Posted in favorite things, poetry on January 15, 2008 | No Comments »
I am not I.
I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at time I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
who remains calm and silent while I talk,
and forgives, gently, when I hate,
who walks where I am not,
who will remain standing when I die.
Juan Ramon Jimenez
Posted in Basho, Zen, poetry on November 27, 2007 | No Comments »
A child of a poor family
Stopped grinding rice
To look at the moon.
Basho
Posted in peace, poetry, war on November 12, 2007 | 1 Comment »
consider the infinite fragility of an infant’s skull
how the bones lie soft and open
only time knitting them shut
consider a delicate porcelain bowl
how it crushes under a single blow
-in one moment whole years disappear
consider that beneath the din of explosions
no song can be heard
no cry
consider your own sky on fire
your name erased
your children’s lives ‘a price [...]
Posted in Agueros, poetry on November 12, 2007 | No Comments »
Lord,
on 8th Street
between 6th Avenue and Broadway
there are enough shoe stores
with enough shoes
to make me wonder
why there are shoeless people
on the earth.
Lord,
You have to fire the Angel
in charge of distribution.
–Jack Agüeros
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/rg/RGTable.shtml
Posted in Issa, favorite things, haiku, poetry on June 29, 2007 | 1 Comment »
For Liz.
even in the thicket
beyond the bramble gate
a little chrysanthemum
Issa
Posted in favorite things, poetry on April 25, 2007 | No Comments »
Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roofplanks
of this ruined house.
Izumi Shikibu translated by Jane Hirshfield
Posted in Rumi, favorite things, poetry on April 24, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Jars of springwater are not enough
anymore. Take us down to the river!
Rumi
Posted in Issa, haiku, poetry on February 17, 2007 | No Comments »
meadow butterflies–
the cow also
gazes
-Issa, 1806
Posted in favorite things, poetry on February 2, 2007 | No Comments »
Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.
W. H. Auden from “The Fall of Rome”
Posted in E. B. White, favorite things, poetry on January 26, 2007 | No Comments »
I have a bowl of paper whites,
Of paper-white narcissus;
Their fragrance my whole soul delights,
They smell delissus.
(They grow in pebbles in the sun
And each is like a star.)
I sit and scan the news hard by
My paper-white narcissus;
I read how fast a plane can fly,
Against my wissus.
(The course of speed is almost run,
We know not where we [...]
