there are words
left unspoken
actions
left undone
there is less here
than what at first
met the eye
paper thin relations
like so many
facebook friends
Month: June 2016
away, look away
like some seafarer
of old
casting off
to return
once again
for the first time
to this place
called home
like some song
drifting
through the channels
of my mind
like some song
heard one morning
and can’t quite lose
by night
from the Man’yoshu
I loathe the twin seas
Of being and not being
And long for the mountain
Of bliss untouched by
The changing tides.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
much like my heart
there the moon
refusing to leave
the morning sky
much like my heart
a hovering love
above the streets
where you walk
untitled poem by anonymous poet from the Kokin Wakashu, 9th-10th Century, Japan
This world of ours,
Before we can know
Its fleeting sorrows,
We enter it through tears.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
after Tu Mu: what I never sent
the words
stuck in my throat
tumble out
here in the dark
as a gull calls
in the distance
missing the sea
Anthony P’s take on life
you do
what you can
and what
you can’t do
you try
anyway
remembering lessons learned from my two fathers on this Father’s Day, 2016
keep an open mind
no matter what you hear
a loving heart
no matter how you are treated
never forget the blood in your veins
where you come from is who you are
take the high road
over pettiness and jealousy
don’t avert your eyes
from injustice to anyone
always be kind
to all, yes, all
follow your own path
no matter how lonely
seek knowledge
wherever it lies
always have passion
for what who
you love
on writing by John Updike
“When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little east of Kansas. I think of books on library shelves, without their jackets, years old, and a countryish teen-aged boy finding them, and having them speak to him. The reviews, the stacks in Brentano’s, are just hurdles to get over, to place the books on that shelf.”
Leonard Durso 