A Cottony Fate

Long ago, someone
told me: avoid or.

It troubles the mind
as a held-out piece of meat disturbs a dog.

Now I too am sixty.
There was no other life.





Jane Hirshfield
Photo:  Peter Bowers

being to timelessness as it's to time

being to timelessness as it's to time,
love did no more begin than love will end;
where nothing is to breathe to stroll to swim
love is the air the ocean and the land

(do lovers suffer?all divinities

proudly descending put on deathful flesh:
are lovers glad?only their smallest joy's
a universe emerging from a wish)

love is the voice under all silences,
the hope which has no opposite in fear;
the strength so strong mere force is feebleness:
the truth more first than sun more last than star

-do lovers love?why then to heaven with hell.
Whatever sages say and fools,all's well





e.e. cummings
photo:  Peter Bowers

the grip of life

Say "death" and the whole room freezes--

even the couches stop moving,

even the lamps.

Like a squirrel suddenly aware it is being looked at.

Say the word continuously,

and things begin to go forward.

Your life takes on

the jerky texture of an old film strip.

Continue saying it, hold it moment after moment inside the mouth,

it becomes another syllable.

A shopping mall swirls around the corpse of a beetle.

Death is voracious, it swallows all the living.

Life is voracious, it swallows all the dead.

neither is ever satisfied, neither is ever filled,

each swallows and swallows the world.

The grip of life is as strong as the grip of death.

(but the vanished, the vanished beloved, o where?)

Jane Hirshfield

Photo:  Peter Bowers

Rumi love bites

Move into your own quietness.

...

This turning toward what you deeply love saves you.

...

A rose opens because she is the fragrance she loves.






Rumi
The Glance, Songs of Soul-Meeting
Photo:  Peter Bowers

love pulsating

The air I am breathing was exhaled in ecstasy
By an an ancient sun.
This earth I am standing on
Was born of cosmic fire.
The blood flowing through my veins
Is as salty as the primordial ocean.
The space permeating my body
Is infinite as the space all around.

Above, below, to all sides, within,
The elements of the universe
Are engaged in their ceremony of delight.

This is my religion.
The attraction between suns
Is the same
As the love pulsating in my heart.






Lorin Roche
The Radiance Sutras, 34
Photo:  Peter Bowers

perfect poem

I've searched the world
For the perfect poem
And all I've found
Is silence

I would hand you the gift
Of my heart
But this is the gift
You gave me -

What words
Can rise
From this
Transparency? -

No lips
Are needed
For love
To kiss
Love





Kavita
Love Songs of the Undivided
Photo:  Peter Bowers

the sky

I like it with nothing. Is it
what I was? What I will be?
I look out there by the hour,
so clear, so sure. I could
smile, or frown—still nothing.

Be my father, be my mother,
great sleep of blue; reach
far within me; open doors,
find whatever is hiding; invite it
for many clear days in the sun.

When I turn away I know
you are there. We won’t forget
each other: every look is a promise.
Others can’t tell what you say
when it’s the blue voice, when
you come to the window and look for me.

Your word arches over
the roof all day. I know it
within my bowed head where
the other sky listens.
You will bring me
everything when the time comes.








William Stafford
Photo:  Peter Bowers

I hacked my way through six forests

I hacked my way through six forests
until the moon woke up inside me.
The sky's breath sang through me,
dried up my body's substance.
I roasted my heart in passion's fire
and found Shankara!







Lalla
English version by Ranjit Hoskote
Photo:  Peter Bowers

Intense cold makes water ice

Intense cold makes water ice.

Then the hard ice turns to slush

and back to water, so there are three

forms of consciousness: the individual,

the world, and God, which in the sun

of True Awareness melt to one flowing:

Lalla is that.

In meditation, I entered the love furnace,

burned impurities away, and as the sun

of a new knowing rose, I realized

that the words "Lalla" and "God"

point to this peacefulness.

Lalla
English version:   Coleman Barks
Photos:  Peter Bowers

Life

Love says "I am everything". 

Wisdom says "I am nothing". 

Between the two,  my life flows.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Listening

What is the deep listening?  Sama is

a greeting from the secret ones inside

the heart, a letter.  The branches of 

your intelligence grow new leaves in

the wind of this listening.  The body

reaches a peace.  Rooster sound comes,

reminding you of your love for dawn.

The reed flute and singer's lips:  

the knack of how spirit breathes into

us becomes as simple and ordinary as 

eating and drinking.  The dead rise with

the pleasure of listening.  If someone 

can't hear a trumpet melody, sprinkle

dirt on his head and declare him dead.  

Listen and feel the beauty of your

separation, the unsayable absence.  

There's a moon inside every human being.

Learn to be companions with it.  Give

more of your life to this listening.  As 

brightness is to time, so you are to

the one who talks to the deep ear in 

your chest.  I should sell my tongue

and buy a thousand ears when that

one steps near and begins to speak.

Rumi

Translated by Coleman Barks

Photo:  Peter Bowers

Expressing the Inexpressible

We struggle, through Love,

To express in words, concepts, and metaphor,

That which cannot be expressed.

For this Grace can only be communicated

Through wordless Benediction,

Heart to Heart,

If you can fall, for just one moment,

From head to Heart,

From concept to Experience…

And allow yourself to be “Meditated”.

Chuck Surface

Photo:  Peter Bowers