thinking on a
book I gave away with a
opened heart-- a
bird flew trembling
expecting a
wind to lift it up high to a
far-off unknown land
I flatten the dog-eared pages of the book with a
silly girl-like devotion to a
mortal God with a
handsome face
I handed it over with both hands--a
prayer that something may come of a
book as precious and yet as simple as a
favorite. That my act was a
wish as simple as the gesture
But misunderstanding is a
common thing, more common than sincerity
or foolishness or girlish dreams
In misunderstandings, birds never take flight but turn into
paper, they crumple and burn
no matter how refined the words are
and no book
no matter how beautiful can save it.
By: Nippy | Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 4:41 PM | | 
It's been a while since I have been so touched. In a book store, I stumbled upon it.
The Buddha’s Last Instruction
“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal – a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire –
clearly I’m not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.
~ Mary Oliver ~
(House of Light)
By: Nippy | Monday, January 05, 2009 at 5:40 PM | |
New year. 2009
Strange isn't it. Another year folds over and dies and this new one opens with its explosion of possibilities. Hurray to the old calendars to be thrown away and the new ones to unfold more about life, love, friends, food, (and other things worth celebrating)
Dear ol' pals. Here's a late but a sincere wish to all of you this year. May we always find things to talk about and look at in the light and to sing and share. No matter how tiring and strange and complicated things get, there's always a new year, full of little blank slots for me to write out my days in. To my dear friends--all the best in life, work, family, love and everything else under the sun. May your days always be filled with light and joy and may the dark ones never remain for long.
Love,
Nip
By: Nippy | Sunday, January 04, 2009 at 5:23 PM | |
