let all go dear

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I cannot describe how very cogent this e. e. cummings is for me right here, right now:



let it go - the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise - let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go - the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers - you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go - the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things - let all go
dear

so comes love

~ e. e. cummings ~
(Complete Poems 1904-1962)
www.panhala.net/Archive/let_it_go.ht
ml


www.americanpoems.com/poets/eecummin
gs/

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Creating poetry through images....

Friday, March 04, 2011

Having lived on 6 islands -- in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Pacific -- as well as the Pacific West Coast, it's clear that I'm a classic Pisces! So it's no surprise that I'm so drawn to gifted photographer Mickey Smith's spectacular images via KarmaTube. I hope they bring you joy as well!

I love Mickey's suggestion to walk out of our door today with a resolution to keep an eye out for the "subtle glimpses of magic other folk might pass by." KT further coaxes that whenever we see the magic, to take a moment to feel gratitude and appreciation. Mickey's narrative on the video is magical as is his eye, and his Celtic roots sing of the "divine spark that whispers possibilities."



Click here to play:
www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=2220



More from and about this talented young man:

www.clubofthewaves.com/surf-photogra
pher/mickey-smith.php

To thank Mickey:

info@mickeysmith.co.uk

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Myself minus amazement....

Monday, February 28, 2011

Praise be that I can still experience wonder....



AMONG THE MULTITUDES

I am who I am.
A coincidence no less unthinkable
than any other.

I could have different
ancestors, after all.
I could have fluttered
from another nest
or crawled bescaled
from under another tree.

Nature's wardrobe
holds a fair
supply of costumes:
Spider, seagull, field mouse.
each fits perfectly right off
and is dutifully worn
into shreds.

I didn't get a choice either,
but I can't complain.
I could have been someone
much less separate.
Someone from an anthill, shoal, or buzzing swarm,
an inch of landscape tousled by the wind.

Someone much less fortunate,
bred for my fur
or Christmas dinner,
something swimming under a square of glass.

A tree rooted to the ground
as the fire draws near.

A grass blade trampled by a stampede
of incomprehensible events.

A shady type whose darkness
dazzled some.

What if I'd prompted only fear,
loathing,
or pity?

If I'd been born
in the wrong tribe
with all roads closed before me?

Fate has been kind
to me thus far.

I might never have been given
the memory of happy moments.

My yen for comparison
might have been taken away.

I might have been myself minus amazement,
that is,
someone completely different.


~ Wislawa Szymborska (now 87 years old and continuing, I'm sure, to be amazed!)
(Poems New and Collected 1957-1997,
trans. by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh)
www.panhala.net/Archive/Among_the_Mu
ltitudes.html

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A Photo Story of...REVELRY!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Photos from various birthday season gatherings this month, wonderful friends all:



Brunch and movies (The King's Speech) with fellow student Sandra, her focus the MSW program at UALR.


Dinner and Wynton Marsalis and his 15-member band with Gail and Jean.

Gail may have the life most devoted to service of any person I know, and she does it all with no ego. And BTW, I could go on-and-on about how Jean does NOT let her lack of sight stop her -- oh no!!!


Gourmet dinner with Fritzie and our Guatemalan friend Victor (who looks like a bandido there -- HORRIBLE picture -- though he is truly the gentlest, sweetest, kindest soul you will ever meet!)

He speaks no English and we have become friends via Fritzie since I interviewed him for a linguistics class project last semester. I'm hoping to begin working with him to learn English, which will help me work on tutoring skills I may put to use for part-time income in the future.


Those "famous" beautiful, fragrant roses from Fritzie whose "attorney-ness" doesn't stop her from being compassionate and loving and beautiful, in fact she uses it as a platform! Oh and, BTW, Fritzie is up and running in the morning at 5:30, in training for a half-marathon!



Potluck gathering that was TONIGHT of friends to celebrate four birthdays (including mine!):


Camille was coming from playing in THREE tennis tournaments today! Camille started the Beacon Community Prison Project, which Gail and I volunteer for.

BTW, if you look carefully you can barely see a platter of huge chocolate-covered strawberries in front of the honey jar.


We were at Gail's house, Sandra is seated.


Judy and her mom Johnye and I were totally losing it!


Beth, Jean and me, three of the BD grrls! Beth is a new-ish friend whom I've yet to get to know.


There all we BD grrls are: Leslie, Beth with puppy Brooks, Jean and moi. Leslie is an interesting study...an attorney who recently finished a PhD in mythology and trains dogs to search for cadavers!


Mom and daughter chowing down. Judy (60 yo) is a local pediatrician and Johnye (80 yo) is Professor Emeritus of English Literature at U of AR, Little Rock. Picking up PhD's wasn't exactly common in AR (or anywhere really) when she did it!

Gotta' share a segment of a phenomenal message from the card Janice, Judy's younger sister and my former housemate, sent me from Vashon Island, WA, where she now lives (in a yurt!):

"...to sincerely and joyfully honor your birth -- not merely the wondrous event of coming to exist in your current form, what we call your birthday in that miraculous and eventful play we call life, but all your births and all ways in which you are a gift. You are born each day as you wake and after each triumph and each heart break. You are born with each intake of breath and give back of yourself each time you exhale. You are a spirit born in the dawn of time bound to all that has ever lived in this world...."


The peacock feather tree print (10/30) Robert gave me, adorned with origami sent to me earlier from SIRIRADHA.



Moving into my 69th year, it's good to know about the crack:



God's joy moves from unmarked box to unmarked box,
from cell to cell. As rainwater, down into flowerbed.
As roses, up from ground.
Now it looks like a plate of rice and fish,
now a cliff covered with vines,
now a horse being saddled.
It hides within these,
'til one day it cracks them open.

-- Jelalludin Rumi



ANTHEM

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.

Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government --
signs for all to see.

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.

-- Leonard Cohen

Oh...DO listen...you'll be SO glad you did!
www.youtube.com/watch?v= _e39UmEnqY8

(I have the Live in London DVD that this is from...the entire program is as awe-inspiring as this spectacular song is)

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A picture's worth a thousand...CHEWS!!!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.
-- Confucius

Couldn't resist sharing Artist Ben Wilson's novel approach, thanks to my favorite video source, KarmaTube!


Chewing Gum Art (from the Heart)


Check out the three-minute video. It will bring a smile to your face (and your heart):

www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=2165

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