Cosmic Spiders and Fine-Tuned Vessels
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I am looking out my window at a sunny, winter wonderland. It snowed most of yesterday; I felt as though nature had given me the approval to switch over from my fall jazz to Christmas jazz. Yes, I am one of those people. A Christmas nut. The twenty-five days in December just aren't enough. My apologies to those of you looking forward to Thanksgiving.
We took down are fall and Halloween decoration on November 1st and broke out just a small amount of Christmas decor. Not much. Just our winter-themed pillows and a themed throw blanket, a pine cone, and a wooden forest winter scene. A beautiful glass mosaic snowman, I got on a trip to the New York Zoo, many Christmas seasons ago. Okay, so maybe we haven't decorated for Christmas as much as winter and the change of seasons.
I will post some frosty, sugared photos of nature in the coming weeks, but today we have some Autumn offerings. I know most of you are still watching leaves and not snowflakes fall; so I will oblige and pretend it is still Autumn for me too.
You may have noticed my absence on here the last few days. There is poetry book I have been neglecting putting to print. Inspiration had me put everything else aside and get to it. I am now paused again as I wait for the proof in the mail. If all goes well, it should be published by months end. Fingers crossed the cover looks like it does online and the typos are few, the formatting accpetable.
With the weather and what I have been doing chit-chat out of the way. Let's get to the other things this blog is meant to be about. Poetry and philosophy.
If you have been following me about in the virtual world then you know I do my best to enact a Taoist philosophy in my dealings with the other beings and the material world. Our shared world. I do, do my best. Taoism is not my religion but rather a how-to to limit suffering, celebrate diversity, and change, and to keep the ego's complaining to a distant roar. Some days, I do better than others. The more I meditate, remind myself of Taoist philosophy, and spend time writing poetry, the better I do. The more peace, bliss, and creation I find.
81, Poems from the Tao. is my own attempt of making meaning of the Tao Te Ching and linking its verses to my own psyche. Let me present verse seven.
7
The heavens and earth exist
For what is found within
They endure as vessels
Allowing time and material
To enter, mix, and pass through
The master is a vessel
Filling with and containing
Never grasping at
Never holding onto
Desires enter, mix, and pass through
Fulfilled by the Tao
All the master touches is blessed
Link to Spoken Word
Like I said, Taoism is not religion for me. I commune with the divine ... I don't define or claim the divine ... but I commune with it through meditation or maybe a quiet walk in nature. There are many paths to that which unites us, paths back to our source, and with the flow of its creation. I am not here to limit or insist on your path, your way. But if you are reading this, you likely have a body. Likely ... not neccesarily with all this AI floating about in the webisphere. If you are currently wired and amorphous what follows is not for you. Skip ahead and keep your wired clutches off my voice. Like I could stop you. If on the other hand, feet and torso, fingers and toes, your mind resides in flesh and its scaffolding is bones and cartilage, you have a body, then settle in and listen up.
We have a tendency to over-identify with our bodies, confuse them for our entirety of existence. No matter what you think ... and do you think ... your mind ... not your brain, is infinite and if you let it, ever-expanding, but your body, finite and contained. I concede capable of some expansion but not always to your benefit. No, you are not your body. You are not your thoughts either. but that is a another blog.
No, potato chip gourmands and couch spuds, I am not saying that makes it okay to misuse your body and/or not move it. You have to keep your vessel in good shape because not only is it your material container, it is also your instrument of reception and perception. You think; therefore you are; says Descartes, but if you want to continue being you, you got to move baby.
So take care of the vessel; exercise; release stress, maybe even laugh sometimes; and feed it well; don't over consume and then pray, meditate or silently ponder the universe. Let the divine stuff flow through it. This too is a physical experience; you will know it when you experience it. You will know it when you feel it.
I don't know if you know this, but there is an election going on. Please don't hate me because I am human, but I too have picked a side. It pains me that you and I may see ourselves divided over November 5th. Why is it we can't all get what we want, our say, and pick of overlords at the same time.
Cosmic Communism
pulled from
diaphanous dreams
a veiled sunrise
breaks through
the flimsy day
clouds are thick on this morn
just enough light dins an alarm
dissolves the meaningful immaterial, replaces the soaring albatross and cooing doves with industrious and territorial crows, clever, clever birds, black and not grey, no need for bright plumage in the low light, coal reflects silver
the solid must be handled
reach for dark roasted stars in a cup
brought to ground and muddied
to illuminate the shadows
the distant solar is not up to snuff
for some reason we’ve tilted
there is no flocking backwards
time to take our turn at being cold
so opposite sides get a share of the heat
cosmic communism
we could just migrate
be free like the birds
learn to share and not just delegate
but then there is no freedom without peace
we’d rather take our turn
then learn to get along
I guess the world must have its poles if it is to maintain balance, not lose all our hot air to an unforgiving and unbearably cold vacuum. Tough place though to be in the thick of things, always quarrelling and thinking horrible things about the 'other' side. Sometimes it feels like there is no escape. Yet, here on this turbulent and impossible to conceive minute planet, we can choose to hang out in dim corners and cracks; or plant gardens and weave creation in sun-lit, but remote fringes.
We are small, microscopic is gigantic when we compare ourselves to the universe, but there is no limit to our creativity and ingenuity when we keep the vessel fine tuned and our receivers open, when we find purpose and the crevice or edge we fit best in. Weave away and see what comes our way, Hivelanders; soar above it all, Beauties and Beats, be gentle if you can. One more somewhat Halloween-inspired poem to follow. It is a new one. See you next time.
Spider, Come to Her
a spider was not meant to swim
eight spindly legs, do poorly as fins
come to her, instead
perhaps our leggy-lady
could float upon the surface
her limbs turned to oars
rowing until her fur, waterlogged
plunges to the sea floor
an anchor, amorphous
no, a spider was not meant to swim
eight spindly limbs, do poorly as aquatic fins
a spider was given threads, to weave and to create
such beauty, even the garish papillion comes to her
re-cocooned and clad in silk before consumed
a spider was given strings
to take to the air, and fly and soar
to transcend above her octo-pedals
over the amuse-bouche lofty in-crowd
seated at the most elaborate table
shrouded, stranded, and static
the spider was meant to conduct
the current of imperceptible breezes
high above the scented petalled
no, a spider was not meant to breast-stroke
or butterfly, eight fluffy legs
quickly sodden in an aquatic mileau
a spider was meant
to rise above the flow
feed upon garden slip streams
weave lacy mandala, enlighten
let that which rises above
come to her
***
Words and Images are my own.
7 is published in 81,Poems from the Tao. Cosmic Communism is published in Monsters, Avatars, and Angels. Spider, Come to Her is a fresh composition and is making its limited debut here. 81, Poems from the Tao and Monsters, Avatars, and Angels are available in paperback or digital through amazon and your local libraries and bookstores. Click on any title below to further explore and support my writing.
All these flowers are very beautiful and rare, I didn't know much about them before, after your post I got a lot more knowledge.