[Poem of the week] LONGING FOR WINTER

LONGING FOR WINTER

Too much thick leafiness 
too few branches as yet 
too little skinniness 
too lushly fat 
 			too woolly and 
too wet.

Should the knife 
not be stuck in 
the sharp blade 
			until under the skin 
the skeleton starts to shake 
its scanty bones? 

In winter their cold bums will ache. 
 
Rather than that, fat Daniel 
on snow made of rice paper, 
a thin Chinese paintbrush, 
ready for death, bowed but not breaking 

			– and yet as if it broke – 
			draws 
		two 
	black 
twigs. 

    

© 1984, Hubert van Herreweghen
© Translation: 2010, Paul Vincent

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Funny Poem of the Week by FunnyPoets.com

Your FunnyPoets.com Your funny poem of the week is: The Impossible Takes a Little Longer A church that was slowly expirin' Had a minister who was retirin' And they wondered how they Would be able to pay, So they handed the matter to Cyron. The next thing he said made them writhe, For he brought up the subject of tithe, Saying, "All of you know You reap what you sow, No matter how fiercely you scythe. So you'll have to furnish the seed For the size of the harvest you need, And I'll watch it grow, And handle the hoe To keep it from coming up weed." "Now, I know my well known erudition May explain why you gave me this mission, But smart as I am It ain't worth a damn If what you really need's a magician." Copyright; Tad Lawson View more funny poems at FunnyPoets.com unsubscribe FunnyPoets.com 5646 Fairway Road Fairway, Kansas 66205

[Poetry Chaikhana] Gary Snyder - On Top

Here's your Daily Poem from the Poetry Chaikhana --

 

On Top By Gary Snyder (1930 - )   All this new stuff goes on top turn it over, turn it over wait and water down from the dark bottom turn it inside out let it spread through Sift down even. Watch it sprout. A mind like compost.   / Photo by Crinclecrankle.com /

============ Thought for the Day: The mediocre and the mundane: treasures for awareness. ============

Here's your Daily Music selection -- Krishna Das Live on Earth... For a Limited Time Only Listen - Purchase More Music Selections

 

Hi Omss -

I like this idea of psychic composting. (What else should we expect from a great Beat/Buddhist/nature poet, like Gary Snyder?) All of our lives -- our thoughts, our feelings, our relationships, every achievement, every disappointment, all the used and discarded scraps, the good, the great, the terrible, the foul, the forgotten filler, every experience of a full life -- it all goes onto the pile. Nothing rejected. It all has its use. Add it to the pile.

Then turn it over. Don't let it sit. Bring the old stuff to the top. Let it breathe the air and feel the sun. Contemplate what you've kept long buried. See the good and the bad together, how, over time, they become the same material. Turn it over again. What was once unpleasant has taken on the rich smell of soil. Turn it over, turn it inside out. Let the inner alchemy do its work.

Water it down. Let the emotions, clean and simple, trickle down through every layer, so no part of yourself, past or present, dries out.

Then grab great handfuls of the stuff and spread it out upon the earth. All you have to do then is wait and watch. New life will sprout.

A mind like compost.

Ivan

 

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