Showing posts with label WB Yeats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WB Yeats. Show all posts

Thursday, October 31, 2024

A Septuagenarian Seeker's Sanctuary











"For all the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not
return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater , so shall my word
be that that goes out from my mouth ; it shall not return to me
empty , but shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall
succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
- IS 55:10-11


"Imagine the earth devoid of human life, inhabited by only plants and animals. 
Will it still have a past and a future . Could we still speak of time in a meaningful way?
The question "What time is it? or "What is the date today?" - if anybody
were to ask it ---would be quite meaningless. The oak tree and the eagle would
 be bemused by such a question....they would answer 
"Well of course , it is now . The time is now. What else is there?"
- Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

We call the current moment - "present" as it is a gift"
- Unknown





















Inspiration:

It might be more interesting to say how an inspiration
came in the gift of an angel speaking softly in a dream.
Things do not always happen when and how we expect, right?
Sad to say that no midnight or dawn illumination caused this
particular spark. Rather, as the years begin to add up
it was at a moment of contemplation of the journey - 
people I have met and friends I have made, 
places I have been , events in storms or with calm prevailing
winds , how and  when mercy washed me down. It seems 
as this pilgrim ages those moments of soul filled sanctuary 
the heart is filled with the present and all that has prepared 
me for the now as I settle into mindfulness. 

Ah, sanctified solace..

The Writing:

A Septuagenarian Seeker's Sanctuary 

Ominous clouds squeeze out the rain
nourishing every aspect of creation.
Streams flow into to rivers,
the rivers spill into the sea only to have
this world of water release itself forming
new clouds. Trees release their last leaves
where the mystical wind of an unknown source
carries seeds across the landscape where 
seedlings slowly sprout reaching to heaven.
Silverstein's tree becomes shade and comfort
to resting robins and squirrels or eventually cutdown 
carefully crafting it into a scribner's pencil or writing desk.
The remaining stump comforts that boy who
once delighted in climbing limb to limb,
now a tired old man needing
a place to rest. While remnants of the forest family
are carefully carved into a boat launching
pilgrims out into the deep of the unknown sea.

- JF Sobecki

-------

Poetry and such:
(A thanks to the Irish poets)

(On the possibility of a divine presence in all creation)
"I do not need to believe. I know."
- Carl Jung

This is the time to be slow - John O'Donohoe

When You Are Old -WB Yeats (read by Cillian Murphy)


For a New Beginning - John O' Donohue


and one American poet

Song of Myself - Walt Whitman (Read by John Doherty)

Music: 

For your listening and inspiration.
click on the link below each feature

Be Here Now - G. Harrison
 


Hello in There - John Prine


Who Knows Were the Time Goes - J. Collins


The Circle Game - T. Rush ( J. Mitchell)


Coda:

Something extra for your listening pleasure and contemplation:
( How and when do you savor being in the now- 
letting go , being authentic and present to the magnificence?)

"For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business"
- T.S. Eliot 

The Adventure of Being Alive - Joseph Campbell

Old - P. Simon 


Have a grace filled Thanksgiving

AMDG

Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved JF Sobecki LLC










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Thursday, February 1, 2024

Surrender: 27,740 Days

 












"All spiritual maturity is about 

letting go."

 - Richard Rohr


"You admire the man who 

pushes his way

 to the top in any walk of life,

while we admire one who 

abandons his ego."

- Seven Years in Tibet . H. Harrier


"The spiritual journey is non- denominational."

 - a Jesuit priest


Inspiration:

 During certain times of the year the public 

submits to 

an avalanche of college and professional athletic 

"playoffs." Winning is everything!

Winners receive the honor , rewards and crowns 

of olive leaves.Losers are left in the cold

with crowns of thorns.

The global culture promotes hard work 

and success with awards and recognition and 

those who qualify are adored regardless

of their integrity and morality. Chapels and 

cathedrals honor the divine mystery

promoted by the self made witch doctors dictating 

dogma, canons and dance steps

for pillaged pilgrims to subscribe to without questions. 

Confused, one potential pilgrim lost as to what candle 

to light and what course to chart hears that

whispering wind lifts a voice from ancient theater 

where a player could be heard

"You don't choose a life. You live it."


-----------

The Writing:

Surrender : 27,740 days

Almost 27,740 days on the worn out 

overcrowded Camino,

the seeker carried collected maps and 

books by mystics

and soothsayers charting the course

to discover the great promised treasure.

How many revolutions on the great circle

does it take before an anxious meandering

Bedouin wakes up to the truth 

about his passage?

Scholars say that Homer's Odyssey 

was a fable about the search 

for one's soul. Disguised teachers dressed 

in sherpas rags lift the baggage carried 

by pirate pilgrims and just like that 

a great burden weight evaporates. 


Why didn't the solo seeker learn from 

Bosch's "Death of the Miser"

or from his part-time partner who 

practiced at emulating

the actions of Richard Cory 

who lived on the hill?

It was that old salt who 

anchored in a lost cove

while mentoring the seeker secretly on

all things of the great sea, 

Including the ins and outs of 

sailing by rigorously

having the seeker practice the art of 

letting go of the tiller

when confronting rolling rough waters.

The vessel somehow rights herself 

as she heads into the wind.

Some imperfect learners are slower 

in letting go of their worldly attachments , 

their desire for control, 

... refusing to surrender ,

 but somehow they remain completely loved .

- JF Sobecki

_____

The Poems and Such:

"Poetry is a gateway into intuitive 

consciousness. 

It knocks on the doors

 of the heart and the heart opens" 

 - Mirabai Starr

"Poetry is an Act of Peace . 

Peace goes into the making of a poet

as flour goes into the making of bread."

- Pablo Neruda

When you are Old - WB Yeats 

( read C. Murphy)

https://youtu.be/dEHjBPS21A8?si=k6OIo82cNUVIyaLc

My Wish - R W Emerson

















The Music:
Seasons of Love - Rent

I Release Control - A. Rose

Pacing the Cage - B. Cockburn
Music Videos for Meditation 
For Readers:

Random Prompts:

Another Story- The Head and The Heart 

Ten thousand Words - Avett Brothers


Death of the Miser - H Bosch
What is happening here?
Who is this miser?





















------------
"No thing can bring one total peace."
- Hindhu Saying

"Everything that we preach is what we
 need to hear."
         - Bono

"One day I will find the right words , 
and they will be simple."
- Jack Kerouac

"The most important thing is not why we 
write but how we write.
Write dangerously , Beckett.." 
- James Joyce ( From the new biopic on 
S. Beckett " Dance First."

AMDG

Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved 
JF Sobecki LLC





















                                                     




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Saturday, September 30, 2023

The Ballad of the Piano Man and the Pirate: The Eternal Principle


The Sphere at Las Vegas

"Where your treasure is there is your heart also " - Matt: 6:21 










"Go into the the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not 

a way to make a living.They are a human way of 

making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how

 well or badly , is a way to make your soul grow, for

 heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio.

Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. 

Do it as well as you possibly can. 

You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."

- K. Vonnegut

"Are you willing to keep writing and telling stories knowing you 

will get nothing in return?"

- Whit Burnett to JD Salinger 

Do know where you are going and why?









The Inspiration :

The Eternal Principle - Bill Moyers with Joseph Campbell

 (In preparing this post the author "coincidentally" saw this video     

  confirming the original inspiration.

https://youtu.be/qX8j9TE7P38?si=uKDY83dzHjpC_l9D

"He who is not being born is busy dying" - B. Dylan                                     

"The River flows ,it flows to the sea. 

Wherever the river flows ,that's where I want to be " 

- R. McGuinn ( The Ballad of Easy Rider)









------------------

The Writing:

The Ballad of the Piano Man and The Pirate : The Eternal Principle

The Piano man and the pirate joined 50,000 souls in the 

Cathedral of the Field of Dreams as they were

Christened novices of the Sgt Pepper's Broken Hearts Club Band.

They never dreamed that within a half century they would

Become fully consecrated Jedi,

Thanks to the the holy order of the Supreme Surgeons 

Of the Sacred Heart.

They were one but not the same. 

Sometimes in those magical moments

The self proclaimed dynamic duo got to carry 

Each other from a distance.

The piano man tickled the ivories in between

Seconds of solemn solitary silence 

echoing sentiments in songs

Of Chaucer tales while the pirate strayed along

The rivers and roads in the rain somehow searching

For that promised hidden treasure.

The Pirate weaving in and out

Those un-forecasted storms in the arriving autumn.

Estragon's commentary "perhaps one could dance first and think 

Afterwards"  echoed constantly as they waited .

Selecting two separate roads less travelled, 

both leading to Emmaus,

The distracted two were not aware that maybe that secret

Treasure they had been seeking , just may be 

Everp-present in all aspects of creation.

The pirate perturbed by the possibility 

that the two reborn easy riders

Might come to the conclusion 

Of their predecessors , Wyatt and Billy.

In the end Wyatt solemnly reflected - "We blew it."

The piano man piously postulated how 

The circle would be unbroken,

Proposing that their Vegas venture would be a

Just another excursion on the way to Mandalay .

        - JF Sobecki

-------------

The Poems and Such:

"Poetry is a gateway into intuitive consciousness. It knocks on the doors

 of the heart and the heart opens" 

 - Mirabai Starr

"Poetry is an Act of Peace . Peace goes into the making of a poet

as flour goes into the making of bread."

- Pablo Neruda

" To see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower.'

- Wm. Blake

When you are Old - WB Yeats as read by Cillian Murphy


The Holy Longing - J W Goethe (Trans.R. Bly)
Tell a wise person, or else keep silent
because the mass man will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
what longs to be burned to death.

In the calm water of there love-nights
where you were begotten, where you have begotten
a strange feeling comes over you,
when you see the silent candle burning.

Now you are no longer caught in the obsession with the darkness
and desire for higher love-making sweeps you upward.

Distance does not make you falter.
Now, arriving in magic, flying,
and flying insane for the light,
you are a butterfly and you are gone.
And, so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow,
you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.
______________

The Music:

(Musical reflections on the inspiration)

Roads and Rivers - Head and Heart

Oh Las Vegas -  Emmy Lou Harris (G Parsons)
Some Musical Pieces/Videos for Meditation For Readers:

Queries: Remember those you met along the way -
those who touched you, those you may have 
touched, the accidental encounters and the life
long relationships... how all in this experience and universe
 is interconnected.
" Time it was , and what a time it was , it was...a time of innocence,
 a time of confidences. Long ago it must be , I have a 
 photograph. Preserve your memories they're all that's left you."  
 - P. Simon

Old Friends- Simon and Garfunkel
" And the seasons go round and round,
the painted ponies go up and down.
We're captive on the carousel of time.
We can't return , we can only look behind from where we came.
And, go round and round in the circle game"
Circle Game - Tom Rush ( J Mitchell)

And a post script:
Beatles at Shea Stadium 1965
https://youtu.be/M6DfG7sml-Q?si=Bd75aPXlZhHk4hWv

Still Haven't Found What I am looking For - U2 (video made in Las Vegas)
https://youtu.be/e3-5YC_oHjE?si=HCWgWuXvDvbJ_XZl
         
"One day I will find the right words , and they will be simple."
- Jack Kerouac
"The most important thing is not why we write but how we write.
Write dangerously , Beckett.." 
- James Joyce ( From the new biopic on S. Beckett " Dance First.")

Remembering : Doc Sullivan , Jim B , Irving  and all
 those who's souls have moved on their journey..

AMDG
Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved JF Sobecki LLC



























 




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