new years resolutions?
Hmm.. Obvious... get our ass moved to Vermont and get setup to farm.
But on a more plausible note ;)
I'd like to reconnect with nature, be more communicative and in general be less negative about everything.
And don't forget.. tonight is a full moon, and a blue moon. So get out around that fire and do a happy naked pagan dance!!
Pure Silence
I have come this time
to burn my thorns,
to purify my life,
to take up service again
in the garden.
I come weeping to these waters
to rise free of passion and belief.
Look at my face. These tears
are traces of you.
I will shorten this poem,
because the rest of it
is being said in the world
within our eyes.
Do you know the silence?
It is not the same as in your room
when you have no one to talk to.
This is pure silence,
not the kind that happens
when living dogs are eating a dead one.
Struck Tent
I am the tent you set up,
then strike, quill pen you sharpen,
then bear down on and split,
flagstaff with the emblem upside down,
particle in window light, a galaxy.
I am all skin, yet soul as well.
Without you, I am a fake.
With, as real as the cool
spring ground warming.
You say, I keep my distance
to see what dance you will do
out in the air, little dust grain.
Why would the sun speak to one bit?
Friend, you destroy and you restore.
Do what must be done
to this love that has no fear
and no sense of being safe.
No Expectations
A spirit that lives in this world
and does not wear the shirt of love,
such an existence is a deep disgrace.
Be foolishly in love,
because love is all there is.
There is no way into presence
except through the love exchange.
If someone ask, But what is love?
answer, Dissolving the will.
True freedom comes to those
who have escaped the questions
of freewill and fate.
Love is an emperor.
The two worlds play across him.
He barely notices their tumbling game.
Love and lover live in eternity.
Other desires are substitutes
for that way of being.
How long do you lay embracing a corpse?
Love rather the soul, which cannot be held.
Anything born in spring dies in the fall,
but love is not seasonal.
With wine pressed from grapes,
expect a hangover.
But this love path has no expectations.
You are uneasy riding the body?
Dismount, travel lighter.
Wings will be given.
Be clear like a mirror
reflecting nothing.
Be clean of pictures and the worry
that comes with images.
Gaze into what is not ashamed
or afraid of any truth.
Contain all human faces in your own
without any judgment of them.
Be pure emptiness.
What is inside that? you ask.
Silence is all I can say.
Lovers have some secrets
that they keep.
Well, I've still nothing really to blog about so, I'll just post more Rumi.. I don't suppose anyone will mind yes?
We Cannot Decide
There has never been beauty like yours.
Your face, your eyes your presence.
We cannot decide which we love most,
your gracefulness or your generosity.
I came with many knots in my heart,
like the magician's rope.
You undid them all at once.
I see now the splendor of the student
and that of the teacher's art.
Love and this body sit inside your presence,
one demolished, the other drunk.
We smile. We weep, tree limbs
turning sere, then light green.
And power that comes through us is you.
Any wish. What does a rock know of April?
It is better to ask the flowery grass,
the jasmine, and the redbud branch.
Seeds And Rain
The mystery of action: We are seeds.
You are rain. A dear stain,
our seed coverings decay.
You mix with what is inside,
and a toast to the new begins:
A divine blade, the keen edge
of now. Now rest, for the soul
slides over these eyes, as Shams
Tabriz covers Shams Tabriz.
Mountaintop Trough
We are here like profligates,
three camels with muzzles
plunged in provender.
Other camels rage
down below in the valley.
foaming, but they remain
with their lips stuck out,
to look at the mountain.
by just straining your neck
and you do not arrive here
is ours. It sustains and protects,
This windy mountaintop trough
You must start out and continue on.
You have to leave the place
where everyone worries about rank and money,
where dogs bark and stay home.
Up here it is music and poetry
and the divine wind.
Be the date tree that gave fruit
to Mary, the let-it-be of her heart.
Say a small poem.
Love the exchange.
An autumn willow has no fruit,
so how could it dance
in the wind of do-not-fear?
It rattles and talks
with nothing to offer.
Give voice to a poem.
Let it end with praise for the sun
and the friend within the sun.
A Beautiful Walk Inside You
Through this blood veil
the lover sees a beautiful walk.
Reason says, There are only six
directions: north, east, south, west,
up, and down. There is no way
out of those limits.
Love says, But I have
many times escaped.
Reason comes to a marketplace
and begins haggling prices.
Love wonders away with other
business to transact, something
to do with incomparable beauty.
There are secret things happening.
Hallaj listens to whispers
and walks off the speaker's
platform onto a scaffold.
Dreg-drinkers have love perceptions
that reasonable men fiercely deny.
They say, We cannot go barefooted
in that courtyard. There is nothing
but thorns through there.
Love answers, The thorns are inside you.
Be silent, and pull what hurts
out of your loving's foot.
Then you will see gardens
with secluded rose bowers,
and they will all be inside you.
Shams is the sun
obscured by this cloud of words.
Maybe he will burn the overcast off
and let love clear and brighten.
Yea.. Yesterday was one of those and I'm still ticked off. Figured I'd post a couple picks everyone could likely relate to.. I'll leave it at that.
I just have to plug this book. I'm not a quick reader but I devoured this book in just a few hours.
There are so many jewels in here but I'll share a few here. I'll let them speak for themselves
Love and Light
New Blossoms
Sit near someone who has had the experience.
Sit under a tree with new blossoms.
Walking the section of the market
where chemists sell essences,
you will receive conflicting advice.
Go toward kindness.
If you are not sure where that is,
you will be drawn in by fakes.
They will take your money and sit you down
on their doorstep saying, I'll be right back.
But they have another door they leave by.
Do not dip your cup in a pot
just because it has reached the simmering point.
Not every reed is sugarcane.
Not every under has an over.
Not every eye can see.
Or it may be you cannot thread the needle
because it already has thread in it.
Your loving alertness is a lantern.
Keep it protected from wind
that makes it crazy.
Instead of that airy commotion
live in the water that gently cools
as it flows. Be a helpful friend,
and you will become a green tree
with always new fruit,
always deeper journeys into love.
What You Have Despised In Yourself
They are here with us now,
those who saddle a new unbroken colt
every morning and ride the seven levels of sky,
who lay down at night
with the sun and moon for pillows.
Each of these fish has a Jonah inside.
They sweeten the bitter sea.
They shape-shift the mountains,
but with their actions neither bless nor curse.
They are more obvious,
and yet more secret than that.
Mix grains from the ground they walk
with streamwater. Put that salve
on your eyes and you will see
what you have despised in yourself
as a thorn opens into a rose
As if you needed an excuse, right??!!!
It's sure to get you in the holiday spirit and put a warm feeling in your heart.. and other places ;)
Be sure to do your part on Yule and come in peace.
I think Gabby is dressed for winter. :)
I must admit I love this time of year in nature (you can keep the commercial consumer christian crap).. I only wish we got snow here. Well enough snow to say we had snow.
We've got our meager shopping done.. Took all of a 2 hours...
Time to kick back with a cup of hot coco and enjoy the season.
On a positive note we found yet another possible place to rent in VT for the winter. Got my fingers crossed but....
Cheers and Blessed Yule..
Stay safe and sane out there.
