Notes: Just Chillin’ by street photographer Tom Rothery on UPSP (via Newthom)
T.G.I.F.
September 22, 2017 by 20 Comments
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
September 18, 2017 by 13 Comments
This day, then, ends in rain
but almost everyone will live through it.
Tomorrow’s thousands losing their loved ones
have not yet stepped into never being the same again.
Maybe the sun’s first light will hit me
in those moments, but I’d gladly wake to feel it:
the dramatic opening of a day,
clean blood pumping from the heart.
– Michael Ryan, from Poem at Thirty in New and Selected Poems
Notes: Poem: Thank you Whiskey River. Photo: Kelly Winton Photography for a book cover for “Pages For Her” by Sylvia Brownrigg (via mennyfox55)
T.G.I.F.
September 15, 2017 by 17 Comments
So I say to you.
This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:
Like a tiny drop of dew,
or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.
— Buddha, from the Diamond Sūtra
Notes:
- Diamond Sūtra: “A copy of the Chinese version of Diamond Sūtra, found among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early 20th century by Aurel Stein, was dated back to 11 May 868. It is, in the words of the British Library, “the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book.” (Source: Wiki)
- Photo (via Your Eyes Blaze Out)
the beauty of the clavicle
August 22, 2017 by 16 Comments
Only she who has breast-fed
knows how beautiful the ear is.
Only they who have been breast-fed
know the beauty of the clavicle…
~ Vera Pavlova, in “If There is Something to Desire: One Hundred Poems.”
Notes:
- Photo: Dave Whenham – Mother & Baby
- Related Posts: Vera Pavlova
I saw the life of life
August 20, 2017 by 10 Comments
Another poet came into being
when I saw the life of life…
the child I had birthed.
That was my beginning:
blood burning the groin,
the soul soaring, the baby wailing
in the arms of a nurse.
~ Vera Pavlova, from “Snapshots from Memory” in “If There is Something to Desire: One Hundred Poems.” Pavlova (54) is a Russian Poet who was born in Moscow. Her husband Steven Seymour, a professional interpreter and translator, was the translator.
Portrait of Vera Pavlova: 7faces
Miracle. All of it.
July 25, 2017 by 22 Comments
World’s smallest birds is just one of several distinctions that hummingbird species claim. They’re the only birds that can hover in still air for 30 seconds or more. They’re the only birds with a “reverse gear”—that is, they can truly fly backward. And they’re the record holders for the fastest metabolic rate of any vertebrate on the planet: A 2013 University of Toronto study concluded that if hummingbirds were the size of an average human, they’d need to drink more than one 12-ounce can of soda for every minute they’re hovering, because they burn sugar so fast. Small wonder that these birds will wage aerial dogfights to control a prime patch of nectar-laden flowers. […]
[Photo Caption] Hummingbirds often brave downpours to gather the nectar needed to avoid starvation. This Anna’s hummingbird shakes off rain as a wet dog does, with an oscillation of its head and body. According to researchers at UC Berkeley, each twist lasts four-hundredths of a second and subjects the bird’s head to 34 times the force of gravity. Even more remarkable: Hummingbirds can do this in flight as well as when perched.
~ Brendan Borrell, from Unlocking the Secrets behind the Hummingbird’s Frenzy (National Geographic Magazine, July, 2017)
Do not miss full story & photos taken with high speed cameras
Notes:
- Photo credit: Victor Ortega-Jimenez and Robert Dudley
- Related Posts: Miracle. All of it.
Walking Across Town. Blinded By the Light.
July 18, 2017 by 22 Comments
Mid July in Manhattan.
I step out of the Metro North car onto the platform, and walk down the tunnel in Grand Central. There’s zero transition from the air cooled train car @ 69° F to This. The body is swallowed by dampness, cool to not cool, Bam. The softness of the pressed shirt turns to less soft, to not soft, to moist, to sticking to the chest. Feet, are choking from their leather wraps, swollen from weight gain (6.3 lbs in less than 30 days) – chafing is coming, oh, it’s coming, by days end, or sooner. There will be blood.
I exhale little puppy breaths to pass the heat, trying to keep cool. Fail.
It’s 6:28 a.m. Tourists mingle in midtown, coalesce around the network TV studios and their Morning Shows – holding their cups of coffee, hoping to spot a celebrity, or better yet, get a cameo for the folks back home. Hi, Jane from Iowa! [Read more…]
Miracle. All of it.
July 17, 2017 by 36 Comments
If someone set fire
To the whole night sky,
Would you ask “how?”
Or would you ask “why?”
Notes:
- Photo: T P Mann with Red Sky at Night near Atwood, Michigan.
- Inspired by Albert Einstein’s quote: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
- Related Posts: Miracle. All of it.
Riding Metro North. And Brooding.
July 14, 2017 by 52 Comments
6:16 am train to Grand Central. No seats, need to stand. I wait until the first stop at Stamford and then shoe horn myself across from a lady in a bright, pumpkin colored dress. In order to fit, I need to sit on a diagonal with my knees in the aisle. Pumpkin shifts her knees to the right to avoid contact. The top of her left knee has a deep burn mark, her right knee is clean. Listen, in these close quarters, it’s impossible not to notice. I shift uncomfortably. Personal space inadequate, we’re bordering on claustrophobia here. It’s the trade you made friend, stand for an hour or this…so this is it.
The Suit to my left is asleep. Meaning, like dead to the world. Rip’s hands hug a hard cover book against his chest; a monogrammed cover, title unknown.
I turn to my morning reading. A blog post by Beth @ Alive on All Channels: “These People Are Not Drowning Today.” Pacino in Taxi Driver pops to mind: You talkin’ to me?. She’s certainly is not talkin’ to me. My eyes flick down the page and catch a passage from Zen teacher Barry Magid: “Leave Yourself Alone“:
“The paradox…is that the most effective way of transformation is to leave ourselves alone. The more we let everything be just what it is, the more we relax into an open, attentive awareness of one moment after another. Just sitting leaves everything just as it is.” [Read more…]
Driving I-95 S. With a ‘vanity’ plate.
July 7, 2017 by 30 Comments
I’m trailing behind a late model Chevy SUV in the left lane.
It’s twenty minutes in front of the morning rush hour on I-95 S. Traffic is light, I’m cruising at 15 over the limit.
Morning news is spewing Hamburg, Trump, Putin, G-20, protesters, North Korea missile launch, sanctions, UN. Sickening. I turn the dial to 70’s on 7 and turn the volume down.
Chevy won’t give way to the center lane.
Mind shifts to yesterday. Shouldn’t have said that. Could have done that. Not moving fast enough on that. Annoyed with that. Behind on that. Need to press harder on that. Anxious about that.
Chevy is white, I mean like Snow White, not a spec of dirt. I catch the vanity plate. I stare at the plate. I’m overcome with gratitude.
Two men going to work.
Two men sitting in their car and replaying yesterday, today, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. One swimming in nonsense, the other in horror.
I gently ease off the accelerator, he widens the gap until he disappears and I turn off onto the I-287 ramp.
I get to the office. I can’t find a replica of the plate online but the image below is close enough.
Peace Friend. Peace.
[Read more…]
