Daily Prompt:Imitation/Flattery

This poem is an homage to Walt Whitman, with, perhaps a touch of Basho at the end…

Cosmic

Tonight
I want to lie
Here in the dark
By the open window
And contemplate the cosmos
The wonders of the cosmos

O might! O splendour!
The moon, the thunder clouds
The hidden stars

O high ideals
O vastness of philosophy…

Why is this mosquito
Buzzing round my ear?

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/daily-prompt-homage/

Friday Poem: Lord of the Dance

Friday again already! I almost forgot…

 

Lord of the Dance,
Shiva!
Creator and Destroyer
in one-
Dance for me,
Show what I  must
destroy
in order
to create anew;
Teach me to create
and dance destruction.
All that is born must die,
An endless cycle;
And that which is not born
Does not die.
I am that, Lord Shiva;
The Dancer and the dance.

I made this little book to hold the lyrics of Patti Smith’s “About a Boy”. I may share more of it later. Patti Smith is a great poet, musician and artist, truly an inspiration. If you haven’t read “Just Kids” yet, I suggest that you do so soon! She was a (fairly) ordinary girl who grew up to meet and work with extraordinary people in New York in the 70’s. Now she’s a living legend…

Another Trio of Quotes.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of (ones) dreams and endeavours to live the life which (one) has imagined, (one) will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Thoreau

How true is this statement? I don’t know, but I’m still working on it.

“Happiness is the freedom and capacity to enjoy who we are and what we are doing.”

Robert Anthony

I’m pretty sure that one is right, but I’m also pretty sure it’s easier said than done.

It can take half a lifetime to start enjoying who we are – although most of us had it nailed for at least a few years as children.

“But it isn’t Easy,” said Pooh… “Because Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you.”

Winnie the Pooh

‘The House at Pooh Corner’

I know that’s right. One way to let them find you is to read poetry often and widely.

A copy of ‘Leaves of Grass’ by the bed is an excellent way of inviting Poems and Hums into my head. (I have to open it up and read it, of course. Osmosis doesn’t seem to work.) What about you, dear reader, do have somewhere special where ‘Hums’ can find you?

I work one day a week at an op shop/ thrift store. This morning when I arrived, the dress-ups cupboard door was open. The door was made, I suddenly realised, from a board-mounted poster of the young Kurt Cobain. It’s upside down, but I put it right side up, because it’s OK to be sloppy, but only if “it’s good”.

It was his birthday only a day or two ago – so was the open door this morning synchronicity or just an odd coincidence?

He looks like he was enjoying being himself just then, and he lived the life which he had imagined for a few years as an adult.

I guess he forgot to go where the Poetry and Hums could find him.

 

Life the Universe and Everything

My favourite colour is pink’n’orange

If you sit on the floor, like a child…

If you are interested in things, like Dr Worm…

If you like Melvins, Mudhoney, Meatpuppets and Mazzy Star…

If you find Phantomas amusing…

If you consider Walt Whitman, Samuel Clemens and Kurt Cobain American Genius’s…

What about John Shelby Spong?

If you are over organised religion (but not hostile)…

If you listen to your dreams, and value sleep…

If there is an ever-changing pile of books beside your bed that may include fiction, non-fiction, poetry…

If you enjoy Whitman, Frost, Dickinson, Elliot, Wordsworth, Blake, Murray, Plath, Lalla, Seth, etc, etc…

If you consider yourself to be creative – do you think it is special to be creative (trick question!)

If you enjoy physical as well as cerebral work- if you get down on your knees in the garden, and enjoy bugs, birds and reptiles…

If you consider Original Sin to be a tired old concept that has caused a lot of unnecessary sorrow in the world…

If you share your income and give what you can to organisations supporting Human Rights, Trade Justice, Those less Fortunate than Ourselves…

If you believe in

-sleeping in

– immortality

-change

-time off….

If you consider that the term ‘Board Game’ contains a spelling error (except for Scrabble)…

If you think that sport is fundamentally not interesting at all…

If you like to cook, and people like to eat what you cook…

If you are interested in understanding the word Empathy experientially as well as theoretically, also Love and Peace…

If some of these things are true for you, you might enjoy my blog.