Whatever We See

Is the abode of God anywhere but in the earth, the sea, and sky, and air, and virtue?

Why do we seek the heavenly ones beyond?

Whatever you see, and whatever you touch, that is God.

Lucan

Journey

The mouth of the river may be beautiful.
It doesn’t remember the womb of its beginning.
It doesn’t look back to where it’s been
or wonder who ahead of it polished the rough stones.

It is following the way
in its fullness,
now like satin,
now cresting,
waters meeting, kindred
to travel gathered together,
all knowing it flows
one way, shining or in shadows.
And me, the animal
I ride wants to drive forward,
its longing not always my own,
overrunning its banks and bounds,
edgeless, pilling along the way

because, as I forget,

it knows everything
is before it.

Linda Hogan

(Rounding the Human Corners)

The Wish to Be Generous

The Wish to Be Generous

All that I serve will die, all my delights,
the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field,
the silent lilies standing in the woods,
the woods, the hill, the whole earth, all
will burn in man’s evil, or dwindle
in its own age. Let the world bring on me
the sleep of darkness without stars, so I may know
my little light taken from me into the seed
of the beginning and the end, so I may bow
to mystery, and take my stand on the earth
like a tree in a field, passing without haste
or regret toward what will be, my life
a patient willing descent into the grass.

~ Wendell Berry ~

(The Collected Poems, 1957-1982)

Stream of Life

Stream of Life

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

-Rabindranath Tagore- (from the book, The Heart of God)

Navajo song

The thoughts of the earth are my thoughts
The voice of the earth is my voice
All that belongs to the earth belongs to me
All that surrounds the earth surrounds me
It is lovely indeed; it is lovely indeed.

-Navajo song

The Best Season

Ten thousand flowers in the spring, the moon in autumn,

a cool breeze in autumn, the snow in winter.

If your mind is not clouded by unnecessary things,

This is the best season of your life.

Wu-Men

To Put Away Thought

“The physical domain of the country had its counterpart in me. The trails I made led outward into the hills and swamps, but they led inward also. And from the study of things underfoot, and from reading and thinking, came a kind of exploration, myself and the land. In time the two became one in my mind. With the gathering force of an essential thing realizing itself out of early ground, I faced in myself a passionate and tenacious longing— to put away thought forever, and all the trouble it brings, all but the nearest desire, direct and searching.”

John Haines, “The Stars, The Snow, the Fire: Twenty-five Years in the Northern Wilderness.”