A haibun from the Journal of Modern Haiku: Beach Treasures She is full of surprises, my gray-haired friend. Our lunch date turns into an unexpected drive to the headlands, with folding chairs in tow. Her brown paper bag holds sandwiches and chips . . . and plastic baggies and plates for gathering gemstones. She shows me how to scoop up the coarsest sand from along the tide line and swirl it in the plate, winnowing small treasures from the sea. Perhaps it is the crashing surf and seagull cries, the stuff of New Age music, that brings to mind her …
Dante Aligheri on self-actualization: “…everything that is, desires to be. As we act, we unfold our being. Enjoyment naturally follows, for a thing desired always brings delight.” — from M. Csikszentimihaly, Good Business: Leadership flow and meaning As we write, we become writers and by writing we manifest our writerly essence. And that is just plain fun.
Alex Golub on singing: “I’ve always understood singing as an act of self-abnegation, the creation of beauty through the annihilation of one’s own ego.” … “Humility is the smart bet. I’ve watched singer after singer and academic after academic take themselves too seriously. In doing so they shut the most valuable things out and fail to fulfill their potential. And so I’ve come to respect the quiet ones, the still small voices who spend their lives keeping the rest of us in tune.” … “I have no desire to sing alone.” … “Musicianship to me means phrasing, emotion, intonation. A …
I have been thinking about Jonathon Delacour and his recent play in the fields of meaning. And this quote triggered something: “How do you interpret a thing? Don’t treat it indirectly or symbolically – look directly at it and choose spontaneously that aspect of it which is most immediately striking – the striking flash in consciousness or awareness, the most vivid, what sticks out in your mind.” — John Welwood, Ordinary Magic: Everyday Life as Spiritual Path This is what is going on: noticing the vivid internal responses to external things. Gazing upon their surfaces and trying to bore deeply …
Lola Ridge (1873-1941) was an Irish born American poet who wrote about the immigrant communities in early 20th century America. She wrote both as an outsider (writing about other ethnicities) and as one who shared the experience of being displaced and shifted. This poem is from The Ghetto and Other Poems, published around 1920. THE FIDDLER In a little Hungarian cafe Men and women are drinking Yellow wine in tall goblets. Through the milky haze of the smoke, The fiddler, under-sized, blond, Leans to his violin As to the breast of a woman. Red hair kindles to fire On the …