“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself”
My mind is dazzled —
Did you come to visit me?
Did I go to you?
Was our night a dream? Reality?
Was I sleeping? Or was I awake?
– Ise Shrine Priestess
Everything is coming up Blossoms…
A short entry, film, quotes, poetry…
Enjoy!
Gwyllm
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On The Menu:
2 Films by Kenneth Anger
Rainer Maria Rilke Quotes
Poetry Of Dogen…
On The Arrival Of Spring: Poetry and Prose
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Nobody in America, in the modern generation, has read their mythology or legends. – Kenneth Anger
One of the great ones….
A note on Kenneth Anger:
If you are not familiar with the works of Kenneth, perhaps you should acquaint yourself with his work. Born in Santa Monica in 1927… (From IMDB: Kenneth Anger grew up in Hollywood and started out as a child actor, but his interest in filmmaking was evident at an early age: he made his first film, “Who’s Been Rocking My Dreamboat?”, at age 9.
Anger developed into one of the pioneers of the American underground film movement. His gritty, violent, often homosexual-themed films were too strong for American audiences of the time, and many of his productions were filmed in Europe, mainly France. However, Anger is best known for authoring the landmark “Hollywood Babylon” books, which detailed a far more seamier side of the Hollywood film industry than most people were aware of.)
He is/was also a student of Aleister Crowley, hung out and scared the pants off of The Rolling Stones (The famous Gold Door incident, ask me about it sometimes) influenced Jimmy Page among others, and generally torn up the horizon line with his lust for life.
I first became aware of him when a teen-ager, and frankly most of it went over my head. I do love revisiting his works, and I hope you enjoy the snippets I have included in this post.
G
“The only person I had any trouble with was Gloria Swanson, and her objections were completely off the wall. She didn’t have any legal leg to stand on. And she took me to court, saying that I libeled her. There’s absolutely no libel in the chapter on her. She was the mistress of Joe Kennedy.”
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Kenneth Anger Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome 1954 with Anais Nin
——
Lucifer Rising (1973)
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Rainer Maria Rilke Quotes:
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions”
“There are no classes in life for beginners; right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult”
This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.
Who has not sat before his own heart’s curtain? It lifts: and the scenery is falling apart
The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.
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Poetry Of Dogen…
“Mind itself is buddha” — difficult to practice, but easy to explain;
“No mind, no buddha” — difficult to explain, but easy to practice.
—
Treading along in this dreamlike, illusory realm,
Without looking for the traces I may have left;
A cuckoo’s song beckons me to return home;
Hearing this, I tilt my head to see
Who has told me to turn back;
But do not ask me where I am going,
As I travel in this limitless world,
Where every step I take is my home.
—
The moon reflected
In a mind clear
As still water:
Even the waves, breaking,
Are reflecting its light.
—
Drifting pitifully in the whirlwind of birth and death,
As if wandering in a dream,
In the midst of illusion I awaken to the true path;
There is one more matter I must not neglect,
But I need not bother now,
As I listen to the sound of the evening rain
Falling on the roof of my temple retreat
In the deep grass of Fukakusa.
—
Joyful in this mountain retreat yet still feeling melancholy,
Studying the Lotus Sutra every day,
Practicing zazen singlemindedly;
What do love and hate matter
When I’m here alone,
Listening to the sound of the rain late in this autumn evening.
—
In the stream,
Rushing past
To the dusty world,
My fleeting form
Casts no reflection.
—
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On The Arrival Of Spring: Poetry and Prose
Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.
~Rainer Maria Rilke
The year’s at the spring
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hillside’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven –
All’s right with the world!
~Robert Browning
Yesterday the twig was brown and bare;
To-day the glint of green is there;
Tomorrow will be leaflets spare;
I know no thing so wondrous fair,
No miracle so strangely rare.
I wonder what will next be there!
~L.H. Bailey
And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Sensitive Plant”
“Each leaf,
each blade of grass
vies for attention.
Even weeds
carry tiny blossoms
to astonish us.”
– Marianne Poloskey, Sunday in Spring
“A light exists in Spring
Not present in the year
at any other period
When March is scarcely here.”
– Emily Dickinson
The seasons are what a symphony ought to be: four perfect movements in harmony with each other. ~Arthur Rubenstein