Quiet girl.

 

I would liken you,

To a night without stars,

Were it not for your eyes,

I would liken you,

To sleep without dreams,

Were it not for your songs.

 

(Langston Huges 1902-1967)

 

 



A Map Of Love.

 

Your face,

More than other's faces,

Map of the half-remembered places

I have come to

While I slept,

Continents a dream has kept

Secrets of all walking folk

Untill your face,

I awoke,

And remembered then the shore

And the dark interior.

 

(Donald Justice, A map of love)

 

 

 

 



Of memories in my head.

 

I hear the familiar sound

Of memories in my head,

Dancing wildly all around,

Outside the plants are dead,

And cold wind blows,

Branches without leaves,

Scratch at the windows,

I wonder,

If the tree too, grieves,...

 

(Winter blues, Charlotte S Harger, 1966)



Cormorants.

 

All afternoon the sea was a muddle of birds

Black and spiky,

Long necked, slippery,

Down they went

Into the waters for the poor,

Blunt headed silver,

They live on for a little while.

God,

How did it ever come to you

to invent time?

I dreamed at night of the birds,

Of the beautiful dark seas,

They push trough.

 

(Mary Oliver)

 

 



Flower's shadow.

 

To wait for the moon

I am sitting in the western parlour,

To greet the wind

I have left the door ajar,

When a flower's shadow stirred

and brushed the wall,

For a moment I thought

It is the shadow of a lover coming.

 

(Yuan Chen, AD 799-831)



A walk.

 

My eyes already touch the sunny hills,

Going far ahead from the roads where I have begun,

So we are grasped by what we cannot grasped,

It has inner light, even from a distance,

 

And charges us, even if we do not reach it

into something else, which, hardly sensing it,

We already are, a gesture waves us on

Answering our own wave,

But what we feel is the wind in our faces.

 

(Rainer Maria Rielke)



The day is gone.

 

When the blue shadows

Pull themselves across the hills

And white sinks to the twilight

The blue snow of twilight

There's an illution of beginning

Here, where the field intersects the sky

Beyond the fence

Where the crystals slowly scurry

from the hills

It is a foreign house

There's nothing to unpack

It is not yet night

And the day with it's silence

Refused to talk

The day is gone

It is a blessing

Let it be a blessing.

 

(from, feminine winter cold, Sarah Mclay)



Rain.

(drawing, after Bansky's mural, Buenos Aires)

 

Listen to me as one listens to the rain,

Not attentive, not distracted,

Light footsteps, thin drizzles,

Water that is air, air that is time,

The day is still leaving,

The night has yet to arrive,

Figurations of mist,

At the turn of the corner,

Figuration of time,

At the bend of this pause.

 

Air and water, words with no weight,

What we are and are,

The days and years this moment,

Weightless time and heavy sorrow,

The years go by, the moments return.

In another time that is now,

Listen to the footsteps of time,

A restless garden adrift- go in

Your shadow covers this page.

 

(From; as one listens to the rain, Octavio Paz)



As far as memory.

drawing after Wang Zhi Jie.

 

I am as far as the deepest sky between clouds,

And you are as far as the deepest root and wound,

And I am as far as train at evening,

As far as whistle you can't hear or remember,

I am as far as the sleep of rivers

That stains the deepest sky between clouds,

You are as far as  invention,

And I am as far as memory,

 

I am as far as an infinite alphabet,

Made from yellow stars and ice,

And you are as far as sailor can see midnight,

When he's drunk and the moon is an empty cup,

You are as far as  invention,

And I am as far as  memory,

 

I am as far as the corners of a room,

Where no one has ever spoken,

As far as the lost four corners of the earth,

And you are as far as the space

between word and words,

As far as this room,

Where no words have been spoken,

You are as far as  invention,

And I am as far as  memory.

 

(From; Yellow stars and ice, Susan Stewart)

 

 



Black anemones.

 

Mother, you watch me sleep

and your life is a large tapestry of all colors

of all the most ancient murmurs

knot after twin knots

root after root of story

You don't know how fearful

your beauty as I asleep

your hair is the moon of sea sung in silence

you walk with silver lions

and wait to estrange me

deep in the rug covered with sorrow

embroidered by you in a fierce symetry

binding in a thread of persian silk

the pine trees and the griffins

you called me blind

you touched my eyes

with black anemones

I am a spider that keeps spinning

from the pool in my womb

weaving through eyes

the dew of flames on the web.

 

(Agueda Pizarro)



Evening.

 

Water's color at dusk still white

Sunsets glow in the dark gradually

Windy flowers shake like broken fan

Wave moon stirs like strings of jewels

Ducks sleeping not alone

Crickets chirping repeatedly one after another

 announcing night,

Returning steps still hesitate.

 

(Po Chu-i AD 835)



Thank You.

 

(From; Ode to earth, Julie Stuart 2009)



Fabric Origami Bag.

 

 

 



Spring Clothing.

 

Swiftly through the years, beyond recall,

Solemn the stillness of fair morning,

I will clothe myself in spring clothing,

And visit the slopes of the eastern hill,

By the mountain stream a mist hovers,

Hovers a moment, then scatters,

There comes a wind blowing from the south,

That brushes the field of new corn.

 

(Tao Chien, 365-427, in New Corn,

170 chinese poems)

 



Temporary.

 

"Don't addicted to this being human,

This is only temporary."

 

(Robert Monroe 1915-1995)



I taught myself to live simply.

 

 

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,

To look at the sky and pray to God,

And to wander long before evening,

To tire my superfluous worries,

When the burdocks rustles in ravine,

And the purple rasberry cluster drops,

I compose happy verses,

About life's decay and beauty,

When I come back, the brown dog

greet me at the door wagging his tail,

and the fire flares bright,

at the sound of the windy night,

occasionally a sound of raindrops breaks the silence,

If you knock on my door,

I might not even hear.

 

(Anna Akhmatova 1889-1966)

 



Sonnet.

 

"And if the earthly no longer knows your name,

Whisper to the silent earth;

'I'm flowing',

To the flashing water say;

'I am'."

 

(Rainer Maria Rielke, from; Sonnets to Orpheus)



I'm smiling to myself today.

 

I am smiling to myself today,

There's no wish left in my heart,

Or perhaps there's no heart left,

Free from all desire,

I sit quietly like Earth,

My silent cry echoes like thunder,

Throughout the Universe,

I am not worried about it,

I know it will be heard by no one,

Except me.

 

(Rumi)

 



To let be.

 

 

"The truth is, you cannot try to let go,

trying, is the opposite of letting go,

to let go is to relinquish trying,

to let go is much more like

to let be."

 

(Adyashanti)



Seeds.

 

"Don't judge everyday by the harvest you reap,

but by the seeds that you plant."



Lesson in life.

 

A wise man sat in an audience and cracked a joke,

everybody laughed like crazy

after a moment he cracked the same joke again,

this time less people laughed

He cracked the same joke again and again,

when there's no laughter in the audience,

He smiled and said,

"you can't laugh at the same joke again and again,

but why do you kept crying over the same thing

over and over again?"



Floating.

after Havens

 

"Clouds come floating into my life

no longer to carry rain

nor usher storm,

but to add color to my sunset sky."

 

(Rabindranath Tagore, in stray birds)



Gracias a la vida,

 

Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto

Thanks to life, which has given me so much,

Me dio dos luceros, que cuando los abro

It gave me two bright eyes, that when opened,

Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco

Can perfectly distinguish black from white,

 

Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto

Thanks to life, which has given me so much,

Me ha dado el oido que todo su ancho

It gave me an ear that, in all of its breadth,

Graba noche y dia grillos y canarios

Records, night and day, crickets and canaries,

 

Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto

Thanks to life, which has given me so much,

Me ha dado el sonido y el abecedario

It gave me the sound and the alphabet,

Con el las palabras que pienso y declaro

With them the words that I think and declare,

Madre, amigo, hermano, y luz alumbrando

Mother, friend, brother, and the light,

 

Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto

Thanks to life which has given me so much,

Me ha dado la marcha de mis pies cansados

It gave the ability to walk with my tired feet,

Con ellos anduve ciudades y charcos

With them I traversed cities and puddles,

Valles y desiertos, montanas y llanos

Valley and deserts, mountains and plains,

 

Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto

Thanks to life which has given me so much,

Me dio el corazon, que agita su marco

It gave me a heart, that causes my fame to shudder,

Cuando miro al bueno tan lejos del malo

When I see good so far from bad,

 

Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto

Thanks to life which has given me so much

Me ha dado la risa, me ha dado el ilanto

It gave me laughter and it gave me tears,

Asi yo distingo dicha de quebranto

With them I distinguish happiness and pain

Los dos materiales que forman mi vida

The two materials from which my life is formed.

 

(Violeta Parra 1917-1967)

 



Inner child.

 

"I am a sorrowful child, never grown up,

From the grassy north shore, I followed

a bright white road into

a city full of gears, narrow alleys and wooden shacks,

In a bland shade of smoke,

I kept dreaming of green lands,

I believe in  dreaming,

the sky and sea spray, will cover my sorrow,

cover my undiscoverable grave,

Only untill then I will know,

 wheather the grasses and wild flowers will gather,

with the dim lights,

to kiss over my sorrows."

 

(from; curricullum vitae,

by Gu Cheng, 1956-1993)



Impermanence.

after Anthony Rider

 

"Impermanence is a principle of harmony.

When we don't struggle against it,

we are in harmony with reality."

 

(Pema Chodron)



Wealth.

 

"The definition of wealth has changed.

Wealth now is having more money, wealth means

a car, big house, accounts in banks, etc,etc,

While  the real wealth is,

when you know, when to say,

this is enough.

in other words,

contentment."

 

(Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche)



Scripture Of No Letters.

 

"Fresh, pure, dewy flowers,

birds singing, clear and bright,

calm clouds, blue waters,

Who has written the true words of no letters?

 

Lofty mountains, green trees,

deep valleys, lucid streams,

soft winds, serene moon,

I calmly read, the true words of no letters."

 

(Zenkei Shibayama 1894-1974)



The Four Immeasurables.

 

"To others who are more fortunate, practice

MUDITA, sympathetic joy,

this is an antidote to envy and jealousy.

 

To others who are less fortunate, practice

 KARUNA, compassion,

this is sympathy extended to all sentient beings,

takes away the heaviness of the heart, it gives wings.

 

To all sentient beings, practice

METTA, loving kindness,

this overcomes anger, hatered, ill will & aversions.

 

To the self, practice UPEKKHA, equanimity,

this gives mind a balanced mind, and rooted inside."

 

(essential Buddhism)



Namaste.

 

"Namaste,

I honor the place in you

in which the entire universe dwells,

I honor the place in you

which is of love, of truth, of light and peace,

When you are in that place in you,

And I am in that place in mine,

WE ARE ONE ."



Inner peace.

 

Signs and symptoms of inner peace.

 

*An increasing tendency to let things happen

rather than make them happen.

*An ability to enjoy each moment.

*A loss of interest in judging others.

*A loss of inerest in judging self.

*A loss interest of conflict.

*A loss ability to worry.

*Overwhelming episodes of appreciations.

*Connected with people and nature.

*Frequent attack of smiling.

 

(Saskia Davis)

 



Father and daughter.

 

Father and daughter.

(Paul Simon)

 

If you keep awake

In the mirror of a bad dream

and for a fraction of a second

you can't remember where you are

just open your window

 and follow your memory upstream

to the meadow in the mountain,

where we counted every falling star,

 

I believe a light that shines you

will shine on you forever

and though I can't guarantee

there's nothing scary hiding under your bed,

I'm gonna stand guard like a postcard

of a golden retriver

and never leave 'till I leave

with a sweet dream in your bed,

 

I'm gonna watch you shine

gonna watch you grow

gonna paint a sign

so you'll always know

as long as one and one is two,

there could never be a father who loved

his daughter more than I love you.

 



Metta.

 

"May I be safe and protected,

May I be peaceful and happy,

May I be healthy and strong,

May I have ease of well beings, and

accepted all conditions of the world."

 

(Metta, loving kindness meditation)



Remembrance.

 

"And you wait, keep waiting for one thing,

which would infinitely enrich your life,

maybe rare, maybe mighty, maybe uplifting,

depth that would reveal you to yourself,

 

In the dusk you notice the piles of books that muse you,

with their volumes in gold and brown,

and you think of far lands you've travelled,

of pictures of shimmering inspiring women,

 

And it comes to you all of a sudden,

you arise, for you are aware

of years in your distant past,

with it's fears,

and events,

and maybe a little prayers."

 

(Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926)



Without resistance.

 

"It is the mark of an educated mind

to be able to entertain a thought

without accepting it."

 

(Aristotle)



Refuge.

 

"To aquire the habit of reading,

is to construct for yourself

a refuge from

almost all the miseries of life."

 

(W Sommerset Maugham)





Preserve nature.

"Leave nothing but footprints,

Take nothing but pictures,

Kill nothing but time."

Never alone.

 

 

"If you make friends with yourself,

you will never be alone."

 

(Maxwell Maltz)



Happiness.

 

"Happiness is the absence of

the striving for happiness."

 

(Chuang Tzu)



Self heal.

 

"The soul always knows what to do to heal itself,

the challange is to silence the mind."

 

(Carolyn Myss)

 



Accumulation.

 

(Toko tiga, old chinatown)

"Knowledge is accumulation,

Wisdom is letting go."

 

(Lao Tzu)





Seeking outwardly.

"The poorer we are inwardly,

the more we try to enrich ourselves outwardly."

(Jun Fan lee)



Sin.

"Perhaps, a sin that humbles you

is better than a good deed that

makes you arrogant."

(Sheikh Hamzah Yusuf)



Karma.

"Karma never loses an adress,

we receive what we give.

What goes around,

comes back around."



Stop.

"Peace is something that becomes possible

the moment you stop."

(Thich Nhat Hanh)