desert meu amor

[Bar22do]

Desert, meu amor I

He thirsted for a word in that aching wilderness -
sand pushed through his eyes and mouth,
ineffective
its sibilant whisper deafened him but he persisted:
"Desert, meu amor, why, has your sand withered to nil?
my love for you is steadfast, an oasis known only to you –"

Gradually appeased, from conflicting whirls
letters formed a common aspiration
that reflected his
there he took shelter and felt that he might
have received a first hint
and he saw signs of alphabet, words, of phrases,
a thousand times repeated in different dispositions
they now slid from his fingers like fine grains of sand
as he yieded to desert’s infinite presence
in every word assembled another struggled through,
in search of meaning, and he understood
that SEED in DESERT
thirsted for the rain as the summer drew to its close,
and also that poems were a few grains of sand
lent one day by the desert and in it reposed
a while later.

[PrinceMyshkin]

How majestically this rises from vivid, naturalistic description to the heights of kabbalistic mysticism, the whole of it a seemingly irresistible journey from the first line/step until the end!

[hack]

Thank you my friend,
For this vantage, from which to stand
and view my beautiful desert.

[Bar22do]

How majestically this rises from vivid, naturalistic description to the heights of kabbalistic mysticism, the whole of it a seemingly irresistible journey from the first line/step until the end!

Well, thank you Prince, but when I reach "the heights of kabbalitic mysticim" I will be "released" from writing poetry, I suppose...
It was a journey indeed, to write these lines, a journey from a letter to a meaning... from a grain of sand to the immensity of desert's riches...

[Bar22do]

Thank you my friend,
For this vantage, from which to stand
and view my beautiful desert.

Is not your beautiful desert also one of the endless possibilities words offer? Thank you for your comment, hack.

[Alexander III]

I have to say between your works which I have read, this is my favorite. I feel like such a dunce however as I had to read it many times before I could begin to understand it hehe.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Well, thank you Prince, but when I reach "the heights of kabbalitic mysticim" I will be "released" from writing poetry, I suppose...
It was a journey indeed, to write these lines, a journey from a letter to a meaning... from a grain of sand to the immensity of desert's riches...

"Released" from writing poetry!? Is that not like being "released" from Eden? I'm not familiar enough with the Kabbala or the Zohar in particular, but are there not Jewish mystic poets as there are Sufi ones?

If apples, e.g., are the prose of the fructarian world, surely poems are the pomegranates!

[MorpheusSandman]

I pretty much agree with Prince's statement; it really captures the idea of wandering in such a vast landscape and the kinds of images and mirages that can arise out of a combination of the environment and the individual's sense of struggle there. It has an almost Laurence of Arabia quality to it...

[Bar22do]

I have to say between your works which I have read, this is my favorite. I feel like such a dunce however as I had to read it many times before I could begin to understand it hehe.

Thank you for devoting your time and attention, Alexander III, to reading my poems, I feel privileged! And, come on, you are far from a dunce (see your poems!!!), I shared in this poem a bit of a world not necessarily familiar to all... (and a little confession: I too have to read and reread your poems before I can fully enjoy their beauty)

[Bar22do]

"Released" from writing poetry!? Is that not like being "released" from Eden? I'm not familiar enough with the Kabbala or the Zohar in particular, but are there not Jewish mystic poets as there are Sufi ones?

If apples, e.g., are the prose of the fructarian world, surely poems are the pomegranates!

It is rather entering the Garden of Eden to hear its melodies... though I could not authenticate that, for I have still a long way to go.... Sufi and Jewish mystic poets, and some others, are in a state of aspiration.... of soaring towards, not yet there... perhaps prophets are close.
PARDES, meaning "orchard", sometimes connected with the Garden of Eden or the abode of the blessed, is also an acronym for the essence of all that can be grasped, complementary and united: Pshat - plain meaning, Remez - allegory, Drash - teaching, Sod - secret. Whether it is apple or pomegranate depends on the point of view...

[Bar22do]

I pretty much agree with Prince's statement; it really captures the idea of wandering in such a vast landscape and the kinds of images and mirages that can arise out of a combination of the environment and the individual's sense of struggle there. It has an almost Laurence of Arabia quality to it...

Morpheus, I am grateful you highlighted the struggle here.... and I take the comparison to Laurence of Arabia (once my hero...) as a compliment! I am always hungry for your insights, whether on my threads or on the others', as well as for those I find in your own poetry...

[paperleaves]

so exquisitely beautiful....

[PrinceMyshkin]

It is rather entering the Garden of Eden to hear its melodies... though I could not authenticate that, for I have still a long way to go.... Sufi and Jewish mystic poets, and some others, are in a state of aspiration.... of soaring towards, not yet there... perhaps prophets are close.
PARDES, meaning "orchard", sometimes connected with the Garden of Eden or the abode of the blessed, is also an acronym for the essence of all that can be grasped, complementary and united: Pshat - plain meaning, Remez - allegory, Drash - teaching, Sod - secret. Whether it is apple or pomegranate depends on the point of view...

So, you ARE something of a Kabbalist, as one might have inferred from the "SEED" hidden in your Desert! But although I characterize myself as a "lapsed atheist" I consider myself a practicing materialist for whom a "table" must always be a flat surface supported by 4 or more "legs". This, of course, with humble deference to the mysteries of String Theory and Quantum Dynamics in general.

(Of the latter, as you may know, one of its founding fathers, Niels Bohr, once said that anyone who thinks about Quantum Dynamics without getting dizzy has probably not understood it. Applying the BDS (Bohr Dizziness Scale) I must be considered to have one of the deepest understanding of it!)

[Bar22do]

So, you ARE something of a Kabbalist, as one might have inferred from the "SEED" hidden in your Desert! But although I characterize myself as a "lapsed atheist" I consider myself a practicing materialist for whom a "table" must always be a flat surface supported by 4 or more "legs". This, of course, with humble deference to the mysteries of String Theory and Quantum Dynamics in general.

(Of the latter, as you may know, one of its founding fathers, Niels Bohr, once said that anyone who thinks about Quantum Dynamics without getting dizzy has probably not understood it. Applying the BDS (Bohr Dizziness Scale) I must be considered to have one of the deepest understanding of it!)

--- therefore are you in the aspect of Pshat (table) which contains the secret (table's grace = han of shulhan!), especially if, as you affirm, you get THAT dizzy while pondering quantum dynamics and string theory! hmmm... I wonder who is the kabbalist here, cavaleiro!

[PrinceMyshkin]

--- therefore are you in the aspect of Pshat (table) which contains the secret (table's grace = han of shulhan!), especially if, as you affirm, you get THAT dizzy while pondering quantum dynamics and string theory! hmmm... I wonder who is the kabbalist here, cavaleiro!

The Kabbalist is the one
who suspects all others
of being Kabbalists,
knowing that they each use words
in their own secret,
mysterious ways.