Category: Poetry

  • Love the Earth and Sun

    Walt Whitman Jr.“This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body…”

    Walt Whitman

    I received this quote from an American friend living in Denmark who is a fanatic of Walt Whitman Jr. – Me too.. a fanatic of the message of life.

  • Allen Ginsberg – Hum Bom!

    One of my favourite ways to pass time is book surfing the titles and contents of books wherever I find them. By coincidence I stumbled across a collection of Allan Ginsberg’s poems selected by himself. He instantly made me wonder and laugh – and I was sold to him on the spot!

    Reference:
    Selected Poems: 1947-1995
    Allen Ginsberg, Penguin Classics
    ISBN 0141184760

    Allen Ginsberg wikipedia.org

  • The Song of All the Chakras

    FEET IN THE SAND

    What is sand?
    Mountains and time
    The ongoing meeting of
    Matter and weather

    Now, for the lapse of a moment
    I am the king of the mountain
    Standing ever so relatively still
    On what’s left of forgotten giants

    Enjoying the caressing warmth of the sun
    Before we are washed to the sea

    LAVA

    A big bang and a seed was planted
    An explosion followed by implosion
    The first chapter of my story of creation
    Took place in a volcano’s seat
    So my source is liquid
    Melted, melting stone in motion
    Dependent on the burning fire
    Not to turn into concrete
    I try to keep the air channels open
    I fight to keep the wood supply sufficient
    I dance to enjoy the abundance
    Of lust and trembling heat

    YAWN AT DAWN

    The sun breaks the horizon
    In an overwhelming moment of light
    The tiger stretches its’ body out
    To wipe off the dull of the night
    Prepared for whatever the day will bring
    Of pleasures, of patience and fight

    So soft a being
    And still so tense
    Aware and awake in every sense
    No stress, no hurry, no worry, no strive
    But ready to do
    What it takes to survive

    BIRD

    I carry a precious bird in a cage
    And the bird is carrying me
    Both safe and protected by the ribs
    And capable of being free
    The more at home it feels within
    The further it’s able to fly away
    ´Cause happiness makes my little bird sing
    Tunes that caress what they meet on their way
    And for every soul that is able to listen
    The air is humming with songs from the hearts
    No need to feel lonely in the midst of creation
    Inside your chest
    Is where freedom starts

    FROM THE THROAT

    Hey, hey
    Here I am
    Here I stand

    Drinking of the wholly grail
    Singing without fear to fail
    From my centre reaching out
    Free to cry, to scream and shout
    Express anger and sorrow without being violent
    Or choose to remain receptive and silent

    Let my lips run over with joysparkling laughter
    By oration and song praise the world as it is
    My hands give wings and support, and everything’s merging
    As my love for life is shared in a kiss

    DIAMOND-TINGLE

    The water’s surface
    Clear as a mirror
    Quiet and still. Then a drop breaks the spell
    Rings in the water. A moment of movement
    A tone as crisp as a silverbell
    Mist dissolves, curtains are lifted
    Clouds drift away and the moon appears
    The air is so clean that I find myself listening
    To transparent harp sounds and angels’ tears
    The way pointed out by a star so bright
    A crystal ball beam-glowing in the night
    Images come, and images go
    Points of views in eternity flow

    ZENIT

    The energy source that once said ‘be light’
    Can never be grasped or defined
    All I can do is try to be open
    For the golden bliss of the divine

    The universe, so vast and endless
    Is loaded with power and light
    Stars and planets, and the space between them
    Float shimmering on through the night

    Through a soft spot in a solid skull grace gave me
    Access to this abundance of love
    When connection is made and the tunnel is open
    It floats steadily in from above

    Note:
    This was a present from a friend – what a nice present! 🙂

  • Soleil et Chair

    Le Soleil, le foyer de tendresse et de vie,
    Verse l’amour brûlant à la terre ravie,
    Et, quand on est couché sur la vallée, on sent
    Que la terre est nubile et déborde de sang ;
    Que son immense sein, soulevé par une âme,
    Est d’amour comme Dieu, de chair comme la femme,
    Et qu’il renferme, gros de sève et de rayons,
    Le grand fourmillement de tous les embryons !

    Et tout croît, et tout monte !

    From Arthur Rimbaud “Soleil et Chair”

  • Peace is in every breath I take

    Sunshine, Happiness

    Flicker and Flutter
    the Breeze takes Me
    Hither and Dither

    I rest in the Arms of the Eternal

  • The Teaching Just for You

    “To approach perfect practice, there is no way other than to accept yourself.”

    Shunryu Suzuki

  • A Celebration to Life

    I CELEBRATE myself;
     
    And what I assume you shall assume;
    For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you.
       
    I loafe and invite my Soul;
    I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass.
      
    Houses and rooms are full of perfumes—the shelves are crowded with perfumes;
    I breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it;
    The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
      
    The atmosphere is not a perfume—it has no taste of the distillation—it is odorless;
    It is for my mouth forever—I am in love with it;
    I will go to the bank by the wood, and become undisguised and naked;
    I am mad for it to be in contact with me.

    Walt Whitman wikipedia.org Leaves of Grass Bartleby.com

  • Learning is Not the Path

    Nansen said: “Mind is not Buddha. Learning is not the path.”

    Mumon’s comment: Nansen was getting old and forgot to be ashamed. He spoke out with bad breath and exposed the scandal of his own home. However, there are a few who appreciate his kindness.

    When the sky is clear the sun appears,
    When the earth is parched rain will fall.
    He opened his heart fully and spoke out,
    But it was useless to talk to pigs and fish.

  • Knowing the self is enlightenment

    知人者智,
    自知者明。
    勝人者有力,
    自勝者強。
    知足者富。
    強行者有志。
    不失其所者久。
    死而不亡者,
    壽。

    Knowing others is wisdom;
    Knowing the self is enlightenment.
    Mastering others requires force;
    Mastering the self needs strength.
    He who knows he has enough is rich.
    Perseverance is a sign of willpower.
    He who stays where he is endures.
    To die but not to perish is to be eternally present.

    Reference: Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching XXXIII ( Trans. Feng & English )

  • Swimming about

    One day Chuang Tzu and a friend were walking by a river. “Look at the fish swimming about,” said Chuang Tzu, “They are really enjoying themselves.”

    “You are not a fish,” replied the friend, “So you can’t truly know that they are enjoying themselves.”

    “You are not me,” said Chuang Tzu. “So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?”

  • The most submissive thing

    The most submissive thing in the world can ride roughshod over the hardest in the world – that which is without substance entering that which has no crevices.
    That is why I know the benefit of resorting to no action. The teaching that uses no words, the benefit of resorting to no action, these are beyond the understanding of all but a very few in the world.

    Lao Tse, Book 2, XLIII
    (Translation D.C. Lau Penguin1963)

  • Eternal Friends

    This spring I felt so lucky and blessed. A little sparrow came and sat in my hand and I fed it bread crumbs from my thumb. The tiny bird chewed away, looking at me as we where eternal friends, and it flew away. Minutes went by returning with his wife the 2 teeny sparrows chewed through my hand to my heart. Eventually the small beats flew away. Leaving my heart full of joy. Will I ever meet my friends again?

    a tiny bird in a tree

    a tiny bird in a hand

    a tiny bird in a hand

  • The courage of reading – Michael Faber

    I enjoy to have books recommended to me by people I do not necessarily know or even fundamentally agree whit. Sometimes what’s recommended is rubbish and sometimes I am pretty amassed to find out what I have been missing in the world of books.

    When I was surfing the english book shelves in the main public library in Copenhagen, prompted in my mind by my own overwhelming ignorance of english written literature, reaching the letter F, I stumbled into a book of an to me unknown writer. To my luck the book was a laminated paperback, so I was able to read the recommendations and quotes from Canongate Books advertising effort on the back side. The publisher had among others picked a quote from the english newspaper Guardian which read: “This is man who could give Conrad a run at writing the perfect sentence… Room will now have to be made for Faber alongside Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Irwine Welsh and A.L. Kenndy.” So this book went to the digital self-checkout-point in the library and followed me home.

    I just finished Michel Faber’s “The Courage Consort” and I liked it. A wonderful tour of fucked up postmodern living in the 21. century, written whit great psychological insight in a wonderful shaped natural language with a refined sense of poetry, irony and humor.

    Some people think reading books are a waste of time compared to real life! And they are not entirely wrong, but in the same time they are missing out on the subtle qualities of language, the human mind and simply the unknown. Sometimes you should allow yourself to be dazzled by the lengthy words of another spirit. When the conversation takes place inside your own head you somehow listen more carefully..

    By the way have you read a book recently that you want to recommend?

  • Finding the way

    Going left.. No! Driving right.. No! Thinking of flying straight!

  • Colored Folks?

    When I born, I black,
    When I grow up, I black,
    When I go in sun, I black,
    When I cold, I black,
    When I scared, I black,
    When I sick, I black,
    And when I die, I still black.

    You white folks….
    When you born, you pink,
    When you grow up, you white,
    When you go in sun, you red,
    When you cold, you blue,
    When you scared, you yellow,
    When you sick, you green,
    When you bruised, you purple,
    And when you die, you gray!
    So who you calling colored?

    (unknown author)