In this world
the living grow fewer,
the dead increase–
how much longer must I
carry this body of grief?
Ono no Komachi (J Hirshfield & M AratanI, The Ink Dark Moon)
life’s passages … 90
tanka
life’s passages … 83
When I look up at
The wide-stretched plain of heaven,
Is the moon the same
That rose on Mount Mikasa
In the land of Kasuga? ~Abe-no Nakamaro*
Leica V-Lux 5 … f/4 1/10s 32.65mm
* Trans: Clay MacCauley, Single Songs of a Hundred Poets
life’s passages … 50
Not for stilts
but as a cane
bamboo serves me now,
I who call to mind
the games of childhood.
~Saigyo (B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
life’s passages … 5
Does that bird
think of past times
as it flies, singing
over the shade in the spring…
of weeping willows? ~unknown
life’s passages … 2
Through the years
I’ve become used to sorrow,
There was not one spring
I didn’t leave behind
the flowers.
~Izumi Shikibu*
*cited:
The Ink Dark Moon
Trans: J Hirshfield & M Aratani
tuesday morning with yosano akiko
Purple butterflies
Fly at night through my dreams.
Butterflies, tell me,
have you seen in my village
the falling flowers of the wisteria? ~Yosano Akiko*
*cited: K Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi
why cling to…
We live
in a tide-swept inlet,
floating, flung.
In such a world, why cling to
collections of poems?
~Izumi Shikibu, (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
previously posted on November, 2017
Izumi Shikibu
Out of the dark,
Into a dark path
I must now enter:
Shine on me from afar
Moon of the mountain fringe.
~Izumi Shikibu (cited: Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)
scattered…
Scattered petals gather on the road,
more colorful than the blossoms on the
branches. ~Hatsui Shizue (K Rexroth & I Atsumi, The Burning Heart)
ono no komachi
The hunting lanterns
on Mount Ogura have gone,
the deer are calling for their mates…
How easily I might sleep,
if only I didn’t share their fears.
~Ono no Komachi (cited: J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
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)
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
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/
a meditative journey 
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