Saturday, April 30, 2011

a quote . . .

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer. ~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

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the littlest wren's

a quote . . .

kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love. --Kahlil Gibran

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garden wall

Friday, April 29, 2011

a quote . . .

Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. ~Carl Sandburg

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rowing out

a quote . . .

Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement. ~Christopher Fry

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using his own palm

Thursday, April 28, 2011

a quote . . .

"Profound joy of the heart is like a magnet that indicates the path of life." — Mother Teresa

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lightning scar

a quote . . .

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. ~Wallace Stevens

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as if clouds

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

a quote . . .

The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul. -- Wassily Kandinsky

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wind playing

a quote . . .

‘It may not make us rich or famous, but it has something that keeps calling to us, and we answer.’ –jim kacian.

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the river

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

a quote . . .

"Let us be silent that we may hear the whisper of God." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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brushing the dirt again

a quote . . .

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.- Henry Miller

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the stream

Monday, April 25, 2011

a quote . . .

God, the supreme artist, uses our life for the creation of art. We are the instruments through which the force of life expresses itself. We express our art in everything we say, everything we do. The creation is ongoing, it is endless, it is happening in every moment. –Don Miguel Ruiz

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a quote . . .

"The Haiku Journey is a journey everywhere -- and a journey nowhere at the same time. It is eternity -- and it is now. It is: mist scented with petunias; early morning rain; mushroom; cloud shadows.” -- Betty Drevnoik

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a crow caws

the fly too

Sunday, April 24, 2011

a link . . .

a quote . . .

The most important aspect of haiku is the way you must live in order to write haiku. If you live being aware of your senses, trusting them instead of your mind, being non-judgmental, being open to everything and everyone, reverent, accepting yourself and others as not perfect but just what is in this one precious moment of time and rejoicing in life and living it to the fullest – this is your poetry. – Jane Reichhold. Pirene’s Fountain interviews Jane Reichhold With Ami Kaye.

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deeper

a quote . . .

A poem should not mean / But be. ~Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica, 1926

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the old field hand

Saturday, April 23, 2011

a quote . . .

"We cannot always do great things in life, but we can do small things with great love."- Mistu, Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior

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feeling deeply

a quote . . .

A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer.... He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. ~E.B. White

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the bullfrog

Friday, April 22, 2011

a quote . . .

"You can tear a poem apart to see what makes it tick.... You're back with the mystery of having been moved by words. The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps... so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash or thunder in." ~Dylan Thomas, Poetic Manifesto, 1961

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the stream's gurgle

a quote

"It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things." ~Stephen Mallarme

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the way he touches her

Thursday, April 21, 2011

fingers of God

another day

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

a child's voice

a quote . . . a link . . .

this leaf

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

evening breeze

a few links . . .

a quote . . .

'Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.' ~Leonard Cohen

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her voice

a quote . . . a link . . .

feeling the poem

Monday, April 18, 2011

pilgrimage

Sunday, April 17, 2011

a quote . . .

"Human life is involved in the contrast between the ephemeral and the eternal. It is the poet's task to give permanence to what is fleeting, for in language, his special realm, the stamp of the eternal is impressed on the ephemeral." -- H.P. Rickman (in an article on Rilke and Eliot).

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the way

a quote . . .

"The object of our lives is to look at, listen to, touch, taste things. Without them, -these sticks, stones, feathers, shells,- there is no Diety" -- R.H. Blyth

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moss

Saturday, April 16, 2011

a quote . . .

"The only thing I am able to do is make poetry. Even if I don't eat or drink I cannot stop writing haiku . . . For me, to live is to make haiku. Haiku is my life." --Santoka Taneda.

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the gulls

a quote and a link . . .

from 'Sleeping with Strangers': . . . "Being welcomed into someone's home, perhaps the most private place in which to meet, creates instant, deep connection and lasting friendship. In having to tell our own story to others, over and over again, we come to realize certain truths about ourselves. If we are shy, we begin to talk more. If we are brash, we begin to listen. And by witnessing other lives, we open to possibilities that we were once blind to." . . . "CouchSurfing, for all its problems, might well be an example of an online social network that actually works. It brings about real conversation. It harnesses the tools of social networking software to create meaningful in-person encounters-Fenton's 'right person in the right situation at the right time.' And it has begun, however quietly, to pull down the curtains that separate us from one another."

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the dog eats another

Friday, April 15, 2011

on my not-so-'hypothetical' post:

This is my intent, my prayer: I desire playful adventure, joyful surprise, childlike wonder, and meaningful connections; I wish to live fully, laugh frequently and love easily; and to give and receive the gifts of beauty, art and poetry . . . the what and how if it all I surrender to God/Source/Universe. Thank you.

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When Brenda was born, I was so focused on coaching Dawn to breath, that i forgot to breath myself. I hyperventilated and nearly passed out. When Jennifer was born I was determined not to do a repeat of that performance. Everything was going well, I was holding up fine, in fact i was feeling pretty darn proud of myself . . . until the doctor handed me a pair of scissors and asked if I wanted to cut the umbilical cord . . .

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a quote . . .

"May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder." -- John O'Donohue

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a crow's . . .

a quote and a link . . .

the beetle scurries

Thursday, April 14, 2011

update on 'hypothetical' posting . . .

Elizabeth Anne Hill suggested: "The first step would be to spend some time examining your beliefs. Spend time in nature or being very quiet and ask Spirit to guide you on how to take the first steps. Try to go into a space of limitlessness and into the highest state of joy and child-like awe and wonder that you can. Nature tends to help you get to this state. While you are doing that, visualize how you would like your journey to be. Do this for about a month or more and then the opportunity may come right to you." . . . this is where I'm at, this is what I'm doing.

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what's my purpose

a quote . . .

"I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding." -- John O'Donohue

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

daydreaming

a quote . . .

"Poetry is what you find / in the dirt in the corner, / overhear on the bus, God / in the details, the only way / to get from here to there." --Elizabeth Alexander, Ars Poetica #100, I Believe. (a very interesting interview with Elizabeth in this link.)

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

full moon illuminating

Monday, April 11, 2011

a quote . . .

"The standard of success in life isn't the things. It isn't the money or the stuff -- it's absolutely the amount of joy you feel." --Abraham

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i don't mind . . .

Sunday, April 10, 2011

the pupa trembles

Saturday, April 09, 2011

feedback please . . .

Hypothetical situation. Let's say there is this guy, about to turn 50, not sure what he's seeking, but let's say 'experiences to bring him nearer to discovering his authentic self'. Let's describe his personality as: quiet, easy-going, non-judgmental, open-minded, introspective, somewhat naive (okay, gullible when it comes to trusting the 'good' intentions of others), timid in new situations, likes people but likes solitude as well, and somewhat ill-at-ease with the mechanics of living in a day-to-day work-a-day world for any sustained length of time. . . . Let's say his current situation is: unattached to any particular location, lacking any marketable skill for income above minimum wage, zero net worth or financial means (voluntarily surrendered a comfortable lifestyle and meaningless sheltered existence), very few possessions (a modest-sized duffle bag would do it), unencumbered by commitment, responsibility or emotional ties. And, for shits and giggles, let's just say he has a propensity for haiku/tanka/senryu and photography. Now . . . the hypothetical question . . . This guy would like to travel about, seeking new experiences, meeting new people (to touch and be touched by joyful lives) and to blog these experiences with haiga. But he doesn't want to go so far as to find himself as a wandering-beggar-monk (at least not yet), doesn't want to find himself in a homeless shelter, sleeping on the street or stranded in some unbearable situation. How does one begin? What kind of choices/opportunities/paths are available? Please! all input welcome!

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Friday, April 08, 2011

a quote . . .

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way . . . To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion -- all in one." -- John Ruskin

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we speak of . . .

Thursday, April 07, 2011

a quote . . .

"The fact that there is a right poem for the right moment is an amazing and much needed credo for survival. The American Indian knew well when to get their herbs and where -- that is how they got them. When the need was there. So with life and with the writing of haiku." -- vincent tripi

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texture of an old heart

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

a qoute . . .

"These are some of the characteristics of the state of mind which the creation and appreciation of haiku demand : Selflessness, Loneliness, Grateful Acceptance, Worldlessness, Non-intellectuality, Contradictoriness, Humor, Freedom, Non-morality, Simplicity, Materiality, Love, and Courage." -- R.H. Blyth

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you tell me

a quote . . .

"A haiku is not a poem, it is not literature; it is a hand beconing, a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way of returning to nature, to our moon nautre, our cherry blossom nature, our falling leaf nature, in short, our Buddha nature. It is a way in which the cold winter rain, the swallows of evening, even the very day in its hotness, and the length of the night, become truly alive, share in our humanity, speak their very own silent and expressive language." -- R.H. Blyth

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Tuesday, April 05, 2011

her contagious laughter

a quote . . .

"this, of course, is what we, as poets who write haiku, are constantly seeking--a transparency of medium which does not distract by its presence from the greater purpose of the poem; or, as famous anecdote has it, we strive to have noticed, not the pointing finger, but the moon. -- jim kacian.

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Monday, April 04, 2011

a child's laugh

Sunday, April 03, 2011

a quote . . .

"Writing haiku offers the chance to honor, hold, and fully experience a fleeting moment that takes you out of yourself, a moment that hints at the deeper unity that lays beneath the surface of things." -- Margaret D. McGee, Haiku--The Sacred Art: A Spiritual Practice in Three Lines.

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the lake

Saturday, April 02, 2011

can you hear


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Friday, April 01, 2011

streamside moss