Mirror, mirror . . .

In Tew’s day’s mailbox . . .

… the river still flows

from wherever it comes from

to where it has been told to go. – Mary Oliver

Today in 1994, Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first democratically elected president.

Billy Joel was born on this date in 1949 Bronx, N.Y.

Today would be the 85th birthday of Charles Simic. The poet was born on this date in 1938 Belgrade, Yugoslavia, which is now Serbia. He died this past January at his home in Dover, New Hamphsire.

What is important is to get beyond the pattern of mental concepts which we have formed. One must learn to be a skillful scientist … Everything must be seen through one’s own microscope and one has to reach one’s own conclusions in one’s own way. Until we do that, there is no savior, no guru, no blessings, and no guidance that could be of any help. – Chögyam Trungpa

Unemployed Mirrors at Just Before Dawn

– after Charles Simic

You must come to them sideways;

Sneak a view of their emptiness

Without them catching

A glimpse of you in return.

We have become our own Narcissus Mirror.-- Sophie Strand

Reflection in Stone

– for Sophie

Narcissus was not enamoured with a mirrored

image of his separated self. He was, rather,

astonished by the deep, clear Way of the water –

the very slow movement of the plants

beneath the surface. the fish barely moving,

reminded him how still his breath had become

epiphanies, joining the connectedness

with the sparkling stones below

reflecting the stars above him.

The real work . . .

In the Monday mailbox . . .

As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth. They go back to the Neolithic: the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude . . . – Gary Snyder, born 93 years ago today in 1930 San Francisco.

A Marxist's solution to the ecology crisis: De-growth. As a metaphor for the environment it fits rather nicely into the niche being generated by functional medicine and the organic food movement consideration regarding de-aging and extending the life span. Jus' sayin' …

We believe because we understand. If you don’t believe something then put it aside for a while or go study more. – Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (nee: Diane Perry)

Doomscrolling. If you continually focus on everything that’s going wrong, all you’re going to do is gather more evidence for why that’s correct. This is going to feed into the cycle of cynicism. And then when you do encounter something that actually might be more neutral or even good, it doesn’t even enter your awareness...opening up your field of inquiry...you may begin seeing what’s out there rather than imposing a preassumed story about what’s going on...We’re living in an age where there’s information coming at us from left, right, and center. We’re dealing with things that we’ve never had to deal with before. We have to be willing to dive into the mess. You can’t look at the mess and be intimidated and just say no. If we don’t jump in, someone else is going to jump in for us, and we’re going to end up in a future that we haven’t taken part in at all. – Emma Varvaloucas

. . . under the tough old stars—

In the shadow of bluffs

I came back to myself,

To the real work, to

“What is to be done.”

– Gary Snyder from “I Went into the Maverick Bar” in Turtle Island. New Directions, 1974.

Passing through . . .

In the mailbox this windy Sunday morning . . .

An icon has passed. Gordon Lightfoot died this past Monday, May 1st. He was 85.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on today's date in 1840; while in 1833 Johannes Brahms was born. It's also the 199th anniversary of the premier of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, performed in Vienna.

It's the 211th anniversary of Robert Browning's birth. The poet and playwright was born in 1812 Camberwell, England. His relationship with fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett is one of the most famous in English literature

. . . sound, like life, is defined by the absence of it. It is the pregnant silence between the notes that gives birth to its valence and salience. The notes, like brushstrokes, are plucked off the blank canvas of the future . . . Words in poetry are like notes in a symphony. It’s best not to try to understand them, but, instead, to feel them. No semiotics, just the real thing. Like a mantra that we repeat misplaces its literal meaning. Over time, we inhabit the pure vibration of it. We let go of the you and you and you and you. We turn off the spotlight and bathe in the floodlight, surrendering into something greater than ourselves. – Jeff Krasno

. . .You can't jump a jet plane like you can a freight train

So, I'd best be on my way in the early morning rain.

. . . For there was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
And many are the dead men too silent - to be real.

. . .someday when your poor heart is on the mend
well, I just might pass this way again.
That's what you get for lovin' me – Gordon Lightfoot