Sadness

How much sadness can I bear?
As much as an eastward-flowing river

filled with spring water.

*

-- Li Yu

The Dream

Outside the curtains the rain is pattering
As the season draws to its end.
My satin bed-cover cannot keep out
the chill at dawn.
In the dream, I forgot
that I was in exile,
And for a time there was joy.

*

-- Li Yu

Tears II

The rouged tears
That intoxicate and hold in thrall -
When will they fall again?
As a river drifts towards the east
So painful life passes to its bitter end.

*

-- Li Yu

Tears

How many tears
On my face and cheeks?
I should not tell the secret in my heart,
Nor should you play the phoenix flute
while our eyes are still wet.
For that would be too much to endure.

*

-- Li Yu

The Hours

How tight you held my hand!
I can see yet
The tear that fell upon it,
And those words you whispered last
I treasure still:

"Do not forget the hours of life and love
That we have shared.
If I live,
I shall surely come back to you.
If I die,
Remember
That all my thoughts have always been of you."

*

-- Su Wu

Femininity

"The Valley Spirit is undying."

This is mysterious femininity.

The Abode of mysterious Femininity:

This is the Root of Heaven and Earth.

It seems to endure on and on.

One who uses It never wears out.

*

-- Te Ching

Creed

I believe in my heart that when
The wounded heart, sunk within the depth of God, sings
It rises from the pond alive
As if new-born.

I believe in my heart that what I wring from myself
To tinge life’s canvas
With red of pallid hue, thus cloaking it
In luminous garb.
*
-- Gabriela Mistral

The End

It is time for me to go, mother; I am going.
When in the paling darkness of the lonely dawn

you stretch your arms for your baby in the bed,

I shall say, "Baby is not there!"- mother, I am going.

I shall become a delicate draught of air

and caress you;

and I shall be ripples in the water when you bathe;

and kiss you and kiss you again.

In the gusty night when the rain patters on the leaves

you will hear my whisper in your bed,

and my laughter will flash with the lightning

through the open window into your room.

If you lie awake, thinking of your baby till late into the night,

I shall sing to you from the stars, "Sleep, mother, sleep."
On the straying moonbeams I shall steal over your bed,

and lie upon your bosom while you sleep.

I shall become a dream, and through the little opening

of your eyelids I shall slip into the depths of your sleep;

and when you wake up and look round startled,

like a twinkling firefly I shall flit out into the darkness.

When, on the great festival of Puja,

the neighbours' children come and play about the house,

I shall melt into the music of the flute

and throb in your heart all day.

Dear suntie will come with your Puja presents and will ask,

"Where is our baby, sister?"

Mother you tell her softly,

"He is in the pupils of my eyes,

he is my body and my soul."

*

-- Tagore

The Last Dark Hour

In the last dark hour
Of the night,
Angels come to love us
And awaken us.
*
-- Sri Chinmoy

Dignity

Nothing surpasses the greatness or dignity of a human person.

Human life is not just an idea or an abstraction.

Human life is the concrete reality of a being that is capable of love

and of service to humanity

*

-- Pope John Paul II

How Nature Prays

In

The

Sweet

Sanctuary

Of this shade

We heard the birds

The leaves in the breeze

And waves as they played

And in one divine moment

We felt our hearts melt

Suddenly we knew

How nature

Prayed

*

-- Chasan

(click photo to enlarge)

Thank-you

So while I think of it,

let me paint a thank-you on my palm

for this God, this laughter of the morning,

lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,

dies young.

*

-- Anne Sexton

One Prayer

Look to your heart

that flutters in and out like a moth.

God is not indifferent to your need.

You have a thousand prayers

but God has one.

*

-- Anne Sexton

Something True

Oh, Mary,
Gentle Mother,
open the door and let me in.
A bee has stung your belly with faith.
Let me float in like a fish.
Let me in! Let me in!
I have been born many times, a false Messiah,
but let me be born again
into something true.
*
-- Anne Sexton

Still in Operation!

Just wanted to put up a brief note, since I haven't updated in a long time, to say that this blog has not been abandoned. If you have checked here and keep finding no updates it's just because I took a break from it. The break went longer than I planned. Truthfully, it's exhausting to do the work for this blog. It requires a lot of time, patience, attention, and lots of reading because researching for the texts is the most difficult part! Just to choose one piece of text to go with one image I might spend half an hour or one hour reading.
It's a lot! I look forward to posting more updates by mid-March.
Stay tuned, please.