butt

cigarette butt at my feet
not mine
the street-sweeper's scowl

shadow

this blossom
that hides in the shadow
. . . not knowing its name

gulls

gulls laughing
at all his jokes
the old man and the sea

toes

touching stars
in the midnight pond
her toes and mine

moon

moon
in the dew
cricket song

april fool's

april fool's day
the color of new leaves
on this old tree

speck

the gull
shrinks to a speck and is gone
evening sky

just one more rasa link (for now) . . .

Rasa Theory and its application to Indian Music

leaves

brushing aside the leaves
to find the moon
grandfather's pond

still more rasa links . . .

Rama Rao P G: Rasa Dhvani Theory ...
Rasa in Sanskrit Drama
Dr Alka Pande

her whisper

her whisper
slippery on my skin
rivulets
become torrents
sweeping my heart away

more links to rasa articles . . .

Rasa, Savoring both Spirit and Matter
Rasa Theory from BlueLife
The Cause and Effect of Rasa
Rasa Theory at enfolding
Rasa-Dhvani Theory

san diego quake

water sloshing
in the toilet
sunday tremors

watching 2010
the tv trembles
easter sunday

ripples
in my whiskey glass
day-after tremors

tremble

my hand trembles
as i dial --
aftershocks

maya

"The word maya comes from the root ma, which means 'to build or measure forth.' Maya has three powers. One power is called the obscuring power; it obscures our understanding of the pure light. The second power is called the projecting power. It converts the pure light into the forms of the phenomenal world as a prism turns white light into colors of the rainbow. These are the powers that turn the transcendent into the temporal, spatial world that we know and all its things.

"Now, if you take the colors and put them on a disk and spin the colors, they will reveal white again. The colors of this world can be so inflected; they can be arranged in so artful a way that they will let you experience through to the true light. This is called the revealing power of maya -- and the function of art is to serve that end. The artist is meant to put the objects of the world together in such a way that through them you will experience that light, that radiance which is the light of our consciousness and which all things both hide and, when properly looked upon, reveal." --Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss.

easter

easter egg hunt
the toddler
delights in poo

the ultimate truth

"The ultimate truth, the ultimate mystery of life and being, is absolutely transcendent. One cannot define the absolute. One cannot picture it. One cannot name it. Nevertheless, that which is absolute being and absolute mystery is also one's own inner reality: one is that. The absolute is both transcendent and immanent: that is to say, both beyond the universe of the senses and within each particle of the universe. All that can be said about it is . . . nothing. All that can be said points to it. Therefore, the symbols, the rites, the rituals, and the acts are involved in a world of human experience but point past themselves to that transcendent, immanent force; the rites and symbols lead one to the realization of one's identity with that absolute. Identity with the transcendent is one's essence . . ." --Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss.

notes

how effortlessly
its wings catch the breeze
notes from a sad song

what i've been reading . . .

"Your bliss can guide you to that transcendent mystery, because bliss is the welling up of the energy to the transcendent wisdom within you. So when the bliss cuts off, you know that you've cut off the welling up; try to find it again. And that will be your Hermes guide, the dog that can follow the invisible trail for you. And that's the way it is. One works out one's own myth that way. --Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss