Gabriel’s Tree

Doves hush the evening air. Honeysuckle

and sage exhale their golden charge.

Ali’s spent form, an orphan tree

the color of paprika, begins to move.

Soft sounds echo garden walls.

Ali arches, lifts, whirls;

Nutmeg, cinnamon, crimson, salmon - familiar

names cannot be used this day as

her remembrance flames: sweet-soft mouth

and shimmering eyes;

ivory breasts…seem close enough to taste.

His spinning still-point falters; delirium bells

tinkle. The world recedes as only rocks

and miniature sounds remain. Ali

begins again.

his burnished face and milky

eyes have seen a thousand moons.

Archangel Gabriel guards eternity

cloaked above this zikr-dance as

gods converse on distant hills.

La il’aha illa’lla.

Dust motes swirl the faded light.

The Angel stands, a trumpet blasts,

the Sufi laughs - as evening settles

lemon and emerald and plum.

A soul on the razor edge of dark

and light calls forth the golden horn.

La il’aha illa’lla.

Holy Mary

San Xavier Mission

Tucson, Arizona

January 2011

"nothing is born fully formed; nothing dies."

in silence

pray me into consciousness,

mother divine

pray me into dust and diamond - 

pray me into rocks and holiness

and rivers.

pray me raw into form.

pray the wheel a-fire,

dear mother.

pray me into formless annihilation

then pray me back again,

my mother.

pray me back again.

There is a sense, at times, that certain things seem to be illumined from within. 

And a ‘knowing’ arises from this.  It is a knowing beyond everyday thinking.  

There is another pattern at work here.  

The Sufi term ‘yaqin’ comes to mind.  At its most basic level, yaqin refers to
certainty and conviction.  

We feel this in our bodies.  And we bow.  Deeply.

Linville Gorge

North Carolina

October 2010

Hill Where the Lord Hides

Finger Lakes

New York

from:  Ramakrishna: His Life And Sayings

"God is the Absolute and Eternal Brahman, as well as the Father of the Universe. 
The indivisible Brahman is like a vast shoreless ocean, without bounds and 
limits, in which I can only struggle and sink. But when I approach the always 
sportive (active) personal Deity (Hari), I get peace, like the sinking man who 
nears the shore.

God is formless, and is with form too, and He is that which transcends both form 
and formlessness. He alone can say what else He is.

At a certain stage of his path of devotion, the devotee finds satisfaction in 
God with form; at another stage, in God without form.

The God with form is visible, nay, we can touch Him face to face, as with one's 
dearest friend.

As at one time I am clothed, and at another time naked, so Brahman is at one 
time with attributes and at another without.

As water when congealed becomes ice, so the visible form of the Almighty is the 
materialised manifestation of the all-pervading formless Brahman. It may be 
called, in fact, Sat-chit-ananda [being-knowledge-bliss] solidified. As the ice, 
being part and parcel of the water, remains in the water for a time and 
afterwards melts in it, so the Personal God is part and parcel of the 
Impersonal. He rises from the Impersonal, remains there, and ultimately merges 
into it and disappears.

His name is Intelligence; His abode is Intelligence too, and He, the Lord, is 
Intelligence Himself."

Sri Ramakrishna

~

...with special thanks to Tom H. for sharing this gem...

Florida

For Kathy

August 15, 1951 - March 2, 2011

~

"Once Ananda, his cousin, devoted attendant, and beloved pupil, said to the Buddha, 'It would seem one half of the spiritual life is friendship with good people, association with good people, and communion with good people.'

The Buddha said in reply, "It is not so, Ananda, it is not so.  It is not one half of the spiritual life, 

it is the entire spiritual life.'"

Buddha, Samyutta Nikaya, Verse 2

+++

om mani kim-chi

Whereas, you, dragon are eccentric and your life uninteresting; and, whereas, you have a non-compassionate and obtuse nature and abundant ill-health; you should marry a monkey or rat late in life.  At all costs avoid the dog.  Whereas, you, monkey (1944, 1956, 1968, 1980 and 1992 or add 12 years), are not very intelligent and unable to influence people; and, whereas, you are an unenthusiastic underachiever and easily discouraged, you should seek a dragon or a rat and avoid tigers.  And finally you, rat (circa 1936 plus or minus 12 years) are un-ambitious and dishonest and prone to spend freely, seldom make lasting relationships.  In summation, you are compatible with dragons and monkeys and should avoid the horse.   

Whereas you, server five (chens restaurant shelby north carolina) have no ability to sense or know higher truth but your lucky numbers are 9, 12, 27, 36, 37 and 47.

west asheville

march 2011

~

yashica T4, 35mm, 200asa