everything is caused by something, which / something is caused by something else, nothing / stands alone where all pass as phantoms

Tags

2019, 7*, Amsterdam, boats, buildings, canal, cause and effect, dome, facade, leaves, living, passing, phantom, possession, Spring, time

                everything is caused by something, which
                something is caused by something else, nothing
                stands alone where all pass as phantoms

                                from the canal boat
                                spring leaves turn before
                                centuries of storey

                                facades pass fixed
                                in blanked pageant,
                                with protruding girder

                                with which to reach-in
                                with what to stay and
                                intermittent egress

                                whose iron pins will hold
                                the sides, and only domes
                                will not turn

 

a trip through the canals of Amsterdam where the audio commentary didn’t work forcing the mute passing buildings to do the work instead; the title is from Bodhisattvacharyavatara VI, 31

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

buildings wormhole: Great Bridge, Rouen, 1896
leaves wormhole: blue sky high
living wormhole: looking for the right exit
passing wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – sooner; / and later
Spring wormhole: prose piece 2 from POEMS 1927 by William Carlos Williams
time wormhole: beneath

 

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at Kreukenhof

Tags

2019, 5*, air, Amsterdam, breeze, clouds, compassion, curtains, fashion, fire, flowers, gravity, growth, Kreukenhof, letting go, photograph, retirement, river, role, samsara, sky, sound, traffic

                gravity, and river air hold the curtains
                down, breezes and distant traffic make them
                adjust against the sill stiffly, audibly

                but then, my people, I am learning
                not to resent your burning like fire
                when you play your endless roles like fashion

                and I am learning to let clouds fill the sky
                as you take every single photo
                of every single flower at Kreukenhof

 

Kreukenhof is a display garden near Amsterdam sited amid surrounding fields and fields of cultivated tulips, grown in strips of colour across a whole field; when we visited this year, we stayed on the Botel, a converted ship docked on the river Amstel in the IJ bay

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

air wormhole: The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J. Redford – Sky
breeze wormhole: threshold to behold
clouds wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – sooner; / and later
compassion wormhole: light of all interaction
curtains wormhole: The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J. Redford – The Valley
letting go wormhole: mandala offering
retirement & sky wormhole: ‘don’t look at it …’
river wormhole: boiled spangle with soft centre
samsara wormhole: the Bodhisattva set out / for the Seat of Awakening
sound wormhole: the blessings of the Buddhas

 

‘don’t look at it …’

Tags

2019, 4*, Amsterdam, boats, Carol, crane, eating, grandchildren, harbour, orange, pink, retirement, sky, sun, talking

                don’t look at it
                but the sun is
                sherbet orange

                so we eat our
                meals, and shared
                and wondered

                about future
                grandchildren
                until the sky

                behind cranes
                and masts was
                pink sugar-ice

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

Carol wormhole: Valentine’s Day 2019
crane wormhole: travelling / back
orange wormhole: 10/22 by William Carlos Williams
pink wormhole: the old man;
retirement wormhole: Renunciation
sky wormhole: The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J. Redford – The Valley
sun wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – sooner; / and later
talking wormhole: 10/28 ‘On hot days …’ by William Carlos Williams

 

glide

Tags

'scape, 2014, 4*, Amsterdam, boats, buildings, city, cubism, facet, gliding, kaleidoscope, passing, river, seeing, tourism, turning, view, windows

                                                glide

                                tour boats make up and down
                                across the river their wakes

                                dissipated to behold except
                                their cubist windows for

                                to sight reflect the city’s buildings
                                madly and kaleidoscopically in

                facets and stop as they turn

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

buildings & city wormhole: low afternoon
passing wormhole: cinnamon / milkshake
river & windows wormhole: humm
seeing wormhole: place

 

humm

Tags

'scape, 2014, 4*, Amsterdam, breeze, direction, docks, memory, monolith, night, ripple, river, sound, south, west, windows

                with constant humm
                the fumes drift south

                west over the docks and
                the red lights suggest

                monoliths bigger than
                memory but there are

                no waves on the river
                just the constant

                direction of ripple

 

in October 2014 we went to Amsterdam for a short break; we stayed both in and on a botel

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

breeze wormhole: at table 21 in the garden centre thinking to / replicate Hughes’ exercise for Plath about / the Yew Tree
night & windows wormhole: good going into / that gentle night
river wormhole: low afternoon
sound wormhole: Infantino KO

 

cinnamon / milkshake

Tags

2014, 4*, Amsterdam, cactus, cinnamon, cream, feet, flowers, love, milkshake, orange, others, passing, terrace, walking, watching

                cinnamon
                milkshake

                barely coloured
                and creamy as the
                depth of orange

                straw on the
                terrace before the
                flower stalls with

                bulbs and cacti
                watching the
                hundred different

                ways that feet
                place and lift

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

evening wormhole: the evening
love wormhole: immeasurable love
orange wormhole: pink and orange
others & walking wormhole: is there anything to write?
passing wormhole: Cocktails in 1951

 

row boat

Tags

'scape, 2014, Amsterdam, balance, cypress, here & there, reeds, river, row boat, sky

 

 

 

                                                              row boat

                                all the balance
                                of the wide sky
                                between cypresses
                                on the far shore
                                and reeds from

                out the water here

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

balance wormhole: of a sudden // all the time
river wormhole: Soir Bleu, 1914
sky wormhole: the windmill

 

the windmill

Tags

2014, Amsterdam, clouds, evening, grey, landscape, marsh, moon, sky, stillness, windmill

 

 

 

                                     the windmill

                           no longer held the landscape
                           against the sky the sky

                           was greying now
                           the marshland to rest

                           a single finger of cloud
                           across the early moon

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

clouds wormhole: com- / mute
evening wormhole: Soir Bleu, 1914
grey wormhole: 08:55
moon wormhole: that comicbookshop in dreams,
sky & stillness wormhole: ‘stunted trees …’

 

‘stunted trees …’

Tags

'scape, 2014, Amsterdam, being, cattle, growth, painting, pastoral, sitting, sky, stillness, trees

 

 

 

                                stunted trees
                                like lynched men
                                limbless save the
                                new growth swaying
                                gently under still sky
                                over cattle sitting
                                and chewing neither
                                waiting nor expectant

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

being wormhole: when / ever
growth wormhole: disappear
sitting wormhole: grrr
sky wormhole: 08:55
stillness wormhole: Ashdown Forest / 080213 14:47
trees wormhole: com- / mute

 

de Boeddha // of light

Tags

2014, Amsterdam, being, body, Buddha, compassion, doing, Enlightenment, giving, head, lifetimes, light, sentient beings, silence, time

 

 

 

                                                                                   de Boeddha

                                                     both clean and smooth
                                                     but wears limb and body
                                                     nonchalant and draping
                                                     sheer from head to toe
                                                     all ripples to behold
                                                     and wafting slight and
                                                     silent from time to times
                                                     through naked need

                                     of light

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

being wormhole: Eridge – Cowden
Buddha wormhole: Buddha / Shakyamuni
compassion wormhole: library: start where you are IV // all the distance I have travelled!
doing wormhole: exactly equal
giving wormhole: it is complete
lifetimes & silence & time wormhole: mauve / night
light wormhole: Railway Crossing, c. 1922-23