WHAT THE BIRD SAID EARLY IN THE YEAR

I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear:
This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.

Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees
This year, nor want of rain destroy the peas.

This year time’s nature will no more defeat you,
Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.

This time they will not lead you round and back
To Autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.

This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,
We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.

Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,
Quick, quick, quick, quick!—the gates are drawn apart.

                                                            C S Lewis

.....

ANOTHER COUNTRY

I love these raw moist dawns with

a thousand birds you hear but can't

quite see in the mist.

My old alien body is a foreigner

struggling to get into another country.

The loon call makes me shiver.

Back at the cabin I see a book

and am not quite sure what that is.

                                Jim Harrison

.....

one by...

            




                       Farid ud-Din Attar


                      (Persian       +1222)




Moths gathered in a fluttering throng one night
To learn the truth about the candle light,
And they decided one of them should go
To gather news of the elusive glow.
One flew till in the distance he discerned
A palace window where a candle burned --
And went no nearer: back again he flew
To tell the others what he thought he knew.
The mentor of the moths dismissed his claim,
Remarking: "He knows nothing of the flame."
A moth more eager than the one before
Set out and passed beyond the palace door.
He hovered in the aura of the fire,
A trembling blur of timorous desire,
Then headed back to say how far he'd been,
And how much he had undergone and seen.
The mentor said: "You do not bear the signs
Of one who's fathomed how the candle shines."
Another moth flew out -- his dizzy flight
Turned to an ardent wooing of the light;
He dipped and soared, and in his frenzied trance
Both self and fire were mingled by his dance --
The flame engulfed his wing-tips, body, head,
His being glowed a fierce translucent red;
And when the mentor saw that sudden blaze,
The moth's form lost within the glowing rays,
He said: "He knows, he knows the truth we seek,
That hidden truth of which we cannot speak."
To go beyond all knowledge is to find
That comprehension which eludes the mind,
And you can never gain the longed-for goal
Until you first outsoar both flesh and soul;
But should one part remain, a single hair
Will drag you back and plunge you in despair --
No creature's self can be admitted here,
Where all identity must disappear.







        ...those medieval persians need to be listened to










.....

choreography of the hands

The Sign of the Cross

John Henry Newman

WHENE’ER across this sinful flesh of mine
I draw the Holy Sign,
All good thoughts stir within me, and renew
Their slumbering strength divine;
Till there springs up a courage high and true
To suffer and to do.

And who shall say, but hateful spirits around,
For their brief hour unbound,
Shudder to see, and wail their overthrow?
While on far heathen ground
Some lonely Saint hails the fresh odor, though
Its source he cannot know.

 

ramblin injun tune

                Chasing The Sun Across The Hi-Line

The sun’s seasonal cycle southward
Started months before my small journey west

Back to the very minute after the longest day
The day that ended here in this treasure state

Working its same sunny wandering path
Along the changing horizon of giant steel elevators

Gray towers of grain from the Golden Triangle
From the Hutterites and undersized family farms

Slowly taking your set and arraigned moments
Unlike us who faithfully fail to plan the time ahead

Just before Halloween with its harvest moon
Over endless amber stubble both north and south

Almost the same moon that stood gleaming cold
Cold over last February’s heaped snow

My late start was out of the upper Missouri
Near a river bank once stacked with dead wolves and cord wood

Forcing me to chase the sun across the Hi-Line
Causing great worry even before the start

Autumn air warm with clear sunshine
Gave a false hope, un-lasting but convincing

Just until the vista of the Sweet Grass Hills
Or even the remembered flats southwest of Saco and Hinsdale

Again I fail and the sun slowly dips
Below the backbone of the world

Leaving only the dark and finally easing
My chase across the Hi-Line

                     by 

               Joseph R. McGeshick

......

BY john coltrane

                                    A  LOVE  SUPREME                              

I will do all I can to be worthy of Thee, O Lord.

It all has to do with it.

Thank You God.

Peace. There is none other.

God is. It is so beautiful.

Thank You God.

God is all.

Help us to resolve our fears and weaknesses.

In you all things are possible.

Thank you God.

We know. God made us so.

Keep your eye on God.

God is. He always was. He always will be.

No matter what... it is God.

He is gracious and merciful.

It is most important that I know Thee.

Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thoughts,

fears and emotions--time--all related...

all made from one... all made in one.

Blessed be His name.

Thought waves--heat waves--all vibrations--

all paths lead to God. Thank you God.

His way... it is so lovely... it is gracious.

It is merciful--Thank you God.

One thought can produce millions of vibrations

and they all go back to God... everything does.

Thank you God.

Have no fear... believe... Thank you God.

The universe has many wonders. God is all.

His way... it is so wonderful.

Thoughts--deeds--vibrations,

all go back to God and He cleanses all.

He is gracious and merciful... Thank you God.

Glory to God... God is so alive.

God is.

God loves.

May I be acceptable in Thy sight.

We are all one in His grace.

The fact that we do exist is acknowledgement

of Thee, O Lord.

Thank you God.

God will wash away all our tears...

He always has...

He always will.

Seek him everyday. In all ways seek God everyday.

Let us sing all songs to God.

To whom all praise is due... praise God.

No road is an easy one, but they all

go back to God.

With all we share God.

It is all with God.

It is all with Thee.

Obey the Lord.

Blessed is He.

We are all from one thing... the will of God...

Thank you God.

I have seen God--I have seen ungodly--

none can be greater--none can compare to God.

Thank you God.

He will remake us... He always has and He

always will.

It's true--blessed be His name--Thank you God.

God breathes through us so completely...

so gently we hardly feel it... yet,

it is our everything.

Thank you God.

ELATION--ELEGANCE--EXALTATION--

All from God.

Thank you God. Amen.

......

OCTOBER

                       by W. S. Merwin

I remember how I would say, “I will gather
These pieces together,
Any minute now I will make
A knife out of a cloud.”
Even then the days
Went leaving their wounds behind them,
But, “Monument,” I kept saying to the grave,
“I am still your legend.”

There was another time
When our hands met and the clocks struck
And we lived on the point of a needle, like angels.

I have seen the spider’s triumph
In the palm of my hand. Above
My grave, that thoroughfare,
There are words now that can bring
My eyes to my feet, tamed.
Beyond the trees wearing names that are not their own
The paths are growing like smoke.

The promises have gone,
Gone, gone, and they were here just now.
There is the sky where they laid their fish.
Soon it will be evening.

...