Thinker's Daily Ponderable Google Group

Ponderable and poem for Tuesday, December 15, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:35:37 UT

Authority without love is a universal poison.

Oaks Near Town

Black and green
under sunlight
stand these aged oaks,
seasoned wisdom in wood.

"Believe, believe!"
preaches the chapel bell
from a spire in town
to the congregated trees

which, distanced from doctrine,
stand firmly unnoticing

Ponderable and poem for Monday, December 14, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:24:52 UT

As you take a step, the step takes you.

Walk

I walked with you today--
with you and the One inside you
who beamed light through your eyes.

Your voice seemed more than your voice
and held meaning beyond your meaning.
Who was in you speaking?

I walked with you and mystery today,
and now I need to learn Who dwells in you.

Ponderable and poem for Sunday, December 13, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:31:20 UT

Affectation is wealth's poverty.

Experts and Folk

Oh whilliker thistledown, angel-may-care
if the pins of all dumbledom fly through the air
and tinkle quite prinkly with scatter and scorn--
who am I, I ask you, and how was I born?

Universe, schmuniverse, big bang or no,
let comets be vomits lit up as they go;

Ponderable and poem for Saturday, December 12, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:06:01 UT

With leaders we build; with rulers we cope.

Within Our Keep

What is this stillness in the stable?
What glow is here within our hearts?
Who lies so small between us?

Far more seems given us in this bed
than infant pounds and length--
how weigh, how measure possibilities?

Although just now our baby sleeps,

Ponderable and poem for Friday, December 11, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:28:20 UT

If your guru charges, retreat.

Seeking until Found

There is a footless path,
a carless road,
a planeless flight
to a placeless mountain
within.

When focused on our outer joys
we seek after things that weigh or thrill,
we dignify the use of force,
we laud coarse lucre with our hopes.

Ponderable and poem for Thursday, December 10, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:58:01 UT

Christmas and a minimum universe both ask for only one star and some generosity.

A Christmas Light

At Christmas some will doubt--
they'd rather see first-hand
the legendary holy child
than hear fine stories told.

Some legends place a star
above the manger scene
to be a beacon guide
to men who had wise gifts--

Ponderable and poem for Wednesday, December 9, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:14:24 UT

The heart loves unity. The mind loves diversity. The body settles for flattery.

Counting to One

How many skies
has the boomeranging
moon flown over?
One, which breathes.

How many lives
have you and I lived?
One, deepening inside
births and deaths.

How many humans
are in the world?

Ponderable and poem for Tuesday, December 8, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:39:06 UT

As Santa comes down the spine from the head to the heart, everything seems a gift.

Santa's Interior Monologue

Boy, it's dark.
Sure is cold.
Housetop--whoa, boys!
Got the bag.
Suck it in.
Down the chimney.
There's the tree.
Gifts out of bag.
Stockings are here.
Stuff 'em.
Eat the cookies.

Ponderable and poem for Monday, December 7, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:03:27 UT

Words can be bombs, balloons, or communion cups, depending on what we put in them.

Napping in the Flavors

I slid downhill
into my Sunday nap,
and there I was again,
swimming in an aromatic
alphabet soup where all words
ran together into a flavor.

If only poets could
somehow write
in immediate flavors,

Ponderable and poem for Sunday, December 6, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:49:52 UT

Time is all we have, and most of what we don't have.

Big Smile

Big Bang
is a fashion
of imposter
proportions,
insultingly
pat.

If true,
where did it
happen and
where were
all the other
wheres where it
didn't happen?

Simple theory,
it is,
suspiciously
reminiscent of
how each body

Ponderable and poem for Saturday, December 5, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:54:58 UT

What God has put asunder, let no man paste together.

Restaurant Miff

An old couple,
both over 80,
look at menus.
He mumbles.

She scolds, "Oh,
you're always
disappointed."

Argument now....

An argument
60 years bitter--
stern faces,
trembling hands.

How many lifetimes
will they require

Ponderable and poem for Friday, December 4, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:37:20 UT

Seeing believes, wisdom knows, and love is.

Ignorance Implicit

The flowers bloom.
The wind blows.

The president's soldiers torture
their prisoners before cameras.

The flowers bloom.
The wind blows.

Spam infests the world's e-mailboxes.

The flowers bloom.
The wind blows.

US lawyers advise that torturing is legal

Ponderable and poem for Thursday, December 3, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:30:51 UT

Scrooge no longer hates Christmas, now that he's acquired it.

The Scrooge before Christmas

Yes, there is a Scrooge. He haunts the hearts of those who wish that Santa's $10.00 white beard were real--who wish that his "Ho, ho, ho" meant more than the $6.00 an hour he is paid to utter it. Scrooge-inhabited people desperately long for a "Ho, ho, ho" from deep within a genuine person's heart.

Ponderable and poem for Wednesday, December 2, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:14:38 UT

Truest gifts cannot be wrapped.

Christmas Awakening

From the mantel, stockings
packed with Christmas
tinyness and sweets
dimly hang at 3 a.m.

Cold wind outside
shakes and snaps the house.
The dog is asleep on the couch.

This artificial tree, lights off, points
second-floorward with wrapped

Ponderable and poem for Tuesday, December 1, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:39:43 UT

Business office survivors learn to distinguish bluster from need, and anxiety from importance.

Notes on Work

Beginnings are awkward.
Continuings are strenuous.
Easy peace won't last.
Inner balance may.

Death?
Doubtful.
The graveyard's
a door to more.

Requiem aeternam?
Doubtful.
New life,

Ponderable and poem for Monday, November 30, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:19:44 UT

With every beat the heart is jumping for joy, though the mind may be doubting and pouting in heedless gloom.

Night Thoughts

Sleepless tonight inside my skin and bones,
I feel that life must be a cruel curse--
Begun with squall, cut off with pain and groans,
A little joke told by the universe.

Ponderable and poem for Sunday, November 29, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 06:28:05 UT

Months come disguised as days, and swindle us sweetly of years.

Getting Old

(A Burlesque)

It's awful to get old, it is.
Today I got pretty winded
rocking away in my chair
so I went upstairs for a nap
but tripped over my beard
which is the same color
as the fog before my eyes.

Then I couldn't remember

Ponderable and poem for Saturday, November 28, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:09:52 UT

Where love is the root, gratitude is the flower.

Thank You

Thank most you
for all little things big.

Beams of kindness
illumine all paths of you

and I am days on end
in your gentle debt.

Accept please this
as my up payment.

*******

Alan Harris
Thinker's Daily Ponderable
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Ponderable and poem for Friday, November 27, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:46:16 UT

If contentment is enlightenment, then a cow is Buddha.

My Cow, My Guru

My brown cow
lives in the now.
How?
Nohow.

Quantity and time and hay slide
through her unnoticed. She
doesn't count her stomachs
or her breaths or her days.

She seeks no acupuncture
treatments, nor does she
brew herbal teas.

Ponderable and poem for Thursday, November 26, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:10:37 UT

Undone tasks quickly have children and grandchildren.

How I Clean

As a vaccer
I'm a slacker;
as a hacker
I'm a stacker.

I have trouble
sorting rubble
till it's double
triple double.

I go all out
till I stall out,
then I haul out
all the fallout.

*******

Alan Harris
Thinker's Daily Ponderable

Ponderable and poem for Wednesday, November 25, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:27:56 UT

We depend upon each other for our independence.

Together

There was never a never
so always as forever
nor a permanence
so flimsy as finished.

There was never a happy
so permanent as joy
nor a falseness so
fleeting as autonomy.

Insulation clothes well
till it suffocates,
and protection is safe

Ponderable and poem for Tuesday, November 24, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:55:07 UT

You are not what you do, but what you do anyway.

Sensing a Future

In this shaky world
where up and down
are definitely known
but gravitation still
poses big perplexities
we'd sometimes like
to shake off atoms
and take a guided
tour of the possible
and if such a ride
were available for

Ponderable and poem for Monday, November 23, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:19:25 UT

A dangerous place to stand is in the way of someone else's highest calling.

Pressure

In a house where Usually prevails,
where Always-used-to guides,
where What-other-people-think
and Never-been-done-before deter,

a cork may pop one day up
out of a pressurized bottle
to let wine spray the ceiling

Ponderable and poem for Sunday, November 22, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:29:36 UT

We age in years, but we mature in moments.

Nominal

Nothing got
my mother's goat
for long--
she'd settle it.

I had become far too old
to be calling her Mommy
but still was
and didn't want to
but couldn't change.

One day while practicing
my trumpet in the basement
(in deference to TV watchers)

Ponderable and poem for Saturday, November 21, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:32:31 UT

The heart is the best advisor, and also the nearest.

Permissions

From whom does your life
have its license to live?
Not from Rome or Scriptures
or fine-robed Interpreters--

not from parent or teacher,
policeman or mayor.
Your frame can be governed
but your heart heeds the One

as butterflies do

Ponderable and poem for Friday, November 20, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:49:54 UT

Higher education trains your mind to feel good later by making it feel terrible now.

No Darkness, No Diamonds

If life is going well,
don't write.
Know why?
'Cause you can't.

Know why?
'Cause your creativity
is all clogged up
with contentment.

Writing amidst blessings
is bleeding without wounds.

Ponderable and poem for Thursday, November 19, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:00:56 UT

Plants reach out for the light, while humans reach in.

Keeping Here

I wake to morning's
window-filtered sounds
and hear a
cardinal outside
my bedroom,
daring to fill
the early air with a
questioning refrain:

"Where's here?
Where's here?
Where's here?"

An idea flashes brainward

Ponderable and poem for Wednesday, November 18, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:57:31 UT

You may wish on a star, but you get what you are.

Grief Is a Thief

Grief is a thief
you have urged
to take you away
but with your own
key locks you,
wet with tears,
inside your musty
woolen closet and
turns out the light.

Dark in your trap
shared with moths
you cry long past dry

Ponderable and poem for Tuesday, November 17, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:44:46 UT

Knock, then realize you've always been inside.
Crack the Sky
I cracked the sky
And all the stars fell
Into a pool
Like egg yolks.
I threw the crescent moon
Like a boomerang
But it returned
To its distance.
I pried the earth loose
From the sun
But gravity broke my lever
And the earth stayed.
So I just fixed

Ponderable and poem for Monday, November 16, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:32:10 UT

Thank God if your car breaks down oftener than your body. Some bodies are lemons.
Confined
Nothing but a precise
second hand is moving within
the solitary stillness of this house.
I convalesce and convalesce while
reading the daily wallpaper.
Knickknacks cling tightly
to their positions, dumbly
flaunting their faded novelty

Ponderable and poem for Sunday, November 15, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:29:00 UT

See with your heart--it never needs glasses.
Love Is
Sunlight twinkles yellow
off the neighbor's tree leaves,
stirred by a sibilant breeze.
All is well.
The sky is empty, empty, empty, and azure.
Do not worry.
The rose window decal
on our east window glows
with what glass and plastic know of love--
crimson, aqua, yellow, and amethyst,

Ponderable and poem for Saturday, November 14, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:40:54 UT

Pain kindly wakes up stupidity
lest it slumber through eternity.
Pain and Promise
If only it
How can I
When will this
Can I ever
Is there any
Why am I
This is too
Better is later
This shall pass
Now to learn
We are loved
Never all alone
Be in being
Endure in light
*******
Alan Harris
Thinker's Daily Ponderable

Ponderable and poem for Friday, November 13, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:39:30 UT

After formal education has dazzled and dismayed, root errors bring on root learning.
Homeglow after Visitors
Two couches
smile in dim light
over the active
weights they
recently bore.
Spots on the wallpaper
remember certain
apt verbs.
Ceiling regions
glow with laughings
over sudden quips.
Hopes,
confessions,

Ponderable and poem for Thursday, November 12, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:51:57 UT

Ulterior motives may be invisible, but oh, the smell.
Dollar Dazzle
The New York Times, Nov. 9, 1998:
It has been almost a year since Egghead Software, a fallen leader in software retailing, announced that it would close the last 80 of its stores to begin anew as an Internet-only operation. Now the company says it is ready to start over -- again.

Mistakenly sent e-mail

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:56:03 UT

TDP subscribers:
My apologies for the mistakenly sent e-mail prior to this one. But the upside is that now we can all cheer Bob on.
Best wishes,
Alan Harris

Ponderable and poem for Wednesday, November 11, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:40:46 UT

A good friendship, like a good river, comes back together after hitting a rock.
Honored Guest
Came on a thread,
you did,
to shine,
you do,
a warm beam,
you are,
from a sun
we all share.
Bless the thread
that brought us you,
and you that brought
the beam to share.
Natural,
you seem,
and fresh,
completely,

Ponderable and poem for Tuesday, November 10, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:49:23 UT

There is no freedom from freedom--it endlessly compels us to do as we
choose.
Freedom Grounded
Hypnotized by young freedom,
I chased bedazzling baits of my choice
until pain came crashing through my doors.
Thank you very much, freedom.
And I ate choice foods with delight
until my older arteries became clogged

Ponderable and poem for Monday, November 9, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:40:19 UT

Every day is more evidence of forever.
Release from the Known
Where did we meet?
Where before have I seen
your steadfast resilience?
In the snow on a mountain?
Have I seen your eyes
in churning blues of seawater?
Has your voice laughed
in the rain on some porch roof?
My knowing fails.
Being with you

Ponderable and poem for Sunday, November 8, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:11:00 UT

To find out is human; to find in, divine.
Outwhere
A rocket breaking free
from Earth's gravity is,
by dint of direction,
traveling a trajectory
into outwhere.
No limit is seen
to what is outer,
but what is inner
offers with its
infinity a rainbow
and a promise.
Let rocket people
point their probing
within if they would

Ponderable and poem for Saturday, November 7, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:21:24 UT

Acquired wealth is more symptom than substance.
Graduation
Our ride
slows
to a halt
and the man says
"Everybody off."
We don't
quite know
where
we've been
and we're a
little dizzy
as we step
down into
the future.
*******
Alan Harris
Thinker's Daily Ponderable
Subscribe to these daily e-mails.
More writings by the same author in An Everywhere Oasis:

Ponderable and poem for Friday, November 6, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:46:00 UT

I, the thinnest word in the dictionary, easily slips into most of our
thoughts.
Briefing
Here is who you will be:
I. M. Ego
Selfville, Body
Remember your address
and don't neglect
to decorate your walls and
keep your place unsoiled.
You need to live here, yes,
because your past exertions
somehow built this place

Ponderable and poem for Thursday, November 5, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:29:13 UT

Each ballot is a bullet unshot.
Claire de Lune
Uncle Bill's piano rolls mellowly along,
Touching dim moods and whispering old warmth.
In its ethereal arc outside the window
The full moon is smooth and slow.
As Uncle Bill's fingers coax the keys
His cigar in the heavy green ashtray
Emits a flimsy plume of fragrance.

Ponderable and poem for Wednesday, November 4, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:57:02 UT

The small angers the small.
August Sunday
Pounding hammers sing
along with church choir anthem--
confusing rhythms.
Depth of azure sky
recedes to far galaxies
behind daylit moon.
A leaf waves gently
in a breath from summer's lungs,
then hangs green and still.

Ponderable and poem for Tuesday, November 3, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:40:50 UT

When one sits to meditate, the mind may at first sound like a jukebox
in a cathedral.
April of the Spirit
In this April Sunday
there is pure spirit
scenting all the air
like a sweet candle.
Spirit runs through me
like light through a prism
and splashes all my glands
with a rainbow of loving.
Spending spirit is a joy

Ponderable and poem for Monday, November 2, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:01:59 UT

The unforgiving are the most likely to do the unforgivable.
Asking the Quiet Fire
The Forest As Teacher
I ask the autumn forest where
my grandmother has gone.
The quiet fire replies,
"On down this road,
around a further bend."
I ask why she has gone so far.
Again I hear the forest's quiet fire,
"She isn't far, not far at all."

Ponderable and poem for Sunday, November 1, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:58:03 UT

A deed of love pulls a hidden string
that makes a bell in heaven ring.
An Apology for Art
Why more art?
Haven't we enough?
Well, a world of mostly dirt
demands more soap, yes?
A world parched with ugliness
thirsts for sips of beauty, no?
If creativity ever ceases,
that's all the shebang wrote.
*******

Ponderable and poem for Saturday, October 31, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:45:20 UT

A lighted candle has no fear of the dark.
Spirits and Spooks
A Rhyme for Halloween
Today is the ghost of the future's past--
your now is a ghost,
my now is a ghost,
for whatever we do will last.
There's hope for tomorrow's yesterday--
you are a hope,
I am a hope,
if we nourish each other today.
Regrets are old spooks that may rattle their chains--

Ponderable and poem for Friday, October 30, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:14:14 UT

Profound blessings move slowly because so much moves.
Dove
Dove rides windy wire,
placid in tumult, slim tail
flipping up and down.
*******
Alan Harris
Thinker's Daily Ponderable
Subscribe to these daily e-mails.
More writings by the same author in An Everywhere Oasis:
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Ponderable and poem for Thursday, October 29, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:40:19 UT

Even perfection has its limitations. For example, a perfect square can
hardly roll.
Falls Visitor
A hundred feet from
Niagara's Horseshoe Falls
hurtling blindly down
with groaning gravitation
stood the antebuilding all
a-color inside, and a-glitz
with trinkets and toys
crafted in worldwide shacks.

Ponderable and poem for Wednesday, October 28, 2009

m...@alharris.com (Alan Harris) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:34:46 UT

Heaven isn't far--in fact, it's hugging us.
Two Wrinkles in Bliss
The sun is where
it needs to be.
Every breath
in every being
breathes the rhythm
of the Drummer.
All is permeating
every bit of all.
Except for the
peskiness of
atoms and egos,
might not this place
be heaven?
*******
Alan Harris
Thinker's Daily Ponderable