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Posts Tagged ‘loss of separate self’

Could It Happen Anywhere?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 13, 2025| 7 Comments »


 
Listen to the rhythm of things that never die.
                  —Mark Nepo, “For a Long Time”
 
 
Worried about what was to come, I went to the river
and listened to the constant song as water met stone,
met log, met wall. The endless white hush of it.
Song of building up banks. Song of tearing them down.
Song of surrender to invisible force. Song of change
that is ever the same and not the same. And in the listening,
I found refuge—not in the longing to hide, not in the sound—
I found refuge in the listening. Refuge in the opening
of the senses. In attuning to what is here. Wave and current
and eddy and flow and the attentiveness that lives
through this woman. And I listened and listened, listened
to it all, and was opened by listening. At some point
the listener disappeared. What was left was
listening itself. For a time, peace found me there.

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The Great Beyond

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on March 10, 2020| 2 Comments »

 

 

 

And once again the invitation

to see beyond the self—

the way water knows itself

not only as river and lake

but also as fern, as cloud, as cat.

Forgive me for believing

I end with this skin, these ideas,

these imaginings. Sometimes

I forget to choose vastness,

forget to know the self

as cliff, as maitake, as crumb.

How is it I so often miss the invitation?

How is it I overlook that I

am lemon, asteroid, wren?

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Daylight Savings: Spring Forward

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on March 8, 2020| 4 Comments »

 

 

And what did you do with your lost hour?

            —Harry Teague

 

 

Well, I didn’t sleep, that’s for sure,

nor did I bake bread. Didn’t practice piano

or write a poem, skate ski or do sumo squats.

 

Neither did I throw javelins.

Nor fake my own death in a gruesome car accident,

nor steal modern art nor moon rocks nor whiskey.

 

I didn’t spelunk. Didn’t sink in a ship.

Didn’t crawl through the sewer.

Didn’t get a tattoo. Didn’t twerk.

 

Perhaps there was part of me

that did what I am always trying to do—

untether from time and lose all sense

 

of who I am and what I think and

what comes next and how it’s supposed to be—

yeah, I’d like to believe that for a lost hour

 

perhaps some part of me thrived and joined

with the universe so completely that it knew itself

as the dawn that comes when it comes.

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Transformation

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 27, 2019| 2 Comments »

 

 

And again the world tumbles me

and again I emerge smoother, softer,

less sharp, less whole. Someday I will be

less solid, less myself, more a part of everything,

more a grain of sand that knows itself as one of many, easily

moved by the current, until finally, I

am less sand, more sea.

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Rabbit Brush in October

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 22, 2018| 2 Comments »

 

 

 

And all at once the field

turns white with froth

as yellow tubes

of chamisa blooms

are lost, their perfect

composition giving way

to lathered dross.

 

The soul takes note—

considers how all patterns

come to naught

before rebuilding.

 

Some part of us resists.

Some part can’t wait

to lose its shape

and weave itself into

the larger cloth.

 

 

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A View of Edo

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 22, 2013| 4 Comments »

What are the flags for?
I don’t know, but they flutter
frayed in the wind.
Perhaps our own undoing
is this beautiful.

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Put in my Place

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 6, 2012| 4 Comments »

stepping
into the morning sun
oh and oh!
so sweet to be
reminded

my own light
so little
and not
even
mine

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