Hope Is To Create
Hope is to createIn possibilityWhat for ever isHeart’s mystery, Therefore I hope for hopeDesire desireThat brings our seed to flowerTo fire our fire. ~ Kathleen Raine
Ask Me
Some time when the river is ice ask memistakes I have made. Ask me whetherwhat I have done is my life. Othershave come in their slow way intomy thought, and some have tried to helpor to hurt; ask me what differencetheir strongest love or hate has made. I will listen to what you say.You and […]
How To Be A Poet (to remind myself)
Make a place to sit downSit down.Be quiet. Breathe with unconditional breath the unconditional airShun electric wire.Communicate slowly.Live a three-dimensional life.Stay away from screens. Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in.There are no unsacred places;There are only sacred places and desecrated places. Accept what comes from silence.Make the best you can […]
Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower
Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you.Let this darkness be a bell towerand you the bell. As you ring, what batters you becomes your strength.Move back and forth into the change.What is it like, such intensity of pain?If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine. […]
Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, I have made this place around you. If you leave it, you may […]
Kindness
Before you know what kindness really isyou must lose things,feel the future dissolve in a momentlike salt in a weakened broth.What you held in your hand,what you counted and carefully saved,all this must go so you knowhow desolate the landscape can bebetween the regions of kindness.How you ride and ridethinking the bus will never stop,the […]
I Am Not I
I am not I.I am this onewalking beside me whom I do not see,whom at times I manage to visit,and whom at other times I forget;the one who remains silent while I talk,the one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,the one who takes a walk when I am indoors,the one who will remain standing when […]
Silently A Flower Blooms
Silently a flower blooms,In silence it falls away;Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,the whole of the flower, the whole ofthe world is blooming.This is the talk of the flower, the truthof the blossom:The glory of eternal life is fully shining here. — Zenkei Shibayama
Little Gidding (Excerpted)
We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.Through the unknown, remembered gateWhen the last of earth left to discoverIs that which was the beginning;At the source of the longest riverThe voice of the hidden waterfallAnd the children in […]
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness,some momentary awareness comesAs an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all!Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,who violently sweep your houseempty of its furniture,still treat each guest honorably.He may be clearing you outfor some new delight. The dark […]