“Driving Toward the Lac Qui Parle River” by Robert Bly
I
I am driving; it is dusk; Minnesota.
The stubble field catches the last growth of sun.
The soybeans are breathing on all sides.
Old men are sitting before their houses on car seats
In the small towns. I am happy,
The moon rising above the turkey sheds.
Lover (III) by George Herbert (inspirational to Simone Weil)
Love (III)
Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.
“No More Second Hand God” by Buckminster Fuller
Here is God's purpose-
for God, to me, it seems,
is a verb
not a noun,
proper or improper;
is the articulation…
“A Brief for the Defense” by Jack Gilbert
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well.
“When Was I Less By Dying?” by Rumi
I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and became animal,
I died as animal and I was human.
Why should I fear?
When was I less by dying?
“When I am Among the Trees” by Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
“Gratitude to Old Teachers” by Robert Bly
When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake,
We place our feet where they have never been.
We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy.
Who is down there but our old teachers?
“Blue Mountain” by Li Bai (also known as Li Po or Li Bo) (701-762)
Why dwell in the Blue Mountain
I laugh without answering
The silence of water and blossoming flowers
A world beyond the red dust of living
“Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
PLEASE SUPPORT MS. NYE’S WONDERFUL WORK
“Love Flies” by Keith Basar
Emptiness has a way of slowing the mind to a standstill.
Vastness does quite the same.
The Tao is emptiness and vastness
In such a place Love flies like a lone bird.