"...passion does not, by itself, bring punishment in the next world but must, to be moral, carry important redemptive, self-denying obligations with i"...passion does not, by itself, bring punishment in the next world but must, to be moral, carry important redemptive, self-denying obligations with it in this world. Morality is painful and difficult, and happiness is only a qualified and far from utopian reward at the end, not the constant comfort of even the truly moral person."
"It blows one day and rains the next--/ how often does chance favor us in spring?"...more
"somehow the luminous outset became/ the interminable middle."
"You have no idea how shocking it is/ to a small child when/ something continuous stops."
"W"somehow the luminous outset became/ the interminable middle."
"You have no idea how shocking it is/ to a small child when/ something continuous stops."
"When you hear this again, she said, perhaps the words will be less intimidating, if you remember how you first heard them, in the voice of a little girl."...more
Love Songs is a collection that revels in liminal zones and catches like words in a breeze. Most of the poems are set in April, but not in a floriferoLove Songs is a collection that revels in liminal zones and catches like words in a breeze. Most of the poems are set in April, but not in a floriferous Spring of new beginnings--they're set in that end-of-winter Spring when you're filled with restlessness in the anxiety of beauty to come. These are poems about longing: for a kiss you never received, for loves that are never spoken, for feelings that weren't as good as the dreams of them. Recommended to those who thrive on plotting their loves (like the lyrics of Taylor Swift run through Emily Dickinson)....more
"put the cup of oneness in my hand/ and let me drink from it/ until I can't imagine separation."
"Wherever the soul soared,/ fire was there first./ Everyth"put the cup of oneness in my hand/ and let me drink from it/ until I can't imagine separation."
"Wherever the soul soared,/ fire was there first./ Everything I don't know,/ Love will tell you."
"Gold gathers in silence."
"You are day and night, the feast and the fast./ You are the harvest of my prayers/ when I have nothing but hunger/ for nothing but grace,/ down on my knees"...more
"An ideal wine grape/ is one that is easily crushed."
"But emphasis is too general a word/ for the dip and slant/ of mindfulness/ that occurs in cognition "An ideal wine grape/ is one that is easily crushed."
"But emphasis is too general a word/ for the dip and slant/ of mindfulness/ that occurs in cognition just/ there: singe it."
"You know Nahum Tate rewrote King Lear in 1681 and his improvements took the form (besides a happy ending) of reducing occurrences of the word if from 247 to 33."
"Once we found unborn young just beneath the savage heart. Ah said Nono apples in the dark. He sliced them out. I was jealous. Tenderness flooded his voice." ...more
"On the summit, sudden winds wild,/ a cloud sails by like a startled bird."
"Don't worry about dark roads. We'll invite/ old moon: always a friend for th"On the summit, sudden winds wild,/ a cloud sails by like a startled bird."
"Don't worry about dark roads. We'll invite/ old moon: always a friend for the way home."
"idleness: Etymologically, the character for idleness (hsien) connotes 'profound serenity and quietness,' its pictographic elements rendering moonlight shining through open courtyard gates. This idleness is a kind of meditative participation in the spontaneous burgeoning forth of occurrence, free of the self-conscious intention that seems to separate us from that process. In idleness, daily life becomes the essence of spiritual practice."...more
"You know a bomb crater/ can be made into a swimming hole./ You have learned/ dark blood is better news/ than bright."
"the air cool and the sun/ a pale rim"You know a bomb crater/ can be made into a swimming hole./ You have learned/ dark blood is better news/ than bright."
"the air cool and the sun/ a pale rim of persimmon to the east."...more
"not touching but joined in astonishment as two cuts lie parallel in the same flesh."
"Up against another human being one's own procedures take on defi"not touching but joined in astonishment as two cuts lie parallel in the same flesh."
"Up against another human being one's own procedures take on definition."
"'How does distance look?' is a simple direct question. It extends from a spaceless within to the edge of what can be loved. It depends on light."
"Like the terrestrial crust of the earth which is proportionately ten times thinner than an eggshell, the skin of the soul is a miracle of mutual pressures."...more
"DISCUSSION TOPICS: Compare and contrast catching a spear in the spleen with utter mental darkness. Consider ancient vs modern experience. Consider wh"DISCUSSION TOPICS: Compare and contrast catching a spear in the spleen with utter mental darkness. Consider ancient vs modern experience. Consider whether any of these is what is meant in poetry by "a beautiful death."
"Truman/ had a voice like a negligee, always/ slipping off one bare shoulder,/ just a bit."
"In ancient Greek you use the verb άρπάζειν, which comes over into Latin as rapio, rapere, raptus sum and gives us English rapture and rape — words stained with the very early blood of girls, with the very late blood of cities, with the hysteria of the end of the world. Sometimes I think language should cover its own eyes when it speaks.”
"And anyway, a heart surgeon told me once,/ no need to worry: once the cutting starts,/ a wound/ shines by its own light."
"Ancient Greeks gave the name barbaros to anyone not provably or originally a Greek. The word is thought to replicate the sound made by sheep: bar bar bar bar."...more
"The wild herbs in the field (I cannot give their exact types; botany was never my strong point), continue to give off a narcotizing fragrance, a swee"The wild herbs in the field (I cannot give their exact types; botany was never my strong point), continue to give off a narcotizing fragrance, a sweetly narcotic fragrance, though destruction is imminent. (Threat is enduring. What sort of age have we lived in, do we still live in? Or is the threat only within us?)"
"I know for certain that I will never again see any of those who have died so I can tell them how much I miss them. If that glorious resurrection ever does occur, there will be a blare of trumpeting angels and a flood of light, but it won't have the magnificently bittersweet taste of our mundane lives."...more
"I lift my face to watch the birds./ I turn my head, thinking someone has called me."
"I thought of the story of the blind man in the Nirvana Sutra. A d"I lift my face to watch the birds./ I turn my head, thinking someone has called me."
"I thought of the story of the blind man in the Nirvana Sutra. A doctor shaved his eyeballs with a golden scalpel and cured him, but he did not know how to see."
"The corpses lying by the road change so much in a single day.
I wish I could talk with someone."
"They say that rocks turn into swallows in the rain, and back to rocks when it clears."...more
"Whatever words my father might speak/ now that he is dead are obvious ones"
"I do not beg for one more day./ Those days are over. Wait here, I tell them"Whatever words my father might speak/ now that he is dead are obvious ones"
"I do not beg for one more day./ Those days are over. Wait here, I tell them."
"I was willing to be whoever might help him remember/ all the times he believed he would never die."
"When night falls everything in this poem--the birds, the tree/ my father, the river--will remain what they are in the dark."...more
"Wide awake in the brightness of day,/ I go on mistaking/ anyone on the roadside for her."
"You were close that one night I longed for,/ and in a deep dre"Wide awake in the brightness of day,/ I go on mistaking/ anyone on the roadside for her."
"You were close that one night I longed for,/ and in a deep dream, for a time you/ gave our bodies to the weeping,/ turning heartsick longing to love."
"Let my body be the spirit of fire/ burning in your heart the night through,/ the two of us burn to ash and vanish."
"Again and again the paths branch,/ but not one way/ is mine."...more
"'He is unrivalled, like a Lesbian' became a proverbial expression for excellence in song."
"Sappho almost exclusively invokes female deities. Here we "'He is unrivalled, like a Lesbian' became a proverbial expression for excellence in song."
"Sappho almost exclusively invokes female deities. Here we meet the Graces (or Kharites, related to our 'Charity') who often attend on Aphrodite in art and literature. They were goddesses of grace, mirth, floral adornment and relaxation--in short, the pleasures of life."
"Moon and the Pleiades go down./ Midnight and tryst pass by./ I, though, lie/ Alone."
"Now, Dika, weave the aniseed together, flower and stem,/ With your soft hands, crown yourself with a lovely diadem"...more
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