poetry

basho

You can learn about the pine only from the pine, or about the bamboo only from bamboo.  When you see an object, you must leave your subjective pre-occupation with yourself; otherwise you impose yourself on the object, and do not learn.  The object and yourself must become one, and from that feeling of oneness issues your poetry.  However well phrased it may be, if your feeling is not natural—if the object and our self are separate—then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your subjective counterfeit. ~ Basho


early morning readings

Nikon D750   f/4.5  1/400s 85mm  1400 ISO

“…is it the wish—the dreamlike, bombastic wish—to stand once again at that point in my life and be able to take a completely different direction than the one that has made me who I am now?

“There is something peculiar about this wish, it smacks of paradox and logical peculiarity. Because the one who wishes it—isn’t the one who, still untouched by the future, stands at the crossroads.  Instead, it is, the one marked by the future become past who wants to go back to the past, to revoke the irrevocable. And would he want to revoke it if he hadn’t suffered it. …it’s the absurd wish to go back behind myself in time and take myself—the one marked by events—along on this journey.”  ~P Mercier (Night Train to Lisbon, pp. 51-54)

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” ~ Heraclitus

When my heart came to rule
in the world of love,
it was freed
from both belief
and from disbelief.

On this journey,
I found the problem
to be myself.

When I went beyond myself,
the pathway finally opened. ~Mahsati Ganjavi     


lens artists photo challenge: splash

     

Even water could not live on– 
So lonesome is the mountain 
Of the leaf-scattering stormy wind. ~The Sarashin Diary (Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)

Snowy Range…   Nikon D750    f/5.6   1/3200s  145mm   2800 ISO 

Visit Patti at  P.A. Moed to join this week’s lens-artists photo challenge: splash

princess nukada

princessnukadaweb111118

Nikon D750   f/5.6  1//400s   300mm   640 ISO

When spring escapes

freed from being huddled in winter’s sleep,

the birds that had been stilled

burst into song.

The buds that had been hidden

burst into flower.

The mountains are so thickly forested

that we cannot reach the flowers

and the flowers are so tangled with vines

that we cannot pick them.

When the maple leaves turn scarlet

on the autumn hills,

it is easy to gather them

and enjoy them.

We sigh over the green leaves

but leave them as they are.

That is my only regret–

so I prefer the autumn hills.

~Princess Nukada – 7th Century (K Rexroth I Atsumi, The Burning Heart*)

*note:  Princess Nukada lived in the later half of the 7th Century. She was the daughter of Prince Kagami, wife and the favorite of Emperor Temmu.

 

izumi shikibu

I’ve traveled 

that dark path to the world

which comes down from this mountain

just to see you

one last time.

~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)

grandjct 1

Interstate I-70  Western Colorado…                                                                                                            Nikon D750   f/7.1    1/800s    85mm    100 ISO

 

the new sanctuary coalition

Thinking of the world
Sleeves wet with tears are my bed-fellows.
Calmly to dream sweet dreams–
There is no night for that. ~Izumi Shikibu (Diaries of Court Ladies of Old

https://vimeo.com/299371315

The New Sanctuary Coalition’s call for action:

We are resolved to form a U.S. Caravan of supporters who will meet the Central American Caravan in Mexico, witness their movement, and accompany them into the U.S. At the border, we will assist those seeking entry with their demands to enter the US without losing their liberty

Hate speech and violence have crept into our communities with the targeting of synagogues, churches and other houses of worship and murders of their congregations. We want and need to stop this violence and we are calling you to stand with us, to put your bodies on the line.

The right to migrate is fundamental. Without it, the right to work, to be free, to live, cannot be realized. We reaffirm our conviction that every member of the Central American Caravan has an inalienable human right to flee from violence and poverty and toward better economic and political conditions elsewhere, regardless of national boundaries. We submit that they possess a right to enter and remain in the U.S. equal to anyone born there.

It has become amoral to engage in neutrality or silence on the right to migrate. On this issue there is a right side of history and a wrong side – but there is no middle. Each of us is morally obliged to choose such a side. The law will either make human beings illegal, or it will legalize equality, but it cannot accomplish both. The world is asking you to choose a side.

The New Sanctuary Coalition is resolved to choose the side of liberty and equality. We are resolved to sacrifice in solidarity with those leaders of liberty and pioneers of equality who are nonviolently asserting their right to migrate by moving their caravan of brave souls across the U.S./Mexican border.

If you are a lawyer, join our legal community. If you are a faith leader, join our clergy group. If you are a person of conscience, join our local organizing in your state. Click here to tell us how you would like to get involved and we will connect you with an organizing community that matches your skills and interests.

Sanctuary Caravan at NSC
http://www.sanctuarycaravan.org/