Friday, October 30, 2009

precognition at Halloween



As the wise old owl flies in front of the full moon, imagine that you are Cerridwen, at once the past, the present, and the future. You stir your cauldron in front of a fire and make an intention from your heart. Gaze at the fire and clear your mind. Allow guidance from your inner self to present itself.

And please have an M&M, my treat this Halloween!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Autumn Leaves, Les Feuilles mortes


"The falling leaves drift by the window.


The autumn leaves of red and gold


I see your lips, the summer kisses


The sun-burned hands I used to hold


Since you went away the days grow long


And soon I'll hear old winter's song


But I miss you most of all my darling


When autumn leaves start to fall."


"Oh! Je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes


Des jours heureux ou nous etions amis.


En ce temps-la la vie etait plus belle,


Et le soleil plus brulant qu'aujourd'hui.


Les feuilles mortes se ramassent a la pelle.


Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublie . . . "

"Les Feuilles mortes" was written by the French surrealist poet Jacques Prevert.
The English translation, "Autumn Leaves," was written by Johnny Mercer, American lyricist and singer. Here it is sung in English by Nat King Cole.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Meet Cerridwen, the wise Welsh witch who points the way for us at this time of change, Halloween, Summer's End.




"Double, double, toil and trouble," chants Cerridwen as she stirs the boiling cauldron of possibilities.




Cerridwen is testing the current of what is to be.


On Halloween night the "unearthly otherworld" is allowed to be visible. Ghosts might appear!


Cemeteries might be disturbed!





Mummies awaken from their ancient slumber.


Our own dark sides might haunt us.



Jack o'lanterns ward off evil spirits.





Happy (Samhain - Summer's End) Halloween!
















Wednesday, October 21, 2009

My roots are buried here.

bookend: Mt. Shasta




Fragrant fern and
Flowers; colors of the heart.
Garden offers life.


See the jungle maze?


Foliage thrives in a riot


Of green, breathing life.


Bird song, rustling leaves.


Turning leaves, ripening grapes, autumn: all point to change.


Content to stay in safety behind the rock walls~


But encouraged by the fiery red horse to jump for freedom~

("Cabin Fever" by Susan Rothenberg)


I follow the stepping stones to the unfettered path.


Seashells! Mild, steady, stable at sea level~

Opposite the challenges of the mountain peaks~
bookend: Mt. Lassen

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

up, up, and away!


Taking a week's vacation to California; will be in touch!


"Feels like home


Feels like home to me


Feels like I'm on my way to where I come from


Feels like home to me


Feels like I'm on my way back to where I belong"



"Feels Like Home" by Randy Newman

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Give my regards to Broadway

"Manhattan has been compelled to expand skyward because of the absence of any other direction in which to grow. This, more than any other thing, is responsible for its physical majesty." ~by E.B. White




Empire State Building
"I am an American boy, standing up to the world.
I sleep the city sleeps. We dream
the riveter's dream, held island-fast.
I wake to taxi alarms.
I am a 102-stop elevator ride to heaven. . .

. . . I am ten million bricks of unshakable faith.
I capture imagination at its peak.
I hugged King Kong, he hugged me back.
I look down on Broadway for a work of art,
the Fulton Fish Market for a slice of life,
United Nations Headquarters for a little peace. . .

. . . It's lonely up here without my twin brothers,
the World Trade Center Towers.
Wait here on my doorstep, Central Park,
while I look over Harlem.
I am an American boy, face to face with the world."
~by J. Patrick Lewis



In a Square of Times Square
"Evidence suggests a clock and its fast hand
is the most fitting tribute for continuity.
Times Square (light-lit night) . . .


. . . is the backdrop for our story, just as Eden
as an orchard is one narrative
beginning. In that one, the snake
as a tempter announces time's end. . .


. . . The Square sits in a city that is less a set
idea and more a disdain for sameness.
Times Square was always changing.
Of course truth was always one side . . .


. . . of certainty. She stops and looks up and sees
the scenic depiction of a drama-charged life
on the Times Square billboard above,
where an actress is asking a moment, . . .


. . . "What are you?" Asking and asking
to the sound of a whistle calling a cab."
~by Mary Jo Bang


" . . . while I walk on
the sunny pavement of Greenwich Village,
down Manhattan, clear winter noon, and I've been up all night, talking,
talking, reading the Kaddish aloud, listening to Ray Charles blues . . . "
~by Allen Ginsberg from Kaddish (I)



We had this calendar framed at the end of August 2001 to commemorate our son's last year at Columbia University. Two weeks later, the Towers were gone.


"The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. It used to be that the Statue of Liberty was the signpost that proclaimed New York and translated it for all the world. Today Liberty shares the role with Death."
~by E.B. White