Marie Bortolotto 2018

Oblivion

A bird in a secluded grove sings like a flute

Willows sway gracefully with their golden threads.

The mountain valley grows the quieter as the clouds return.

A breeze brings along the fragrance of the apricot flowers.

For a whole day I have sat here encompassed by peace,

Till my mind is cleansed in and out of all cares and idle thoughts.

I wish to tell you how I feel, but words fail me.

If you come to this grove, we can compare notes.

Ch'an master Fa-yen (法眼 Hõgen) (The Golden Age of Zen)

"Dream Mountains" by Marie Bortolotto 2018

by rivers, then by mountains,

I find my way home;

when last here,

I had no thought or care

for rivers or for mountains.

- Michael McClintock, Tanka poetry

"I just have a dream mountain under the eyelids, 

this is my breath, my life".

- Voytek Kurtyka (Wojciech Kurtyka), 
inspiring Polish Alpinist b. 1947

Every move is a creation,

Maintaining the delicate balance is a creation,

The line is a creation,

Survival is a creation,

Freedom is a creation. 

- Voytek Kurtyka (Wojciech Kurtyka),
Polish Alpinist

I see one single suitable role for my life’s work: 

for it to be a gift to others. 

- Voytek Kurtyka (Wojciech Kurtyka),
Polish Alpinist

Marie Bortolotto

When I Met My Muse

I glanced at her and took my glasses

off—they were still singing. They buzzed

like a locust on the coffee table and then

ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the

sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and

knew that nails up there took a new grip

on whatever they touched. “I am your own

way of looking at things,” she said. “When

you allow me to live with you, every

glance at the world around you will be

a sort of salvation.” And I took her hand.

- William Stafford, American poet (1914 - 1993)

Marie Bortolotto 2018

"You breathe it in the summer air,

You see it in the green wild woods,

It nestles in the first spring buds.

it is poetry, poetry everywhere—

It nestles in the violets fair,

It peeps out in the first spring grass—

Things without poetry are very scarce."

-Anonymous

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Overcome with pity for this world,
My tears obscure my sight;
I wonder, can it be the moon
Whose melancholy light
Has saddened me to-night?

Saigyo Hoshi, Japanese Monk, and Poet, A.D. 1115-1188

Marie Bortolotto 2018

Marie Bortolotto 2018

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Marie Bortolotto 2018

Marie Bortolotto 2018



"I think I am probably in love with silence,
that other world.
And that I write, in some way
to negotiate seriously with it.

...because there is, of course
always the desire, the hope,
that they are not two separate worlds,
sound and silence, but that they become each other,
that only our hearing fails.

Jodie Graham (1950- ) American Poet, from Some Notes on Silence

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red ink
bleeding
through white paper
what's more indelible
than impermanence

- Marie Bortolotto Tanka 2018

"My activities have never had anything
to do with the idea of becoming famous
or achieving success. I have always been
concerned with getting people to listen to
me. In everything I do ... my aim is to
make people listen. I want to communicate
the things that I love and in which I believe,
because I think that people can derive a
general benefit from them. What I really
want is success in a philosophical sense:
I want people to grasp something of the
ideas and hopes which I express in painting.”


- Antoni Tapies 1923 - 2012, Spanish Painter

Marie Bortolotto 2018


our life in this world -
to what shall I compare it?
it is like a boat
rowing out at break day
leaving not a trace behind

- Somi Mansei C. 720, Japanese Buddhist priest and poet

Marie Bortolotto

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Marie Bortolotto 2018

when you opened

my letter

were you surprised

my heart

fell out?




the recluse
opens
the door
only for
the cat.

-Michael Windsor McClintock, American Poet 1950 -


how invisibly
it changes colour
in this world,
the flower
of the human heart

-Ono no Komachi, Japanese poet 825 - 900 AD

Marie Bortolotto 2018


Past, present, future: unattainable,
Yet clear as the moteless sky.
Late at night the stool’s cold as iron,
But the moonlit window smells of plum.

- Hakuin,  Japanese Zen Master 1686 - 1768

Marie Bortolotto 2018

Marie Bortolotto 2018

Marie Bortolotto 2018

Marie Bortolotto 2018

Shall I go
Shall I stay
another day

Haiku by Marie Bortolotto