Hot days here in P-town. Up in the low 90′s yesterday, and upper 80′s today. We live in a brick house, affectionately known as “the oven” as in brick oven in the summer, and as the brick ice house in the winter. Not much insulation in these old places. Still, I love the house, the garden and the neighborhood.
So many of my friends are getting ready for Burning Man. Roberto was talking about 115 degree heat. I know that I could never do a week of that. Love the concept, but the temperature would be such a challenge for me.
A couple of notes on this entry. The music is a real favourite of mine: Carbon Life Forms. If you are unfamiliar with it, you are in for a treat. The art (except for the poetry piece) is from the Danish Artist Gerda Wegener. It is a departure from the usual themes that we pursue here. It is erotic, and in my mind, quite fun and endearing.
Hope This Finds You Well!
Gwyllm
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On The Menu:
Carbon Based Lifeforms – Metrosat 4
Mahmūd Shabistarī – The Secret Garden
Carbon Based Lifeforms – Rise To Tomorrow
Art: Gerda Wegener
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Carbon Based Lifeforms – Metrosat 4
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Mahmūd Shabistarī – The Secret Garden
The Marriage of the Soul
Descending to the earth, that strange intoxicating beauty of the unseen world
lurks in the elements of nature.
And the soul of man,
who has attained the rightful balance,
becoming aware of this hidden joy,
straightaway is enamored and bewitched.
And from this mystic marriage are born
the poets’ songs, inner knowledge,
the language of the heart, virtuous living,
and the fair child Beauty.
And the Great Soul gives to man as dowry
the hidden glory of the world.
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The Wine of Rapture
The wine, lit by a ray from his face,
reveals the bubbles of form,
such as the material world and the soul-world,
which appear as veils to the saints.
Universal Reason seeing this is astounded,
Universal Soul is reduced to servitude.
Drink wine! for the bowl is the face of the Friend.
Drink wine! for the cup is his eye, drunken and flown with wine.
Drink wine! and be free from cold-heartedness,
for a drunkard is better than the self-satisfied.
The world is his tavern,
his wine-cup the heart of each atom;
reason is drunken, angels drunken, soul drunken,
air drunken, earth drunken, heaven drunken.
The sky, dizzy with the wine-fumes’ aroma,
is staggering to and fro;
the angels, sipping pure wine from goblets,
pour down the dregs to the world.
From the scent of these dregs man rises to heaven.
Inebriated from the draft, the elements
fall into water and fire.
Catching the reflection, the frail body becomes soul,
And the frozen soul by its heat
thaws and becomes living.
The creature world becomes giddy,
forever straying from house and home.
One from the dregs’ odor becomes a philosopher.
One viewing the wine’s color becomes a relater.
One from half a draft becomes religious.
One from a bowlful becomes a lover.
Another swallows at one draught
goblet, tavern, cupbearer, and drunkards;
he swallows all, but still his mouth stays open.
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The Mirror
Your eye has not strength enough
to gaze at the burning sun,
but you can see its burning light
by watching its reflection
mirrored in the water.
So the reflection of Absolute Being
can be viewed in the mirror of Not-Being,
for nonexistence, being opposite Reality,
instantly catches its reflection.
Know the world from end to end is a mirror;
in each atom a hundred suns are concealed.
If you pierce the heart of a single drop of water,
from it will flow a hundred clear oceans;
if you look intently at each speck of dust,
in it you will see a thousand beings.
A gnat in its limbs is like an elephant;
in name a drop of water resembles the Nile.
In the heart of a barleycorn is stored a hundred harvests.
Within a millet-seed a world exists.
In an insects wing is an ocean of life.
A heaven is concealed in the pupil of an eye.
The core at the center of the heart is small,
yet the Lord of both worlds will enter there.
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Carbon Based Lifeforms – Rise To Tomorrow
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