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| Marie Bortolotto 2022 A thatch hut in blue mountains beside a green stream after so many years visits are now up to me a few peach and plum trees blooming red and white a green and yellow field of vegetables and wheat all night I sit in bed listening to rain when it clears I open the window and doze off watching clouds nothing in life is better than being free but getting free isn’t luck Shiwu Qingqong 1272 - 1352 The Mountain Poem of Stonehouse Translated by Red Pine/Bill Porter |
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Marie Bortolotto 2022
Break the Mirror
by Nanao Sakaki, Japanese Walking Poet, 1923-2008
In the morning
After taking cold shower
--what a mistake--
I look at the mirror.
There, a funny guy,
Grey hair, white beard, wrinkled skin,
--what a pity--
Poor, dirty, old man,
He is absolutely not me, absolutely not.
Land and life
Fishing in the ocean
Sleeping in the desert with stars
Building a shelter in the mountains
Farming the ancient way
Singing with coyotes
Singing against nuclear war__
I'll never be tired of life.
Now I'm seventeen years old,
Very charming young man.
I sit quietly in lotus position,
Meditating, meditating for nothing.
Suddenly a voice comes to me:
"To stay young,
To save the world,
Break the mirror."
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Santoka Taneda 1882 - 1940 Japanese Zen Haiku Poet
I love this video! Thank you to the artists who created it.
Santoka spent 16 years of his life as a mendicant Zen priest. He
did not follow the traditional conventions of the poetic forms in
which he worked. Instead he chose to write in a free style form.
His personal life was as interesting as his poetry. His family life
was filled with tragedy: his mother committed suicide when
he was very young, he himself tried to commit suicide several times
and was an alcoholic. All this misfortune compelled him to become
a mendicant Zen priest where he chose walking meditation
instead of zazen or sitting meditation. It is estimated he walked
28,000 miles during his life as a Zen priest. Some years after his
death, there was an interest in his life and poetry, possibly due to
his wandering zen lifestyle...
What I like most about this video, is that we see Santoka following
what is alive within him (the plant symbolism) throughout his life,
and I'm also touched by his poignant ending....
In one poem, he offers us a look at his vulnerable inner self:
No money
no things
no teeth
just me
And this one:
all day long
meeting demons
meeting buddhas
~ Haiku by Santoka Taneda
Sunday, April 17, 2022
Friday, April 1, 2022
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Sunday, March 27, 2022
"When I run after what I think I want,
my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety;
if I sit in my own place of patience,
what I need flows to me, and without pain.
From this I understand that
what I want also wants me,
is looking for me and attracting me.
There is a great secret here
for anyone who can grasp it."
-Shams-i Tabrizi (Persian Poet 1185-1248)
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Marie Bortolotto, Mixed Media, Collage, Repurposed book, 2022
THE POEMS OF LALLA DED
translated by Ranjit Hoskote
I wore myself out, looking for myself.
No one could have worked harder to break the code.
I lost myself in myself and found a wine cellar. Nectar, I tell you.
There were jars and jars of the good stuff, and no one to drink it.
~
Don’t think I did all this to get famous.
I never cared for the good things of life.
I always ate sensibly. I knew hunger well,
and sorrow, and God.
~
What the books taught me, I’ve practised.
What they didn’t teach me, I’ve taught myself.
I’ve gone into the forest and wrestled with the lion.
I didn’t get this far by teaching one thing and doing another.
Marie Bortolotto 2022, Collage
A callarse
by Pablo Neruda
Original Spanish Version
Ahora contaremos doce
y nos quedamos todos quietos.
Por una vez sobre la tierra
no hablemos en ningun idioma,
por un segundo detengamonos,
no movamos tanto los brazos.
Seria un minuto fragante,
sin prisa, sin locomotoras,
todos estariamos juntos
en una inquietud instantanea.
Los pescadores del mar frio
no harian danio a las ballenas
y el trabajador de la sal
miraria sus manos rotas.
Los que preparan guerras verdes,
guerras de gas, guerras de fuego,
victorias sin sobrevivientes,
se pondrian un traje puro
y andarian con sus hermanos
por la sombra, sin hacer nada.
No se confunda lo que quiero
con la inaccion definitiva:
la vida es solo lo que se hace,
no quiero nada con la muerte.
Si no pudimos ser unanimes
moviendo tanto nuestras vidas,
tal vez no hacer nada una vez,
tal vez un gran silencio pueda
interrumpir esta tristeza,
este no entendernos jamas
y amenazarnos con la muerte,
tal vez la tierra nos ensenie
cuando todo parece muerto
y luego todo estaba vivo.
Ahora contare hasta doce
y tu te callas y me voy.
English Translation by Alatair Reid
KEEPING QUIET
by Pablo Neruda
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
