Who Loves Dies Well

A nice review of Dharmavidya's book on Echoes of the Name blog

Late November

Grey stillness
Seeping in the chillness of my mind
Fingers the stark November twigs of thoughts
That score aimless lines across the sky.

No bird
Or creature scurrying the branches
Breaks the monotony
Of isolation, sliding into winter

And in the sombre light
Of day that hardly stirs
To throw off comforters of cloud

Comfortless
My inclination yearns
Toward that lair, oblivion,
The dark caves of imagination
Deep beneath the earth
To sleep, Hadean, till the spring

My Grandmother's House

I could take you to a house
Tall as a ship on the hillside
With red gables
And seagulls crying in the sky above

And we could enter by the side
Through a door that's never locked
To a kitchen, big with laughter
With a stove that's always lit
And a kettle on the hob

I could take you through the hall, muffled in deep carpet

There would be a fire in the grate
And faded satin cushions on the chairs,
Brocaded curtains
And treasures on the shelf:
A cardboard cut-out boat, a plastic dancer
An egg cup, present from the china shop
Remembered childhoods

We would climb the stairs and find
The bedroom with its high black bed
Where winter gales rattle dead fingers on the panes
In the darkness
And seem to rock the walls
to the sounds of distant waves.

But no -
The building stands
Not quite so tall upon the hill
But all the rest
Is gone
Like the ripples on a pond
After a leaf has fallen

This poem was written in October 1987, twenty years ago now, just after my grandmother died. I found it in a box when looking for poems to read in our poetry gathering this morning

Autumn photos from our walk in the Leicester Arboretum yesterday. Would that today were as fine and dry!

Silver Sangha Blog

Had an email from Dennis Sibley about his new blog, a lighthearted Buddhist escapade into retirement. Its called www.thesilversangha.blogspot.com Do check it out!

Spiritual Facilitation

A day exploring spiritual faclitation. Mainly in house, we were nine altogether in the group. After an introductory exploration of settings, definitions and purposes - where does one do spiritual facilitating? The answer everywhere becomes complex when you start to look sat different modes and needs and boundaries. Then topics: I talked about facililtating spiritual experience, about ethical dilemmas and about contrition and confession - good topics for lively discussion!

Jake

Our new Buddhist house baby, Jake, with his Dad