My prayer

My prayer for today:

Help me not to be exhausting

Help me not to be critical

Help me to be kind.

If Birds Can Talk

If birds can talk

Like on my other days

I perched that morning

On a flowering fennel along the river.

I saw you coming towards me, holding

In your left hand a walking stick,

A camera in your right hand

I waited for you to get close

Close enough to take my picture

Before I flew away.

Like on your many other days

You might not notice or remember

The little things, good things

You could do

For others.

Kindness

Sometimes we walk in a painted drama

Or a recited poetry

Not hurried or loud

Like a leaf falling on a stream

There are things we don’t understand like shuffling papers

Or how we fold an umbrella after the rain

And we smile

We continue our walk doing crossword puzzles inside our heads

That’s how we miss dogs sleeping under the tree

One of us steps on his tail.

Where can light hide if it wants to hide?

Changing our names is like moving away, hiding or flirting.

Our eyes catch the light

Showering over a leaf

Like a prayer

Light has no tail or face

But a field, of attractions

A woman rises at dawn

An undulating line with three points

above and before the line’s endpoint.

Abstract inside reality

Reality arising from the abstract

Crisscrossing lines and several daubs of blue and red

Circles ascending and descending.

She rises at dawn

Pick some apples from under the tree

Art is simplicity, simplicity is art

Like kindness.

A Wish

 

Be a guardian angel

A caravan may need you

Walking for days looking for answers

For a practical place for winter living.

Would you rather study

different calamities in the world?

 

To memorize details may not be necessary or a time lost.

If you walk a lot

You may arrive at odd places

Kindness is rare, start the day with gratitude.

The simplest way to change the world,

Restore glaciers and abundant forest

And slows down the wind.

 

The caravan will find the oasis

The nomads can walk forever.

unfinished

one sky
twelve hot air balloons,

one road
hundreds of cyclists

waking up late
I miss my breakfast

my eyes roam the sky and road
camera takes notes

the event raises funds
honors soldiers returning from wars

and helps Enchanted Hills
camp for the blind

lives of hundreds silkworms sacrificed
for a single silk scarf

the book is thick and heavy
I will turn the page for you

I will hold the lantern
to provide light for your reading

the verses hide the meaning
changes after every reading

for every creation is unfinished
includes your story and mine

are not all stories end with joy?
the sun blazes and fades

I can offer you bread and goat cheese
may not be a feast

that’s how friendship starts
if one misses breakfast

one receives kindness from a stranger
one single day.

Relevance

You have been attentive, writing in your journal
Don’t hide your theoretical bent
Don’t be afraid of contradictions
Open yourself to new patterns
Your mind, with time, will find the relevance

Kindness is part of a larger universe
All of us is given a key
We only have to find it.

kindness & generosity

“Recuerdo”
By Edna St. Vincent Millay

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

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Kindness and generosity
My closed reading (of one theme) and my reflections

The couple, in spite of being tired from riding the ferry all night, acknowledged and greeted perhaps an older woman with “a shawl covered head”, “good morrow, mother!” and bought a morning newspaper from her. She was touched by their kindness.

What is kindness?
http://www.gotquestions.org/fruit-Holy-Spirit-kindness.html
Kindness is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is also called “gentleness”,
“tender concern”, reflects the kindness of God, an attitude of love. The greetings, the acknowledgement, buying the newspaper (they did not intend to read) are their acts of kindness.The couple so absorbed of each other, tired and may be sleepy took time to do all thoses gestures which they did not have to do after they embarked from the ferry.

What is generosity?
http://www.wisdomcommons.org/virtues/57-generosity
One definitions says: Generosity is “freely sharing what you have with others.”
“Giving something willingly and happily without expecting anything in return” is generosity.At one time also means nobility of the spirit. One writer puts it,”offering something without taking.” The couple then gave her all the remaining apples and pears and all their money from their pockets except their fares for the subway the woman became overwhelmed with emotions wept and prayed for them, “God bless you”, she said.By her kind and generous gestures the poet showed her awareness of humanity around herself, the other, “the shawl-covered head”, became a part of her humanity and their separateness disappeared. The older woman felt this and she wept.

note: I’m taking an eCourse, Ten Premodern Poems by Women, through Stanford University. Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Milay is the 10th poem.

sometimes

Sometimes
she dials her father’s telephone number
she creates a scene of surprise after his dinner hour
he will put down the glass of cognac,
pick up the phone and inquire,
who is calling, his voice full and familiar,
the tone changing when he hears
love fragments she’s whispering.

Does she forget that he passed away?
She remembers she loves him
time doesn’t matter
her phone call, her invisible happiness.

When you meet her, if you don’t know
what to say, hug her
the “power of kindness” is subtle
she will understand, your arms
holding her close, she will hear
the song your heart is singing.