A Poem For Today - Is my soul asleep?- ¿Mi corazón se hay dormido?

[KEN DICKINSON]



Is my soul asleep?

Have those beehives that labor
at night stopped? And the water-
wheel of thought,
is it dry, the cups empty,
wheeling, carrying only shadows?

No, my soul is not asleep,
It is awake, wide awake.
It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches,
its clear eyes open,
far-off things, and listens
at the shores of the great silence.

-Antonio Machado 

≈          ≈          ≈          ≈          ≈

¿Mi corazón se hay dormido?
Colmenares de mis sueños,
¿ya no labráis? ¿Está seca
la noria del pensamiento,
los cangilones vacíos,
girando, de sombra llenos?

No, mi corazón no duerme.
Está despierto, despierto.
Ni duerme ni sueña, mira,
los claros ojos abiertos,
señas lejanas y escucha
a orillas del gran silencio.

-Antonio Machado 

Sent from my iPhone

[David Glick]

Wow. Wonderful poem.

David

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[Isabel Torres-Carrilho]

Astounding!

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[catherine eliaser]

love this poem, especially the last line. thank you

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Catherine Eliaser MA MFT

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On Sep 8, 2023, at 4:28 PM, Isabel Torres-Carrilho <isabel...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[John Jai Conley]

El testigo. 

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On Fri, Sep 8, 2023 at 8:54 AM 'KEN DICKINSON' via A Poem For Today <po...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



Is my soul asleep?

--

[Marvin Glass]

Dear Folks. I assure you it is perfectly okay to not abandon your
reason and your common sense when dealing with a poem of this kind.
Machado, a good poet, is something of a mystic, but because the road
to insight and, perhaps, enlightenment, stuff he sometimes traffics
in, is not, as you all know, an easy one, we must surely beware of
stock truisms. and feel good spiritist cliches: such as the shores of
the great silence, a spiritual trope that means to put us in touch
with what..? the immensity of the beyond..? And from there,
Where..? If there is something to take away from this poem, of course
it's this: our soul is not asleep. It is us who sleeps,caught up in
the modern world of technology, and all the vain ways to appear
spiritually hip. I would start off with my own teacher, J.
Khrisnamurti for anyone who wants to explore the subject further. I'm
aware that a lot of this will be cause for acrimony; I'm not in a
popularity contest. But I wish you well fellow travelers.. MarvinG

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[KEN DICKINSON]

Hi Marvin

Your comments are always appreciated.

This particular poem, translated by Robert Bly is from one of my favorite all time books, his anthology of sacred poems from many cultures, “The Soul Is Here For It’s own Joy.”

It is from the second chapter of the book called “Longing for the Garden” and follows the first chapter “Starting on the Path”.

This is what Bly writes:

A Poem is a kind of Garden, Rilke says, if the writer manages to resolve a hundred contradictions into a single image. For Blake, the Garden of Eden was also a Garden where ears heard “The Holy Word / That walked among the ancient trees.” The Holy Word is “calling the lapsed soul.”

Looked at in a certain way, the whole world, which the Sufis call an orchard, is a garden and God is the one invited in.

Come to the orchard in Spring.
There is light and wine, and sweethearts in the pomegranate flowers.
If you do not come, these do not matter.
If you do come, these do not matter.

As always my very best to you

Ken




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> On Sep 9, 2023, at 12:46 AM, Marvin Glass <marving...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Folks. I assure you it is perfectly okay to not abandon your

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/poet2/CA%2BK%3D76qh4j48ZhC3hozoEU_SJr_gCRAKL-G3PPQ-O5SWc48Ceg%40mail.gmail.com.

[David Glick]

What must the rarefied air be like up there where you reside, dear Marvin.

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[Marvin Glass]

Thank you David.. somewhat less polluted than the air below...to
answer your question. Nevertheless, thanks for responding. All the
Best..MarvinG

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[David Glick]

Ah my good fellow. Touche. Your riposte was exemplary. You have a taste and a gift for verbal combat and I assume its pleasures make you feel alive. I can dig that.

But as you yourself said, you're not interested in a popularity contest. That being true, I can imagine the cost of maintaining your integrity up there in that rarefied atmosphere might be loneliness. And loneliness is a bitch.

A wise man once said--and it might have been Buddha or perhaps Krishnamurti--"He who is mindful of his own light is content without even a hint of pretentiousness.

All the best..David

 

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[John Jai Conley]

Touche.

Good thing our brother is not interested in a popularity contest.

Nice quote, fits to a T.

Sad lonely man, but a challenge to find compassion for how he willfully eludes his pain with artiface.

🥸

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[Marvin Glass]

Spot On..David...!! At 88 I've outlived just about everyone from my
past, in particular my closest friends. Which of course makes me even
more grateful for my son, granddaughters, and Daughter in law. She
calls me Dad, and there is virtually nothing I would not do for her.
The whole brood live in Anchorage, AK. I was just up there in early
August and we had a fabulous time together.. The ties that bind, they
used to call it, came late in life to me having been something of a
lone wolf for a good part of my early life. Nevertheless, at this
juncture in my life, the struggle is very much an existential one. It
is an autonomous event that begins and ends with me; which is to say
my Being and the immanence of my Not Being. Loneliness seems to be
part of the package. The rest would have to be for a longer
discussion, and four fingers of good scotch on the rocks. That's an
invitation my good man..! all the best....Marvino

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On Sat, Sep 9, 2023 at 7:21 PM David Glick <fxdgs...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

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[David Glick]

Hello Marvin. I am happy for you that you have such wonderful and warm relations with your son, granddaughters, and daughter-in-law. Better late in life than never. To be part of a loving family is a blessing, even when it comes late in life.

I think the ultimate question we all face at some time is: how do we live a life we can't hold on to; and how do we make sense of and give meaning to such a life? As we get older, especially if we are fortunate enough to reach into our 70s and 80s, the issue has a greater poignancy and gravity. I am not sure if this relates at all to what you were addressing at the end of your post about your existential struggle with Being and the immanence of not Being.

Anyway, all of this is good food for thought for those of us who have a philosophical bent.

All the best, David

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[Marvin Glass]

David... you raise many of the same questions Camus has in much of his
writing. Intelligent and well meaning people have abandoned any
metaphysical notions about God. What then do we do with time honored
categorical imperatives, which writ large, informs our daily survival,
the means by which we get our bearings in daily life. Intelligent
and confirmed atheists who have dismissed God, have not really given
us anything in its place. Where then can we go with our Being-Here,
in a world of all possible worlds that has provided us with the
means of survival: as though it actually meant for us to survive.
This is the great existential conundrum that flies in the face of
science and rational thought. Enough for now, and thank you for
listening. MarvyG

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[KEN DICKINSON]

Perhaps Marvin we can “listen at the shores of the great silence”? You never know what you might hear! Sometimes, I find, it’s better not to say anything, better just to listen.

Hugs to you both

Ken

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> On Sep 10, 2023, at 10:13 PM, Marvin Glass <marving...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> David... you raise many of the same questions Camus has in much of his

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/poet2/CA%2BK%3D76pJ7fBofwki3zbJDgqb%2BDd9Njs98pkg5VTgYbKFXnE1Dw%40mail.gmail.com.