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)