Sunday, December 18, 2011

haiku my heart with faith, wisdom, and new birth


Gabriel brings faith,


The Magi ancient wisdom--


Miracle of birth.

The birth of my first grandchild to my son and his wife this week revealed how truly miraculous new life is and how how the grace of angels and spiritual savants are there to guide us in their many forms. Be still and listen...

Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Mary--the trusting heart



The star led Mary


~Artwork by Marianne Stokes

To a place of hope and joy--



Evergreen renews.


Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Monday, November 28, 2011

1Q84 is here!







My first introduction to Haruki Murakami (above) was at the bookstore, passing by his novel After Dark, spying a beautiful, sleeping Japanese girl on the cover. Remembering how sensuous and lush Memoirs of a Geisha was, I was interested in perusing this seemingly exotic and mysterious novel. After Dark turned out to be an excellent choice but of a different nature. Murakami's science fiction, dystopian novels evoke ancient myths, mystical connections, and cosmic disharmony. He leads us in very different directions only to reveal unity and order in his denouements.


1Q84, Murakami's anxiously-awaited 925-page tome, has finally appeared! I avidly turned the pages to find his signature quirky characters and alternative realities: he does not disappoint. The world quietly changes: time warps; two moons cross the night sky. Here are his apathetic protagonists ready to reveal an explanatory subcontext of some prior life-deflating experience. Deadpan Fuki-Era has just emerged from a commune in which she fed a blind goat who hatched evil Little People from its mouth. Manslayer Aomame is aloof even when killing or maiming men; is she avenging her abused friend? Detached Tengo becomes emotionally connected to these two women as he is caught in their webs.

This device of bored people in humdrum existences evokes the existential writers, Camus, Sartre, Beckett. Were their characters lacking in feeling or meaning? Were they able to connect on some level? There are studies of autistic people who seemingly don't respond to others' emotions (empathize), but upon psychological analysis very deep and real reactions to others became apparent. Their feelings were expressed differently, and their resonsiveness to the feelings of others was hidden. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon is a great window into this particular world. An autistic child creatively solves the crime through reason and empathy with the other characters.

1Q84 is a dystopian novel reminiscent of Orwell's 1984. The citizens are not allowed to think for themselves, and Big Brother is always watching to make sure they don't. As Murakami says in 1Q84: "They are making mindless robots. They take the circuits out of people's brains that make it possible for them to think for themselves. Their world is like the one that George Orwell depicted in his novel."

Often expressing ideas through dichotomies, perhaps Murakami is addressing the state of our culture vis-a-vis the year 1Q84.






As I mentioned earlier, the first dystopian novel I read by the avant-garde Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami was After Dark. It begins with the mythological tale of sibling rivalry between two sisters; jealousy is not evoked, but the hurtful point of view of the parents creates a diasma between the two. The plain-but-smart sister is drawn into a love hotel named "Alphaville" to help translate Chinese into Japanese.

In naming the hotel "Alphaville," Murakami gives us our first glimpse into Murakami's world of irony and subtle wit. Alphaville was Voltaire's invention for an alien planet in Micromegas and the subsequent Godard film which created a social dystopia (opposite of utopia): a tyrannical, absolute rule something like life in Berlin before the Wall came down.

The contrasts in this novel between good and evil, beautiful and plain, night and day, etc., show us life in its duality; we begin to reason in polarities, and a discerning way of thinking emerges.

After Dark is a mystery that culminates in the transformation of character and the expansion of our own wisdom.





I next read Kafka on the Shore: some of Murakami's broader strokes were becoming familiar to me. The protagonist and antagonist first contrast and then mesh in a mystery which keeps one turning the pages. This novel involves the other-worldly spirit of a Japanese curator who collected tanka poetry (nod to his home). Murasaki--who spent some of his early adult years delving into a huge range of literature and music--draws on them richly to create connections and understanding. There is a man who can communicate with cats in their own language. Kafka can literally walk into a village from a prior time. The science fiction really works more as imagery or symbolism: this is a world we can somehow accept.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

To all my friends in the blogosphere community

Virginia Woolf once said that “in order to write, a woman should have 5,000 euros per year and a room with a lock on the door.” Does this still ring true today? I wonder! For varied reasons, the actual and metaphorical space for writing my blog has eluded me for some time. I sincerely apologize for the lapse in postings. While my intention is to post weekly, sometimes life has plans of its own. Yet, my pen calls me back, reminding me to share my voice and perspective with kindred spirits.


~from Writers’ Houses by Francesca Premoli-Droulers~

So, I have returned from a time-out, eager to share with you books, music, and photographs I am enjoying, as well as haiku that speak to me: those I have penned myself and those others have written, particularly in our haiku circle, “recuerdo mi corazon” or haiku my heart.”


~haiku my heart-

In this spirit, I have decided to mate my two existing blogs—http://margaretpanpipes.blogspot.com and http://whattheowltoldme.blogspot.com--to see what can be born if I bring together a mix of soul nourishing and sometimes provocative media: a mix that touches, mirrors, and at times transforms me. Perhaps you will find something here that speaks to you, or maybe you have something to share with us. One follower has called my blog her “literary getaway.”

If you have been a follower of one or both of my blogs, I thank you. I invite you to delve with me in this newly endeavor. In the spirit of “haiku my heart,” I invite you to engage our supportive community. Together, may we grow and enjoy la vie de toutes les couleurs!

Friday, September 9, 2011

haiku my heart - source of renewal


Day of the Dead shrine~



Fallen tree bows to young cubs.



Source of renewal~


"Fallen tree bows to young cubs" is my photo of the illustration "Follow the Leader" by Philip R. Goodwin.


Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Friday, September 2, 2011

haiku my heart ~ eve of destruction


Blue sky and koi pond



Change to gold chrysanthemums--



Eve of destruction~


Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

haiku my heart - ebb and flow



Ebb tide quiets life







Only to send it flowing



Back, fish in the net.


Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

haiku my heart - five-petal blue rose




The cosmic circle,
Mary's sacred space,
Holds the pure blue rose.







Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Friday, July 29, 2011

haiku my heart - Treasure!



The shimmering path




Beckons to find a treasure--




Columbine whimsy!


photo of Californian columbine taken by Jessica Wilson


Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Friday, July 22, 2011

haiku my heart



"God was a rabbit"
Whose voice spoke in a subtext--
My earthly empath.


The first line is the title of the novel When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman.)

Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Friday, July 8, 2011

haiku my heart - dance as theater


(Please turn off Carla Bruni before playing this--thanks and sorry.)

Pina dances love,
Joy, freedom, struggle, desire
On the stage of life.


The documentary Pina by Wim Winder is a tribute to Pina Bausch, the avant-garde German choreographer whose philosophy was: "Dance, dance; otherwise we have lost."


Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Share the JOY! ~ dolphins in the wild






What joy to see dolphins in the wild! They get to travel in their pod social circle, baby in tow. They get to stay mostly underwater as opposed to surfacing all the time to perform tricks. They can glide just beneath the ocean's surface to enjoy the warmth of the sun. They speak in birdlike chirps which sound like happy squeals to us though they most likely are echolocation checks. They are cordial to all humans, especially the ones who make the effort to dive down to greet them.

Underwater photographer Bo Pardau caught the beauty of the wild dolphin's world in these photos taken in Hawaii and shown here with his permission to share the Joy!


Share the Joy Thursday is the inspiraton of Meri at Meri's Musings. To share your joy, please visit her at http://meriak.blogspot.com.

Friday, July 1, 2011

haiku my heart - freedom of the soul


Mountain laurel sings



Of the coolness amid trees--



When was life freer?


Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Share the JOY Thursday!

JOY is . . .


. . . little fairy princess cowgirls and their ponies!



~photo by Jessica Wilson


~photo by Georgia Fisher


~photo by Margaret Pangert


~photo by Georgia Fisher


~photo by Georgia Fisher


~photo by Jessica Wilson


~photo by Georgia Fisher


~photo by Margaret Pangert


~photo by Jessica Wilson

Share the Joy Thursday is the inspiraton of Meri at Meri's Musings. To share your joy, please visit her at http://meriak.blogspot.com.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Midnight in Paris


Owen Wilson in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris

"Within my young friend's heart what mysteries keep
Aglow, soul from this sweet mask breathing a flower?"
from La Dormeuse by Paul Valery



Published in Paris, a Literary Chronicle of Paris in the 1920's and 1930's, by Hugh Ford

"Well, Ernest, here you are again talking to me at the Cafe de Flore in Paris. I haven't seen you for a while. I have several versions of that sonnet I wrote after your death but I never got it right. I love you, Ernest, I still do. You were an interesting man, and the first friend I really quarrelled with..."
from "Ernest Appears Again" by Leonard Cohen



"Colin Field behind the Bar Hemingway, Hotel Ritz, la Place Vendome," photo by Thomas Harris

"I had nothing more to give you of myself last night than any man,
Sated and avuncular and filled with his own good rhapsodies. But
One thing you can be certain of, nonetheless: the bird I saw there,
Up in a tree from the village yard, was a happy bird, and the pail
I kicked, later on in the dark, bounced all the way up to heaven
And back, and it gave itself to the night, and was full, and slept."
from Little Gidding by T.S. Eliot

They are all there: Hemingway, Picasso, Dali, T.S. Eliot, Carla Bruni(!), Fitzgerald, Man Ray... And if determined, you can go back even further to La Belle Epoque, the court of Louis XIV...

Saturday, June 11, 2011

haiku my heart - liberation



The green linnet sings
Without the hope of parole.
Freedom fighter chirps!





Green Finch and Linnet Bird sung by Jayne Wisener from Tim Burton's movie, Sweeney Todd.

Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Magpie Tales 68



A silk indigo sari drapes around her body
And head, revealing just the upper face.
She lies down in an oasis of fragrant jasmine, lotus, marigold.
Lightning bolts of Shiva beam on her third eye
In the center of her brow surrounded by a triangle,
The sanskrit Om also lying within the triangle.
A nectar of sesame with essences of sunflower,
Ginseng, skullcap streams onto the lucid third eye.
The otherworldly timbre of the Shiva flute
Conquers the music of fools.



Magpie Tales is the vision of Tess Kincaid. If you would like to participate, just post your poem or vignette--based on Tess Kincaid's photo prompt--on your blog and link back to http://www.magpietales.blogspot.com.

Friday, June 3, 2011

haiku my heart - the golden spiral


~my spiral mandala of growth and discovery



~photo of spiral rose by Jessica Wilson, Northern California



~portion of Eiffel Tower's spiral staircase at auction, Christie's, New York



~photo of spiral architecture by Byron Kay, Athens, Greece



~photo of spiral snail shells by Byron Kay, Santorini, Greece



~spiral mandala of my projected spiritual journey


Spiral and return
To nature's epicenter--
Never-ending life.



Haiku my heart is the vision of Rebecca Brooks at "recuerda mi corazon." If you would like to participate, just post your haiku on Fridays with an accompanying photo on your blog and link back to recuerda mi corazon.