blindness in old age.

boats

1
Consider an edible rice paper project -
boats embellished with
gold leaf
sails.

2
Deliverance from pride
begins with the
wisdom of sameness.
Imagine broken, mended
paper boats.

3
Ship are repaired
in Great Lake yards
while shards of wreck
lie at the bottom of
Michigan.

(and others)

4
In Vinjeøra, Norway
they found 2 boats,
one nested in another.
The smaller held
a woman with round brooches,
an Irish cross,
pearls,
two pairs
of scissors,
weaver's tools,
a cow's head.

5
Auðumbla* is
the hornless cow
that Snorlsson
has lick
into existence
the gods.
Imagine 
a boat filled with milk,
upon a 
wine-dark sea.

6

Will a lost boat
find harbor or floor?
More boats die 
than live. 

7

Heaven is a beach
facing east.
Along the edges,
near calm water,
fisherfolk have
boats with painted eyes,
that lie aground 
while their
wet nets dry.

8

I imagine looking out to sea.
At the horizon appears 
a paper and gold
flotilla.
I reach out,
long, long armed,
and draw one after another 
safely to shore.

9

I hear the low of a cow,
a clacking loom.
This morning,
somewhere in the world
children
swam among 
tiny bronzed boats,
that they suddenly 
lifted and hurled
into the sky.

Who knew those boats could fly?


* Auðumbla English = Ow' em bla
                      Danish = Au' them bla 
                   Icelandic = Oi' them ble


Sunday, December 15, 2019

えがお 笑顔 [egao - smiling face]




わらがお
笑い顔
wasagao

Akarui egao de futatsu wa hikarigayamisai  o ayumihashi no tanda.
  •                   あか            明るい
  • えがお笑顔
  • ふたり2人
  • ひかりかがや光り輝く
  • みらい未来
  • あゆ歩み
  • はじ始めた
  • んだ
           Smiling cheerfully, the two began to walk off into their brilliant future.

What became of father? We are all two decades older than he in this photo.
I see his teeth in yours - three smiles even-toothed, wide and open.
Perhaps he had just bellowed a deep roar to cause your joy.
Look.
His coarse calloused hand's
worn round that circle of warmth and brightness - his wedding ring.
Soon will come, as in any family, death and suffering.
Later, I see you, me, we, on our knees, praying
Pater Noster, Ave Maria.
Who dares tear us apart?
Dad, you gave us your pure bass heart,
kept filling the holes around our dark-haired heads
with halos,
pointing out lights in the distance.


inugami

                                                                                   いぬがみ
犬神

The heroine is a papermaker. 
Is she mad, possessed, evil? 
She holds within her body
generations of women, 
guardians against evil. She is asked to sacrifice. 
In this family, men made wars and lost them, gambled,
abused wives, ignored children, crushed dreams, raped,
whined for love, killed for themselves.

Who is mad, possessed, evil?

Break the urn that captures you. 
Fly away.
Choose
translucency.
Love
strongly, freely.








pushpaputa mudra





せいしん 精神

せいしん
精神



Thursday, December 12, 2019

Gaudete



The complete text of "Gaudete", including the refrain:
LatinEnglish
Gaudete, gaudete!
Christus est natus
Ex Maria virgine,
gaudete!
Rejoice, rejoice![a]
Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary –
Rejoice!
Tempus adest gratiæ
Hoc quod optabamus,
Carmina lætitiæ
Devote reddamus.
The time of grace has come—
What we have wished for;
Songs of joy
Let us give back faithfully.
Deus homo factus est
Natura mirante,
Mundus renovatus est
A Christo regnante
.
God has become man,
With nature marvelling,
The world has been renewed
By the reigning Christ.
Ezechielis porta
Clausa pertransitur,
Unde lux est orta
Salus invenitur.
The closed gate of Ezekiel
Is passed through,
Whence the light is risen;
Salvation has been found.
Ergo nostra contio
Psallat iam in lustro;
Benedicat Domino:
Salus Regi nostro.
Therefore, let our assembly
Now sing in brightness
Let it bless the Lord:
Salvation to our King

stella splendens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-s8ua_4gEg

Ensemble Oni Wytars
https://www.oniwytars.de/index

Stella Splendens (Llibre Vermell, 14th century

aboutAnother of the ten devotional “pilgrim” songs addressed to the Virgin, from the 14th century Catalonian “Llibre Vermell” of Montserrat.

lyrics

Stella splendens in monte ut solis radium
miraculis serrato exaudi populum.

Concurrunt universi gaudentes populi
divites et egeni grandes et parvuli
ipsum ingrediuntur ut cernunt oculi
et inde revertuntur gracijis repleti.
Stella splendens...

Principes et magnates extirpe regia
saeculi potestates obtenta venia
peccaminum proclamant tundentes pectora
poplite flexo clamant hic: Ave Maria.
Stella splendens...

*Coetus hic aggregantur hic ut exhibeant
vota regratiantur ut ipsa et reddant
aulam istam ditantes hoc cuncti videant
jocalibus ornantes soluti redeant.
Stella splendens...

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

Radiant star on the mountain, like a miraculous sunbeam,
hear the divided people.

All joyous people come together:
rich and poor, young and old,
climb the mountain to see with their own eyes,
and return from it filled with grace.
Radiant star…

Rulers and magnates of royal stripes,
the mighty of the world, possessing grace,
proclaim their sins, beating their breast,
and call on bended knee: Ave Maria.
Radiant star…

All these groups assemble here to present themselves,
To remember their vows and keep them as well
By enriching this temple, adorning it with jewels
So that all may see and return in joy, partaking of salvation.
Radiant star…

credits


Wednesday, December 11, 2019

de Born and Motherwell

2 men rang a bell today -
Bertrand de Born,
a soldier, a troubadour,
and Robert Motherwell,
the cave-dweller,
who painted war
and beautiful darkness.

de Born pushed for sin,
sons against father,
didn't win praise from Dante,
who placed him in hell
wandering
head in his hands
singing love laments, satire,
but mostly of deceit,
or praising battle,
poems crafted well
but blood fed,
inglorious.

A framed Motherwell groans
under the weight of its plexiglass,
300 pounds of it,
bowing out into salty sea air
where
the canvas moans
salt sprayed
tasting as a bloodied
lip does.
Motherwell's
war, the dead bulls
of Spain,
are ghosts I feel rise again
in this bleak Midwestern headwind.

Both men are, oddly, connected to me.

I recall when
deBorn blew through my room
in Rocamadour,
an ocean away from where,
a year later,
I painted Motherwell's
old apartment
halfway up a hill
in San Francisco.

Today, during a noontime nap, I dreamt of Pegasus
sleeping in Altamira, next to guns and paintings.

Tonight I ate six pomegranate seeds, wondering
what songs Persephone sang
in the underworld.

All the while deBorn and Motherwell
kept slipping in and out of my mind.




Sunday, December 8, 2019

Written to a Friend Today


As an introvert myself, I often anguish over personal boundaries. But they are necessary to maintain my well-being, and necessary for me to be able to participate compassionately in the world. Keep your warm heart warm, and your poetry can be the door you open (if you wish) to the world.


O virtus Sapientie

Antiphon for Divine Wisdom (R 466rb) by Hildegard of Bingen

O virtus Sapientie,
que circuiens circuisti,
comprehendendo omnia
in una via que habet vitam,
tres alas habens,
quarum una in altum volat
et altera de terra sudat
et tercia undique volat.
Laus tibi sit, sicut te decet, O Sapientia.
                                    O Wisdom’s energy!
                                   Whirling, you encircle
                                    and everything embrace
                                    in the single way of life.
                                      Three wings you have:
                                   one soars above into the heights,
                                       one from the earth exudes,
                                       and all about now flies the third.
                                      Praise be to you, as is your due, O Wisdom.

Latin collated from the transcription of Beverly Lomer and the edition of Barbara Newman; translation by Nathaniel M. Campbell.



Strength of Wisdom
who, circling, circled,
enclosing all
the one that has in one of the way of life,
three wings;
one soars
moisture from the earth, and the other
On the third reading is everywhere.
All praise to you, as is fitting, O Wisdom.





The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore

Avalokiteshvara
while practicing deeply with
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore,
suddenly discovered that
all of the five Skandhas are equally empty,
and with this realisation
he overcame all Ill-being.
“Listen Sariputra,
this Body itself is Emptiness
and Emptiness itself is this Body.
This Body is not other than Emptiness
and Emptiness is not other than this Body.
The same is true of Feelings,
Perceptions, Mental Formations,
and Consciousness.
“Listen Sariputra,
all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;
their true nature is the nature of
no Birth no Death,
no Being no Non-being,
no Defilement no Purity,
no Increasing no Decreasing.
“That is why in Emptiness,
Body, Feelings, Perceptions,
Mental Formations and Consciousness
are not separate self entities.
The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena
which are the six Sense Organs,
the six Sense Objects,
and the six Consciousnesses
are also not separate self entities.
The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising
and their Extinction
are also not separate self entities.
Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being,
the End of Ill-being, the Path,
insight and attainment,
are also not separate self entities.
Whoever can see this
no longer needs anything to attain.
Bodhisattvas who practice
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
see no more obstacles in their mind,
and because there
are no more obstacles in their mind,
they can overcome all fear,
destroy all wrong perceptions
and realize Perfect Nirvana.
“All Buddhas in the past, present and future
by practicing
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
are all capable of attaining
Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment.
“Therefore Sariputra,
it should be known that
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
is a Great Mantra,
the most illuminating mantra,
the highest mantra,
a mantra beyond compare,
the True Wisdom that has the power
to put an end to all kinds of suffering.
Therefore let us proclaim
a mantra to praise
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore.
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!”
The Insight that Brings us to the Other Shore” translation by Thich Nhat Hanh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
"...Don't let Mara destroy you, like a stream does its reeds."
- Dhammapada 24.337













Bhumiparsha

Nesting in my open left  hand
a bird -
her first spring, she sings.
I plant my five right fingers -
they bring forth
saplings.

_________________________

"With spiritual guidance, the delusion of pride becomes the wisdom of sameness."











Varada

Here are two palms,
heaven and earth.
In the air
between,
I've seen a mirror
without
reflections.

________________________












Dhyana

Saykamuni,
Amitibha,
my thanks to you,
who
led him,
hands at peace,
to recite this as he was dying:

Tayata Om Bekandze 
Bekandze Maha Bekandze
Radza Samudgate Soha

(tadyathā:) oṃ bhaiśajye 

bhaiśajye mahābhaiśajye 

bhaiśajyarāje samudgate svāhā.


Deshimaru also knew, as you, the French and Schopenhauer.