I was asked by Melanie as she handed my coffee to me what I was working on this morning. I said, “I do not know. Something will come to me.” She smiled. I glanced at the front page of the New York Times. The Newspaper stand is adjacent to the counter for coffee additives,…
This morning I was delighted to locate on my shelf a text book from my college days. I was introduced to the words of the Tao te Ching from A Source Book In Chinese Philosophy by Wing-Tsit Chan. I’ve not opened the book in many years. Finding it was like receiving a phone call…
I was asked to read some poems last night. A gathering was sponsored by the Mundelein Arts Council at Taste of Paris. Musicians from the area and several writers were given opportunity to perform in public. I found my imagination going back to the late bronze age. Certainly members of the aristocracy and their…
IV Time and the bell have buried the day, The black cloud carries the sun away. Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray Clutch and cling? Chill Fingers of yew be curled Down on us? After the kingfisher’s wing Has answered light…
The rage of Achilles—sing it now, goddess, sing it through me the deadly rage that caused the Achaeans such grief and hurled down to Hades the souls of so many fighters, leaving their naked flesh to be eaten by dogs and carrion birds, as the will of Zeus was accomplished. Begin at the time…
I propose a festival to celebrate the fecundity of ignorance. It is to ignorance that a teacher will come. Ignorance is our natural condition. A three year old child will dash headlong, careening through the hallways, delighted with the sensation of his/her play. The child is responding to curiosity of mind and body– learning…
Yesterday was Good Friday. I took a rare weekday off from the office. Since Jesus died inconveniently, ignominiously on a Friday, it seemed right to take the day to consider the way of his journey, and of mine. Do we not all die? Birth and death are momentous events that we all have in…
What an evening at Starbucks! The long table at the end of the room was full. Over an hour and a half of impassioned exchange of ideas followed. The conversation was in the main about the “great chain of being” with a segue into Mandelbrot fractals, a demonstration of which we enjoyed from Gary’s…
There is a gentle rain falling outside. It is supposed to rain all day. The spring rain will encourage the green shoots to emerge, enlivening the melodious birds. Soon they will raise their families. There is a co-joined harmony between seasonal vegetation, and conscious life forms, humans included, that find a habitat, resources of…
There are many Wendell Berry poems that speak to me. A poem has been in mind for several days awaiting posting and comment. This one though takes precedence. There are times with life presents an inflection point, a point of decision forced by circumstances. To do nothing is also an action, but often one…
