Midweek. A few days remain until Christmas. The to-do list is short. To live is to act, to do. It is good to have a list, the illusion of control. I believe there is no control, that all is at “the mercy” of the state of things that immediately preceded this moment. Still there…
Solstice in Truro Joshua Weiner Teaching term done, I keep my laptop shut A chill in the air runs under weak June sun Chickadee warbler catbird waxwing— Morning migrant songs drowned by bulldozer next door The backing up beeping a constant one note feed From far off, boundless tides crest onto restless sand How…
Musing about possible topics for this post. When I read this poem by Lori Levy, it seemed this was more than enough to pass on. The lines are a reminder that ordinary life is a smorgasbord of delightful details. Often what I lack, is sufficient inner calm to notice the play of everything going…
look at the world I look at the world From awakening eyes in a black face— And this is what I see: This fenced-off narrow space Assigned to me. I look then at the silly walls Through dark eyes in a dark face— And this is what I know: That all these walls oppression…
[There is no Life or Death,] by Mina Loy There is no Life or Death, Only activity And in the absolute Is no declivity. There is no Love or Lust Only propensity Who would possess Is a nonentity. There is no First or Last Only equality And who would rule Joins the majority. There…
Children of Darkness By Robert Graves “In their generation wiser than the children of Light.” We spurred our parents to the kiss, Though doubtfully they shrank from this— Day had no courage to review What lusty dark alone might do— Then were we joined from their caress In heat of midnight, one from two….
Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day, which is it? This day, the morning of October 9th is dedicated equally to each of these dimensions of our American past, which is also our present. A day to remember our ancestors attempts to enslave the communities that lived on this continent prior to our arrival from…
Yesterday with a group of friends in a large circle, we discussed “God,” considered our relationship to church, our past experience that inevitably effects our sense of what-the-sacred-means to each of us now. One of our group shared this Philip Larkin poem. I remembered reading it many years ago, when I was much younger,…
In the after-dawn hour of 6AM I fell back to sleep. As sometime happens I dreamed a nightmare. The dream “experience” was real enough then. Upon waking what I dreamed seemed as if an extension of my life. I dreamed that a post, my comments on social media had provoked outrage from one person…
What is happiness? By what means do we know if we are happy? It seems that only in retrospect I judge myself to have been happy. My grand daughter is almost four years old. She appears to be as happy as is humanly possible when I push her high in a swing. While swinging…
