It is not with the lyre of someone in love that I go seducing people. The rattle of the leper is what sings in my hands. Jane Kenyon

Sunday, January 28, 2007

R E S T I N G

collage: Mind's Garden, 07
On the seventh day..........

R E S T I N G
" This is the most remarkable of the power of poetic language: to convey to us the quality of experiences which we have not had, or perhaps can never have, to use factors within our experience so that they become pointers to something outside our experience- as two or more roads on a map show us where a town that is off the map must lie. Many of us have never had an experience like that which Wordsworth records near the end of Prelude 13; but when he speaks of the "visionary dreariness" I think we get an inkling of it."
C. S. Lewis

RESTING, Eight Images.......................................................................................................................


1 a japanese garden
a lotus man
the wind chime of a haiku
awaiting the breath
of his thought

2 shadows dance all night
sudden breeze of his prayer
snuffs out the candle

3 last call to board plane
at the back of jostling crowd
nun without luggage

4 old men playing chess
nothing at stake except for
the coin of patience

5 the armchair cradle
the ceiling fan lullaby
the milk of his word


6 just before the walk
over smouldering charcoal, he remembers
the soles' dross
and the reincarnation
of a dream

7 old lady by hearth
fingers rosary, contamplates the god
who changes rocks to bread
who also changed the beads
of perspiration into an abacus
of blessings with beads
her fingers trip over

8 the
rest
when
i'm
in
i
am

16 comments:

Plus Ultra said...

This is the seventh and the last in the series on the inspiration and the making of a poem. Perhaps you may want to read all seven at one time ....I am sorry I have not been active and have not visited you...Reasons,1. The quake off Taiwan snapped sea-bed cables and Net is very slow, still too slow for my liking 2 Malaysia (and my town, state) was hit by two waves of torrential rain and flooding, and yes, I was also hit...I had to go in the wee hours of the morning (2am and no electricity!!) to rescue my XRay Machines...but first I had to wade through mid-thigh raging waters to get to my clinic, Thank God, we are ok!3The computerisation in my clinic is going a bit slow, keying in the data is most time consuming and stressful ....but please come by and say hello. Blessings

Pat Paulk said...

Plus, you're an amazing man!! Excellent finish!!

Alicia M B Ballard StudioGaleria said...

Well, one never,ever knows what goes on in the lives of others... distance, silence. ONenever must assume!

I am glad I dropped by to see how you were keeping, sooo long have not heard from you.

Our lives change on a dime...hmm?

I am so glad to hear you are well. Feel for you and the losses you and those around you have suffered.

Rest, I find so appropriate a post at this very moment.
We all need a rest from time to time; to evaluate, re-charge, change, heal... so many reasons - rebuild perhaps...

Much love and blessing to you, Sylvia and yours

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, Plus Ultra! We've missed you!

Excellent work, as always.

Borut said...

Eight is perfection. Endless perfecting. Yes, let us go to where we always are. Eight gems of perfection.

Yes, you're a great man.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back and sorry to hear of what happened in your country.

Very interesting and stimulating post and beautiful graphic as I am used to seeing here.

Irene said...

What a beautiful post to start my weekend morning with. =) Thanks and have a wonderful day!

Unknown said...

so good to see you back and thank God you're ok! hope you didn't sustain alot of water damage to your clinic and home. still, it's so good to see something new from you here, and an excellent read as usual.

Unknown said...

so good to see you posting again, and thank God you're ok. I hope you didn't sustain an awful lot of water damage to your clinic and your home. still, it's great to see you posting again, and an excellent read as usual.

Unknown said...

so good to see you back and ok, hope you didn't sustain too much damage from the water and thank God you're ok.

as usual, a great piece of work here. hope to see more soon.

Prmod Bafna said...

Nice to see you back and glad everything is fine!! That kianseng, was a beautiful end to a string of lovely pearls of wisdom from yourself which totally wash one wholly. Thank you :)

steve said...

How restful indeed - thank you for this gift of word thoughts that reach over flood and tears. What a time you have all had there.

J. Andrew Lockhart said...

This is really good!

Tikkis said...

I already wrote here a long 'essay', but the blogger lost my fine comment when changed my name, but the most important message was that I am glad you are again online!

And, sure, this set of 8 is very deeply interesting. I love those!

And the winter is not so cold just today (friday), - 12 C. It was -22 C yesterday. Still some snow!

Ashi said...

Very good - I like especially no. 4

ddsNorth said...

Absolutely beautiful, stunning artwork!!

Thankyou for your email; after visiting my blog; I hope you have recieved my reply, with attachments of a surprise I made, with two of your pieces.

You had mentioned in your EM to me, you wish you could do "what I do" and so I wanted to show you, the possibilities you had, should you chose to learn digital graphic design.. what a great enhancement this could be to your work!!

with loving kindness,
North

http://northdesign.blogspot.com/