Monday Poem

Which matters more, Philosophy or Ecology? How many thoughts can dance on the head of a radioactive pin, and for how long? –Roshi Bob Does Philosophy Matter It’s high summerwild green thrusts itselfagainst the boundsof clipped lawnsHuns of sumacamassed at a farm’s edgesurge toward logicalrows of beets andwell-reasonedranks of peppersignoring the protocolof invitation underthe wingspreadof…

Monday Poem

Band of Saints still in his gardenlighthe apologized to his sunflowers promising things wouldchangehe swore by all that’s right that he would end hiswarwith the earth that brings them forth on stalks thick asthievesupon which bright heads turn from northleavesopen as palms of supplicating hands in rows of six foot stems awalldense as the barnside…

Monday Poem

Matryoshka BoxesAh, to think outside the box.But this box is too big —more thanlight years across (limitless in fact)so thinking out there has been a problemand (with the way it’s been)seems to be pretty much impossible A thought that big(a thought outside this box)would be divine To think outside this boxrequires a perspective well beyondthe…

Monday Poem

“(Physicist) Stephen Hawking … showed that black holes were not completely black but could leak radiation …” Crumb of Light Black holes are not completely black.One physicist says they leak lightso even in deepest spacewhere nothing breatheswhere you couldn’t be more alonewhere stillness is not peace but icewhere distance between entitiesmakes the idea of neighborhood…

Monday Poem

“Shu” is the single teaching of Confucius and “jen”it’s counterpart. Shu means reciprocity; jen is love,kindness and goodness. T’ien is heaven. –Confucius and the Teaching of Goodness Shu and Jen Goodness came like two heartsand sat beside me. My name isShu, said she In the window two birds flewThe window was open when,pointing, Shu said,…

Monday Poem

A particle accelerator in the US has shown compelling hints of a never-before-seen particle, researchers say. …………………………………………. –BBC 4/7/2011 More Splintered Than Common SenseHaving heard hints of a never-before-seen particlemy day becomes new;the blue day is fractured further What were small thoughts becomemore pint-sized then the nonsenseof politicians: smaller eventhan the bits of stained tile…

Monday Poem

Now I Know What He Meant—I’ll have that done in no time, my father would say.…………………I’m in the midst of a moon(as the Lenape called them)dead center. It’s Thursdaydead center, too, of the weekI’m at the pinpoint of noon poisedprecisely at the day’s fulcrumjust thirty seconds into the minuteat point five Oh! of that second…

Monday Poem

I have trouble with old picstheir sweet bitternesstheir cutting edgetheir tricks —a daughter’s mittenshung from cuffslaid out in kodachromea taunt of time. Enough. I’d rather mine old nuggetsupturn what’s scatteredin my skull —the gold stick with what my head will hold I do not take nostalgic risksThe photobox stays beneath the bedwith jewel cases of…

Monday Poem

Why Do We Have Heads At All?—on Daniel Lieberman’s The Evolution of the Human Head“The head presents an evolutionary paradox,”says Lieberman, “The roof of the orbitsis the floor of the brain.” And I imagine a roomin which a miracle sponge sits soaking upwhat it means to be alive while other skullsorbit this particular one which,a…