The Great Bird of Love I want to become a great night bird Called the Zimmer, grow intricate gears And tendons, brace my wings on updrafts, Roll them down with a motion That lifts me slowly into the stars To fly above the troubles of the land. When I soar the moon will shine past […]
Month: August 2008
Palm Leaf Painting
(detail) One of the most beguiling things I found while in India was palm leaf “books,” made from thin strips of dried palm leaves and threaded together to fold up accordion-style. Copies of this ancient tradition have been made into tourist souvenirs, but the early versions that we saw in museum collections are stunning. We […]
To Live in this World
In Blackwater Woods Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light, are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment, the long tapers of cattails are bursting and floating away over the blue shoulders of the ponds, and every pond, no matter what its name is, is nameless now. Every […]
As the Ocean Makes Grasses
Someone You Have Seen Before It was a night for listening to Corelli, Geminiani Or Manfredini. The tables had been set with beautiful white cloths And bouquets of flowers. Outside the big glass windows The rain drilled mercilessly into the rock garden, which made light Of the whole thing. Both business and entertainment waited With […]
A Gluttony of Images
I’ve spent the last two days curating through the oh, so many photographs I took in India. (Death by digital photography is a legitimate peril, especially for excessive types like me.) For those of you who can rapid fire through images and would be interested in seeing more, I’ve created a site on Shutterfly. Viewer […]
The Eye Begins to See
In a Dark Time In a dark time, the eye begins to see, I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I hear my echo in the echoing wood– A lord of nature weeping to a tree. I live between the heron and the wren, Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den. What’s […]
Back from India
Dak Thok Monastery Festival On the long flight back home from India, I kept searching for a pivot point—that spot that could bring coherence and comprehension to so many disparate experiences. I’ve never had an adventure quite like this one, one where so many extremes were in play. We came upon oppressive heat as well […]
Journey to India
I leave today for India. We’ll be in the southern region for a week before heading up to Ladakh. After a trek through the Himalayas, we will visit the Ajanta Buddhist temple caves in Maharashtra. I have been trekking with this group of friends for over 15 years, but this is the first time I […]
I Want None of It
For Strong Women A strong woman is a woman who is straining A strong woman is a woman standing on tiptoe and lifting a barbell while trying to sing “Boris Godunov.” A strong woman is a woman at work cleaning out the cesspool of the ages, and while she shovels, she talks about how she […]