Tag: Muse in the Morning

Jul 29 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

Not by refraining from action does one attain freedom from action.

Not by mere renunciation does one attain supreme perfection.

—Bhagavad Gita

Phenomena IX: choosing

Surfaces

Assume Control

Make a choice

of a future

of a pattern

of spacetime

to imagine

Make choices

in the present

to cause

that future

to happen

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–June 3, 2008

Jul 28 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

They are easy to do,

things of no good

and of no use to yourself.

What is truly useful and good

is truly harder than hard to do.

—The Dhammapada, 163

Phenomena VIII: accepting

Becalmed

Breathing

A few people

standing on the deck

of this boat

blowing at the sail

will not move it

Newton ensured that

We’ll always have

that equal

and opposite

reaction

Moving this boat

will require

the collective breath

of millions

who are not on it

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–April 4, 2008

Jul 25 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

The cosmos is beginningless,

and in its movement from phase to phase

it is governed only by the impersonal, implacable law

of arising, change, and passing away.

–Bhikkhu Bodhi, Introduction to The Dhammapada

Phenomena VII: changing

Seeking to Connect

Be the Change

If we strive to live

as if the world

was as we wish it

to be

perhaps it will become

like that

“But that’s the way things are,”

says the crowd

That thinking is

what keeps our lives

this world

our relationship to this world

rigidly unchanging

So we resist…

try to eradicate

that mode of thought

try to keep flicking

some switches

hoping that more

lights will illuminate

searching for a trigger

to ignite

the cascade effect

that will bring

the change we desire

It starts inside

each of us

with those things

we can really control

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 26, 2008

Jul 24 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

May the evil man become good

and may the good man find peace.

May he who has peace become free

and may he who is free make others free.

–ancient, traditional prayer of India

Phenomena VI: praying

Sun

Reflections

New dawns

have come and gone

The years assembled

Decades folded

upon themselves

Time dwindles

Could once

just once

before I…

just once

while I…

one precious time

could such a dawn

bring forth

a better day,

one not ending

in horror

Could there be

some glorious light

before darkness

falls again

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 5, 2008

Jul 23 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

Dharma is the support of the earth.

Born of compassion and kindness.

It patiently holds the thread

Of creation together.

Understand this and become a person of Truth.

–Sri Guru Nanak Dev, Hymn 16, Japji Sahib

Phenomena V: Truth

At the Nub

Truth

Stripped

of pretense

scraped down

to the nub

bathed in

the acid

of reality

Truth

is coated by

no varnish

No twisting

spinning

bending

stretching

can alter it

Truth is inviolate

but there are many

pretenders

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 12, 2008

Jul 22 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

Listening is a lamp that dispels the darkness of ignorance.

–Arya Sura, Jatakamala (aka Garland of Birth Stories

aka Once the Buddha Was a Monkey)

Phenomena IV: listening

Evaporation

Inattentive

I spent much of my life

speaking in paragraphs

to people who had difficulty

waiting

for the end of a sentence

before breaking in

to change the subject

to talk about them

their thoughts

not mine

which lay unfinished

by the side

of the conversation

with my ideas

drifting away

somewhere

probably forgotten

if not evaporating

into nothingness

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 6. 2008

Jul 21 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

‘The comprehension of self’, that is the Beyond of all dharmas.”

–Siddhārtha Gautama, The Questions of Suvikrantavikramin

Phenomena III: delving

Film at 11

Froth

Deep down below

past even the words

are ideas and concepts

normally unthought

except by the weird

unkempt minds

of those who dare

to be different

Whipped creaminess

of dangerous notions,

syllables expressed

too rarely

and more seldom heard,

whizzes by faster

than can normally

be sensed

Grabbing on

to a possibility

I was taken downward

further than

imagination

could conceive

There is truth here

There is more

wherever I look

And who wanted

to be normal

anyway

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–December 28, 2007

Jul 18 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure.

–Bodhidharma, Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices

Phenomena II: enticing

Strings

Semantic String Theory

Letters are scrambled

syllables sewn together

words aligned

into strings

thoughts condense

out of nothingness

and are arranged

into meaning

Sometimes

they vibrate

with Truth

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 3, 2008

Jul 17 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

Dharma upholds both this-worldly and the other-worldly affairs

–Krishna, the Mahābhārata

Phenomena I: inhaling

Lurking

Blueprint

A notion

and intention

initially

Ideas congeal

words emerge

slide into place

some locked

some fit

to be tumbled

pliantly capable

of movement

until unity forms

Structural collapse

conceptual disintegration

and verbal desertion

are neighbors

skulking

on the other side

of walls too thin

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 18, 2008

Jul 16 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XXX (Finis)

Art Link

Brain Scan

The Words

The words have control

command I attend

Through my mind they must flow

I am their vessel

They require writing

demand creation

Pushing boldly forward

whenever I pause

The words I give you

that they may be read

and spead their infection

into the future

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 16, 2006

Jul 15 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XXIX

The graphic linked to below was created when I was experimenting with creating the “feel” of digital texture. This one is wax.

Sometimes the poems express thoughts that plead for discussion. Rarely does that discussion actually take place. This is one of those. In a performance it comes right before the closing words, which are immediately followed by a Q & A opportunity for spontaneous communication.

Art Link

Scratching at the Surface

Wishes and Horses

I wish someone

anyone

could tell me

would tell me

why people

behave as they do

with disdain toward

in disregard of

so sadistically

to people like me

What have

we done

to engender

such disrespect

to evoke

such contempt

to earn

your hatred

Whatsoever it was

we are willing

to work together

with you

to repair

the rift

to seal

the breach

to integrate

our existences

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 1, 2006

Jul 14 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

If there is a “We” and we want the world to be a better place, then one would think we would want to join in common cause, which requires finding common ground. That last thing is not so easy.

State of the Onion XXVIII

The techniques I have used to create the eggs (the graphics) evolved over time, leading to the 3D look-and-feel exemplified by today’s art. The poem is what it is. It was written one day after my 58^th birthday.

Ah, but I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now. I wish.

This series is almost over. There are only two more poems after this one, for now, but one doesn’t know how many more acts there are to this story. Time takes its toll.

Art Link

Cracks in the Shell

On Aging

The urge to expend all energy

to protect the container is strong

but what good does it do

to protect the body

if the spirit dies

Time demands its payment

Youth cannot be defended

by surrendering

to the needs of the flesh

The vessel slowly deteriorates

worn down joints

creak with every motion

muscles are too stiff

bones become brittle

but the contents

the mind/soul

can be bright and vital

growing fresher

with each new thought

with each opinion challenged

with each dip in the fountain

of knowledge

I will be forever young

if I continue to bathe

in the River of New

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–April 4, 2006