Recalling the moment I made an intimate acquaintance…
five or six
we’d moved from the city
seeming acres of macadam
and basement laundry tunnels
replaced by a woods next door
pathless, richly entangled
I’d enter the enchantment
willy-nilly
sitting among leaves
in clockless infatuation
I doubt then
I was seriously
distinct from the forest
soon, grandmother told me
buttercups they were called
a clump of magic yellow
in a corner of the grass
and next day all alone
I sat with their company
knowing butter to be yellow
and seeing their cupping
when a sweet veil shifted
a boy regarded the flowers
but someone witnessed the regarding
I was an I!
I was an I.
and knowing ever it would be thus
and knowing it without theory
you cannot fool me, neo-Buddhists
with your questing for no-Self
for the buttercups told me true
before I was capable of mistakes
_______RS
[ Image : gratitude to Julian Richmond, maker of images. I excerpted a detail from one of his photographs. ]Ā (link)
NOTES: Flowers have personalities, aspects of which are revealed by the human cultural history of their herbal and medicinal lore. It needs to be kept in mind, in the face of modern arrogance, that older approaches to perception and knowledge, mostly lost now to the glare of physical scientific inquiry, loosed somehow an incredible wealth of pragmatic insight about the natural world. One particularly interesting facet, which attempts to straddle the older and modern ways of seeing is exemplified by this video lecture discussing the ‘nature’ of the homeopathic remedy: Ranunculus. Ranunculus is the latin name for the genera containing common buttercups. George Vithoulkas is a Greek homeopath residing on the island of Alonnisos. I attended a two week seminar at his beautiful school there in the summer of 1996. At the time he was regarded as one of the top five homeopaths (and educators) in the world.
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so true the intimacy shared by the spirit of things natural and the epiphany of a flower, or tree or a mountain range. lovely poem
thank you, Dorianna.
In creation’s garden
perhaps we are
but fleeting, at times
glittering, reflections
of the great ‘I Am’ ?
“With a time-rusted compass blade
Aladdin and his lamp
Sits with Utopian hermit monks
Side saddle on the Golden Calf
And on their promises of paradise
You will not hear a laugh
All except inside the Gates of Eden”.
~ Bob Dylan (Gates of Eden)
merci, D.R…
“I am the archer the lover of laughter,
And mine is the arrowed flight.
I am the archer, and my eyes yearn after the unsullied sight.
Born on the dark waters of the daughters of night,
Dancing without movement after the clear light.
Oh Perithian fate be kind, in the rumbling and trundling rickshaw of time.
Hooked by the heart to the kingfisher’s line,
I will set my one eye for the shores of the blind.” – Robin Williamson (The Mad Hatter’s Song)
Yes, something along those lines. I think “I” is the not yet entirely revealed image of the Divine which has been implanted within us & this is what I AM THE IAM is referencing within Hebraic wisdom and the NT gospels. That I AM was/is the prime example, depicting the creative power or the living thinking Word. We only begin to mimic this.
I love the commune with nature – your phrase “richly entangled” captured that well š
A lovely piece! Flowers hold many secrets. My naturopath introduced me to homeopathy this year.
thanks kindly, Lauren. nice to hear of this… there are some things wrong with homeopathy, I found, but there are also a lot of things right about it. š
With my particular health issue the homeopathic treatment did not work, but I found the concept interesting and it seems like many have found it helpful. I would consider trying it again for another issue or with another doctor.
The practitioner is everything, in my experience. Lots of people out there with only cursory training and insights.
Beautiful ā¤
so glad it reaches you, Harshinee. š
šš
Very nice š
glad you like it, nathalie
A beautiful poem, I love flowers. This piece encapsulated the enchantment I feel with flowers. Clockless infatuation, indeed. You will forget that time exists whenever you are fascinated by something. Iām in love with these two words.
thank so much… glad it speaks to you. š