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Posts Tagged ‘cats’

Unforgotten

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 22, 2016| 6 Comments »

Under the ground an old black cat
Is dreaming of sun shine
Curled around his own still heart
That is a seed swelling and reaching
Into a world of roots and song.
The earth purrs and holds him snug
Knowing already everything there is to know
About his soft ways and sharp paws.
Our short time is named by our name
But we are nameless and vast in eternity
Breathless yet breathed through,
Becoming the fabric tides
Kneaded back and proved,
Bread of heaven.
There is a black cat curled and cosy
Under the ground on the first day of snow.
And he will be dancing through the white uplands
Eyes bright and nose twitching,
Sleek and shined and licked perfect
And loved by one and loved by all,
A grace of freedom moving,
A river heart, endless and unforgotten.

—

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2nd May: Flow of Time

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 2, 2013| 5 Comments »

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2nd May: Flow of Time

1
Finger of light
Twitches the curtains
Warm cat purs

2
Floating free
It takes a deep breath
Rising sun

3
Without doing,
Everything changes.
Time’s river

4
One or two moments.
Sunrise.
Fast river Time.

5
Watching.
Where is the small leaf of hope
I floated on that river?

6
Stay busy
So as not to notice
The speed of time.

7
No need to watch.
Sheep grazing
Feel the sun rise.

8
Catching breath.
No time to waste
Already gone

9
Accumulating merit
Then letting it go
Doing this, doing that

10
Morning sun
Now too bright.
Turning my gaze:
Waning moon

11
Sun and moon
Floating along
River of time

12
Where are they now?
All those plans floating.
River of time.

13
Caught sight of
One last time:
Small blossom.
Bend of the river

14
Somehow the same:
This thought
This river

15
One moment
Vanishes.
Recorded forever,
Perhaps

16
Deciding
Whether to go up the lane
Or down the lane.
Cat sitting in the sun.

17
To see all the pattern,
Break the pot.
Now the pattern,
Where is the pot?

18
Tune of an ancient chant.
Searching the words
That fit

19
Recording
Ordinary moments
In case
They never happen
Again

20
Thoughts, silence.
The sound of sheep
Munching new grass.

21
Slowly moving uphill
Into sunlight
Sheep nonchalantly drifting by

22
Choosing one,
All the others scatter:
Philosophical thoughts.

23
Should they never come again.
Collecting moments.
Mind fuel.

24
Fishing for words
The hours flow by.
But look what I have caught!

25
Small bright things:
Minnow moments.
I will return them to the stream
In just a moment

26
Haiku:
Not just words
Ripple outwards.

***

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Peace (haibun)

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 14, 2013| 16 Comments »

Here are a couple of haibun inspired by the Ligo haibun Challenge for this week
(http://yourligo.weebly.com/haibun.html)

PEACE

The rising wind scours the walls, all four. Swings down and sings in the chimney, brightening the small flames. It is late. The cats are attentive, but unwilling to stir. Content will the small silences of the house. If I wait, the tumble of the day will subside. Thoughts will scatter, settle, lilt into corners like leaves do in autumn. Perhaps one or two shall remain to keep the company.

afterglow of single malt
bees dozing in noon sun
something important, forgotten

PEACE 2

They turn so carefully, the cats. First one way, then, after some thought, the other. Winding up to relax. Taking just the right angle for air, for warmth, for watching. Not a hair out of place, their senses, too, sleek and flowing.

still rivers of wind-
inside the house
not silence, but listening

fire roars
sings and whispers
longing for wind’s freedom

slow, long voices
wind and rain-
dream language

soon the fire will falter
though the fast winds run
we turn, fall into dream

**

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Filled with Birds

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 23, 2013| 4 Comments »

FILLED WITH BIRDS

Dawn glides in silence,
Settles
Crystallising
around purring cats,
(quiet watching eyes
filling each room).

This house:
A pebble set against
A river of wind.

Two days ago
The sun splashed spring,
A bright relaxing,
Filled with birds.
Now,
Winter has returned
To gnaw our bones.

Still, light is growing
At either end of day,
Stretched, though, and pale,
But welcome.

I am become an interweaving
Of days and moments,
A halting song
Made poignant
By strange harmony,
An old song
With new words
And a new tune.

Days
Filled with birds.
Nights,
Dream-filled,
Word-filled.
A pebble set
Against
A river of time.

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Night Watch

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 13, 2012| 2 Comments »

Night Watch

We shall learn to suffer the long dark,
Learn to melt with the short darkness.
As clouds cover the stars,
As the fire settles back
And the cats, relaxed, alert
Become still
( now it is their world).

The hum of voices, insistent, distracting, withdraws,
An undertow sucked into silence
(The spaces between things).

Roaming large and small:
The solid fears and frights,
Noises with eyes,
Snarl of unknowingness.
(Keep still.)

It is the edges that melt away
The words no longer mine.
The certainties belong to naive daylight
Not to this red tongue of dark beauty
Lapping synapses with galactic spin.

Enough to be breathing in and out
Enough to be watchful as sleepers sleep
Enough to shift weight slightly as the heavens wheel
Enough to know little, if nothing at all,
To rest upon the pulse and flow of veins
The warmth of cell and muscle
The opium castles of consciousness
(emperor’s clothes on a ghost of habit).

Keep dark the hours of darkness
Keep silence in the silent wanderings
The silent wings, the silent edges,
As silence is the only way,
The one sure way,
To find what becomes the centre.

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