Category: Poetry

Aug 23 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

An Opened Mind VIII

‘It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

–Aristotle

Growth

Life doesn’t care

Life doesn’t care

if it’s flora or fauna

or something in between

It exists at a more basic level

cells reproducing

or not

growing…changing

evolving

Life doesn’t care

what genus or species it is

or how success is measured

in any other way

than the proliferation

of more life

eating…excreting

dying

A joshua tree, a mayfly

A redwood, a butterfly

A panda cub, slime mold

A humpback whale, Streptococcus pneumoniae

A human being

All passing fancy

Life doesn’t care

as long as there’s more life

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–January 5, 2006

Muse in the Morning

Aug 20 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

An Opened Mind VII

The open mind never acts: when we have done our utmost to arrive at a reasonable conclusion, we still – must close our minds for the moment with a snap, and act dogmatically on our conclusions.

–George Bernard Shaw

Solid Fire

When it burns

It is not ours

We only

borrow it

thinking that we

control it

we have killed

to possess it

’til it is

our master

The fire consumes

clear, sterile

and then waits

for life anew

It will have

the last word

The fire was here

long before

life began

We only live

on its skin

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–January 3, 2006

Muse in the Morning

Aug 19 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

An Opened Mind VI

You cannot raise the standard against oppression, or leap into the breach to relieve injustice, and still keep an open mind to every disconcerting fact, or an open ear to the cold voice of doubt.

–Learned Hand

Planet

Days Will Come

Days will come

when sanity will

regain supremacy,

when disease will

be battled without

political consideration,

when people’s deaths

will not be occasions

to seek out

personal advantage.

But not today.

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–December 1, 2005

Muse in the Morning

Aug 18 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

An Opened Mind V

“I try to keep an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out.”

–Harold T. Stone

Blue Mother

Chapter 6

The Spirit of the Valley

never dies.

It is called

the Mystic Female.

The Door

of the Mystic Female

Is the root

of Heaven and Earth.

Continuously, continuously,

It seems to remain.

Draw upon it

And it serves you with ease.

–Tao te Ching (tr. Lin Yutan)

Blue Mother

Like you

I hang my head

You in sorrow

Me in shame

Blue Mother

I weep with you

for the damage done

to the spirit

of the valley

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–November 1, 2005

Muse in the Morning

Aug 17 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

An Opened Mind IV

Of those qualities on which civilization depends, next after courage, it seems to me, comes an open mind, and, indeed, the highest courage is, as Holmes used to say, to stake your all upon a conclusion which you are aware tomorrow may prove false.

–Irving Dillard

Black and White

Balance

It is all about balance,

so my book tells me.

What to balance with what?

Therein lies the difficulty.

Does the past

offset the future

or the present?

If it balances

the present

then how can Now

also be in balance?

And isn’t that important?

Cannot the present

only be the

balance point

if the past

and future offset?

But how can

the past

offset a future

which has not

yet occurred?

Perhaps this problem

needs more

dimensions,

a change in

the frame

of reference.

–Robyn Elaine Serven
–November 7, 2005

Aug 16 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

An Opened Mind II

Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier.

–Charles F. Kettering

Art Link

Time in an Egg

The Complement of Time

When people see some things as beautiful,

other things become ugly.

When people see some things as good,

other things become bad.

–Tao te Ching (tr. Strephen Mitchell)

Time is

the collective counting

of humankind

With recognition of time

comes recognition of mortality

To live long

becomes the objective

And while we’re all

counting together

maybe we should also

tally our stuff

I guess to

break the tie

when two people

die simultaneously

So greed

is born

Why is life a game?

–Robyn Elaine Serven
–November 28, 2005

Muse in the Morning

Aug 13 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

An Opened Mind II

Sand

On Time

The years fly by

while the months

pass too slowly

Each day drones on

With not enough

minutes

Each second

measuring

the beating

of my heart

pounding

relentlessly

to the end

of my eternity

counting

the grains

of sand

in the hourglass

acting as

the timepiece

of my life

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–December 22, 2005

Muse in the Morning

Aug 12 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

As the summer vacation ends, a new series of poems begins. All these were written since I joined the community of bloggers in 2005 and first appeared at Cheers and Jeers. The art work is a mixture of old and a bit newer.

An Opened Mind I

Inner Vision

Clarity

My optical sense

has deteriorated

grown cloudy and dim

as I have aged

but what I perceive

through my moral

and ethical lenses

has become crystal

crisp and clear

It is not difficult

to join me here

and see what I see

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–January 3, 2006

Aug 11 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

Humans prepare for the future all their lives,

yet meet the next life totally unprepared.

–Drakpa Gyaltsen

Phenomena XXXV: posterity

River of Time

Note in a Bottle

Words

strung like beads

into thoughts

woven

into frayed patches

a fragile parchment

from your past

A note

in a bottle

set adrift

in the river

of time

If the words

reach you

can you see to it

that they are read

and then sent

once again

on their way

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–May 16, 2008

Aug 10 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

It is a city built of bones,

and daubed with flesh and blood,

in which old age and death,

pride and hypocrisy

are the inhabitants.

–Dhammapada, verse 150

Phenomena XXXIV: dying

Doorway

Mort

At some instant

one day

the words will cease to flow

their creator (or vessel)

having passed through

the Door

between herenow

and therethen

The words left behind

the ideas they expressed

the actions they instigated

will be all

that remains

to weigh the meaning

of this particular existence

Regret is extinguished

if the words

have expressed

peacefulness

concern and care

and a life lived well

–Robyn Serven

–September 21, 2007

Muse in the Morning

Aug 09 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

Like a cowherd

driving cows off to the fields,

so old age and death

take away the years from the living.

–Dhammapada, verse 135

Phenomena XXXIII: aging

Spectacle

Speculation

One day

maybe

the world will be

as I envision it

But that will be

in some far distant

day to come

and this is now

It is improbable

that I will see

and experience

my vision

Change occurs

too slowly

or perhaps

aging occurs

too fast

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 9, 2008

Muse in the Morning

Aug 06 2010

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

One who experiences the unity of life

sees one’s own Self in all beings,

and all beings in one’s own Self,

and looks on everything with an impartial eye.

–Bhagavad Gita, Chapter VI, verse 29

Phenomena XXXII: adapting

Mirages

Cellular Diversity

Organismystically

we form and transform

the words and thoughts

building an understanding

a commonality

cells aligning

and recombining

Not by becoming

blind–deaf–dumb

but through sampling

our differences

does this creature

avoid being stillborn

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–June 20, 2008

Muse in the Morning