And I don't mean emotionally, though I hope it is that too.
I will leave this blog here as an archive, but future poems will be at "Enheduanna's daughter". If you want to follow that blog or subscribe by email, when you get there you'll need to click the small horizontal bars high on top left, so as to display the sidebar where you can make those arrangements.
Why am I doing this? I struck a formatting glitch at "The Passionate Crone", which I can't fix. And maybe it's just time for a change anyway. (*Grin.*)
7 February 2018
6 February 2018
Unanswered Messages
Oh, what mystery there is in silence! The mind rushes in to fill the void with imaginings. You are no longer the dear you I think I knew before; you become an amorphous, shifting proliferation of possibilities. The human mind is hard-wired to attach meanings to all phenomena. So the absence of communication doesn't stay simply that; I make it mean this about me and that about you, many thises and thats. I make it mean that someone is wrong, someone is to be blamed. I did something wrong, therefore you don't communicate. Or your non-communication is you doing something wrong. Or maybe neither: perhaps circumstances are to blame. Perhaps your computer is broken, or lost, or stolen. Perhaps you are busy, or tired, or sick, or dead. Something is to blame, something is wrong. It cannot just be: a thing in itself. Nature doesn't abhor a vacuum nearly as much as that part of nature called the human mind does.
the air turns cold
after the sound of rain
ceases
I came across this journal entry from some time ago – the prose piece – and thought it just needed a verse added to become a haibun.
Linking to The Tuesday Platform for Feb 6 2018 at "imaginary garden with real toads". I am shifting my (future) poetry to a new blog, which I did not anticipate when I posted this one. It seems kinda appropriate / ironic that the last one here is about unanswered messages, which might even be unread – so, by linking, I am making sure it is read!
the air turns cold
after the sound of rain
ceases
I came across this journal entry from some time ago – the prose piece – and thought it just needed a verse added to become a haibun.
Linking to The Tuesday Platform for Feb 6 2018 at "imaginary garden with real toads". I am shifting my (future) poetry to a new blog, which I did not anticipate when I posted this one. It seems kinda appropriate / ironic that the last one here is about unanswered messages, which might even be unread – so, by linking, I am making sure it is read!
2 February 2018
A Ghazal On Whether the Beloved Is Aloof Or Touchy-Feely
A ghazal, we are told, should be melancholy
with craving the Beloved. Heavens, what folly!
Who, then, is this elusive Beloved? Golly –
it seems that the longed-for one is the most holy.
Yes, God. And who's that? A Santa, roly-poly?
Or a Jehovah, much less cuddly and jolly?
People seem to see God as masculine wholly,
whether that figure is Almighty or lowly.
But let us consider this carefully and slowly.
Perhaps as Great Mother we perceive Her truly.
Then, do we crave hugs She might give to a dolly?
Do we hunger for the sweetness of a lolly?
I think She must be rather more than that, surely!
Nor would She separate Herself from us coolly.
OK, I'll tell you the truth of it. (Or shall I?
Who of us knows the truth of anything fully?)
Nevertheless, I can make a sortie or sally.
Know this: I was once with Hafiz. I was really.
A seer told me this – and he was not merely
a charlatan, I promise. So you must rally.
You must set your will to accept I see clearly.
Poor Hafiz. In that life he was off his trolley!
He got it wrong about God. Well, it was early
in our understanding. Now we guess more nearly.
It is true we've always known God loves us dearly.
Therefore She will never depart from you, silly!
She is not trivial or fickle or frilly.
Neither is the path to Her side steeply hilly.
The one who tells you this is speaking truthfully
from deep Remembrance ... if not strictly ghazaly.
Written for dVerse "Meeting the Bar – The Ghazal".
I added a further constraint, rhyming every line rather than just every couplet. On the other hand, I ignored the refrain. However it's more un-ghazaly in mood than form.
[Fellow-Aussies, please applaud me for having resisted working in "Up there, Cazaly!"]
After reading all the beautiful poems others have written to this prompt, I feel a bit ashamed. Perhaps I'll try a serious one too in the near future. (Though actually this one does have a serious message underneath the play.)
with craving the Beloved. Heavens, what folly!
Who, then, is this elusive Beloved? Golly –
it seems that the longed-for one is the most holy.
Yes, God. And who's that? A Santa, roly-poly?
Or a Jehovah, much less cuddly and jolly?
People seem to see God as masculine wholly,
whether that figure is Almighty or lowly.
But let us consider this carefully and slowly.
Perhaps as Great Mother we perceive Her truly.
Then, do we crave hugs She might give to a dolly?
Do we hunger for the sweetness of a lolly?
I think She must be rather more than that, surely!
Nor would She separate Herself from us coolly.
OK, I'll tell you the truth of it. (Or shall I?
Who of us knows the truth of anything fully?)
Nevertheless, I can make a sortie or sally.
Know this: I was once with Hafiz. I was really.
A seer told me this – and he was not merely
a charlatan, I promise. So you must rally.
You must set your will to accept I see clearly.
Poor Hafiz. In that life he was off his trolley!
He got it wrong about God. Well, it was early
in our understanding. Now we guess more nearly.
It is true we've always known God loves us dearly.
Therefore She will never depart from you, silly!
She is not trivial or fickle or frilly.
Neither is the path to Her side steeply hilly.
The one who tells you this is speaking truthfully
from deep Remembrance ... if not strictly ghazaly.
Written for dVerse "Meeting the Bar – The Ghazal".
I added a further constraint, rhyming every line rather than just every couplet. On the other hand, I ignored the refrain. However it's more un-ghazaly in mood than form.
[Fellow-Aussies, please applaud me for having resisted working in "Up there, Cazaly!"]
After reading all the beautiful poems others have written to this prompt, I feel a bit ashamed. Perhaps I'll try a serious one too in the near future. (Though actually this one does have a serious message underneath the play.)
1 February 2018
Wendy Rule's Concert, 31 Jan - 1 Feb 2018
To Andrew
The full moon singer
live on my computer
is in America, next to a mountain.
It's cold there. She is dressed
in warm black pants and jacket,
red beret and hiking boots.
She plans to see the dawn,
she tells us, after her singing.
Here in Australia, it's midnight.
I'm still in sarong. The electric fans
are still blowing air around my living room.
The sky outside is black with cloud.
Between songs, Wendy reminds us:
the blue moon blood moon super moon,
Leo moon of creativity and sovereignty,
is present though we cannot see.
So are you, whom I also can't see
except in my mind. When
did you not celebrate full moon with me?
When did you not watch an eclipse
alongside me? When didn't we
attend Wendy's concerts together, here
on her visits to this our magical home
under our own mountain?
I know your spirit is with me tonight
as she casts the circle. Here in the South
it's Lughnasadh, aka Lammas, a time
of early harvest. I gather up in thought
blessings that form my harvest, including
you and the times we had together.
In the Northern half of the world it's Imbolc,
beginning Spring: new life. And I renew.
For Midweek Motif ~ Moon at Poets United.
Musician Wendy Rule, an Australian now based in Santa Fe, is also a witch who casts circle at all her concerts. You can still find this one on YouTube.
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