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...:angel: (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!:brickwall

[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!:brickwall



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

[Bar22do]

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



Kabbalist ignores himself as such
Sufi whirls into self-oblivion
Wise is the one who,
not much of his own merit
is given, a quantum of a second,
to know and translate a fading Trace...

[PrinceMyshkin]

Kabbalist ignores himself as such
Sufi whirls into self-oblivion
Wise is the one who,
not much of his own merit
is given, a quantum of a second,
to know and translate a fading Trace...




The “Trace,” perhaps,
is all we can ever give
or get, but we delude ourselves
into thinking that the solid,
the material, the self-evident
is all that’s worth having.

[Bar22do]

The “Trace,” perhaps,
is all we can ever give
or get, but we delude ourselves
into thinking that the solid,
the material, the self-evident
is all that’s worth having.


Why then delude ourselves
if the awareness of Trace
offers us a sure detachment
from matter's gripping paws...?

[PrinceMyshkin]

Why then delude ourselves
if the awareness of Trace
offers us a sure detachment
from matter's gripping paws...?


That “Trace,” precisely named
because it is ephemeral,
ineluctable, a beat somewhere
between the diastole
and the systole,
is there to tease us
past the solid, the known,
the comfortably banal

[Bar22do]

That “Trace,” precisely named
because it is ephemeral,
ineluctable, a beat somewhere
between the diastole
and the systole,
is there to tease us
past the solid, the known,
the comfortably banal

"gesher tzar meod..." (a very narrow bridge)
Past the known we can have life.
in the solid we are (yet) mortal -
Can there be a place for a beginning
that is not a beginning of a place
for ever impermanent,
always to reach, to fade?
Each step is but ongoing hope
risk
wound -
of the next.

[PrinceMyshkin]

"gesher tzar meod..." (a very narrow bridge)
Past the known we can have life.
in the solid we are (yet) mortal -
Can there be a place for a beginning
that is not a beginning of a place
for ever impermanent,
always to reach, to fade?
Each step is but ongoing hope
risk
wound -
of the next.


But the narrowest bridge
is the one between the closed mind
firmly anchored at one end
but reaching, skeptically,
for the other, unseen shore

[Bar22do]

But the narrowest bridge
is the one between the closed mind
firmly anchored at one end
but reaching, skeptically,
for the other, unseen shore


and the above is full of hope
for to acknowledge the unseen
gives it a chance to become
a key, for the closed mind...

[PrinceMyshkin]

and the above is full of hope
for to acknowledge the unseen
gives it a chance to become
a key, for the closed mind...



What is a key
without a hand to wield it?
And what is a mind
without other minds to challenge it?

[Bar22do]

What is a key
without a hand to wield it?
And what is a mind
without other minds to challenge it?

Is not your question an answer?
The hand to wield the key
might be the interaction
of minds challenging each other.

For if they saw voices
coming from on high
can't we touch the unseen
with our responsive minds?

[PrinceMyshkin]

Is not your question an answer?
The hand to wield the key
might be the interaction
of minds challenging each other.

For if they saw voices
coming from on high
can't we touch the unseen
with our responsive minds?




But voices come to us,
alas and hallelujah,
from here and everywhere,
the butcher trimming our meat
behind the counter, the vegetable
reapers in southern climes, from God,
the master ventriloquist,
truth-teller, farceur,
stand-up comedian!

[Bar22do]

But voices come to us,
alas and hallelujah,
from here and everywhere,
the butcher trimming our meat
behind the counter, the vegetable
reapers in southern climes, from God,
the master ventriloquist,
truth-teller, farceur,
stand-up comedian!

Oh Gosh! it is a challenge
my pen can only scratch more
on the path of your thorns
while I acknowledge not
such master ventriloquial!
Truth-tellers are our words
hiding meanings, revealing
lights, patiently -
as the vegetable reapers
as our meat resists the butcher -
making a (good) sense of the whole,
which a new (good) sense completes,
and selah!

[PrinceMyshkin]

Oh Gosh! it is a challenge
my pen can only scratch more
on the path of your thorns
while I acknowledge not
such master ventriloquial!
Truth-tellers are our words
hiding meanings, revealing
lights, patiently -
as the vegetable reapers
as our meat resists the butcher -
making a (good) sense of the whole,
which a new (good) sense completes,
and selah!




Do not commit your pen
to challenge mine or that of any others'.
You have challenge - and opportunity
- enough to employ it in searching
deeper and deeper within.

But do not forget, oh!
please do not forget,
the sacred obligation to indulge
in sheer, anarchic, serious
joy!

[Bar22do]

Do not commit your pen
to challenge mine or that of any others'.
You have challenge - and opportunity
- enough to employ it in searching
deeper and deeper within.

But do not forget, oh!
please do not forget,
the sacred obligation to indulge
in sheer, anarchic, serious
joy!

As said before, a meaning gives birth to
a meaning within...
but after butcher's knife and
our meat in strips
it's sort of hard to become
sheer, anarchic court jester!

so with no wish to annoy you
and though I take your advice
I feel that we two
play a bit cats and mice!:argue:

[PrinceMyshkin]

As said before, a meaning gives birth to
a meaning within...
but after butcher's knife and
our meat in strips
it's sort of hard to become
sheer, anarchic court jester!

so with no wish to annoy you
and though I take your advice
I feel that we two
play a bit cats and mice!:argue:





To onlookers it must seem
like cats and mice play a ferocious game
from which either one of them may emerge
mauled - or dead
but possibly that is their only way
to express affection for each other!

[Bar22do]

To onlookers it must seem
like cats and mice play a ferocious game
from which either one of them may emerge
mauled - or dead
but possibly that is their only way
to express affection for each other!

To onlookers it will seem, if there are any,
hopefully as mind challenging mind
on a background of affection of best kind -
and enriching discussions can be many!

Prince, nobility of your mind and heart
is greatly searched for and renown
but perhaps let us further see what is our own
on this wonderful site's messages part?

(for I am concerned with over-burdening my thread and thus taking place of new posts... but I greatly enjoyed exchanging with you here!)