the old man;

Tags

2019, 8*, bougainvillea, Buddha, hope, life, lute, meaning, ochre, old age, open, pink, politics, power, purpose, renunciation, samsara, society, the Four Signs, time, walking, wind, windows

                the old man;

                by the open window –
                air of civic celebration

                flowering deep pink
                bougainvillea on ochre

                wind, but despite
                all iron machination

                the Prince of all
                that hope could keep

                had seen that Make
                held long-together only

                with foresworn and
                decrepit elapse

                that bent walking
                could behold;

                and the borough might hold
                but there were

                further portents
                on the way and a

                fourth that
                warranted all wasteland –

                when the lute-string
                snapped

 

An old man was the first of the Four Signs that tipped the Prince to thinking that there was more to life than privileged indulgence – there was a seriousness in life to consider which his father had designed to keep from him; when the Prince had been born, there was a prophecy that he would either become a great king enjoying power and influence far beyond, even, what his father had achieved, or that he would leave home and become a seeker of deeper purpose and meaning in life, but the father could not keep all of life’s questions at bay for the rest of the Prince’s life … the other Signs were: illness, death and worldly renunciation; this encounter fore-shadowed the Prince leaving his home to search for that deeper meaning and purpose

 

 

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

Buddha wormhole: birth in the world
life & time & walking wormhole: Puerto del Carmen
meaning wormhole: to let be
ochre wormhole: every step I take
open & windows wormhole: The Atlantic City Convention: 1. THE WAITRESS by William Carlos Williams
pink wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – pageant of the trees
politics wormhole: how to teach
power & society wormhole: Rain, Steam and Speed – the / Great Western Railway, 1844
renunciation wormhole: and … // … sound
samsara wormhole: Batman: Oddysey
wind wormhole: {reading right to left}

 

coterminalism – there is nothing happens by itself, / 070118

Tags

2018, 7*, being, blackberry, blue, Bodhisattvacharyavatara, bougainvillea, bread, breakfast, clouds, cooking, creation, hills, holiday, jam, Lanzarote, life, lunch, olive, rain, roundabout, sand, sky, study, table, valley, vegetables, villas, walking, wind

                coterminalism – there is nothing happens by itself,
                070118

                when blackberry jam is on the bread for breakfast
                there will be bougainvillea on the roundabout by lunch

                when the walk uphill is steep enough and windy
                the rainfall advances, but stays in the valley

                so that when walking through villas between showers
                there are always sand-blue clouds under deepening olive sky

                when you cook or prepare the vegetables right
                the paella is right the oval dish long

                when creation and study and life happen around the same table, there is                      
                being

 

Bodhisattvacharyavatara VI, 31 – everything is governed by other factors and nothing governs itself; anything which seems to stand out from this as independent is illusory [and usually desparate in some sort of way]

 

 

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

being & sky wormhole: THURSDAY by William Carlos Williams
blue & life & walking wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – both fawn and grey
clouds & holiday wormhole: we held cold hands
hills wormhole: that
olive wormhole: mauve
rain & valley wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – reaping
study wormhole: glancing up from the text / searching for ground …
table wormhole: I don’t need to go out / onto the balcony to see behind me / to know what’s going on
wind wormhole: JANUARY by William Carlos Williams

 

pink and orange

Tags

2014, 3*, bougainvillea, clouds, Gran Canaria, haiku, orange, pink, rock

                                                pink and orange

                                bougainvillea
                clouded refreshing around
                   seamed-rock resort

 

 

 

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

clouds wormhole: ‘avenue of wraggled gorse tops …’
haiku[esque] wormhole: holiday
orange wormhole: ‘charcoal grey-slate sky …’
pink wormhole: over-pink cagoule

 

bougainvillea

Tags

2014, arch, bench, bougainvillea, calm, Carol, clock, colour, cornice, dock, ferry, fish, Gran Canaria, green, plaza, returning, sill, sister, time, waiting, waves, windows

 

 

 

                                                                                 bougainvillea

                                it was the green bench
                they had agreed to meet to get the ferry back to Puerto Rico
                                              in the small plaza in Mogan
                                under the clock that doesn’t work
                                                              at ten to one

                                she waited for hours
                                              after the designated time
                different colours piped around each sill and window
                                                              all warm
                                              and the bougainvillea yet just leaf
                                                                                 twining all the archways and cornices
                                                              and the shoals of fish at the dock
                                              ever cutting alternate to quotidian wave

                                                              and caught
                                                              at last
                                the last boat home
                                the sister had already taken the next return
                a year later we returned
                                              the time was still ten to one
                                but this time bougainvillea-pretty
                                                              and calm

 

 

 

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

bench wormhole: corner of Plum Lane / Eglinton Hill and / Shrewsbury Lane
Carol wormhole: hungry for a thread or two
green wormhole: ‘green plum jam on rye …’
time wormhole: the breath of London
waiting wormhole: Summertime, 1943
waves wormhole: left alone
windows wormhole: com- / mute

 

the precision // the gentleness // and / the letting go

Tags

2014, 6*, being, blue, bougainvillea, gentleness, identity, letting go, Manjushri, orange, Pema Chödrön, poetry, precision, quartz, seeing, shadow, sky, stone, thinking, world, writing

 

 

 

preamble:

                                              I suppose
                the clarity and
                                        surprise of the
                                                                 poem
                                is the care to which
                                              you can allow it to be what it becomes
                                                               itself
                                                               quite
                independent of the skills and words and
                                              trammellings
                                that I – the Writer – want to put in it
                                              that I – the Watcher – wanted to
                                                               put it in

gestation:

                                              first
                                the precision of what is around you
                and what is inside you that distorts
                                              to see
                                then the gentleness that includes
                                              the kaleidoscopic stones
                                                               and shadows

labour:

                                (letting each smudge shine clean
                                 between the spinning swords
                                 deepening all the shades of orange like bougainvillea
                                 against the blue quartz-smooth sky)

birth:

                                              and
                                the letting go to
                let it thrive
                                mucoid and clueless
                                              in a New New World

 

 

the title comes from the fourth chapter of ‘The Wisdom of No Escape‘ by Pema Chödrön – teachings so sweet that they are poems from a burgundy robe

 

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

being wormhole: our life
blue wormhole: no hat
identity & letting go wormhole: letters to mum II – family // like a grate
orange wormhole: ‘I can hear it raining / but cannot see it …’
poetry & seeing & writing wormhole: ‘like a piece of ice on a hot stove / the poem must ride on its own melting’
shadow wormhole: on sitting / in front of / a hedge
sky wormhole: introducing / the stranger
stone wormhole: I will eventually drift tectonic
thinking wormhole: the Buddha head in an antique shop
world wormhole: first a mishap then clear vision