technological
first loves described as vintage
tell us we’ve aged!SRM – MM Haiku 90 Day 120
Tag: reflection
Life-art by paragraph
writing about life
is important of itself
ever read or notSRM – MM Haiku 84 Day 114
A little word
odd really don’t
you think – that joy is such a
very little word?SRM – MM Haiku 81 Day 111
Hearts and hearths
the chill in the air
today speaks of December’s
need of warming heartsSRM – MM Haiku 80 Day 110
Pre & c.1400
imagine time as
occasional harvest chime
and then before thatSRM – MM Haiku 77 Day 107
Adventing
a human infant
is the poem carolled then
there and today hereSRM – MM Haiku 73 Day 103
Why poetry?
why poems? – magic! –
both my questions and answers
are found in each oneSRM – MM Haiku 72 Day 102
Hourglass benefits
first we run around
before calming, quieter –
the better to learnSRM – MM Haiku 68 Day 98
You know
where did you find such
wisdom? – I asked Hafiz, who
said: oh, love, you know!SRM – MM Haiku 63 Day 93
Only now
often here before
but never seen like this nor
to be seen thus moreSRM – MM Haiku 58 Day 88
Creative imagination
Whose the artistic
imagination that wrought
starlit universe?SRM – MM Haiku 40 Day 70
Reflection and histories
We who are water know
familial communion with
pond and river
lake and ocean
and we abide and communicate
by way of ripple and reflection
warmed by amniotic held
flotation – raised from
which our primal gasp and
cry signalled alpha and omega
of incarnate gradation – and
sight of mothered Wisdom
and taste of liquid nutrition
alongside growth spurt’s
sensationYes: our infancy born from
someone else’s depths never
leaves us – we are forever
embraced by it and so return
to reflection and histories
and promise as though to the
breast – and in gazing into
layered depths see at the
same time the light of height
yes: we who are water know
familial communion with
pond and river
lake and ocean
and we abide through all
eternity
Delivered
Some joys that come to our doorsteps, inevitably, outshine others. Perhaps because some such joys carry a particular measure of comfort. Something along the lines of – no matter how awful things may appear at times, this life is full of so much richness and goodness that we cannot help but tumble into the kind of response that is the very name of this treasury of awe and wonder. Devotions.
Allegiances
Allegiances
It is time for all the heroes to go home
if they have any, time for all of us common ones
to locate ourselves by the real things
we live by.Far to the north, or indeed in any direction,
strange mountains and creatures have always lurked –
elves, goblins, trolls, and spiders: – we
encounter them in dread and wonder,But once we have tasted far streams, touched the gold,
found some limit beyond the waterfall,
a season changes, and we come back, changed
but safe, quiet, grateful.Suppose an insane wind holds all the hills
while strange beliefs whine at the traveler’s ears,
we ordinary beings can cling to the earth and love
where we are, sturdy for common things.William Stafford
The Way It Is – New & Selected Poems
A few key dates in William Stafford’s life: born in Kansas in 1914. A conscientious objector in World War II. A man whose habit was to write something daily, who would rise at 4.30am to ‘sit and wait’ for what he knew lay within to be written. His volume West of Your City published by Talisman Press in 1960; Allegiances published by Harper in New York in 1970; the author of over fifty books, he died at his home in Oregon in 1993.
William Stafford thoroughly understood that once we have tasted far streams … / found some limit beyond the waterfall, / a season changes, and we come back, changed …
And therein lies our hope for this old world in our own time and season.
Dreadful elves, goblins, trolls and spiders have always existed. Some of them, some of us too, have sought to be ‘heroes’ – fenced around by their and our own ignorance. It is time for all the heroes to go home.
How then may I and we locate ourselves by the real things / we live by – ?
Perhaps – having tasted – it has always to start with me, with what I now clearly see: that instead of kidding myself it’s my job to change the entire world (whoever I am, whatever my place of birth, gender, skin colour, creed or lack thereof, and wherever on earth I think myself called to be the hero, the unsolicited ‘saviour of the world’) my best contribution to that same world will be to allow seasons and experience to change me.
While strange beliefs whine at the traveler’s ears,
we ordinary beings can cling to the earth and love
where we are, sturdy for common things.
Note sturdy. Not wimps without cogniscence of – or willingness sometimes to act upon – right or wrong. Not people who turn blind eyes to goblins and trolls. Not people who do not grieve, or hope, or offer healing or hospitality, or pray, or live and die. But sturdy. Believing in the possibility of being positively changed. Experienced in the quiet and slow methods and the poetry of seasons.
Thanks for …
It’s not just photographs that can inspire and encourage. Graphic designers are engaged in the art of encouragement too. I love the reminder that this illustration offers. When I’d finished reading – thankful for that which awakens … informs … unites … challenges etc. – I found myself naturally moving on to enumerate a host of other areas in my life for which I have cause to be profoundly grateful. It’s a life-enhancing exercise. Reflection on causes for thanksgiving evokes further reasons for gratitude!