Last week, there were vast patches
of wildflowers
in the understory.
Now, a faint few hangers-on remain.
Next week, they’ll be but a memory–
a residue of consciousness,
a dying homage to the worthy memory
of their existence.
In ten years time, this florid story
will be gone to all.
Nature needs no selfies.
She changes states without concern
for legacy or posterity.
She is–
&
that’s enough.
words fall in clonks and bongs
some days they zoom and whoosh
those are the days
today, words hit the floor,
shattering into shards
if they don’t bounce
it’s a delicate day to be my word
falling off my pen
to end up in the dust bin
tangled in a concertina of lint
laying on a bed of granular grit
it’s an ugly day to be my word
Like Chuang-tzu,
I didn’t know whether a
butterfly dreamt me.
It wasn’t for lack of absurdity.
No.
Absurdity was in abundance.
Rather,
that block of brain that calls
bullshit
was sleeping.
It’s failed me before.
Circling the wagons around the youngin’s
Ears out at dusk
Shaking head with ears out
Ears out and head aligned; Taken in April of 2017 in Botswana
5.) Wisdom: Choice is not as it seems.
Quote: No, you’ve already made the choice. Now you have to understand it.
Said by the Oracle to Neo in “The Matrix Reloaded” as they discuss a dream in which he sees Trinity falling.
Interpretation: Studies in neuroscience have repeatedly validated the notion that by the time we think we’re making a decision at a conscious level, we’ve already made it on a subconscious level. While many suggest this means that the verdict is in and free will is completely illusory, another way of looking at it is that one must understand one’s decisions in order to begin to regain the rudder on one’s life.
4.) Wisdom: Courage elevates: or, if you don’t run, he won’t chase you.
Quote: He’s beginning to believe.
Said by Morpheus to Trinity in explanation of why Neo isn’t running from Agent Smith in the subway.
Interpretation: My mother used to say, “If you don’t run, he won’t chase you” with respect to being chased by my older brother. It seemed like insane advice at the time; the alternative to being chased being beaten down. However, now I can see that even taking a butt-whooping elevates one’s spirit over engaging in prey behavior.
3.) Wisdom: Rationality is a thin veneer.
Quotes: Beneath our poised appearance we are completely out of control. & It is remarkable how similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity.
Said by the Merovingian to Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo.
Interpretation: While one might like to dismiss the Merovingian’s comments as the cynicism of a hedonist, the undeniable fact is that we have animal biology and it influences us more than we pretend.
2.) Wisdom: The world contains more Cyphers than not.
Quote: Ignorance is bliss.
Said by Cypher to Agent Smith as he plots his subversion in order to be put back into the Matrix.
Interpretation: Most people are happy with their illusions, rely on them as coping mechanisms, and will respond unfavorably to attempts to strip them way. The illusion in question may not be so much that the world is completely fake as much as biases such as the self-serving bias (i.e. people attribute successes to their inherent awesomeness but blame failures on external sources.)
1.) Wisdom: There are limits to being cerebral.
Quotes: Don’t think you are, know you are. & There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
Both are said by Morpheus to Neo. The former quote is delivered in the sparring program when Neo isn’t performing up to his potential. The latter is said after Neo & Trinity rescue Morpheus and Neo tries to tell Morpheus what the Oracle revealed, but Morpheus quiets him with said words.
Interpretation: I hope I haven’t muddled this bit of wisdom by choosing quotes in which Morpheus uses the word “know” in two different ways. In the first quote, Morpheus contrasts knowing with thinking, and he means that Neo must not treat it as an intellectual exercise, but rather feel its inherent truth deep down. In the second quote, he contrasts knowing with doing, and in this case “knowing” is the cerebral / thinking activity in comparison to doing (i.e. “walking the path.”) However, the gist is the same, you must approach some things–to use the Oracle’s words–balls to bones.
Edgar Allan Poe
If I was as Mad as Poe,
could I summon the Raven?
If I was as radical as Blake,
could I build myself a tyger?
If I was as shut-in as Dickinson
could I be Nobody, too?
If I was as doomed as Radnóti,
could I pen my elegy on a death march?
William Blake
Emily Dickinson
Miklós Radnóti
Taken in April of 2017 in Khonoma
A few of these circles are located throughout the village in front of the properties of wealthy villagers who made merit through acts of charity. They are used to get together during festivals (or for drying rice as seen above.) Some of the seats are reserved for village elders and others are free for first-come-first-served.
rains pummel the soil
soon will raise a tinge of oil
floating its coat of many colors
on my puddle, like all the others
a rainbow slick
a micrometer thick
Seems to me there’s a story in those britches.
Some tears left open, and some with stitches.
Were they scourge or bramble torn?
There’s no doubt they’re world worn.
But there’s a story in those britches.
***
A tale tragic? A tale of woe?
Tell me the way your story flows.
Did you make some great escape?
Or just thieve bottles of the grape?
Did you get caught upon the fence?
Or self-inflict out of penitence?
***
Looking back,
tell me now,
Were you raging when they died?
Your kinsmen in days of fratricide?
Did you know them? Did they hope
you’d dangle down a rescue rope?
And pull them out of the kill box?
Magic carpet over paddy and ox?
***
Field of glory. Field of mud.
Did you call to the Lord above?
Did he hear you? Did words hold sway?
Or do you hate him to this day?
***
Do you wake up with the sweats?
Knowing how many steps he gets
before he falls, calling out your name?
Does the dream always end the same?
Or on some nights is history revised?
The plan proceeds as it was devised?
You chopper back full and grinning?
Then can you sleep to a new day’s beginning?
