poetry and coffee

gifted mukluks.
cold coffee.
woolgathering.
and poetry on vinyl.

**

the walls and doors.
rattle in the wind.
i'm thankful.
and warm.
inside my chamber.

**

this song is the soundtrack.

loving...

loving//

these words:

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you simply, without problems or pride.
I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this--
in which there is no I or you.
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand.
so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.
Pablo Neruda


this recipe:
creamy baked eggs & vanilla cardamom french toast


this video:
josh vogel

::: random/weekend shots + musings.

...

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?

- Robert Browning

...

Bee - fondness - perfume - cord
crumb- fool's gold - jumping voyeur
soldier ease - solstice strip.
purple quadrant - open gown.
microned matter
martyrdom quince
grapeshot micron.

- from the diary of frida kahlo

...

love this.
how i wish i could have been there in harlem that day.

...

love this, too.
i'll take one of everything, please.

...

i stand like a fool,
seeking a past that vanished ...
but night is wise and mighty
wiser than I, wiser then day.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

...



ps:
that shop in the last photo is my absolute favorite.
please. if you're ever in detroit.
find this gem.
enter.
and fall in love.

::: words that struck me & images from around here...

you can’t beat death
but
you can beat death in life...


- charles bukowski
"the laughing heart"

::: things that speak to me...

{transposed garage & garden. diana camera}




"i'm finding my peace. and forgiving myself for those things i've never done."

- willy tea taylor
"cattleman"


++++++

I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.

Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around

as though with your arms open.

And thinking: maybe something will come, some

shining coil of wind,

or a few leaves from any old tree—

they are all in this too.


- mary oliver


+++++


and this gorgeous. gorgeous. video.

::: pablo & yarrow

I've wandered the world in search of life: / bird by bird I've come to know the earth...

-- PABLO NERUDA
ART OF BIRDS



i've been savoring a new book.

a bird lover since i was a child--
sitting on my grandparents couch &
pouring over vintage birdwatching guides--
i found myself intrigued when i discovered that pablo neruda
had published a volume dedicated solely to
the earth's marvelous winged things.

out of print--
the book was not an easy find.
nor exceptionally cheap.
but what a treasure it is.

it is filled with neruda's silky words.
and poetic genius.
complimented by beautiful etchings and drawings.

if you find a copy.
buy it.
don't think twice.


been marveling, as well, at the generosity of a dear friend.
after hearing my tales of yarrow seed.
she surprised with with a pot of fully grown transplants from her garden.

the beautiful flowers have been on her property for ages.
probably 50 years or more.

it's so inspiring to look at those plants and think:

wow.
you've been on this earth longer than i have.

it's such a reality check.
such a testament to the truth that the earth is so much greater than we.

:: the feather

"Hope" is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

- emily dickinson

i returned to the grove.

to walk the path.

and think.

be still.


my heart was heavy with things.

thoughts.

and i felt weighted in a balance between two things unseen.

unspoken.


i grappled for an answer.

for a sign.


and then i happened upon a feather.


i lifted it up.

all dirty, scraggly edged piece of it.

and twirled it by its quill.


they say to find a feather means you're on the right path.


i smiled.


an answer?

perhaps. or perhaps not.

but a calming reminder i am not alone.

nonetheless.

:: the grove: part II

"Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips"

- pablo neruda

a gorgeous day.

full of life's natural joys.

there will be many.

many.

returns to this place.

:: i carry your heart with me

_____________________________________________________


my friend asked me to read
this beautiful poem by
e.e. cummings
at her wedding.

it's such a lovely honor.

one. more. poem.

i love the work of wendell berry. his words forever resonate with my own thoughts and feelings. enjoy this.

Like The Water
by Wendell Berry

Like the water
of a deep stream,
love is always too much.
We did not make it.
Though we drink till we burst,
we cannot have it all,
or want it all.
In its abundance
it survives our thirst.

In the evening we come down to the shore
to drink our fill,
and sleep,
while it flows
through the regions of the dark.
It does not hold us,
except we keep returning to its rich waters
thirsty.

We enter,
willing to die,
into the commonwealth of its joy.

: working it all out. in poem.

take a sip
take a good long sip
before the river runs to drip

before the balance
of the rib cage and the rigamortis
sets in

walk this wire
walk this thin fine wire
until you've captivated each desire
in a mason jar

until you've mastered
the art of breath and death

the living
and the dead

tip-toe tall
and proud
love your children
brand the sound

run the line

but don't look down

____________________________________________________________________

sometimes my job reminds me of the beauty of life. and of living.
and sometimes it reminds of the fragility.
that we're all accidents waiting to happen.
but that we can never live like we are.

this poem was the result of a night spent remembering the latter.

:: icarus::: a poem

i took a lesson from icarus

that:
i'd rather go in flame & dust
than to live forever with tears of rust

that:
i'd rather reach up and touch the sun
than to leave my wonderings undone

that:
i'd rather breathe in my final breath
resting on the heat of destiny's ledge
than to suffocate on the earth below
choked by the places i didn't go

it may lead to my demise
but

oh the joy!

of reaching too high

(by: a.l.fauls 'aka: alfie'::: may 12, 2009)