Sunday, January 20, 2013

If You Give A Little Love, You Will Get A Little Love


there is only one reform in life
and that is to become more loving.
it is so simple to do something kind
or take a moment out of a busy day
to stop and notice what is around us
yet we blindly follow our lives
lost in our thinking
about this or that
and don't see it when
that small gesture
or that passing smile
might not change 
the expression of
life all around.
we are all interconnected
we are one planet and one species
that carries the future 
in our hands,
just pay attention
and you will know
the right thing to do.

Friday, January 18, 2013

The Past Becoming Present

Photograph from Zen Master Bon Yo (Grazyna Perl) of Paris Jan 18, 2013
In black and white, 
these pictures take me back 
to a time and place
long since gone
where the ghosts of
Simone de Beauvoir,
Albert Camus and 
Jean Paul Sartre
gather in a sidewalk cafe
to discuss the meaning life.
or on a more romantic level
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
steal moments of bliss
while bundled tight
against winter's chilling cold.
these were times 
when my parents,
long since gone,
were young and vibrant and alive
and I was not even a dream
for either of them.
the sanctity of our present
when it meets with our past
brings forth a flood of emotion
for a bygone age
I was never part of.
yet here - it is now
alive in these B & W Photographs
from my lovely friend Grazyna Perl
posted on the internet.
thank you for a glimpse
into the present
by way of an emotional link
that brought the past 
clearly into my heart tonight.
I have not been back to Paris 
since 1978
I remember the cafes
the bread and the beer
the vibrant life on the street.
I was young and skinny 
back then
I smoked too much
but I loved fully.
now I am a hermit
living in the desert
old and fat
and knowing that 
life is brilliant 
wherever it appears,
it is a gift of love
that the universe
puts forth each moment.
don't wait
for anything
follow your bliss and the doors
of the universe
that once seemed 
to block the way
will fall away like a bad dream.