July 2020
A. Various tanka and haiku
Eternity found
In a single lone moment
Here there all the time
Unseen, not searched for, but there
Now and only now for you.
***
Now night is falling
And I await the darkness
When what had been fades
And what will be is unseen
Except to the heart of love.
***
My amusing Muse,
Even your shadow has fled,
And I, without You,
Languish in the summer sun
Awaiting your burning kiss.
***
My eyes closed in thought
For a few moments of dark
And when they opened
To my surprise and wonder
The world was bathed in sunlight.
***
Without engaging you,
Without disclosing my soul
To your naked breast
Whom could I ever engage
One human to another?
***
Seek without seeking,
Grasp a hand without grasping,
Remove the soul’s clothes
And do not lie, but speak truth
From heart to listening heart.
***
Pale Russian olive
Silent between life and death
Holding the whole world
Shadow of daylight passing
Into twilight and darkness.
***
None dares call it love
The feeling provoked in me
When first I saw you
And looked again and again
At the form beneath your clothes.
***
How could I hear words
Even if I wanted to
When my mind was caught
In a dark covered thicket
Hidden in a land unknown.
***
One-sided desire
Longing for full disclosure
The dark veil removed.
***
How can I reach you
When all you want is fleeting--
Momentary flash
Of flesh touching naked flesh
Somewhere apart from yourself.
***
It’s not that the cat
Does not like me that he flees;
It’s that he cannot eat me.
B. Into and out of mist
To be is alone
Silent between crashing waves
Expecting nothing
You passed into mist
Now becoming what you are
Vanishing to me.
They will visit me
Coming when and as they will
Figments of a mind.
All is receding
Barely recognizable
And soon forgotten.
Waves in memory
Calling me far out to sea
Nothing left behind,
The light is fading
Daylight to evening to night
Everything ceasing.
Silent Pioneers
Western boundary of my world
Sunset’s silhouette.
Whatever is now
Is not now or then or when
But passing movement.
You are here with me
No more real than I am real
Not here you nor I.
Are they out or in,
Jupiter and silver stars?
Neither out nor in?
C. Thanksgiving for the life of a friend:
(In honor of Moses; written 23 July 2020)
When I awake each day
My first clear thought is of you
Whether you still live
Or have slipped away from me
My most loyal friend, Moses.
Words cannot express
Your utter goodness and love--
Your disappointment
When anger rises in me
And I let slip a harsh word.
The look you give me
May have been Christ’s to Peter
Whose heart was opened
By love’s most gentle searching
For true goodness now obscured.
You invite from me
The best man that I can be
And after twelve years
Still do not accept meanness,
Or anger, or impatience.
If you sense anger
In my words or in my looks,
You will not be stilled
Until I display kindness
Restoring peace between us.
Moses, noble one,
More like Christ than all I know
No meanness stains you,
No hatred, no viciousness,
But only a will to love.
You will live in me
Until I exist no more
Or have no more mind
To think of your real goodness
And to thank God for your love.
Better for you, friend:
Your life’s forever in God--
In the one you’ve shown
Every moment of your life
Incarnate in a creature.
D. To Summer
Never have I loved you.
Your wrath blazing for long days
Burning up the land
Destroying youth’s fresh beauty
Withering, not nourishing.
Now I choose to love--
To accept your fierce rages,
Your smothering heat
Realizing you are fleeting
Forced to yield to cold north winds.
E. Sounds out and in
Sounds I do not know
And cannot identify
I hear in stillness
When human sounds are silent
And I cease from busyness.
What are these voices?
Are they imaginations
Calling out to me?
Or are they sounds in nature
Coyotes, or wolves—or what?
Sounds out and sounds in
Seem to be one and the same.
The world reaches in
And mind stretches into world:
All is one in consciousness.
You are within me
As I recall you to mind.
You are as within
As I am within myself
Inseparably in mind.
I hear them at night
When Jupiter shines within
My house being still.
F. On summer’s breezes
Summer’s sun has set
And cool darkness spreads its net.
I climb into bed
Beneath a sheet and blanket
A breeze refreshing my face.
The chirps always sing
When all the world is resting
And become in time
A prelude to night’s howlings
Carried in on cool breezes.
G. Awaiting Sunset
Two hours to sunset--
Hand-span to the Pioneers--
No oppressive heat.
The roof of summer
Soon yields to autumn breezes
Whispering winter.
Do butterflies know
How soon autumn winds will blow
And September’s frost?
Summer burns itself
A blaze that passes quickly
Fire consumed by fire.
Cold winds are waiting
To descend into our world
Bringing winter’s depths.
Even at summer’s height
Nights and mornings are chilly
Promising winter.
Today’s not winter
But after a few more weeks
Summer’s growth will die.
It disappears.
All that’s seen becomes unseen
All becomes unknown.
To know you, summer,
Is to know you as fleeting
Becoming winter.
You are and are not:
A name we give a process
Of change within change.
Summer’s shadow dawns
Each day with the setting sun,
And deepens by night.
Heat fades into cool,
Coolness grows deeper until
The sun burns again.
H. Thoughts in Sheridan Cemetery
Before I was born
This massive ash was spreading;
It will shade my grave.
Leaping through the air
Elijah caught the thrown ball
Returns with cocked head.
Clouds, protecting clouds
Shielding from July-bright sun
A heavenly gift.
***
Brought to mind by a pair of owls who live in the cemetery:
When Philosophy paints its gray in gray,
then a form of life has grown old;
it cannot be rejuvenated, but only understood.
The owl of Minerva first begins its flight
with the in-breaking of twilight.
--Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1821)
I. After a Japanese Zen poem
What is like the world
That stretches out around us?
It is like the wake
Vanishing behind a boat
That has rowed away at dawn.
J. A final wish
Ah, for a cloudy sky
To shield our land and creatures
From the searching eye
From heaven’s all-scorching eye
That’s a Montana July.
Poem edited on 01 August 2020
Sheridan, Montana
July 2020 was written as a series of tanka / haiku during July.
There are several strong and recurring themes, both displaying a similarity
to …
To be discovered.
P
Eternity found
In a single lone moment
Here there all the time
Unseen, not searched for, but there
Now and only now for you.
***
Now night is falling
And I await the darkness
When what had been fades
And what will be is unseen
Except to the heart of love.
***
My amusing Muse,
Even your shadow has fled,
And I, without You,
Languish in the summer sun
Awaiting your burning kiss.
***
My eyes closed in thought
For a few moments of dark
And when they opened
To my surprise and wonder
The world was bathed in sunlight.
***
Without engaging you,
Without disclosing my soul
To your naked breast
Whom could I ever engage
One human to another?
***
Seek without seeking,
Grasp a hand without grasping,
Remove the soul’s clothes
And do not lie, but speak truth
From heart to listening heart.
***
Pale Russian olive
Silent between life and death
Holding the whole world
Shadow of daylight passing
Into twilight and darkness.
***
None dares call it love
The feeling provoked in me
When first I saw you
And looked again and again
At the form beneath your clothes.
***
How could I hear words
Even if I wanted to
When my mind was caught
In a dark covered thicket
Hidden in a land unknown.
***
One-sided desire
Longing for full disclosure
The dark veil removed.
***
How can I reach you
When all you want is fleeting--
Momentary flash
Of flesh touching naked flesh
Somewhere apart from yourself.
***
It’s not that the cat
Does not like me that he flees;
It’s that he cannot eat me.
B. Into and out of mist
To be is alone
Silent between crashing waves
Expecting nothing
You passed into mist
Now becoming what you are
Vanishing to me.
They will visit me
Coming when and as they will
Figments of a mind.
All is receding
Barely recognizable
And soon forgotten.
Waves in memory
Calling me far out to sea
Nothing left behind,
The light is fading
Daylight to evening to night
Everything ceasing.
Silent Pioneers
Western boundary of my world
Sunset’s silhouette.
Whatever is now
Is not now or then or when
But passing movement.
You are here with me
No more real than I am real
Not here you nor I.
Are they out or in,
Jupiter and silver stars?
Neither out nor in?
C. Thanksgiving for the life of a friend:
(In honor of Moses; written 23 July 2020)
When I awake each day
My first clear thought is of you
Whether you still live
Or have slipped away from me
My most loyal friend, Moses.
Words cannot express
Your utter goodness and love--
Your disappointment
When anger rises in me
And I let slip a harsh word.
The look you give me
May have been Christ’s to Peter
Whose heart was opened
By love’s most gentle searching
For true goodness now obscured.
You invite from me
The best man that I can be
And after twelve years
Still do not accept meanness,
Or anger, or impatience.
If you sense anger
In my words or in my looks,
You will not be stilled
Until I display kindness
Restoring peace between us.
Moses, noble one,
More like Christ than all I know
No meanness stains you,
No hatred, no viciousness,
But only a will to love.
You will live in me
Until I exist no more
Or have no more mind
To think of your real goodness
And to thank God for your love.
Better for you, friend:
Your life’s forever in God--
In the one you’ve shown
Every moment of your life
Incarnate in a creature.
D. To Summer
Never have I loved you.
Your wrath blazing for long days
Burning up the land
Destroying youth’s fresh beauty
Withering, not nourishing.
Now I choose to love--
To accept your fierce rages,
Your smothering heat
Realizing you are fleeting
Forced to yield to cold north winds.
E. Sounds out and in
Sounds I do not know
And cannot identify
I hear in stillness
When human sounds are silent
And I cease from busyness.
What are these voices?
Are they imaginations
Calling out to me?
Or are they sounds in nature
Coyotes, or wolves—or what?
Sounds out and sounds in
Seem to be one and the same.
The world reaches in
And mind stretches into world:
All is one in consciousness.
You are within me
As I recall you to mind.
You are as within
As I am within myself
Inseparably in mind.
I hear them at night
When Jupiter shines within
My house being still.
F. On summer’s breezes
Summer’s sun has set
And cool darkness spreads its net.
I climb into bed
Beneath a sheet and blanket
A breeze refreshing my face.
The chirps always sing
When all the world is resting
And become in time
A prelude to night’s howlings
Carried in on cool breezes.
G. Awaiting Sunset
Two hours to sunset--
Hand-span to the Pioneers--
No oppressive heat.
The roof of summer
Soon yields to autumn breezes
Whispering winter.
Do butterflies know
How soon autumn winds will blow
And September’s frost?
Summer burns itself
A blaze that passes quickly
Fire consumed by fire.
Cold winds are waiting
To descend into our world
Bringing winter’s depths.
Even at summer’s height
Nights and mornings are chilly
Promising winter.
Today’s not winter
But after a few more weeks
Summer’s growth will die.
It disappears.
All that’s seen becomes unseen
All becomes unknown.
To know you, summer,
Is to know you as fleeting
Becoming winter.
You are and are not:
A name we give a process
Of change within change.
Summer’s shadow dawns
Each day with the setting sun,
And deepens by night.
Heat fades into cool,
Coolness grows deeper until
The sun burns again.
H. Thoughts in Sheridan Cemetery
Before I was born
This massive ash was spreading;
It will shade my grave.
Leaping through the air
Elijah caught the thrown ball
Returns with cocked head.
Clouds, protecting clouds
Shielding from July-bright sun
A heavenly gift.
***
Brought to mind by a pair of owls who live in the cemetery:
When Philosophy paints its gray in gray,
then a form of life has grown old;
it cannot be rejuvenated, but only understood.
The owl of Minerva first begins its flight
with the in-breaking of twilight.
--Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1821)
I. After a Japanese Zen poem
What is like the world
That stretches out around us?
It is like the wake
Vanishing behind a boat
That has rowed away at dawn.
J. A final wish
Ah, for a cloudy sky
To shield our land and creatures
From the searching eye
From heaven’s all-scorching eye
That’s a Montana July.
Poem edited on 01 August 2020
Sheridan, Montana
July 2020 was written as a series of tanka / haiku during July.
There are several strong and recurring themes, both displaying a similarity
to …
To be discovered.
P