Night

He comes at night. I see him as a darker shadow. Sometimes I see his face. He is about to say something. I think of an actor struggling to remember a line. So many years have passed.

Overheard

No one ever says, "That's one of the worst rainbows I've ever seen!" or "What an ugly sunset!"

Fårö

Sometimes

Are you a man? a REAL man?
Sometimes, I replied. Sometimes.

Linguistics

One summer, long ago, I traveled to Victoria, capital of British Columbia, to visit friends whom I had not seen for many years.
I reached a hotel. After completing the formalities, the desk clerk said, How are things in Vancouver?
I have no idea. I haven't seen Vancouver in years.
You have a Vancouver accent.
What does a Vancouver accent sound like?
It sounds like you.

Life, The Meaning of

What's the meaning of life?
Why do you ask?
You look like you know.

One sunny afternoon

In a bus shelter, one sunny afternoon, I was tying my shoelaces, which had come loose several times that day. As I tied the second pair with a single knot, I looked up to see an old lady, who evidently had been watching me.
Why don't you double-knot your laces? Don't you know how? My mother taught me to do that when I was a little girl!
I smiled. Now I am fifty, I thought. No one had taught me to double-knot my laces when I was a child. Why not? I wondered. And why had I not noticed others doubling their knots? When I was in my twenties, someone remarked that he thought I was an orphan.
But the old lady, who was at least my mother's age, had taught me after all. Now, I double-knot my shoelaces. They haven't come loose for many years.

Overheard

Now that I've turned 40, I can say things like: You're too young to know! It was before your time! It's a shame you never knew so-and-so! Back in the day! When I was young! When I was your age!

Quest

How are you doing, sir?
Fine, thanks. And you?
Doing great, sir. Did you find what you were looking for?
Yes I did, thanks. And you?
Still searching, sir. Still searching.

Priority

What I bought instead of Wallis Budge's book on hieroglyphics ($6): a tuna sandwich ($2.99); a bottle of orange juice ($1.25); the weekend paper ($1.50)....(total $5.74).

Night bus

The night bus carries bicycles now. No more than two at a time, though. Two bedraggled street people, a man and a woman, load their bikes onto the rack. One bike has a flat tire. When two other would-be passengers appear with bicycles, they realize that they aren't able to take their bikes with them. One locks his bike to a pole near the stop. The other, disgruntled, rides away. Perhaps he will try the next bus, the last of the night.

Streetcar motorman

"Have a good night, a good weekend, a good life!"

Taxi

"And they wouldn't bury her with her mother!"

Orion

silent house
slow stars
the sea

a bell
slow song
a bell
slow wind

a bell
slow stars
the sea

a bell
slow stars
the sea

Gotland

Holy, Holy, Holy

Above a back-alley entrance to a private dining club, which enshrines the usual crowd of the overfinanced and overadmired, there is a frieze, carved in the Roman manner, portraying a priestess or goddess holding wheat stalks, and what look like opium poppies, in each hand, while snakes entwine her arms. Such a frieze, in the ancient world, indicated a sacred site, where neophytes were initiated into a holy mystery. Evidently, the members of the club wish us to imagine that to enter their society is to encounter a revelation equally sacred.


.

Fårö

Approach

I will
come
to the
door

to the
door
to the
dark

I will
come
to the
dark
door

Vocation

God calls people regardless of circumstance, or even likelihood of fulfilment.

Music

is the language of heaven.

Not this, not that.

God is. He is simply, without limit or definition. To define him is to imply that there is some boundary that he cannot pass. He is everywhere and nowhere. He is not an individual, because there is no class or group of beings of which he is a member. He is not unique as an individual is unique, since all individuals share features from which uniqueness stands out. He shares nothing with anyone or anything to which he can be compared. Neither is he one, since there is no other with whom he can be counted. Neither does God know as we know, because we know only in part and can never know the whole as God knows. He has no self, since self delineates one from another, and there is no other than God. Without self, he is without ego, without defenses, without desire, without aversion, without fear. Without self, he is freedom. Without self, he is love.

Movie

"I'm old enough to remember when movies cost fifty cents!"
"They have color and sound now!"

At the church door

A girl in blue walked her bicycle toward a side door of the church. She leaned it against a small tree, and walked up the steps. She placed her right ear against the door, to hear the music of the choir. A look of wonder, astonishment even, crossed her face. I thought to ask her to come in, but I did not.

How to Change the World

Become a person with whom others will want to live in a better world.

Headlights

deer dead in the road
blood bright red
red too bright for death

The Man in the Lavender Hat

The man in the lavender hat smiled his way through the crowd. Many knew his face. They reached to shake his hand. Some wished to appear with him in photographs. He posed happily beside them, while others raised their cameras. How practised he was, how experienced.

Bookshop

Pardon me, I'm in your way, I said, as I turned toward a young man who was looking around me at books on the shelves in front of me. I stepped aside.
I'm looking for a book, but I don't know its title. I know what it looks like, though.
Who is the author?
I don't know. But I'll know the book when I see it.
A few moments later, he walked away. I regret not asking what the book was about. Perhaps the young man did not know that either.

Poesis

A Poet does not make, but finds
in All that is, a Maker's Mind.

Travel

travel
light

travel
light

travel
the
light

travel
the
light

travel

travel

light