Mary Oliver Poems and John Krasinski
This winter one of my projects (that has extended into spring) is to read all the Mary Oliver poetry books I have accumulated.? Here are a couple of my most recent favorites:
Just Rain
The clouds
did not say
soon, but who can tell
for sure, it wasn't
the first time I had been
fooled; the sky-doors
opened and
the rain began
to fall upon all of us; the
grass, the leaves,?
my face, my shoulders
and the flowered body
of the pond where
it made its soft
unnotational
music on the pond's
springy surface, and then
the birds joined in and I too
felt called toward such
throat praise.? Well,
the whole afternoon went on?
that way until I thought
I could feel
the almost born things
in the earth rejoicing.? As for myself,
I just kept walking, thinking;
once more I am grateful
to be present.
And
Mysteries, Yes
Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the?
mouths of lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
Here two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
If you like Hamilton, take a look at this on you tube I am guessing; I saw it on Facebook.? Watch the entire episode for the great surprise at the end; brought tears to my eyes.? Zoom surprise: Some Good News With John Krasinski episode 2.
--
Warmly,
David H. Marvin
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None of Us are Immune
?
It's going to be okay.? It really is.
We will face this situation together with love, humor and patience.
We will weep together, we will laugh together.
We will discover togetherness in our apartness.
And the worst of it will end one day.
And we will have learned so much by then.
We will now be called to face very difficult feelings inside of us.
Fear.? Grief.? The loss of an old way of life.? Our devastated plans.
We will learn to face ourselves.? Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Nowhere to go except within.
A sacred quarantine.
We will learn to face our boredom.? Our restlessness.? The part of us that wants to be somewhere else, doing something else,
having some other experience, in some other Now, living in some other life.
We will let go of the wonderful future we had planned.
We will let the fantasy future die, release it and grieve it.
We will return to the solidity and warmth of the present.
We will make the present into our home.
We will begin again, here, build a new house on new soil.
We will explore a new way of life.
Strange, at first.? But full of possibility.
Slower.? Kinder.? Quieter.
We will talk to each other honestly about death, and life, and impermanence, and how we feel about the changes that have come
to us and our loved ones.
We will learn to value life a little more.
Yes, perhaps we will learn to value life a little more.
And live with our hearts cracked slightly open to the elements.
And lean into uncertainty, and find our salvation there.
None of us are immune to change.
To rupture.? To the shattering of the old, familiar forms.
This is the way of things, this has always been the way of things.
From this perspective, nothing has gone wrong.
Crisis simply means turning point, and none of us are immune from the turning.
The breaking of the old makes way for the birth of new.
It has always been this way.
Love. Humor. Patience.? With these things, we will come through.
Stronger than before.? Renewed.? Ready.
--Jeff Foster
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Workshop on Transforming the Inner Critic using Voice Dialogue at Zen Community of Oregon
Hi all, from time to time, I will post things that may be of interest to members of our sangha. Peggy and I have close teaching connections with the Zen Community of Oregon, Roshis Chozen and Hogen Bays. This is an on line workshop "Transforming the Inner Critic" through their website at?https://www.zendust.org
Saturday April 11?
9:30A - 12:30P, 2:30P - 5:30P?
Led by: Hogen Roshi, Chozen Roshi and Jogen Sensei
Workshop cost is Sliding Scale please donate what you can and know that your offering helps keep the Zen Community of Oregon afloat during this time of closure. Your contribution directly supports the teachers, monastics and the care for our places of practice.?Please see their website to register if interested and to register.?
Gassho, Karin
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On Apr 2, 2020, at 10:57 AM, madelinesray@... wrote: None of Us are Immune
?
It's going to be okay. ?It really is.
We will face this situation together with love, humor and patience.
We will weep together, we will laugh together.
We will discover togetherness in our apartness.
And the worst of it will end one day.
And we will have learned so much by then.
We will now be called to face very difficult feelings inside of us.
Fear. ?Grief. ?The loss of an old way of life. ?Our devastated plans.
We will learn to face ourselves. ?Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Nowhere to go except within.
A sacred quarantine.
We will learn to face our boredom. ?Our restlessness. ?The part of us that wants to be somewhere else, doing something else,
having some other experience, in some other Now, living in some other life.
We will let go of the wonderful future we had planned.
We will let the fantasy future die, release it and grieve it.
We will return to the solidity and warmth of the present.
We will make the present into our home.
We will begin again, here, build a new house on new soil.
We will explore a new way of life.
Strange, at first. ?But full of possibility.
Slower. ?Kinder. ?Quieter.
We will talk to each other honestly about death, and life, and impermanence, and how we feel about the changes that have come
to us and our loved ones.
We will learn to value life a little more.
Yes, perhaps we will learn to value life a little more.
And live with our hearts cracked slightly open to the elements.
And lean into uncertainty, and find our salvation there.
None of us are immune to change.
To rupture. ?To the shattering of the old, familiar forms.
This is the way of things, this has always been the way of things.
From this perspective, nothing has gone wrong.
Crisis simply means turning point, and none of us are immune from the turning.
The breaking of the old makes way for the birth of new.
It has always been this way.
Love. Humor. Patience. ?With these things, we will come through.
Stronger than before. ?Renewed. ?Ready.
--Jeff Foster
|
None of Us are Immune
?
It's going to be okay. ?It really is.
We will face this situation together with love, humor and patience.
We will weep together, we will laugh together.
We will discover togetherness in our apartness.
And the worst of it will end one day.
And we will have learned so much by then.
We will now be called to face very difficult feelings inside of us.
Fear. ?Grief. ?The loss of an old way of life. ?Our devastated plans.
We will learn to face ourselves. ?Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Nowhere to go except within.
A sacred quarantine.
We will learn to face our boredom. ?Our restlessness. ?The part of us that wants to be somewhere else, doing something else,
having some other experience, in some other Now, living in some other life.
We will let go of the wonderful future we had planned.
We will let the fantasy future die, release it and grieve it.
We will return to the solidity and warmth of the present.
We will make the present into our home.
We will begin again, here, build a new house on new soil.
We will explore a new way of life.
Strange, at first. ?But full of possibility.
Slower. ?Kinder. ?Quieter.
We will talk to each other honestly about death, and life, and impermanence, and how we feel about the changes that have come
to us and our loved ones.
We will learn to value life a little more.
Yes, perhaps we will learn to value life a little more.
And live with our hearts cracked slightly open to the elements.
And lean into uncertainty, and find our salvation there.
None of us are immune to change.
To rupture. ?To the shattering of the old, familiar forms.
This is the way of things, this has always been the way of things.
From this perspective, nothing has gone wrong.
Crisis simply means turning point, and none of us are immune from the turning.
The breaking of the old makes way for the birth of new.
It has always been this way.
Love. Humor. Patience. ?With these things, we will come through.
Stronger than before. ?Renewed. ?Ready.
--Jeff Foster
|
Re: 10,000 Bows and A Poem
Thank you Brett. And bless your dear heart. ?What a comfort your thoughts are. ?Give your sweet kitty a kiss for me and many hugs to you.
Take great care,
Madeline
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Re: 10,000 Bows and A Poem
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Oh my goodness? That is beautiful? ? Dear Sangha,Over the last week I have felt such deep gratitude for you all. I have said to many friends that it is my practice and my sangha who are going to keep me sane during the weeks and months ahead.?To the teachers, thank you for hosting check in discussions. Thank you, Ken, for your powerful teisho about the role of karma in our lives. Thank you, Karin, for your email about Vimalakirti, and thank you to Peggy for your continued role as teacher and mentor.In difficult times I turn to poetry to help me feel less isolated, and today I found myself reading the poetry of Amy Lowell. Her poem "September, 1918" encapsulates where I am right now, and where I imagine so many of you find yourselves.?
September, 1918
This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight;
The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;
The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves,
And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows.
Under a tree in the park,
Two little boys, lying flat on their faces,
Were carefully gathering red berries
To put in a pasteboard box.
Some day there will be no war,
Then I shall take out this afternoon
And turn it in my fingers,
And remark the sweet taste of it upon my palate,
And note the crisp variety of its flights of leaves.
To-day I can only gather it
And put it into my lunch-box,
For I have time for nothing
But the endeavour to balance myself
Upon a broken world.
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Re: 10,000 Bows and A Poem
Oh my goodness? That is beautiful?
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On Mar 30, 2020, at 2:41 PM, Brett James <brettjames836@...> wrote:
? Dear Sangha,Over the last week I have felt such deep gratitude for you all. I have said to many friends that it is my practice and my sangha who are going to keep me sane during the weeks and months ahead.?To the teachers, thank you for hosting check in discussions. Thank you, Ken, for your powerful teisho about the role of karma in our lives. Thank you, Karin, for your email about Vimalakirti, and thank you to Peggy for your continued role as teacher and mentor.In difficult times I turn to poetry to help me feel less isolated, and today I found myself reading the poetry of Amy Lowell. Her poem "September, 1918" encapsulates where I am right now, and where I imagine so many of you find yourselves.?
September, 1918
This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight;
The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;
The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves,
And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows.
Under a tree in the park,
Two little boys, lying flat on their faces,
Were carefully gathering red berries
To put in a pasteboard box.
Some day there will be no war,
Then I shall take out this afternoon
And turn it in my fingers,
And remark the sweet taste of it upon my palate,
And note the crisp variety of its flights of leaves.
To-day I can only gather it
And put it into my lunch-box,
For I have time for nothing
But the endeavour to balance myself
Upon a broken world.
|
Dear Sangha,Over the last week I have felt such deep gratitude for you all. I have said to many friends that it is my practice and my sangha who are going to keep me sane during the weeks and months ahead.?To the teachers, thank you for hosting check in discussions. Thank you, Ken, for your powerful teisho about the role of karma in our lives. Thank you, Karin, for your email about Vimalakirti, and thank you to Peggy for your continued role as teacher and mentor.In difficult times I turn to poetry to help me feel less isolated, and today I found myself reading the poetry of Amy Lowell. Her poem "September, 1918" encapsulates where I am right now, and where I imagine so many of you find yourselves.?
September, 1918
This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight;
The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;
The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves,
And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows.
Under a tree in the park,
Two little boys, lying flat on their faces,
Were carefully gathering red berries
To put in a pasteboard box.
Some day there will be no war,
Then I shall take out this afternoon
And turn it in my fingers,
And remark the sweet taste of it upon my palate,
And note the crisp variety of its flights of leaves.
To-day I can only gather it
And put it into my lunch-box,
For I have time for nothing
But the endeavour to balance myself
Upon a broken world.
|
Thanks, Fred.? I'd been doing one each week for a while then took a brief hiatus but an now back to it.? I find collaging a good way to counter pre-conceived directions for an artwork.? I just assemble a bunch of images from the Sunday NY Times when we're finished reading it and then play with various ways of juxtaposing and positioning until I find one that I like.
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Metta Prayer - shared by request
May I be happy.
May I be free from strife and disease.
May I be safe and free from danger.
May I be at peace.
May my friends and family be happy.
May my friends and family be free from strife and disease.
May my friends and family be safe and free from danger.
May my friends and family be at peace.
May those I conflict with be happy.
May those I conflict with be free from strife and disease.
May those I conflict with be safe and free from danger
May those I conflict with be at peace.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be free from strife and disease.
May all beings be safe and free from danger.
May all beings be at peace.
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Hi Fred and Open Create Group,
You may access the group Google folder by clicking the above link. ?Keep creating!
Bill
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Hi Open Create Artistes!
The Group Google folder can be accessed by clicking this link: ?
Enjoy,
Bill
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Fred and Lois, you can always view the forum directly by clicking View/Reply Online at the bottom of the email. Then you should be able to see any images or files included in the emails. Joel
-- Zen Center of Denver
1856 S. Columbine Street
Denver, CO 80210
(303) 455-1500
Find us on Facebook at?
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Dear group,
Somehow we're not able to access the benefits of this .io server. How do we see the shared files? Is it because this server is running through our Outlook mail?
F&L
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Francine,? thank you so much for setting that up. It was great to see folks,? their work,? and to be surprised by what they are working on.
Many bows.
Ji.
Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
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It was great to see you all yesterday.? Thank you so much for sharing your art!? I've added a few fun collages to our shared folder and look forward to our next session in two weeks.? Thank you!
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It was great to see you all yesterday.? Thank you so much for sharing your art!? I've added a few fun collages to our shared folder and look forward to our next session in two weeks.? Thank you!
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Trying a first response. BK
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Free Online Mindfulness Course For Grades 6-12
Hello everyone,
I hope you are all doing well! I founded a business called Summit Mindfulness, and so far, I have been working exclusively with middle school and high school kids. I am using (with permission) Dr. Amy Saltzman’s book, A Still Quiet Place, as a basis for my completely online curriculum, which helps kids ease stress, anxiety, and difficult emotions. Due to the challenges we are facing, I have decided to offer my 8-week course free of charge to the first 10 kids who are interested. If you know any parents who would be interested in enrolling their middle school or high school children, please ask them to contact me at ravh@.... If they would like to learn more about me and how I help, here is my website.
Gassho,
Rob
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Fred Becker
Zen Center of Denver Office
Bill Hamaker