Fukanzazengi

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Today I walked on the lion-coloured hills
with only cypresses for company,
until the sunset caught me, turned the brush
to copper
set the clouds
to one great roof of flame
above the earth,
so that I walk through fire, beneath fire,
and all in beauty.
Being alone
I could not be alone, but felt
(closer than flesh) the presence of those
who once had burned in such transfigurations.
My happiness ran through the centuries
in one continual brightness. Looking down,
I saw the earth beneath me like a rose
petaled with mountains,
fragrant with deep peace."
- Elizabeth Coatsworth, On the Hills

Flower of the Week:

Astilbe, or False Goat's Beard. Each of these is about 2 feet tall, and they're fabulous.

Buddhist Lesson of the Week:

Bed of salmon zinnias

Fukazazengi

We read the Fukazazengi towards the end of service every Thursday, and it always feels a little bit like a chore. It is really rather quite long, and it takes a long time to chant it. Nonetheless, there are still some rather intriguing elements to it. It is written by Dogen himself (the founder of Soto Zen in Japan). It gives his instructions for sitting zazen, as well as why he thinks zazen is important. So sometimes it seems silly to chant how you sit zazen after sitting zazen for a couple of hours, but sometimes people need to hear it again, I suppose. I'll underline the parts that I like. Thus:

The way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The dharma-vehicle is free and untrammeled. What need is there for concentrated effort? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one, right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice?

Bells of Ireland

And yet, if there is the slightest discrepancy, the way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose one gains pride of understanding and inflates one's own enlightenment, glimpsing the wisdom that runs through all things, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, raising an aspiration to escalade the very sky. One is making the initial, partial excursions about the frontiers but is still somewhat deficient in the vital way of total emancipation. 

Need I mention the Buddha, who was possessed of inborn knowledge? The influence of his six years of upright sitting is noticeable still. Or Bodhidharma's transmission of the mind-seal? The fame of his nine years of wall-sitting is celebrated to this day. Since this was the case with the saints of old, how can we today dispense with negotiation of the way? 

You should therefore cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest. If you want to attain suchness, you should practice suchness without delay. 

Black-Eyed Susans

For sanzen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thought and views. Have no designs on becoming a buddha. Sanzen has nothing whatever to do with sitting or lying down. 

At the site of your regular sitting, spread out thick matting and place a cushion above it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, you first place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, you simply press your left foot against your right thigh. You should have your robes and belt loosely bound and arranged in order. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left palm (facing upward) on your right palm, thumb-tips touching. Thus sit upright in correct bodily posture, neither inclining to the left nor to the right, neither leaning forward nor backward. Be sure your ears are on a plane with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. Place your tongue against the front roof of your mouth, with teeth and lips both shut. Your eyes should always remain open, and you should breathe gently through your nose. Once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale, rock your body right and left and settle into a steady, immovable sitting position. Think of not-thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Nonthinking. This in itself is the essential art of zazen. 

Dahlias!

The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the dharma-gate of repose and bliss, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. Traps and snares can never reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that just there (in zazen) the right dharma is manifesting itself and that from the first dullness and distraction are struck aside. 

When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both unenlightenment and enlightenment, and dying while either sitting or standing, have all depended entirely on the strength of zazen. 

In addition, the bringing about of enlightenment by the opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and the effecting of realization with the aid of a hossu, a fist, a staff, or a shout cannot be fully understood by discriminative thinking. Indeed, it cannot be fully known by the practicing or realizing of supernatural powers either. It must be deportment beyond hearing and seeing - is it not a principle that is prior to knowledge and perceptions? 

Lysmachia

This being the case, intelligence or lack of it does not matter, between the dull and the sharp-witted there is no distinction. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the way. Practice-realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward in practice is a matter of everydayness. In general, this world and other worlds as well, both in India and China equally hold the buddha-seal; and over all prevails the character of this school, which is simply devotion to sitting, total engagement in immovable sitting. Although it is said that there are as many minds as there are persons, still they all negotiate the way solely in zazen. Why leave behind the seat that exists in your home and go aimlessly off to the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep you go astray from the way directly before you. 

You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not use your time in vain. You are maintaining the essential working of the buddha way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from the flintstone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass, destiny like the dart of lightning - emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. 

Please, honored followers of Zen. Long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. Devote your energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute. Revere the person of complete attainment who is beyond all human agency. Gain accord with the enlightenment of the buddhas; succeed to the legitimate lineage of the ancestors' samadhi. Constantly perform in such a manner and you are assured of being a person such as they. Your treasurestore will open of itself, and you will use it at will.

Life at the Center:

The fawn who lives by the yurts

This last week has been a very full one indeed. To start, I was doing "Firewatch" for the week. Firewatch is a job that everybody in the community is asked to do for one week, and it rotates throughout the community. The job itself is essentially putting Green Gulch to bed. You walk around with "clackers" (two blocks of wood you knock together) and make sure that all of the doors that should be closed are closed, all of the lights that should be off are off, and all of the lights that should be on are on. It really is sort of a fun thing to do, but you start at 9 p.m. and are done by around 9:30 p.m. (which is rather late when you regularly are asleep by at least 9 p.m.) If you're doing Firewatch you don't need to go to the first period of zazen in the morning, which means that hypothetically you can sleep in 50 minutes later than you would normally. However, as I share a living space with 2 other people, both of whom get up for the first period, it's hard to restfully sleep an extra hour. Dominic, a farmer and co-yurt dweller (not in my yurt, but you know, the boys' yurt,) suggested that I spend those extra 50 minutes in the morning taking-in an early morning sauna and shower, and spending some extra time stretching. I took him up on his suggestion and found it to be quite the lovely way to start the day--it made the zazen I did sit in the morning quite nice (i.e. I wasn't struggling to stay awake the whole time).

It was also a tiring week just because I worked a whole lot (in comparison to normal). Juniper was on vacation for the first part of the week, and Rebecca and Marie weren't feeling well, so that left just Claudia and myself in the garden a lot. And, as Claudia is the manager and has important managerial things to attend to off-site a lot, that actually meant it was just me in the garden a lot. Which I rather liked most of the time because I could talk out-loud to the flowers and quails and bunnies without anybody feeling uncomfortable by it (well, the quails and bunnies might have, I suppose I don't really know.)

Lovely blooming oregano

On Thursday I led a tour in the garden for a group of kids from Squash Drive, an after-school program in which kids play squash. Dominic used to work for them, and he organized the group coming out. I have given tours to a fair amount of groups by now, though, so it was just same-old same-old. My favorite part of the tour is teaching the kids about bees, because most of the kids tend to have a fear of bees, and I like to see if I can convert a few of them onto the pro-bee team by the end. I've told a lot of people around here this already, but for me the tours are worth it if I can get just one kid excited about bees. In the Squash Drive group I had a girl tell me, after I said to her that "I love bees," that she "loves bees now, too," which made my day and probably my whole week.

Bees are really cool, in case you all don't know. We have an apiary here where you can open a latch and look into a little window where you can see into the hive, which is really what sells the kids, I think.

Also, I mean, bumblebees. They have the word "bumble" in they're name, for crying out loud. They're so pleasant and fuzzy. They're like the friendly big dogs of the bee world…and I love big dogs.

I think I should also talk about all of the classes I'm taking right now, because I haven't really done so yet.

Pears growing in the garden

On Sunday mornings all of the apprentices are expected to take a class on the Heart Sutra, taught by Catherine (who taught my writing class a few months ago.) It's actually pretty interesting so far. Up to this point we've mostly just been reviewing the skandhas, which are a central component to the Heart Sutra (we had a class on the skandhas before this class on the Heart Sutra...you can read my post about the Heart Sutra here, if you're interested.)

On Monday nights I am taking a class taught by Doris (who taught my class on the Four Noble Truths a few months ago) about our Male and Female ancestors within the Zen lineage. It's actually been hard for us to study very much of anything about the female ancestors, just because there was never very much written about them (patriarchy!) So far one of the most interesting things I've learned in that class is that Dogen, who founded Soto Zen and Eiheiji Temple in Japan, considered women to be equal to men in their capacity as students and teachers, and he had several women who he held in high esteem around him as his students. However, Eiheiji today does not allow women to practice there.

On Tuesday night I am taking a class taught by Sonja, the Guest Student Manager, about the life of the Buddha. The class is called "Buddha is as Buddha does," and Sonja is really structuring the class in a way that we explore what it actually means to live as a Buddha today, or really how we can take the lessons the Buddha learned throughout his life and enlightenment and apply them to our own lives and our own practice. It has been very interesting, I think, and it is an exploratory outlet for me in much the same way that the writing class was. Sonja is having us memorize the Five Rememberances, which are as follows:
I am of the nature to grow old.
There is no way to escape growing old.
I am of the nature to have ill-health.
There is no way to escape having ill-health.
I am of the nature to die.
There is no way to escape death.
All that is dear to me and everyone I love
are of the nature to change.
There is no way to escape being separated from them.
My actions are my only true belongings.
I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.
My actions are the ground on which I stand.

The "unicorn" buck who lives by the yurts
(he only has one antler)

We have a hard time remembering them, so it was suggested that we chant them every class, which we just started doing. Sonja is often asking us to try to pay attention to and meditate on some aspect of our practice each week. As my large meditation and practice focus during my time here thus far has been "acceptance", I have been focusing on that, on what it means to really, fully, and tangibly live in acceptance. To me, it's a step beyond patience, which seems to indicate that there are still feelings of malcontent, but they're just being repressed. Living with acceptance to me means that I look at things as they are and love them as they are, even if it is against my conditioning or higher logic to do so sometimes. It also does not mean complacency--it does not mean an idle or passive approach to living in the world. It does not involve repression in and of itself through forcing myself to "go with the flow" or whatnot. To me, it means accepting that I'm angry, or embarrassed, or frustrated, or depressed, or anxious, and then exploring that feeling, and loving it (which is not easy a lot of the time, but it is a further effort on my part to not meet negativity with negativity.)

Pink dahlia!

On Wednesday night our abbess Fu treated us to a rather thought-provoking and needed Dharma Talk on violence, which has obviously been on my mind lately, as well as on the minds of most people in this country lately...and for many people who experience life in a much different way than I do, it is something that is present throughout their lives, every day. She started out the talk by discussing why she doesn't present incense to one of the figures on her way to the zendo when she is officiating the service; the figure is a Chinese war general whose name I don't remember, and he carries a bludgeon. His job is to watch over the temple. She talked about how, at one point, she became very uncomfortable with all of the weapon imagery used in zen, such as the sword of wisdom that slices through delusion. This figure is another example of how violence is subtly integrated into our practice, even though one of the main emphases in our practice is non-violence. However, she also talked about how it would be delusional for us to not realize that violence, in reality, does give us some measure of safety and protection, in the form of the police (for us), our military, our nuclear bombs. She talked about how if we were to abstractly honor what protects our temple every day for service, we might as well offer incense to an image of a nuclear bomb instead of a Chinese war general from who-knows-when, as that is what is actually giving us some degree of protection here.

She also discussed the book Zen at War, which is a collection of various sources originating from Zen temples that were not only condoning violence and warfare, but actually encouraging it. She quoted one piece of propaganda in particular, in which an abbott from a zen monastery in Japan during World War II was encouraging kamikaze pilots by assuring them that giving up their life freely for a greater cause was a form of enlightenment. Fu made a poignant point that such promises have been made by many religious institutions throughout time in order to encourage their practitioners to give up their lives in war; a similar promise was made to the young men who flew planes into the Twin Towers on 9/11...that through killing, through this act of violence, they would achieve freedom, paradise, heaven, nirvana.

I thought this was funny

I thought it was great that she was not only acknowledging the violent state of the world right now, but that she was also completely owning-up-to and acknowledging that Zen, and Buddhism on the whole, are not traditions that are somehow above the systematic use of violence, now and throughout their histories, just as with every other religious tradition. She did not talk about Black Lives Matter explicitly, but she covered a fair amount of other interesting topics, and honestly she's the first person who's addressed any of this on any sort of explicit level in quite some time, so I'm just really glad that she did what she did.

After the talk she opened up some time for questions, during which several of the elders from the community, people who have lived and practiced here for quite some time, voiced concerns for her not treating the violent imagery as just that--imagery...which I honestly became sort of frustrated with because I felt that they weren't fully acknowledging the complexity of her point, and the entirety of what she was alluding to when she addressed her aversion to violent imagery, and were instead getting hung up on a minor detail. It is really quite hard to make any sort of change within the hierarchy of our temple and SFZC on the whole; almost every attempt at change has to pass through several layers of committees, and many people on those committees are rather insistent on adhering to tradition, which I also find somewhat puzzling considering the inherent teachings within our school on the impermanence of everything and the importance of non-attachment, but there you go.

Orange crocosmia

On Thursday night a group of us went to the First Congregational Church in Oakland to attend an event that was being hosted there called "Get in where you fit in," and it was for white people to figure out our place in the Black Lives Matter movement. I'd estimate that around 100 people were in attendance, which was great. It was weird and awkward of course, but it was mediated very well, and so it was made clear from the get go that it was going to be awkward, and that we had to be patient and compassionate with everybody there and with ourselves. I guess this event was a response to a request made by people within the Black Lives Matter movement for white people to get together and try to constructively figure out a way that we could use our white privilege to help. Something that was made clear throughout the night was that people who experience white privilege are not going to be leaders in this movement, and that it's important for that to be the case. The only thing that we who experience white privilege in this country can do is to serve as support for our friends and loves who identify as people of color in their movement, which I really appreciated.

Here were the predominant suggestions for how we could offer support, in case you're interested:

1. Start conversations: Within predominantly white communities in which we find ourselves, start talking to people about racism and white privilege/supremacy, just to bring awareness to it if nothing else

A reminder Qayyum made and hung above the door
at the Farm/Garden office

2. Offer meeting space: Do you have a space you could offer where POC (People of Color)-led organizations can meet?

3. Pass the mic: If someone gives you the option to speak or present, make sure to include a POC, or to give them the "mic" instead

4. Sow seeds on social media: Educate yourself and others on Black Lives Matter issues, as well as exploring different cultures, races, histories, and places, to eliminate some of your own ignorance.

5. Give your money: Donate to POC-led causes and organizations, including publicizing GoFundMe or KickStarter campaigns

6. Educate your children: Make sure your children know about racism.

7. Volunteer your skills: volunteer for POC-led organizations and causes

8. Put your body and your time on the line: Engage in social activist events led by POC.

9. Signal boost the voices and lived experience of POC:  Make sure that libraries and media that you consume are rich with media created by POC about their experience.

Wonderfully zany bed of astilbe!

We are planning on using the time usually allocated in the community for a movie night to listen to a Dharma Talk that was given by angel Kyodo Williams about the Black Lives Matter movement, which is a start. Williams is a black Zen priest who has written several books about race and the dharma, including Being Black and Radial Dharma. We were talking about also getting a mediator like the ones that led the event in Oakland to come to Green Gulch and lead a similar conversation within our community about how our sangha could be more inclusive and helpful in this cause, but that might take a long time to actually happen (because of the aforementioned levels of bureaucracy that come with any decision around here, as well as the aforementioned tendency for some members of our community to prefer traditional ways of doing things, of not liking to rock the boat too much.)

There is a sentiment that is held by many people within the Zen tradition (not only here in SFZC, but in Japan and around the world and throughout time as well) that priests, monks, and practitioners in general should not be activists, out there causing rabble and instigating unrest; instead we should just work on best improving ourselves, and through that change will come about. However, this doesn't make sense to me...it seems to me that a desire to be engaged and working for social justice and tangibly working towards the end of the suffering of beings should be the change that we seek to have within ourselves. We should be the change we wish to see in the world; the Buddha, upon his realizations, did not sit alone in his enlightenment, although that would have been easy to do--he realized that fundamentally he could not be enlightened and not seek to help others find the path as well. Such is practicing here--it is one thing to say that we are culminating kindness, compassion, forgiveness, strength, and acceptance, and quite another thing to actually be out in the world being kind, compassionate, forgiving, strong, and accepting.

The fawn :)

On an entirely different note, we had a lovely celebration for my birthday (which is on Tuesday, the 2nd) at the beach last night. It was very, very lovely, and it really meant a lot to me to feel so loved and supported by my family here. 

Pink Japanese anemone

Today we had our last class with Wendy Johnson. She's going to be teaching another class in the fall on Buddhism and Ecology, which I'm really looking forward to. I missed the 2nd and 3rd class of this 4-class series, which I feel rather bad about, but at least I was able to make it to this last one. I fall in love with Wendy all over again every time I hear her speak. She is undeniably wise and magnificent, and speaks in poetry. She is so reverent, and has a quiet grace and deep knowledge about how sad the world is and how lovely it is at the same time. She is, I'm fairly certain, the most respectful person I've ever met. She really looks at everything she sees; she speaks to everything and listens to it in return: the soil, the water, the grass, the flowers, the vegetables, the animals, the trees, and of course, the people. She is glorious.

Listening to her speak actually inspired some poetry in me, something I haven't really felt in quite some time. I found myself writing a poem while she was speaking at one point during the class, and then on my way walking to dinner tonight I felt inspired to write another. They're pretty similar, but they're expressing different things, I feel. I'll post them at the end of the post, if you're interested.

I am continually struck by how completely beautiful the people in my life are, in every way. How completely beautiful every person is, if you give them enough time to reveal it to you. How everybody has some awe-inspiring delusion and fortitude and peace and rage that fold together to create the most magnificent art I could ever experience--how loving each other is the purest way to experience all that we are in our short lives. I am so fortunate to be able to love so many people, to have so many people who let me love them.

A Sunflower right next to a Teddy Bear Sunflower

Book of the Week:

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

So a little while ago I was anonymously gifted a book in my mailbox by a lovely secret friend. Of course, I could not just sit in the nice mystery of it all, and spent a large part of my interactions for that following week asking people if they gave me a book, to which almost everybody here responded "no...or I don't think so. Did I?" To which I'd respond "You'd know if you gave me this book."
Anyways, I eventually found out it was my friend Jack (who also gave me a delightful Boston Cream Pie for my birthday.) That book was this book, which is a super fun fantasy novel. Once it was out in the open that Jack gave me the book, he asked me every day if I had started it yet, and it took me a while, but eventually I started it if only for the reason that he would no longer have to keep asking me if I had started it yet. Anyways, I love it, it's very engaging, well-written, and all-around a great escape from my consistent analysis of my life and my surroundings. I definitely suggest it if you like fantasy, or if the only fantasy you really know is Lord of the Rings...this fits nicely with LOTR (without being the same thing as it).

Songs of the Week:

So...I don't want to brag too much, but I recently got to meet Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs in person, and she was pretty chill. I didn't know who she was at first, and eventually it came out that she was a musician and her band was called tUnE-yArDs (that's how they spell it, that's not me being weird), and it took me a second, but then I totally did a mini-freak out...but I think she enjoyed it. She laughed and smiled very large when I started going "oh my goodness, this is awesome!" So, I thought it would be fitting to highlight Merrill's music for this week ('cause, you know, we're tight now.) Without further ado:

"Water Fountain"

NO WATER IN THE WATER FOUNTAIN.

NO SIDE ON THE SIDEWALK.

IF YOU SAY OLD MOLLY HARE, WHATCHA DOIN’ THERE?

NOTHING MUCH TO DO WHEN YOU’RE GOING NOWHERE

WOOHAW! WOOHAW! GOTCHA.

WE’RE GONNA GET THE WATER FROM YOUR HOUSE.

NO WATER IN THE WATER FOUNTAIN

NO WOOD IN THE WOODSTOCK.

AND YOU SAY OLD MOLLY HARE, WHATCHA DOIN’ THERE?

NOTHING MUCH TO DO WHEN YOU’RE GOING NOWHERE

WOOHAW! WOOHAW! GOTCHA.

WE’RE GONNA GET THE WATER FROM YOUR HOUSE.

NOTHING FEELS LIKE DYING LIKE THE DRYING OF MY SKIN AND LAWN.

Cascade of crocosmia, encroaching

WHY DO WE JUST SIT HERE WHILE THEY WATCH US WITHER TIL WE’RE GONE?

I CAN’T SEEM TO FEEL IT

I CAN’T SEEM TO FEEL IT

I CAN’T SEEM TO FEEL I’LL KNEEL

I’LL KNEEL I’LL KNEEL THE COLD STEEL

YOU WILL RIDE THE WHIP, YOU’LL RIDE THE CRACK

NO USE IN FIGHTING BACK

YOU’LL SLEDGE THE HAMMER IF THERE’S NO ONE ELSE TO TAKE THE FLAK

I CAN’T SEEM TO FEEL IT

I CAN’T SEEM TO FIND IT

YOUR FIST CLENCHED MY NECK WE’RE NECK AND NECK…

NO WATER IN THE WATER FOUNTAIN.

NO PHONE IN THE PHONE BOOTH.

AND YOU SAY, OLD MOLLY HARE, WHATCHA DOIN’ THERE?

JUMP BACK, JUMP BACK DADDY SHOT A BEAR

Self-seeding sunflower the popped up

WOO-HAW! WOO-HAW! GOTCHA.

WE’RE GONNA GET THE WATER FROM YOUR HOUSE.

I saved up all my pennies and I gave them to this special guy

When he had enough of them he bought himself a cherry pie

He gave me a dollar

A blood-soaked dollar

I cannot get the spot out but

IT’S OKAY IT STILL WORKS IN THE STORE

GREASY MAN COME AND DIG MY WELL

LIFE WITHOUT YOUR WATER IS A BURNING HELL

STUFF ME UP WITH YOUR HOME GROWN RICE

ANYTHING MAKE ME SHIT NICE

SE POU ZANMI MWEN, SE POU ZANMI MWEN

AND A TWO-POUND CHICKEN TASTES BETTER WITH FRIENDS

A TWO-POUND CHICKEN TASTES BETTER WITH TWO

AND I KNOW WHERE TO FIND YOU

Teddy Bear Sunflower

LISTEN TO THE WORDS THAT I SAID

LET IT SINK INTO YOUR HEAD

A VERTIGO ROUND-AND-ROUND-AND-ROUND

NOW I’M IN YOUR BED

HOW DID I GET AHEAD?

WHOOP! THREAD YOUR

FINGERS THROUGH MY HAIR

FINGERS THROUGH MY HAIR

GIVE ME A DRESS, GIVE ME A PRESS, I GIVE A THING A CARESS

WOULD-JA? WOULD-JA? WOULD-JA?

LISTEN TO THE WORDS I SAY!

SOUND LIKE A FLORAL BOUQUET

A LYRICAL ROUND-AND-ROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND

(OK)

TAKE A PICTURE IT’LL LAST ALL DAY

RUN YOUR FINGERS THROUGH MY HAIR

DO IT TIL YOU DISAPPEAR

GIMME YOUR HEAD

GIMME YOUR HEAD

OFF WITH HIS HEAD

HEY HEY HEY HEY

"Powa"

Wait, honey honey

Wait, honey honey

A fabulous arrangement Juniper made

I will never get to sleep

Rebel, rebel, no

I can never get to sleep

I'm a rebel, rebel, no

Hold me til I get to sleep

Oh baby bring me home to bed

Rebel, rebel, no

Lightning dances in my head

Devil, devil, whoa, oh, oh

Burning steady as a motor

Not a pebble, pebble

Baby, bring me home to bed

I need you to press me down

before my body flies away from me

Your power

Inside

It rocks me like a lullaby

Your power

Inside

White Japanese anemone

It rocks me like a lullaby

Your power

Inside

Oh baby, I just don't know why

Your power inside

Your power inside

Waiting for you

Hurry up

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Can you see my face at all?

My man likes me from behind

Tell the truth I never mind

'Cause you bomb me with lies,

humiliations everyday

You bomb me so many times

I never find my way

Come on and bomb me

Why won't you bomb me?

Come on and bomb

Go on and whoa,

oh, ah woah, ah

Yellow buddleia

oh, ooh, oh

Your power

Inside

It rocks me like a lullaby

Your power

In mine

It gives me thrills I can't describe

Your face in mine

Oh baby, I just don't know why

Your power

Inside

Your power

Poetry:

Inspired by the Green Gulch garden and Wendy Johnson

1.

Meandering, softly

Looking in a deep, real way

Gazing, fully

What is this flower of stars?

Covering memories of stale dust

Stardust

Covering the staggering chasm

Abyss, entirely

Gentle light

Filtering through afternoon leaves

So much more awake than

Those of the morning

So much more tired

Surrounded by blossoms

Expanding, delicately

Reminding us of color

Remembering the vivacity of potential

Growth

Growing, surely

Embracing the wild, raw heart

Experiencing visceral beauty

Reminding us of what it means

To actually be alive

Being, justly

Limbs amongst limbs

Climbing to the clouds

Connecting our field of existence

With the ethereal practice

of the Cosmos

Showering real energy

Down onto this garden

Of circular awareness

Touching, profoundly

All that is and

Ever was

**"wild, raw heart" was something that Wendy said, and I loved it. So, that part of the poem is definitely her lovely, organic, potent words, not mine.

2.

Lying here, in a void
Amongst voids
The starlight pulls
My eyes up, up
Up to the effervescent cascade
Of a delicate nighttime
Laughing, singing
Softly covering my fragile skin
In the sprinkling tingles,
The pure sensation of creeping bubbles
Running along my veins
Enveloping, encompassing
My pale slopes and ridges
Enlightening my shallow
Being with the power
and grace
Of eternity and nothingness
Swallowing my tiny heartbeat
and hugging it close
To this rough world
This cold, warm world
This world of rage and monumental,
Profound, simple, complete
Beauty
The stars whisper to me
"You are nothing but
The culmination of eternal, ethereal
Desire.
You are nothing but
A fractal splinter of
Eternity.
You are nothing but
Stardust,
Same as we."