Poetry

[C C]

Tig Notaro reads Andrea Gibson's poem "Tincture"

https://www.facebook.com/reel/841579801594146

That's philosophically interesting. Why, if there was some kind of cosmopsychism or mitigated reincarnation, an abstract or disembodied entity would be tempted back into the cycle again, eventually. Nirvana would be boring as hell if there was any kind of memory retention or even feeble cognition occurring. Instead of an idiot bliss that simply experiences and never attaches meaning, value / judgment, or understanding to any of the manifested events (or whatever states).

[Magical Realist]

It's a bit of a hard pill to swallow, that the soul could so deeply miss incarnate life. But I try to stay open to all possibilities about the afterlife, from the most incandescent euphorias to even the dim grey recesses of some dismal limbo. That phantom longing, for even the pains and discomforts of bodily life, in contrast to the numbness of nothingness. A metaphor for life in its most disassociated and depressive states. This poem linked up, synchronistically as usual, to a past quote that my newsfeed also brought up this morning:

“It’s not that we have to quit
this life one day, but it’s how
many things we have to quit
all at once: music, laughter,
the physics of falling leaves,
automobiles, holding hands,
the scent of rain, the concept
of subway trains... if only one
could leave this life slowly!”
― Roman Payne, Rooftop Soliloquy

[Magical Realist]

"Sky Within Us"
Rainier Maria Rilke

"Oh, not to be separated,
shut off from the starry dimensions
by so thin a wall.

What is within us
if not intensified sky
traversed with birds

and deep
with winds of homecoming?"

[Magical Realist]

"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."

Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

[Magical Realist]

"This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning."

JOHN O'DONOHUE
From his books, Benedictus (Europe) / To Bless the Space Between Us (US)

[Magical Realist]

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