Tag Archives: poetry

Be Right or Be in Relationship?

Some marriage counselors like to ask their clients, “Do you want to be right or in relationship?” This Socratic method approach suggests that “being right” may be more difficult and lonelier than you might initially think. In addition, being in relationship may not always include being “right.”

Below are two references that have crossed my desk today. The first is a is a Tricycle article on Zen Ethics which includes a second reference, the poem, “A Place Where We Are Right,” by the Israeli poet Yehudi Amichai.

May you find one or more of these words of wisdom helpful in your daily discernment.

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An Ear to the Ground

“A Place Where We Are Right,” a poem by the Israeli poet Yehudi Amichai, shows this consequence perfectly:

From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.

The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.

But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.

And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.

(from The Selected Poetry of Yehudi Amichai, translation by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell, University of California Press, 1996, used with permission of the translators)

Bearded Man On A Bus – New Book Recommendation

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http://www.amazon.com/Bearded-Man-Bus-Immigrants-Privilege/

A friend and Buddhist mentor, Daniel L. Smith, has written a new book: Bearded Man On A Bus and it’s the perfect book for me right now as I live out my new life as a recovering romantic. His book is filled with wandering wisdom and gave me some fresh insights for my life journey. Specifically:

“Trailways red and white – and – lost all over” p.9
“Backwoods Alabama – born here, raised here, still feels she doesn’t belong.” p.31
“Wondering if enough is sufficient, if enough is in the right direction, if enough means loving just one person, enough? P.41
“Wrens migrating after the storm, down from Ontario for the summer; unaware of the tumult a world away.” p.75
“She sits in front of her all too honest mirror, as a thousand times before, one thought away from last week’s fantasy, another from this week’s fleeting memory, just one ahead of the nothingness, she fears.” p.82
“Tonight you end right quick, right here at table, Momma stirs her sauce with a long knife.” p.88
“Toils and tears of some creator we see as absent, but intuit in the present moment, moss underfoot or sandy shore, we find forgiveness in the sky.“ p.92
“Yet, it’s communion we’re really after, isn’t it? Not conversation, not community, but true communion at source – all light and insight.” p.99
“It is difficult, this staying in tenderness, this wanting to be” p.102
“What follows in the darkness, all a fantasy anyway, there’s not much real about any of it, but she, she goes on and on, almost as if there is no beginning and no end” p.107

My thanks to author Daniel L. Smith who approved the sharing of his words above. If you’d like to read more of his “wanderer’s spiritual journey … a collection (of) hopeful poems, possibly, because life continues, nothing is permanent, and breathing is such a fundamental right to exploring the conditions necessary for happiness in all humans, regardless of origin, journey, or destination.” check out his book available on Amazon.

Some Things Are Deeply Felt … Like Election Results

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Wearing my heart on my sleeve, I’ve become a human porcupine, the pain too intense to hide ….

Tibetan-American poet and writer, Lekey Leidecker, helps us recognize the anxiety we now experience. Provocative phrases such as those below are from her recent Tricycle article, Some Things Are Felt Through the Body:

“This rage never really left. For far too long, the story has been the same.”
“Seized by mounting anxiety, rising dread, rushed to distraction, and the cycle repeated itself”
“Bad feelings were not internal failures, they were indicators. I cannot cut the threat down any further. I confront it at its true size.”

Check out this heartfelt article at tricycle.org/article/lekey-leidecker-body/

Finding Home in Ourselves

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“Don’t forget … to call yourself Home.” Kaitlin Curtice

This is a beautiful excerpt from the Center for Action and Contemplation about Kaitlin Curtice’s writing on the sacred legacy of home.

Check out both links identified below. You will be comforted and edified.

http://www.kaitlincurtice.com

Finding Home in Ourselves

Author Kaitlin Curtice writes about the sacred legacy of home:

May we always return to the places where the stories begin, to challenge them, to accept and honor them, and to whisper to ourselves and one another that we are always, always arriving.

Don’t forget,
my love,
to live.

Don’t forget
to love yourself,
all of you,
from every season
and every place,
because you never know
when they will
come knocking for
a cup of coffee
and an overdue hug.

call yourself Home.

An Unfaithful Nursery Rhyme

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Bob and Beth looked forward to death

ending their pain thereafter

Bob fell down and broke his crown

and Beth came tumbling after

Sisyphus fell into the abyss

carrying his shitbag upward

Sally Forth lost her True North

sought truth through tears and cuss words

Tiny Tim cycled on in

upon a trike of virtue

Trueheart Tess sorting through the mess

sought justice for Tim and her too

How many lives will be broken today?

How many ways can we repair the damage caused by an affair?

Dead Tree

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I feel like a dead tree

No branches, no bark

Missing my top half

Still standing but could probably be easily pushed over

Fortunately

Those who would be happy to topple me

Pull me up by my roots

Are no longer alive or

No longer capable

I’m not the last man standing

Nor the last tree standing

But I’m still standing

If only for today

NO BONNET SONNET

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NO BONNET SONNET

not ev’ry itch need be scratched,

not ev’ry egg need be hatched

not ev’ry thought need be spoke,

not ev’ry dream need be woke

colors seen on judgment day,

practice or pose your one way

no aura, no tonal vibe,

no ritual, ‘gyptian scribe

which of us doesn’t belong?

wrong question, don’t sing along

let go ego before burst,

don’t forget that she comes first

deep bow to Wilda Tanner

hat tip to Ian Kerner

Oct 28 – Fighting Societal Affective Disorder

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are you feeling SAD?

something might be wrong for you

check out your beliefs

I’m a huge fan of Rabbi Rami Shapiro and have a number of his books on addiction, religion, and social issues. Rabbi Rami also has a regular column in the Spirituality & Health ezine. See this site for his latest column: http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/fighting-societal-affective-disorder

Below are highlights from the article that most spoke to me. I highly encourage you, dear reader, to check out the full article.

Fighting Societal Affective Disorder

by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

After a conversation with a seasonal affective disorder expert, Rabbi Rami ponders the affliction of societal affective disorder.

Reading Defeating SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder): A Guide to Health and Happiness through All Seasons (by) author Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal, I was struck with the notion that Western civilization may be going through its own version of SAD: not seasonal affective disorder, but societal affective disorder.

SAD is a “condition of regular depressions that occur in the fall and winter and typically remit in the spring and summer.” Among the common symptoms of seasonal affective disorder are a slowing down of thinking and action, sadness, increased anxiety, increased appetite, cravings for sweets and starches, greater need for sleep, and less interest in sex.

As I look at societal affective disorder, the symptoms are similar: lack of mental clarity and increase in irrationality; increase in fear, anger, hatred, and violence; increased appetite for conspiracy theories; scapegoating and othering of marginalized communities; cravings for empty rhetoric, spectacle, and bread and circuses; greater need for mind-numbing info-tainment; and less interest in sex accompanied by a rising obsession with homophobia, toxic masculinity, and misogyny….

(W)hy are so many people afraid of and violent toward the LGBTQ+ community? Because they believe the very existence of such people violates the will of God or laws of Nature.

Why do so many people hate Jews? Because they believe Jews are part of a millennia-old cabal that secretly runs the world to the detriment of [fill in your favorite racial, ethnic, or religious group].

Why do so many white people want to erase African-American history? Because they believe that the truth might lead to justice for Black people at the expense of white people.

If I’m right about this, one way to cure America of societal affective disorder is to examine the health of our beliefs. But be careful: Don’t assume that liberals’ beliefs are healthy, and conservatives’ beliefs are unhealthy. … We need another set of criteria when judging our beliefs. Let me suggest this preliminary list:

If your beliefs promote the thriving of all people regardless of race, sex, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc., they are probably healthy. If they don’t, they are probably unhealthy.

If your beliefs call you to acts of justice and compassion to serve the wellbeing of person and planet, they are probably healthy. If your beliefs make you anxious, angry, fearful, violent, and boorish, they are probably unhealthy.

If your beliefs are healthy, share them. If your beliefs are unhealthy, change them. In this way, we might do something to defeat the societal affective disorder that is threatening our democracy.

Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an award-winning author, essayist, poet, and teacher.