PROMPT: 30 Things

Daily writing prompt
List 30 things that make you happy.

1.) love; 2.) a glorious turn of phrase; 3.) discovery; 4.) walking; 5.) swimming; 6.) stumbling upon an interesting and / or novel idea; 7.) movement; 8.) travel; 9.) street food; 10.) quiet; 11.) health; 12.) recognition that when things are at their very worst, they must get better — because everything is impermanent; 13.) an intense stretch; 14.) Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass;” 15.) undiscovered country; 16.) the hanging moment; 17.) a mystery-laden world; 18.) a moment of flow; 19.) a mountain path; 20.) a clear stream; 21.) the way of non-adversariality; 22.) a thing stripped to its simplest form; 23.) the moment breath turns the tide; 24.) animals being animals; 25.) a brief instant of free fall; 26.) the recognition that something that used to cause me angst or fear no longer does; 27.) when body, movement, and the world fall into alignment; 28.) first contact with someplace / something new; 29.) connection; 30.) the first sign that the struggle is paying off.

“Indian River” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]

The trade-wind jingles the rings in the nets around the racks
by the docks on Indian River.
It is the same jingle of the water among the roots under the
banks of the palmettoes,
It is the same jingle of the red-bird breasting the orange-trees
out of the cedars
Yet there is no spring in Florida, neither in boskage perdu, nor
on the nunnery beaches.

DAILY PHOTO: Parade in Bangalore

“Aliens” by Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]

The chatter of little people   
Breaks on my purpose
Like the water-drops which slowly wear the rocks to powder.
And while I laugh
My spirit crumbles at their teasing touch.

DAILY PHOTO: Myeongdong Cathedral

Image

“Could that sweet Darkness where they dwell” (1493) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

Could that sweet Darkness where they dwell
Be once disclosed to us
The clamor for their loveliness
Would burst the Loneliness —

PROMPT: Curious

Daily writing prompt
What are you curious about?

Everything… except mid-18th century Dunwich Haberdashery.

Hermit Hut [Haiku]

a hermit-hut hides
on the cloud-enshrouded peak
two valleys away.

DAILY PHOTO: Classic Korean Architecture, Gyeongju

Wen Fu 11 “Banal & Sublime” [文赋十一] by Lu Ji [陆机] [w/ Audio]

Some shoots and stalks stand out --
Taller than the masses.
Their form eludes pursuit,
Sound slips through, like gases.
Great lines are always disjunct:
Don't weave with mid'ling lyrics.
They're pent up and peerless:
Chop them? A win that's pyrrhic.
Jade flecks make mountains shimmer,
Pearly waters enchant.
The thicket mustn't be clipped
If Kingfisher's glory, grant.
Stitched words end under snow,
Work the weft, steady and slow.

The original in Simplified Chinese is:

或苕发颖竖,离众绝致。
形不可逐,响难为系。
块孤立而特峙,非常音之所纬。
心牢落而无偶,意徘徊而不能揥。
石韫玉而山辉,水怀珠而川媚。
彼榛楛之勿翦,亦蒙荣于集翠。
缀下里于白雪,吾亦济夫所伟。