EARLY ONE MORNING

Here is memory walking in the dark

there are no pictures of her as she is

the coming day has never been seen before

the stars have gone into another life

the dreams have left with no sound of farewell

insects wake flying up with their feet wet

trying to take the night along with them

memory alone is awake with me

knowing that this may be the only time

from Garden Time

W.S. Merwin

A new today: from the mountain

 

TREASURES FROM THE MOUNTAIN

The Present

As they were leaving the garden

one of the angles bent down to them and whispered

I am to give you this

as you are leaving the garden

I do not know what it is

or what it is for

what you will do with it

you will not be able to keep it

but you will not be able

to keep anything

yet they both reached at once

for the present

when their hands met

and laughed

from Garden Time

W.S. Merwin

 

Summertime

Mt. Taylor in the distance. The dot above the mountain is a hot air balloon

Ho! Sun, Moon, Stars, all that move in the heavens,

I bid you hear me!

Into your midst has come a new life! Consent ye, I implore!

Make smooth its path that it may reach the brow of the first hill!

Omaha Tribe Prayer

 

...In old age mountains

Are more beautiful than ever. My resolve:

That these bones be purified by rocks.

-Jakushitusu Genko

 

...over rocks, a path toward

a temple on a lone hill...

-Sogi

 

As for me I delight in the everyday Way,

Amongst mist-wrapped vines and rocky caves.

Here in the wilderness I am completely free, 

With my friends, the white clouds, idling forever.

There are roads, but they do not reach the world;

Since I am mindless, who can rouse my thoughts?

On a bed of stone I sit, alone in the night,

While the round moon climbs up Cold Mountain.

-Hansan

 

...But how can I ever find

the way to quiet my mind?

On moonlit nights, and

even nights blotted of the moon, 

I lie disconsolate...

from Cuckoo

Shinkai

Venus  and waning crescent  

 

 

Like dew that vanishes,

like a phantom that disappears,

or the light cast

by a flash of lightening -

so should one think of oneself.

-Ikkyu Sojun

Chollo cactus mountain bloom

 

DESERT ALIVE!

 Sandia mountain and her wild flowers

we had a wet late winter in the mountain...

In the mountain

Yellow chrysanthemums and green bamboo,

they don't belong to others.

Bright moon and clear breeze

are not for the sphere of the senses.

They're all treasures

of my house -

Fetch them home freely

use them, get to know them!

Paegun

New Mexico wild poppy

giant desert 4 o'clock

arrow grasses greening up

verbena with cholla cactus

delicious fragrance from
 the New Mexico mock orange

green view from spiral mesa

apache plume

penstemon

grass seed head

magical mountain sunrise