The universe itself is a part of the moment.

 

When he died, they left his ancient tiller out in the field. God knows where he got it, or when. The tiller had the look of The Great Depression. So did he. An absurd haircut. Every shirt button was always buttoned. Years later, growing old myself, I drove past the place. The frame house was gone and the tiller was rusted out, sitting under the lone oak tree in the middle of the field. “It all starts with turning the soil, boy.” He used to tell me that.

-

In my idleness winter becomes deep winter

when I’m not paying attention. The earth

is cold to the touch. Last night’s full moon

warmed my heart, standing outside with my dog

late at night, both of us looking up.

-

La lluvia es interminable, como las lágrimas de Dios sobre la estupidez de la humanidad.

-

A ladybug crawls on a blade of grass.

What about it? Everything.

The universe itself is a part of the moment.

-

A righteous soul, indeed—

To not seek Satori, only service.

-

james lee jobe 

Thelonious Monk, Don't Blame Me

When one gets quiet, then something wakes up inside one, something happy and quiet like the stars.

William Butler Yeats 

A genius is the one most like himself.

Thelonious Monk

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them. 

Charles Simic

You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, aka Malcolm X

I want to speak to their souls.

John Coltrane 

My soul is an empty carousel at sunset.

Pablo Neruda

A Diamond

A diamond

Is there

At the heart of the moon or the branches or my nakedness

And there is nothing in the universe like diamond

Nothing in the whole mind.

The poem is a seagull resting on a pier at the end of the ocean.

A dog howls at the moon

A dog howls at the branches

A dog howls at the nakedness

A dog howling with pure mind.

I ask for the poem to be as pure as a seagull’s belly.

The universe falls apart and discloses a diamond

Two words called seagull are peacefully floating out where the

       waves are.

The dog is dead there with the moon, with the branches, with

       my nakedness

And there is nothing in the universe like diamond

Nothing in the whole mind.

Jack Spicer, 1925-1965 CE 

LINK: Scallop Song, a poem by Anne Waldeman 

LINK: Aubade: Nocturne, a poem by Willie Lee Kinard III

LINK: The Poetry Podcast With Somewhat Salty Language

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-jlj