Deering oaks
Author: Bill Schulz
Facts need testimony to be remembered…
“The historian knows how vulnerable is the whole texture of facts in which we spend our daily lives; it is always in danger of being perforated by single lies or torn to shreds by the organized lying of groups, nations, or classes, or denied and distorted, often carefully covered up by reams of falsehoods or simply allowed to fall into oblivion. Facts need testimony to be remembered and trustworthy witnesses to be established in order to find a secure dwelling place in the domain of human affairs.” – Hannah Arendt – Lying in Politics: Reflections on the Pentagon Papers
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1971/11/18/lying-in-politics-reflections-on-the-pentagon-pape/
Photo by Aaron Kittredge on Pexels.com
day #615
Dreamers
a branch that traces back to the roots of presence
Photo by Snapwire on Pexels.com
The Lame Goat – Rumi
You’ve seen a herd of goats
going down to the water.
The lame and dreamy goat
brings up the rear.
There are worried faces about that one,
but now they’re laughing,
because look, as they return,
that goat is leading!
There are many different kinds of knowing.
The lame goat’s kind is a branch
that traces back to the roots of presence.
Learn from the lame goat,
and lead the herd home.
On the Feast of St. James the Greater
Photo by payam masouri on Pexels.com
On the Feast of St. James the Greater
(for Joe C.)
This is where
he would have fished
imagine
him in the dark
gathering gear
stripers transfiguring
the moon’s
light he loses
all balance and
bearings thunder
muffling the dry
night sky
what we heard
is in the mist
blowing over
Ram Island
disappearing
like walks
we’ll never take
© 2018 Bill Schulz
Living With the News – W. S. Merwin
Can I get used to it day after day
a little at a time while the tide keeps
coming in faster the waves get bigger
building on each other breaking records
this is not the world that I remember
then comes the day when I open the box
that I remember packing with such care
and there is the face that I had known well
in little pieces staring up at me
it is not mentioned on the front pages
but somewhere far back near the real estate
among the things that happen every day
to someone who now happens to be me
and what can I do and who can tell me
then there is what the doctor comes to say
endless patience will never be enough
the only hope is to be the daylight
beyond words…beyond names
Prayer is what you bring – for prayer is your gift to us rather than what you ask of us. If only I could pray – and yet I can and do pray. Teach me to go to the country beyond words and beyond names. Teach me to pray on this side of the frontier, here where the woods are. – Thomas Merton, Journal July 17, 1956
from “The Heads of The Town” – Jack Spicer
St. Elmo’s Fire. Or why this will be a textbook concerning poetry for 20,999 years. Almost a lifetime.
I chicken out at the edges of it and what doesn’t come through to me at the edges of it isn’t as if angels met singing or any of that business.
We are all alone and we do not need poetry to tell us how alone we are. Time’s winged chariot is as near as the next landmark or busstation. We need a lamp (a lump, spoken or unspoken) that is even above love.
St. Elmo’s Fire was what was above the ships as they sailed the unspoken seas. It was a fire that was neither a glow or a direction. But the business of it was fire.
Thank you, thank you
The soul at dawn is like darkened water that slowly begins to say Thank you, thank you. – Rumi
