Author: The Bardo Group Beguines

The focus of "The BeZine," a publication of The Bardo Group Beguines, is on sacred space (common ground) as it is expressed through the arts. Our work covers a range of topics: spirituality, life, death, personal experience, culture, current events, history, art, and photography and film. We share work here that is representative of universal human values however differently they might be expressed in our varied religions and cultures. We feel that our art and our Internet-facilitated social connection offer a means to see one another in our simple humanity, as brothers and sisters, and not as “other.” This is a space where we hope you’ll delight in learning how much you have in common with “other” peoples. We hope that your visits here will help you to love (respect) not fear. For more see our Info/Mission Statement Page.

General Interest, Guest Writer, Nature, poem, Poems/Poetry, poetry

The Wild

Posted on September 5, 2014September 4, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

White foam rides the churning
river and a Red-Shouldered Hawk
cries out as he drifts overhead;
a meadow vole takes cover.

In an ancient, towering pine,
lies an enormous aerie, home
to a Bald Eagle couple and their
two fledglings who take turns
flapping wildly, strengthening
their wings before take-off.

A feeding herd of White-Tailed
deer wander calm through the
open forest, several fawns
leap and kick in play and sometimes
bleat for their mothers when they
wander too far.

The armor-plated armadillo can be seen
snuffling through low brush and dirt
searching for grubs, worms and beetles.
Berries, nuts and seeds are the choice
of food for the Florida Scrub Jay seen
flitting through the low, spindly oaks,
and hiding in the scrub when feeling shy.
Their lives lived in extended-family colonies
helps assure them survival even while
their habitat is being threatened.

A dirt colored and plain patterned
garter snakes through the underbrush
before coming to rest in a sunny patch
on the forest’s floor…taking time to
absorb some warmth before moving on;
a gopher turtle stirs from his day’s nap.

All the animals hear when the humans
approach and they watch with
curiosity and then fear as monstrous
machines can be heard revving their
engines preparing once again for
their encroaching.

– Gayle Walters Rose

GAYLE WALTERS ROSE (Bodhirose’s Blog) ~ has contributed to The Bardo Group blog several times since its founding in 2011. Gayle has actively blogged since 2010, writing about family life, things of the spirit, and her ashram-life experiences. In this relatively short time, her sincerity and authenticity has earned her quite a large and loyal following. Gayle is a regular participant in d’Verse Poets Pub. This poem was written in response to Victoria’s Wilderness Week writing prompt posted on Wednesday.

Uncategorized

Tasting Life Twice and Other Writerly Considerations

Posted on August 26, 2014August 26, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

We’re just priming the pump today for

Writers’ Fourth Wednesday.

Join us tomorrow for Victoria Slotto’s inspirational writing prompt.

Please feel free to link your response to Victoria’s post tomorrow to. Mister Linky will stay open for 72 hours.

Illustrations: Anais Nin, Writing Is Like Sex* (https://www.facebook.com/writingislikesex); Epic Novels, Literary Word Count Info Graphics; Tim H. Vine, Rejection slip bingo

General Interest, Guest Writer, poem, Poems/Poetry, poetry

Making for Home

Posted on August 22, 2014August 22, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

Originally published in ARTEMISpoetry, Issue 12, May 2014 and posted here with the permission of the poet, Anne Stewart, and the publisher, Second Light, network of women poets

Will you be taking the dark path?
The one that doesn’t feel right?

Where mostly you meet no-one
but, once, a man with bounding dogs
who race at you, only to collapse
in snuffles and wags when you drop
to greet them, knowing a friendly hand
is the best way to test or bridge a gap.

And do you still see the huddled man,
who breaks from shadows ahead?

He stops short, fumbling with his clothes.
A man you’ll set light to if he races at you,
but he doesn’t. He’s just caught short and cowed
to find a woman knows. He nods, moves on.
You welcome the swathe of safety he cuts.

Why do you take the dark path, knowing
its silences and hiding places?

Its voices of men in the underpass
where running wouldn’t serve you,
forward or back?

But on the long way of the rat-run roads
are men in cars who screech past; men in cars
who stop and park ahead then don’t get out
and drunken men in packs, looking for more,
long after chucking out.

And who would race outdoors on hearing
nothing more than a muffled shout?

But the path is only a path. And the dark
is only time and time of year. So you take
the dark path, listening and ready,
not ready to cut your life to fit
the ‘what if?’ embrace of fear.

– Anne Stewart
© 2014, poem, Anne Stewart, all rights reserved; ©2014, photograph, Jamie Dedes, all rights reserved

ANNE STEWART (poetry p f page) ~ Anne’s poetry is much published in anthologies/magazines. Her awards include the Bridport Prize and Poetry on the Lake’s Silver Wyvern (Italy, 2014). Her first collection is The Janus Hour (Oversteps Books, 2010). “ … varied, dominated by its music and a sense of quest for survival, for the light behind the clouds. Mercurial, like a Fellini film.” Katherine Gallagher. A review of the book is HERE.

Anne is the founder of poetry p f and she’s the Poetry Society’s ‘Kent North West’ Stanza Rep, a Past President (2011 – 2013) of Shortlands Poetry Circle and Administrator for Second Light Network, whose website, Second Light Live, she designed and runs. She co-edited (with Dilys Wood) the pre-launch issue, Issues 1 to 4, 8 and 11 of ARTEMISpoetry, a biannual journal devoted to women’s poetry, and contributes reviews/articles on a regular basis. She was the visiting poet at a London care-centre for two and a half years.

find yourself, poem, Poems/Poetry, poetry, Video

How To Be Alone!

Posted on August 20, 2014August 19, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

The video was uploaded to YouTube by tomasisms and is the work of Andrea Dorfman. The poem was written by Tanya Davis, poet, writer, musician. Thank you to Michael Yost (Michael’s Lair) for sharing this one with us.

General Interest, Spiritual Practice, teacher, Teachers, Video

One Perspective on Understanding Our Religious Traditions

Posted on August 16, 2014August 15, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

BROTHER DAVID STEINDL-RAST (b. 1926)

Viennese, Catholic Benedictine Monk

Br. David is notable for his work fostering dialogue among the faiths and for exploring the congruence between science and spirituality. Early in his career he was officially designated by his abbot to pursue Catholic-Buddhist dialogue. He studied with several well-known Zen masters. He is the author of feature articles, chapter contributions to collections, and books. Among the most notable are Belonging to the Universe (with Frijof Capra) and The Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey Through the Hours of the Day (with Sharon Lebell). Br. David is the co-founder of A Network for Grateful Living, dedicated to the life-transforming character of gratitude.

General Interest

nomad

Posted on August 11, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

From Gretchen Del Rio … another charming spirit animal …

Gretchen Del Rio's Art Blog

watercolor aceo 8/2014

‘And Allah took a handful of southerly wind, blew His breath over it, and created the horse…. Thou shall fly without wings, and conquer without any sword. Oh horse’. Bedouin Legend

purchase this painting

View original post

Mya Schneider, General Interest, poem, Poems/Poetry, poetry

The Real Mrs. Beeton

Posted on August 8, 2014December 6, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

Isabella Beeton (1836-1865), known as the first and "best" cookbook author — Isabella Beeton (1836-1865), known as the first and “best” cookbook author

Originally published by Second Light Live in ARTEMISpoetry and shared here with the permission of both publisher and poet.

Heaving her enormous bulk onto a bookshelf high
above my bed, then pushing until she was out of sight
took all my strength and it didn’t dislodge her from my mind.

But I rebelled against the weight of her disapproval,
shut myself away every morning in that small room
of my own, the room which is me, to let imagination

run wild as brambles and grasses in an untended garden,
coaxed visions into scribblings on paper until desk
and floor were littered, until unblinking as owl eyes,

words stared from my screen. Of course, the moment
I emerged I came face to face with her large a life
on the landing. For years this matron, large-bosomed

and with a voluminous knowledge gathered from decades
of managing a household, followed me around tutting
because I hadn’t blanched or basted, couldn’t pluck a duck.

She snorted at unruly children sliding down the stairs,
at dust rollicking along skirting boards, rounded on me
for failing to keep a properly stocked linen cupboard.

Then the day I found out this paragon was Isabella Beeton,
a young woman who instead of devoting her life to home
and family like other Victorian wives, travelled by train

with her publisher husband to his London office, wrote
books fat with information, mostly magpied from other books,
about household management, became a money-spinner,

an authority for later generations. I also learnt she’d suffered
several miscarriages, bore two children who died in infancy,
two who survived, died herself after the second –

thanks to Mr Beeton’s syphilis. Yet for years books
in her name continued to appear. The matron’s ghost
still persists in my mind but what troubles me is Isabella.

For all the thousands of pages this woman produced
in her short life, the real Mrs Beeton didn’t leave
a single word about what she thought, felt, endured.

– Myra Schneider

MYRA SCHNEIDER (Myra Schneider’s Poetry Website) ~ Myra’s long poems have been featured in Long Poem Magazine and Domestic Cherry. She co-edited with Dilys Wood, Parents, an anthology of poems by 114 women about their own parents. Myra started out writing fiction for children and teens. We first discovered Myra through her much-loved poem about an experience with cancer, The Red Dress, which she generously shared with readers here in our Perspectives on Cancer series in 2011.

Currently Myra lives in North London, but she grew up in Scotland and in other parts of England. She lives with her husband and they have one son. Myra tutors through Poetry School, London. Her schedule of poetry readings is HERE. A video of Myra’s interview at Poetry East in London is HERE. The sound leaves something to be desired, so ear-buds or earphones are helpful. Other videos are of poems: The Red Dress and Goulash. Myra’s Amazon UK page is HERE and US is HERE.

Myra’s eleventh poetry collection, The Door to Color, will launch this September by Enitharmon Press, UK at their gallery in London.

Bardo News, General Interest, Peace & Justice

BARDO NEWS: The Bardo Group blog is merging with Beguine Again and transitioning to Terri Stewart’s leadership…

Posted on August 6, 2014August 6, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

I am pleased to announce today that I am passing the batton to Terri Stewart. The Bardo Group blog is in transition, but it will continue to post all work as usual and to host the scheduled special events. Terri has been a stalwart supporter and active contributor to and coordinator of and with this blog for several years now. She’s young, energetic, enthusiastic and smart and has the wherewithal to move forward to facilitate greater inclusion and encourage real social change.

Recently Terri was awarded a grant for the community blog, Beguine Again, which she founded. The two blogs will merge, creating a larger and more diverse venue. Your ideas and input to this process are welcome and Terri will tell you more about that and more about what promise our future as a community might hold.

I am pleased that Terri has agreed to take charge since I find I am no longer able to give the blog and the community the attention and nurturing they deserve and need to continue to evolve and grow. I’ve appreciated your support, encouragement and contributions over the years and I’m confident you will offer the same to Terri.

I’ll remain as a member of the core team. The blog will move forward with Victoria’s Writers’ Fourth Wednesday as usual and with plans for Wilderness Week at the end of this month and 100,000 Poets, Musicians and Artists for Change event scheduled to begin on September 27.

In the spirit of peace, love and community,

Hi all! I am delighted that Jamie asked me to envision a joining of our two communities. I don’t know what this will look like in its entirety, but I am excited about the prospect of joining the ethos that each community brings. I know The Bardo Group to be a place that focuses on the arts as a path to greater communication and peace. Beguine Again is a community that focuses on spiritual practices upholding the core value of nonviolence through the observance of mindfulness, prayer, joy, thoughtfulness, gratitude, sabbath, and inspiration.

I have received a grant to take BeguineAgain.com to the next level by incorporating more thoughtful and personal practices. That will be incorporated throughout the next year by offering a series of classes and personal/private discussion groups that will be available through a subscription model. However, the basic structure of BeguineAgain.com will still be one of free & open blog posts that encourage the core practices that so many of us hold dear.

I am so grateful for the work that Jamie and the incredible team she assembled has done to bring The Bardo Group to the point of being a thriving, creative community. I was delighted when she asked me to be the Sunday Chaplain. It was a great opportunity to focus on creating sacred space in our midst. Sacred space – a place that offers healing and holding – is a goal in all that I do. And I am hopeful that you will all gather around as we co-create a new future together!

I look forward to incorporating the traditions of The Bardo Group with the traditions that have started at BeguineAgain.com. I believe there is a lot of synergy between the two communities and that we can grow and learn together.

Please contact me with any thoughts, concerns, or questions you may have!

Shalom,

TERRI STEWART has served for several years as The Bardo Group Sunday chaplain, senior content editor, and site co-administrator. She comes from an eclectic background and considers herself to be grounded in contemplation and justice. Terri is the founder of the online spiritual community for nonviolence, Beguine Again. She is the Director and Founder of the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition that serves youth affected by the justice system. As a graduate of Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry, she earned her Master’s of Divinity and a Post-Master’s Certificate in Spiritual Direction with honors and is a rare United Methodist student in the Jesuit Honor Society, Alpha Sigma Nu. She is a contributing author to the Abingdon Worship Annual. (The 2014 issue just released!)

Terri’s online presence is “Cloaked Monk.” This speaks to her grounding in contemplative arts and the need to live it out in the world. The cloak is the disguise of normalcy as she advocates for justice and peace. You can find her at http://www.cloakedmonk.com, http://www.twitter.com/cloakedmonk, and http://www.facebook.com/cloakedmonk. To Terri for conversation, send a note to terris@beguineagain.com.

General Interest, Imen Benyoub, Peace & Justice, poem, Video

You who lights candles . . . Salam to you . . .

Posted on August 4, 2014August 3, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

Bitter is this dawn that no longer comes
With the prayer of doves on rooftops
And your face

This treacherous sky above your head
The colour of lead and flame
These forests of stars smothered
In the blinding smoke

These banners ripping the air around you
Woven of cries
These fields of ruins and debris
Where you stand shivering
In the nudity of daylight

You, a lonely prophet in this besieged space
Who listens to the laments of stones
And writes his testament
With tears and blood

You, who lights candles
For the passing caravans of martyrs
And falls asleep with the night

Salam to you

. . . this poem . . . in my mind i wrote it for a friend in Gaza . . . i haven’t heard from him in weeks now . . .

– Imen Benyoub
© 2014, poem, All rights reserved; photograph courtesy of morgueFile

IMEN BENYOUB ~ is a multilingual, multi-talented writer, poet, and artist from Guelma, Algeria. Imen currently lives in East Jerusalem. She is a frequent guest here on The Bardo Group blog and with On the Plum Tree and Plum Tree Books Facebook page as well.

~

ALICE WALKER (b. 1944), American activist and Pulitzer Prize winning author:

Not with a bang … but with a whimper.

Peace: It’s a decision.

Art, find yourself, General Interest, Guest Writer

We cultivate love . . .

Posted on July 31, 2014July 30, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

Vulnerability is

1. The bearing of ones’ soul.
2. The exposing of our frailties
3. The peeling of our layers
4. The kiss and tell of our heart
5. The revealing of our inner being

Vulnerability feels like

1. Pain from an open wound
2. A throbbing in our head
3. A punch in our stomach
4. A thump in our brain
5. A thief stealing our soul

Love Feels Like
1. A quenched thirst
2. A harmonious gratifying touch
3. A warm breeze on our skin
4. Lips soft and sweet
5. An enchanted heart dancing

What does vulnerability mean to you?
What does vulnerability feel like to you?
What does love feel like to you?

Take the vulnerability test Brené Brown has offered us …..

“We cultivate LOVE when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and heard. ” Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW (b. 1965), American scholar, author, and public speaker, research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work

Write these three sentences down and list your five answers.

Vulnerability is ….

Vulnerability feels like ….

Love Feels like ….

ISADORA DE LA VEGA (Inside the Mind of Isadora) ~ is a guest blogger here for the first time today. She was a copper-and-silversmith award-winning jeweler for twenty-eight years, exhibiting in more than 200 galleries across the U.S. and in Puerto Rico. Now semi-retired, Isadora maintains a web-site, Isadora Art Jewelry, for liquidating her remaining art jewelry. She is also the president and co-designer of Copper Whimsea’s by Al.

Isadora is a wife, mother of three, grandmother of eight, and a novice writer and a photographer. You can find her written work at Inside the Mind of Isadora and her photography at Isadora Art and Photography. She started her blog to hone her writing skills and never thought she would touch people in so many ways with her words and images. She is delighted to be able to do that and says, “I’m even happier that I am accomplishing the goal I had set for myself: touching peoples’ hearts.

justice, Peace & Justice, Terri Stewart

Prayer as Action for Peace

Posted on July 30, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

Editorial note: This was originally written by Terri Stewart for Saturday, September 7, 2013, in response to a call for worldwide prayer and fasting to focus on peace in Syria. With all that is going on in the Middle East and given the Ukraine crises, the many conflicts in Africa and the deaths and dislocations resulting from drug wars in Central and South America, this seems a good time to post it again in the spirit of peace, love and community …

I have seen many things happening–prayer vigils, personal meditation practices, marches, and communications with elected officials. We decided to offer a Labyrinth Walk for Peace at Bothell UMC in Bothell, WA in the morning. I gathered inter-faith prayers, we walked, prayed, and focused on bringing peace to the world. What follows is prayers and photos from that journey that became deeply personal for each attendant. There was a certain transition that occurred for me as I took in my surroundings and noticed Farmer Brown’s Garden. I began to see, literally, a connection between peacefulness and being fed. You will see.

Entering Sacred Space

Sufi Prayer for Peace

Send Thy peace, O Lord, which is perfect and everlasting, that our souls may radiate peace.
Send Thy peace, O Lord, that we may think, act,
and speak harmoniously.
Send Thy peace, O Lord, that we may be contented
and thankful for Thy bountiful gifts.
Send Thy peace, O Lord, that amidst our worldly strife we may enjoy thy bliss.
Send Thy peace, O Lord, that we may endure all,
tolerate all in the thought of thy grace and mercy.
Send Thy peace, O Lord, that our lives may become a
divine vision, and in Thy light all darkness may vanish.
Send Thy peace, O Lord, our Father and Mother,
that we Thy children on earth may all unite in one family.
– Sufi Prayer

The Journey Begins

An Islamic Prayer for Peace

In the Name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful: Praise be to the Lord of the Universe
who has created us and made us into tribes and nations that we may know each other,
not that we may despise each other.

If the enemy incline towards peace, do thou also incline towards peace, and trust in God,
for the Lord is one that hears and knows all things.
And the servants of God Most Gracious are those who walk on the Earth in humility,
and when we address them, we say, “Peace.”
– U.N. Day of Prayer for World Peace 2

Walking Together in Ubuntu

A Hindu Prayer for Peace

Supreme Lord, let there be peace in the sky and in the atmosphere.
Let there be peace in the plant world and in the forests.
Let the cosmic powers be peaceful.
Let the Brahman, the true essence and source of life, be peaceful.
Let there be undiluted and fulfilling peace everywhere.
– The Atharva Veda

All Are Invited to Be Fed

Cheyenne Prayer for Peace

Let us know peace.
For as long as the moon shall rise,
For as long as the rivers shall flow,
For as long as the sun shall shine,
For as long as the grass shall grow,
Let us know peace.
– Cheyenne Prayer

Feeding the World in Spirit and Deed
Farmer Brown’s Garden at Bothell UMC

A Jewish Prayer for Peace

Grant us peace. Your most precious gift,
O Eternal Source of Peace, and give us the will to proclaim its message to all the peoples of the earth.
Bless our country, that it may always be a stronghold of peace, and its advocate among the nations.
May contentment reign within its borders, health and happiness within its homes.
Strengthen the bonds of friendship among the inhabitants of all lands.
And may the love of Your name hallow every home and every heart.
Blessed is the Eternal God, the source of Peace.
– From The Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayer Book, by the Central Conferences of American Rabbis

Growing Spiritually and Growing Food

Buddhist Prayer for Loving Kindness

May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings awaken to
the light of their true nature.
May all beings be free.
– Metta Prayer

Loving Kindness through Loving Care

A Christian Prayer for Peace

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
But I say to you that hear, love your enemies; do good to those who hate you;
bless those who curse you; pray for those who abuse you.
To those who strike you on the cheek, offer the other also;
and from those who take away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well.
Give to everyone who begs from you, and of those who take away your goods,
do not ask them again. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
– U.N. Day of Prayer for World Peace 2

Becoming the Light Unto the World

A Non Traditional Prayer for World Peace

Spirit of Life and Love, be present with all who are suffering terribly from violence.
Lift up the hearts of those who fear. And inspire courage among the peacemakers.
Be present with political leaders, ensuring a retreat from violence
and a procession towards the peace table.
Guide the hands of all those who are caring for the injured, the hungry and the grieving.
And, open our own hearts to compassion.
Remind us of our complicity and responsibility.
And lead us towards generous engagement—always towards a vision of peace.
–Adapted from the Unitarian Universalist Tradition

Shalom and Amen,

Terri

…

REV. TERRI STEWART is Bardo’s Sunday chaplain, senior content editor, and site co-administrator. She comes from an eclectic background and considers herself to be grounded in contemplation and justice. She is the Director and Founder of the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition that serves youth affected by the justice system. As a graduate of Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry, she earned her Master’s of Divinity and a Post-Master’s Certificate in Spiritual Direction. She is a contributing author to the Abingdon Worship Annual. (The 2014 issue just released!)

Her online presence is “Cloaked Monk.” This speaks to her grounding in contemplative arts and the need to live it out in the world. The cloak is the disguise of normalcy as she advocates for justice and peace. You can find her at www.cloakedmonk.com, www.twitter.com/cloakedmonk, and www.facebook.com/cloakedmonk. To reach her for conversation, send a note to cloakedmonk@outlook.com

General Interest, Nature, poem, Poems/Poetry, poetry

Summer Dreams

Posted on July 30, 2014July 30, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

Seasons for all themselves don’t mean
What they once did. I’ve not grown
Out of them, rather more into and a part
Of them with a deepening I’ve not had.
Not to be dramatic, only matter of fact.
A time when each season meant differences
In things needing to be done is done for me.

Those needings now need to be hired out
To those whose labor is not tenuous
But filled with stamina and a resilience
More nimble than my unsteady willingness
To mount a ladder and repair a rotted soffit.
I am not enfeebled by a long way yet. It’s just
My work’s more now a tooled thought inside.

I. Autumn is my season of perfect cadences.
In it the heart and mind are at peace.
The slender line of equinox orchestrates
In harmony circumspect participation
Of the four elements that make us part of
An earth fully aware the year is growing late.
Each day a ballet full of import in the air.
Walking, my feet in step with my breathing.

The feel of the first chill-quicken’d bite
In my lungs, holds my concentration close
To what matters. – The wideness of the sky,
The attitudes of clouds, the ‘V’ of flocks flowing
Rather than just in flight, how trees enflamed
Allow a lone evergreen among them to be seen,
The moment, at sunset, when the countryside
Gives the day over to night in sighs
And all the secret names of things are revealed
Then quickly forgotten by the feel of a world
About to relax and make itself ready.

II. Winter has become a year all its own.
It tastes on my tongue of a cello
Playing cascades of suites by Bach,
Continuing one after another without stop,
Each deep lowing expresses the joy
Of a universe still expanding in awe.
Yet, still I’m rooted firm to earth’s orbit,
Knowing it would be simple to only let go
And suddenly traveling at light’s speed,
Leave all fears behind, bound by gravity.

I think it’s what it must have been like
To be Einstein embraced in his reveries,
Questioning the knowns and doubts,
Accepting the unknown and finally,
Having no doubt about coming back,
Slipped the thin atmosphere surrounding
The world delicately drifting in space.

III. Spring’s a flowery mutation all primed up;
A glandular mix of the sacred, the profane
And the pagan; Mardi gras madness—beads
Thrown out to bearing breasts with drunken ease;
Carnival gluttony stumbling into Lenten ash, and
Sacrifice. Ending lined up for the confessional
Ritual of Good Friday, still hungry yet, for more.

Yes, the rest’s more like a note left by winter,
The ground saturated with meltdown, into mud;
For me a season of cynics and sarcastic smiling.
When I was young in the sixties and it was all
For politics and sex, love bruising imaginations
Cut to the heart with the hot knife of living,
All caught up in the under currents of renewal
Expecting the world would change by our love.

Though, too, to be honest, my appreciation of
This season, is how it binds the rest with promise.
Always, some part of its fertile dance is woven
Into the cloth of days unfolding of what’s to be;
Always, with the thread of hopes to come.

IV. Summer’s world is seen from the pitcher’s mound
Long before the crowd arrives. Slightly raised,
Closer to Home than any base, surrounded
By the green grass and raked red clay of possibility.
It is warm roundness and all light rolled out
Into lengths of days. An awakening of all there is;
Opens with clear fields of vision, mowed wind gusts
And dark thunder. A dry in your throat that is not
Thirst, but unquenchable anticipation.

Summer is body time – inside, outside, under
The fingernails dirty. It is Walt Whitman singing
America, while imagining the sweating bodies
Of young men, watching them swim naked,
Diving off a Brooklyn pier. It is a season
Demanding no quarter and giving none back
Except the secrets of Pleasure’s alchemy
Turning spun gold into the smell of memories.

It is a world of short close nights tipping
On a horizon’s infinity, gentle and tender. Full
Of all one can take from this earth if one chose
To leave it– more than, much more than that.
It is the season we first learn how dreams
Become the things they are, books opening,
Revealing every page at once; all the things
We can do and cannot do and can do them anyway.
Above all other importants. Above all else,
Summer dreams it is summer; it dreams itself.
What it is about, with a great consciousness
—All of its sinews, bones, muscles and blood in focus,
To see the object of all its exertions at night’s end
And the next day’s beginning; deep breaths filling
The heart, mind and soul with a pure, deep sleep;
The un-desperate, quiet sleep of summer dreams.

– Mr. K.A. Brace
Excerpt from: To Travel Without a Map: Poems; Mr. K. A. Brace, 9781493643004: Amazon.com: Books

K.A. BRACE (The Mirror Obscura) ~ With this work we introduce a new guest poet. K.B. (as he is popularly know among bloggers) is 61, lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his three dogs and four cats. He is a graduate of The State University of New York at Buffalo where he received both a Bachelor and Masters of Arts degree in English. While at the University he worked with Mac Hammond and Irving Feldman and was winner of The Arthur Axlerod Award for Poetry. After graduating he entered the hospitality industry and did not write for the next 35 years during which time he never considered himself not a poet stating that “a poet is one who has written a poem and may never write another.” Coinciding with his turning 60 he suddenly began writing again and is in the midst of finishing his eighth collection of poetry. He works assiduously for at least 10-12 hours 7 days a week at his writing. To Travel Without a Map is his first publication of a book length collection. His style is eclectic and his interest in modern myths and the tiny filaments of our humanity that connects us to one another are the centerpieces of his work. His poems are always surprising both in their crafting and their messages. He considers himself a ‘readers’ poet.

To Travel Without a Map: Poems; Mr. K. A. Brace, 9781493643004: Amazon.com: Books

General Interest, Islam

Eid mubaraq

Posted on July 29, 2014July 29, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

We can think of no better way to extend warmest good wishes to our Moslem friends and writers than a reblog of Sharmishtha Basu’s sweet poem and art.
Kul ‘am wa enta bi-khair!

Realm of Empress Musie

May all the blessings of God shower down upon you, your world and loved ones.

View original post

Art, First Peoples, folk tale, General Interest, Nature, Spirit Animals, story, Story Telling, Photo Story

“Who Speaks for Wolf” … a Native American Learning Story …

Posted on July 26, 2014July 25, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

Our thanks to Gretchen Del Rio (Gretchen Del Rio’s Art Blog) and Mary Burns (Seeker of Truth and Beauty) for this lovely video.

Gretchen is much appreciated by us for her beautiful spirit as expressed through her spirit animal paintings. Below is one of her watercolors, War Bonnet, which notes that “Wolf is on the warpath. Many of his kind have been destroyed.”

If you haven’t already “met” Gretchen and Mary, we recommend a visit to their blogs.

Original watercolor by Gretchen Del Rio (c) all rights reserved; posted here with permission

The book, Who Speaks for Wolf was
written by Paula Underwood and
illustrated by Frank Howell.

General Interest, Peace & Justice, Video

WRITING PEACE: An exhibition for thinking and sharing peace across time and space. A project of UNESCO…

Posted on July 22, 2014July 21, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

Given the events of the past few weeks, it seemed a good idea to share this thought from UNESCO’s 2012 event. For more, HERE is UNESCO’s PDF on Writing Peace.

Of equal interest (thought provoking) is VISUALIZING UNIVERSALISM: The Unesco Human Rights Exhibition, 1949-1953 HERE. Also in PDF form, it includes 110 photographs from UNESCO’s archives.

UNESCO

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION

“Its purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the UN Charter. It is the heir of the League of Nations’ International Commission on Intellectual Cooperation.
UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members.” Wikipedia

UNESCO’s priorities for the 21st Century:

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” UNESCO philosophy

Of related interest:

Please mark your calendars to join with The Bardo Group and 100,000 Poets (Artists and Muscians) for Change for our virtual event here on September 27, 28, 29, and 30.

Bardo News, General Interest, Islam, Paula Kuitenbrouwer, poem, Poems/Poetry, poetry, Poets/Writers, Spiritual Practice, Terri Stewart

BARDO NEWS: Blessings on Ramadan; “Begin Again” blog expands its writer base and gets funding; artfully eco-friendly . . ….

Posted on June 29, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

Islamic Center of the U.S. in Washington by agnosicpreachers kid under CC BY-SA 3.o license

BEST WISHES to our Moslem contributors, readers and friends all over the globe on this: the first day of Ramadan. ~ During this month, 1.6 million Muslims – or 23% of the world population according to Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project – observe a strict fast if they are of an age and healthy enough to do so. The fast extends each day from sunrise to sunset. The month-long fasting ends with a feasting celebration, Eid al-Fitr (the breaking of the fast), which falls on 28 July this year.

Britain’s David Cameron has this to say:

Kul ‘am wa enta bi-khair!

May everyday find you in good health!

Kazim Ali (b. 1971) American poet (c) Kazim Ali

CELEBRATING POET, NOVELIST, ESSAYIST and EDUCATOR, KAZIM ALI ~ who was born in the UK, is from an Indian Islamic household, and was educated at State University of New York (SUNY) and at New York University. Currently he lives in Oregon.

Of his most recent poetry collection, The Fortieth Day, the Library Journal review says that Ali …

“continues his task of creating a rejuvenated language that longs to be liberated from the weight of daily routine and the power of dogmatic usage . . . writing in the tradition of Wallace Stevens, Ali is clearly a poet of ideas and symbols, yet his words remain living entities within the texture of the poem.”

Of his essay collection, Fasting for Ramadan, Notes on Spiritual Practice, Tupelo Press states …

“Kazim Ali’s searching descriptions of the Ramadan sensibility and its arduous but liberating annual rite of communal fasting is sure to be a revelation to many readers — intellectually illuminating and aesthetically exhilarating.

“Fasting for Ramadan is structured as a chronicle of daily meditations, during two cycles of the 30-day rite of daytime abstinence required by Ramadan for purgation and prayer. Estranged in certain ways from his family’s cultural traditions when he was younger, Ali has in recent years re-embraced the Ramadan ritual, and brings to this rediscovery an extraordinary delicacy of reflection, a powerfully inquiring mind, and the linguistic precision and ardor of a superb poet.”

Ali’s poem Ramadan is from his collection, The Fortieth Day.

You wanted to be so hungry, you would break into branches,
and have to choose between the starving month’s

nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-third evenings.
The liturgy begins to echo itself and why does it matter?

If the ground-water is too scarce one can stretch nets
into the air and harvest the fog.

Hunger opens you to illiteracy,
thirst makes clear the starving pattern,

the thick night is so quiet, the spinning spider pauses,
the angel stops whispering for a moment—

The secret night could already be over,
you will have to listen very carefully—

You are never going to know which night’s mouth is sacredly reciting
and which night’s recitation is secretly mere wind—

“Poetry is the smallest way – it is a small, small way, but it is a way indeed – that the individual body can express its own personhood and value in the face of faceless systems.” Kazim Ali

TERRI STEWART REPORTS on the expansion of Begin Again, the blog she started and hosts ~ “First news, welcome Bruce Chittick to the team of writers! Woot!! He will bring an awesome perspective to Sundays and inspiration. I can’t wait to get to know his writing. I experience him to be a thoughtful, gracious, inclusive kind of guy. His first post went live on the 22nd!

“And, in other exciting news, we got some funding. The United Methodist Church, in an expansive move towards trying new things (although we aren’t exactly NEW) has decided to fund my position at BeguineAgain.com AND all the technology for the next year and a half. This gives me & us time to build a class & subscription base to move towards an independent funding mechanism. This is awesome on so many counts. They know what we have been publishing and are willing to sit in that tension. Amazeballs! And it also lets the pressure off of me regarding all the work I am doing to create alternate funding mechanisms for my own family’s subsistence. Whew. Chaplaincy pays like zero. It is being billed as an online spiritual community. Very vague.

” … I can’t wait to try some of the new technology that will be available now that I can upgrade us to WordPress pro!”

ARTFULLY ECO-FRIENDLY

Dutch Nature Artist, PAULA KUITENBROUWER (Mindful Drawing) ~ a long-standing member of The Bardo Group and a contributor to the blog has sent out a call to all of us – team members, bloggers and friends – to initiate discussions of how and why we are living and working in an eco-conscious ways and how we can use our art and our blogs to encourage environmentally sound practices. Paula shares on her Guilt-Free Art Page …

“My original drawings are drawn on acid free paper. In the process of making acid free paper fewer corrosive chemicals are used, which makes acid free paper significantly environmentally friendlier than normal paper.

“For packing my fine art cards and reproductions, I use biodegradable plastic. I like my art work to be as environmentally friendly as possible and I select my products carefully. My paint-brushes are synthetic without animal hair.”

Other eco-friendly living practices that might be shared would include the ways in which we order our lives to enable no-or-minimal use of cars, mindful shopping (buying only what we need and buying from bulk containers rather than packaged items, buying locally produced food and other products), using biodegradable cleaning products and reusable shopping bags. Yes! All this and how about telling us about your advocacy efforts?

We invite you share your thoughts on this in the comments section here, on your own blogs (then leave us a link under any current post so that we can publicize it in the next Bardo News) or as submissions to The Bardo Group blog this month. (If you are not a core-team member, please email us at bardogroup@gmail.com.)

Coming up:

Next Sunday Terri resumes her Sunday Sacred Space in the Body series.
Another fine piece from Imen Benyoub on Music, Language of the Soul, date TBA
Victoria’s Writers’ Fourth Wednesday, July 23
Celebrations for the 50th Anniversary U.S. Wilderness Act in September, hosted by Priscilla Galasso …
100,000 Poets (and writers, musicians, artists) for Change interview with the founder, TBA (yes! 😦 We are late delivering this. Apologies!)
100,000 Poets for Change event, September 27, hosted by Liz Rice-Sosne (Raven Spirit)

… and many more goodies from our Core Team, readers and guests. This month’s guests will include:

Poet K.A. Brace (The Mirror Obscura) and Jewelry-Maker, Writer, Photographer Isadora (Inside the Mind of Isadora)

bardogroup@gmail.com

The Bardo Group Facebook Page

In the spirit of peace, love and community,

THE BARDO GROUP

General Interest, Guest Writer, Imen Benyoub, Music, Peace & Justice, Poems/Poetry

Music, Language of the Soul: the second in a series from Imen Benyoub on music in the context of war and occupation

Posted on June 28, 2014June 28, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

The first post in this series is HERE.
Music, the language of the soul
The cultural Intifada*…From stones to musical instruments.
The story of Ramzi Abu Radwan .

They impressed the world
And all they had in their hands were stones
They lit like lanterns, and came like messengers
From “children of the stones” Nizar Quabbani (1923-1998), Syrian poet and publisher

The first Intifada is the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation that started on December 1987 in Jabalia** refugee camp and spread throughout the rest of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It lasted six years until the signing of Oslo Accords in 1993.

It was an unarmed, spontaneous yet exploding uprising, men with their faces covered with keffiyehs***, women and children with nothing but stones, slingshots and Molotov cocktails faced tanks and live ammunition of well-trained, heavily equipped Israeli soldiers.

One of those children, a kid wearing blue jeans and a red jacket whose picture reached the world newspapers became a legendary symbol of the Intifada, a skinny kid throwing stones at an army jeep, his eyes welled with tears, on his face a mixture of anger, fear and defiance. This kid, whose picture was reproduced in posters all over the world as an icon of the uprising, never knew that his destiny will change forever and he will become a visionary artist.

This was Ramzi Aburadwan, born in Bethlehem in 1979, he spent his childhood and first teenage days in a refugee camp in Ramallah where his family was forced to live after the Nakbah****, his best friend died on their way home from school during a military operation, he was eight when a journalist took a picture of him hurling stones and was later called “the iconic child of the Intifada”.

Ramzi was introduced to music at the age of 17, when a woman invited him to attend a course, he immediately loved it and this was the beginning of his journey with music.

After a year of study in the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music at Birzeit University, he received a scholarship to study in a Conservatoire in France; on 2005 he went back to Palestine after graduation with dreams and promises of a brighter life for children.

The multi-talented Aburadwan founded Al Kammanjati*****, a nonprofit organization that offers children especially from refugee camps music lessons, its aim is to keep them in touch with their cultural heritage, develop and nurture their skills and create an intimately entertaining atmosphere away from the violence and frustrations of their daily life under occupation. It gave them a precious chance to travel, play with different orchestras and meet young musicians from all over the world. Classical music is also introduced as a valuable weapon in the so called “the cultural Intifada” a peaceful way of resistance to save Palestinian culture and identity through letters, art and musical notes, something Palestinians began to understand with time because of Israeli policy of extensive judaisation of the land and fierce attempts to bury and distort Palestinian history and heritage.

He takes part in the West Eastern Divan Orchestra directed by Israeli-Argentine born conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim who said about him:

“Aburadwan has transformed not only his life, his destiny but that of many, many, many other people, this is an extraordinary collection of children all over Palestine that have all been inspired and opened to the beauty of life”

Al Kammanjati was honoured by “prince Klaus award” from the Netherlands in 2006.

* Intifada: Arabic word for “uprising”-Bethlehem, Ramallah: Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
**Jabalia: a refugee camp in the North of Gaza.
***Keffiyeh: a traditional black and white Middle Eastern cotton scarf, later considered a symbol of Palestinian nationalism and solidarity
***Bethlehem, Ramallah: Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
****Nakbah: Arabic word for “catastrophe” refers to the mass expulsion of more than 750.000 Palestinians from their lands in 1948 and creating a state of Israel on the occupied land.
**** *Al Kammanjati: Arabic word for “the violinist”

A concerto for stone and violin:

The story of this generous musician and fighter inspired me to write this poem

A Poem for Ramzi Abu Radwan

The meditation of stone
In my hand
Is my song of freedom
That even your bullets
Can never pierce

Look at me
I am the child of the Intifada
These Palestinian hands
That were uprooted from my village
Like olive trees
And grew up in a camp
Small and scratched
will braid another song
From strings of a violin

Years pass
And the weeping violin
In my exiled soul
Will always remain
My song of freedom
That even your oppression
Can never silence

– Imen Benyoub

A portrait of the man:

The man’s music:

© 2014, essay and poem, Imen Benyoub, All rights reserved; Photograph (1) Ramzi Abu Radwan, adult and child, courtesy of Mr. Abu Radwan and ramallah cafe; photo of violin courtesy of Frink54 via Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 3.0; musical notations courtesy of Sprouls via Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 3.0.

IMEN BENYOUB ~ is a multilingual, multi-talented writer, poet, and artist from Guelma, Algeria. Imen currently lives in East Jerusalem. She is a frequent guest here on The Bardo Group blog and with On the Plum Tree and Plum Tree Books Facebook page as well.

General Interest, Guest Writer, Photography/Photographer, Spiritual Practice, Wendy Alger

I Still Have Legs

Posted on June 24, 2014June 23, 2014 by The Bardo Group Beguines

I wish I was more thankful for things before I lost my vision.

Driving, reading, colors, remembering faces, seeing the stars, being independent, my job, looking at photographs, watching my nephews grow up, seeing what I will look like older, nature, television, writing something down on a piece of paper, an art gallery, seeing the wonders of the world.

Perhaps I am more thankful now. Perhaps my lack of vision gave me more to be thankful for.

Yes my feet burn on the hot pavement. I still have legs.

The annoying sounds during the meditation. I still have hearing.

I have a migraine today. I am still alive!

Using my white cane down the busy street, I am present and aware.

A Mini-Gallery of Photographs from Wendy Rose Alger, Fine Art Photographer

WENDY ROSE ALGER ~ is a fine art photographer born in 1972 in Chicago, Illinois. Wendy now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. She studied photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she learned manual SLR and how to use a darkroom. These days Wendy uses a digital camera. With a digital camera she can forego a dark room and check her photographs in the camera. Thanks to her digital camera, adaptive technologies, and a variety of computer applications for photography, she is able to pursue her passion despite the vision limitations that result from retinitis pigmentosa. Her website is Wendy Rose Alger, where you can view a more complete gallery of her photographs.

White foam rides the churning river and a Red-Shouldered Hawk cries out as he drifts overhead; a meadow vole takes cover.

In an ancient, towering pine, lies an enormous aerie, home to a Bald Eagle couple and their two fledglings who take turns flapping wildly, strengthening their wings before take-off.

A feeding herd of White-Tailed deer wander calm through the open forest, several fawns leap and kick in play and sometimes bleat for their mothers when they wander too far.

A dirt colored and plain patterned garter snakes through the underbrush before coming to rest in a sunny patch on the forest’s floor…taking time to absorb some warmth before moving on; a gopher turtle stirs from his day’s nap.

All the animals hear when the humans approach and they watch with curiosity and then fear as monstrous machines can be heard revving their engines preparing once again for their encroaching.

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

We’re just priming the pump today for

Writers’ Fourth Wednesday.

Join us tomorrow for Victoria Slotto’s inspirational writing prompt.

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Will you be taking the dark path? The one that doesn’t feel right?

Where mostly you meet no-one but, once, a man with bounding dogs who race at you, only to collapse in snuffles and wags when you drop to greet them, knowing a friendly hand is the best way to test or bridge a gap.

And do you still see the huddled man, who breaks from shadows ahead?

He stops short, fumbling with his clothes. A man you’ll set light to if he races at you, but he doesn’t. He’s just caught short and cowed to find a woman knows. He nods, moves on. You welcome the swathe of safety he cuts.

Why do you take the dark path, knowing its silences and hiding places?

Its voices of men in the underpass where running wouldn’t serve you, forward or back?

But on the long way of the rat-run roads are men in cars who screech past; men in cars who stop and park ahead then don’t get out and drunken men in packs, looking for more, long after chucking out.

And who would race outdoors on hearing nothing more than a muffled shout?

But the path is only a path. And the dark is only time and time of year. So you take the dark path, listening and ready, not ready to cut your life to fit the ‘what if?’ embrace of fear.

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

BROTHER DAVID STEINDL-RAST (b. 1926)

Viennese, Catholic Benedictine Monk

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

I’ll remain as a member of the core team. The blog will move forward with Victoria’s Writers’ Fourth Wednesday as usual and with plans for Wilderness Week at the end of this month and 100,000 Poets, Musicians and Artists for Change event scheduled to begin on September 27.

In the spirit of peace, love and community,

I look forward to incorporating the traditions of The Bardo Group with the traditions that have started at BeguineAgain.com. I believe there is a lot of synergy between the two communities and that we can grow and learn together.

Please contact me with any thoughts, concerns, or questions you may have!

Shalom,

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Bitter is this dawn that no longer comes With the prayer of doves on rooftops And your face

This treacherous sky above your head The colour of lead and flame These forests of stars smothered In the blinding smoke

These banners ripping the air around you Woven of cries These fields of ruins and debris Where you stand shivering In the nudity of daylight

You, a lonely prophet in this besieged space Who listens to the laments of stones And writes his testament With tears and blood

You, who lights candles For the passing caravans of martyrs And falls asleep with the night

Salam to you

. . . this poem . . . in my mind i wrote it for a friend in Gaza . . . i haven’t heard from him in weeks now . . .

~

ALICE WALKER (b. 1944), American activist and Pulitzer Prize winning author:

Not with a bang … but with a whimper.

Peace: It’s a decision.

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Vulnerability is

1. The bearing of ones’ soul. 2. The exposing of our frailties 3. The peeling of our layers 4. The kiss and tell of our heart 5. The revealing of our inner being

Vulnerability feels like

1. Pain from an open wound 2. A throbbing in our head 3. A punch in our stomach 4. A thump in our brain 5. A thief stealing our soul

Love Feels Like 1. A quenched thirst 2. A harmonious gratifying touch 3. A warm breeze on our skin 4. Lips soft and sweet 5. An enchanted heart dancing

What does vulnerability mean to you? What does vulnerability feel like to you? What does love feel like to you?

Take the vulnerability test Brené Brown has offered us …..

“We cultivate LOVE when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and heard. ” Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW (b. 1965), American scholar, author, and public speaker, research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work

Write these three sentences down and list your five answers.

Vulnerability is ….

Vulnerability feels like ….

Love Feels like ….

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Seasons for all themselves don’t mean What they once did. I’ve not grown Out of them, rather more into and a part Of them with a deepening I’ve not had. Not to be dramatic, only matter of fact. A time when each season meant differences In things needing to be done is done for me.

Those needings now need to be hired out To those whose labor is not tenuous But filled with stamina and a resilience More nimble than my unsteady willingness To mount a ladder and repair a rotted soffit. I am not enfeebled by a long way yet. It’s just My work’s more now a tooled thought inside.

I.

II.

I think it’s what it must have been like To be Einstein embraced in his reveries, Questioning the knowns and doubts, Accepting the unknown and finally, Having no doubt about coming back, Slipped the thin atmosphere surrounding The world delicately drifting in space.

III.

Though, too, to be honest, my appreciation of This season, is how it binds the rest with promise. Always, some part of its fertile dance is woven Into the cloth of days unfolding of what’s to be; Always, with the thread of hopes to come.

IV.

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Our thanks to Gretchen Del Rio (Gretchen Del Rio’s Art Blog) and Mary Burns (Seeker of Truth and Beauty) for this lovely video.

Gretchen is much appreciated by us for her beautiful spirit as expressed through her spirit animal paintings. Below is one of her watercolors, War Bonnet, which notes that “Wolf is on the warpath. Many of his kind have been destroyed.”

If you haven’t already “met” Gretchen and Mary, we recommend a visit to their blogs.

Thank you for sharing the beauty and inspiration:

Given the events of the past few weeks, it seemed a good idea to share this thought from UNESCO’s 2012 event. For more, HERE is UNESCO’s PDF on Writing Peace.

Of equal interest (thought provoking) is VISUALIZING UNIVERSALISM: The Unesco Human Rights Exhibition, 1949-1953 HERE. Also in PDF form, it includes 110 photographs from UNESCO’s archives.

UNESCO

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION

UNESCO’s priorities for the 21st Century:

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” UNESCO philosophy

Of related interest:

Please mark your calendars to join with The Bardo Group and 100,000 Poets (Artists and Muscians) for Change for our virtual event here on September 27, 28, 29, and 30.

White foam rides the churning
river and a Red-Shouldered Hawk
cries out as he drifts overhead;
a meadow vole takes cover.

In an ancient, towering pine,
lies an enormous aerie, home
to a Bald Eagle couple and their
two fledglings who take turns
flapping wildly, strengthening
their wings before take-off.

A feeding herd of White-Tailed
deer wander calm through the
open forest, several fawns
leap and kick in play and sometimes
bleat for their mothers when they
wander too far.

A dirt colored and plain patterned
garter snakes through the underbrush
before coming to rest in a sunny patch
on the forest’s floor…taking time to
absorb some warmth before moving on;
a gopher turtle stirs from his day’s nap.

All the animals hear when the humans
approach and they watch with
curiosity and then fear as monstrous
machines can be heard revving their
engines preparing once again for
their encroaching.

Will you be taking the dark path?
The one that doesn’t feel right?

Where mostly you meet no-one
but, once, a man with bounding dogs
who race at you, only to collapse
in snuffles and wags when you drop
to greet them, knowing a friendly hand
is the best way to test or bridge a gap.

And do you still see the huddled man,
who breaks from shadows ahead?

He stops short, fumbling with his clothes.
A man you’ll set light to if he races at you,
but he doesn’t. He’s just caught short and cowed
to find a woman knows. He nods, moves on.
You welcome the swathe of safety he cuts.

Why do you take the dark path, knowing
its silences and hiding places?

Its voices of men in the underpass
where running wouldn’t serve you,
forward or back?

But on the long way of the rat-run roads
are men in cars who screech past; men in cars
who stop and park ahead then don’t get out
and drunken men in packs, looking for more,
long after chucking out.

And who would race outdoors on hearing
nothing more than a muffled shout?

But the path is only a path. And the dark
is only time and time of year. So you take
the dark path, listening and ready,
not ready to cut your life to fit
the ‘what if?’ embrace of fear.

Bitter is this dawn that no longer comes
With the prayer of doves on rooftops
And your face

This treacherous sky above your head
The colour of lead and flame
These forests of stars smothered
In the blinding smoke

These banners ripping the air around you
Woven of cries
These fields of ruins and debris
Where you stand shivering
In the nudity of daylight

You, a lonely prophet in this besieged space
Who listens to the laments of stones
And writes his testament
With tears and blood

You, who lights candles
For the passing caravans of martyrs
And falls asleep with the night

1. The bearing of ones’ soul.
2. The exposing of our frailties
3. The peeling of our layers
4. The kiss and tell of our heart
5. The revealing of our inner being

1. Pain from an open wound
2. A throbbing in our head
3. A punch in our stomach
4. A thump in our brain
5. A thief stealing our soul

Love Feels Like
1. A quenched thirst
2. A harmonious gratifying touch
3. A warm breeze on our skin
4. Lips soft and sweet
5. An enchanted heart dancing

What does vulnerability mean to you?
What does vulnerability feel like to you?
What does love feel like to you?

Seasons for all themselves don’t mean
What they once did. I’ve not grown
Out of them, rather more into and a part
Of them with a deepening I’ve not had.
Not to be dramatic, only matter of fact.
A time when each season meant differences
In things needing to be done is done for me.

Those needings now need to be hired out
To those whose labor is not tenuous
But filled with stamina and a resilience
More nimble than my unsteady willingness
To mount a ladder and repair a rotted soffit.
I am not enfeebled by a long way yet. It’s just
My work’s more now a tooled thought inside.

I think it’s what it must have been like
To be Einstein embraced in his reveries,
Questioning the knowns and doubts,
Accepting the unknown and finally,
Having no doubt about coming back,
Slipped the thin atmosphere surrounding
The world delicately drifting in space.

Though, too, to be honest, my appreciation of
This season, is how it binds the rest with promise.
Always, some part of its fertile dance is woven
Into the cloth of days unfolding of what’s to be;
Always, with the thread of hopes to come.