A Delicate Girl

The terrible grief of being human! Let
us drink it all, but with a difference.

we sit with Junnaiyd and Bestami. The
moon rising here cannot be covered with

cloud. There are no deaths for lovers.
Who is the self? A delicate girl that

flows out when we draw the sword of
selfless action. The earth eats men

and women, and yet we are sent to eat
the world, this place that tries to fool

us with tomorrow. Wait until tomorrow,
which we outwit by enjoying only this

now. We gather at night to celebrate
being human. Sometimes we call out low

to the tamborine. Fish drink the sea,
but the sea does not get smaller! We

eat the clouds and evening light. We
are slaves tasting the royal wine.

- Rumi


For the first time I have conquered restlessness, my imagination does not wonder to all the far places and towards all the far strangers, questing, expecting what? For the first time my body and soul are together…I can bear to listen to music, it is not a provocation to more adventures, a pursuit of ghosts, a tracking down of mirages, an embracing of the void. This is no mere interlude to an unceasing hunger and curiosity but a possession of the present and the near I have neglected, and now for the first time I appreciate the haven, the repose, the softly closed window and the door which say; " Everything is here, in the present, on earth. Let distant ecstasies and imaginings no longer lure me on."

- Anais Nin


The Astronomer

In the shadow of the temple my friend and I saw a blind man sitting alone. And my friend said, "Behold the wisest man of our land."

Then I left my friend and approached the blind man and greeted him. And we conversed.

After a while I said, "Forgive my question, but since when hast thou been blind?"

"From my birth," he answered.

Said I, "And what path of wisdom followest thou?"

Said he, "I am an astronomer."

Then he placed his hand upon his breast, saying, "I watch all these suns and moons and stars."

- Kahlil Gibran


Be a bud sitting quietly on the hedge.

Be a smile, one part of wondrous existence.

Stand here. There is no need to depart.

- Thich Nhat Hahn


Not only is another world possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

- Arundhati Roy


The Lovers

See how in their veins all becomes spirit:
into each other they mature and grow.
Like axles, their forms tremblingly orbit,
round which it whirls, bewitching and aglow.
Thirsters, and they receive drink,
watchers, and see: they receive sight.
Let them into one another sink
so as to endure each other outright.

- Rainer Maria Rilke


Opened Once

I once was open, and one with a traveling heart.
I loved this sweet god.
Just like the fiction rushing in your riverbed,
Arise like applause in my head.
And in the half-light, where we both stand
This is the half-light, see me as I am.
Just like the ocean, always in love with the moon,
It's overflowing now, inside you.
We fly right over the minds of so many in pain
We are the smile of light that brings the rain.
In the half-light, where we both stand
In the half-light, you saw me as I am.
I am a railroad track abandoned
With the sunset forgetting I ever happened,
That I ever happened.

- Jeff Buckley


Desired Constellation

It's tricky when you feel someone
Has done something on your behalf

It's slippery when your sense of justice
Murmurs underneath and is asking you
How am I going to make it right?

With a palm full of stars
I throw them like dice... repeatedly
On the table... repeatedly
I shake them like dice
And throw them on the table... repeatedly
Until the desired constellation appears

- Bjork


Bowl of Oranges

The rain, it started tapping on the window near my bed
There was a loophole in my dreaming, so I got out of it
And to my surprise my eyes were wide and already open
Just my nightstand and my dresser where those nightmares had just been
So I dressed myself and left then, out into the gray streets
But everything seemed different and completely new to me
The sky, the trees, houses, buildings, even my own body
And each person I encountered, I couldn't wait to meet
I came upon a doctor who appeared in quite poor health
I said "there is nothing I can do for you that you can't do for yourself."
He said "Oh yes you can. Just hold my hand. I think that would help."
So I sat with him a while and then I asked him how he felt
He said, "I think I'm cured. No, in fact, I'm sure
Thank you Stranger, for your therapeutic smile."
So that is how I learned the lesson that everyone is alone
And your eyes must do some raining if you are ever going to grow
But when crying don't help and you can't compose yourself
It is best to compose a poem, an honest verse of longing or simple song of hope
That is why I'm singing...
Baby don't worry cause now I got your back.
And every time you feel like crying, I'm gonna try and make you laugh
And if I can't, if it just hurts too bad, then we will wait for it to pass
and I will keep you company through those days so long and black
And we'll keep working on the problem we know we'll never solve
Of Love's uneven remainders, our lives are fractions of a whole
But if the world could remain within a frame like a painting on a wall
Then I think we would see the beauty, Then we would stand staring in awe
at our still lives posed like a bowl of oranges,
like a story told by the fault lines and the soil

- Conor Oberst


This Sad Burlesque

I write in hopes that by the time you get this letter
We may live to see a change for the better
Or are we so devoted to these wretched selfish motives
When the cold facts and figures all add up
They cannot contradict this sad burlesque
This sad burlesque
With miserable failures making entertainment of our fate
Laughter cannot dignify or elevate
This sad burlesque

Now can they recall being young and idealistic
Before wading knee-deep in hogwash and arithmetic
The pitying smirk
The argument runs like clockwork
Will run down eventually and splutter to a stop

P.S. Well by now you know the worst of it
And we've heard all the alibis that they've rehearsed
The smug predictions
If it's not a contradiction
Keep faith in human nature
And have mercy on the creatures in this sad burlesque

- Elvis Costello


Watch Her Disappear

Last night I dreamed that I was dreaming of you
And from a window across the lawn I watched you undress
Wearing a sunset of purple tightly woven around your hair
That rose in strangled ebony curls
Moving in a yellow bedroom light
The air is wet with sound
The faraway yelping of a wounded dog
And the ground is drinking a slow faucet leak
Your house is so soft and fading as it soaks the black summer heat
A light goes on and the door opens
And a yellow cat runs out on the stream of hall light and into the yard

A wooden cherry scent is faintly breathing the air
I hear your champagne laugh
You wear two lavender orchids
One in your hair and one on your hip
A string of yellow carnival lights comes on with the dusk
Circling the lake with a slowly dipping halo
And I hear a banjo tango
And you dance into the shadow of a black poplar tree

And I watch you as you disappear
I watch you as you disappear
I watch you as you disappear
I watch you as you disappear

- Tom Waits


More to follow.