Oh to be a pear tree

Oh to be a pear tree—any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her? Nothing in the place nor in her grandma's house answered her. She searched as much of the world as she could from the top of the front steps and then went down to the front gate and leaned over to gaze up and down the road. Looking, waiting, breathing short with impatience. Waiting for the world to be made.

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Again she thought of a pear

Again she thought of a pear—not the everyday gritty kind that hung on the tree in the backyard, but the fine kind sold on trains and at high prices, each pear with a paper cone wrapping it—beautiful, symmetrical, clean pears with thin skins, with snow-white flesh so juicy and tender that to eat one baptized the whole face, and so delicate that while you urgently ate the first half, the second half was already beginning to turn brown. To all fruits, and especially to those fine pears, something happened—the process was so swift, you were never in time for them. It's not the flowers that are fleeting, [she] thought, it's the fruits—it's the time when things are ready that they don't stay. She even went through the rhyme, "Pear tree by the garden gate, How much longer must I wait"—thinking it was the pears that asked it, not the picker.

Eudora Welty, "Moon Lake," The Golden Apples

Pear Tree

 

Silver dust
lifted from the earth,
higher than my arms reach,
you have mounted.
O silver,
higher than my arms reach
you front us with great mass;

no flower ever opened
so staunch a white leaf,
no flower ever parted silver
from such rare silver;

O white pear,
your flower-tufts,
thick on the branch,
bring summer and ripe fruits
in their purple hearts.

H.D.

the practice of being

“Your action, what you do, depends on who you are. The quality of your action depends on the quality of your being. Suppose you want to offer happiness to someone. You are eager to make a person happy. This is a good idea, but if you yourself are not happy, you can’t do it. To make another person happy you have to be happy yourself. So there is a link between doing and being. If you don’t succeed in being, you can’t succeed in doing.
Happiness becomes possible when we realize we have a path, when we know where we are going … Happiness is feeling you are on the right path every moment, you don’t need to arrive at the end of the path to be happy. You are happy right here and right now.
…
Look at the tree in the front yard: the tree doesn’t seem to do anything. It just stands there, vigorous, fresh, and beautiful, and everyone benefits from it. That is the miracle of being. If a tree is less than a tree, all of us will be in trouble. If a tree can be a real tree, there is hope, there is joy.
So if you can be yourself, that is already love, that is already action. Action is based on nonaction, and nonaction is the practice of being.”



Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Power (2007)

a um amor repetido

Até ao fim


Hoje sim,
a transparência
deixa ver no céu
mil estrelas,
fumo lá fora
na sombra
da nogueira na parede,
risca uma estrela esta noite,
alumiando desejos.


Exultando tua ausência,
presa ao sentido de mim,
peço agora novo amor
mais silêncio
menos susto,
sabendo embora que tu
ficavas até ao fim.

Prayer, Mountaintop Way

Restore all for me in beauty,
Make beautiful all that is before me,
Make beautiful all that is behind me,
Make beautiful my words.
It is done in beauty.
It is done in beauty.
It is done in beauty.
It is done in beauty.


de um postal entre dois amigos literários

revolt

"Revolt itself is a reference and tribute to the potency of what is left behind."

Eudora Welty, "Place in Fiction" (1956)

compassion

Peace and compassion go hand in hand with understanding and non-discrimination. We choose one thing over another when we discriminate. With the eyes of compassion, we can look at all living reality at once. A compassionate person sees himself or herself in every being. With the ability to view reality from many viewpoints, we can overcome all viewpoints and act compassionately in each situation. This is the highest meaning of the word "reconciliation."

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Sun My Heart

pure joy

I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!

Louise Bogan

condensação

as árvores chamam
a chuva do céu:
que desça redonda
em nosso quintal agora

serviço

fui eu que escolhi o meu serviço de porcelana, oferta de uma fada madrinha. é lindíssimo! ainda o ofereci para usufruto a duas amigas com estilo, mas o espaço das casas desaconselha mais pratos... encaixotado chávena a chávena, bule a terrina, vai ficar guardado, até...
tantos objectos a transportar nesta vida. tal peso nos carrega.

mudanças

o milagre da multiplicação dos caixotes

Cântico

Sou serei serás chama vibrante viva vária
crescendo agora o espaço avanço
pelas galáxias movente
caminho estelar.

Do princípio falo,
vestido meu manto
de mil teares dizendo
a força formosa da mão:

Amado amigo, irmã
que desde sempre nos tempos almejaste chegar,
fica onde vais que já lá estás nessa morada,
além da meta: entre as paredes do mar
sobem alturas entre os rochedos
do céu se abrem rotas.

Desdobra as faldas de teu coração em mil e
tal número te levará onde procuras,
onde já estás desde o início.
Entrega ao receber.
Abre as portas da cozinha e
alimenta os filhos do teu coração nesta terra.

Nascem brotos verdes
na primavera prenha
enchem-se os ares de cânticos alados,
dentro e fora caminham pássaros, laranjas,
até ao sol vestido de sedas no mundo,
lírios verdejando prados, abertos os rios, as fontes ricas de mel.

Libertem da mágoa vossa garganta,
bem amados,
soltem as asas do centro,
vosso caminho ao voo.

Porque duvidas cerrando as vigas do coração?
Porque te escondes na vergonha,
apodrecendo dotes em circunstante mágoa
alimentada por dúvida ou preguiça
que fura de lado a lado o estômago rasa?
Quebram-se os degraus da escada quando cais,
quando escolhes ficar aquém da seta, irmão.

Vem, veste o vigor de tua entrega,
nada temas, repito, pois
é teu pai quem guia os passos,
tua mãe colhe agasalho,
e os anjos em carreira te seguem
volteando pelos céus ascenso.

Abre a arca do teu peito
ao trigo cheio da seara
ao leito do mar murmúreo:
até mim que sou tu,
nós em alcance repetido.

São as veias rios brotando à nascente,
todas as fontes cantam teu louvor, irmão,
que assim corres tal passo inteiro à luz.

Abril-Julho 2009

a porta do mapa

para onde vamos neste caminhar abrindo portas mais além, a escolha

de sol

na orla do mar ao pico da luz
sou um corpo astral de sol

do ar ao chão

raízes para andar. caminho para crescer, do ar ao chão.

amplitude

a amplitude do movimento interior, dinâmica de crescente abertura, leva o refluxo a um ponto cada vez mais aberto. e quando se manifesta o medo, é mais curto seu raio, afectando o trabalho de expansão num reduzido perímetro apenas.

tuas asas

deste centro crescem tuas asas, irmã. deste mesmo universo girando

vuelva a mí toda virgen

De Ayer para Hoy

Después de este desorden impuesto, de esta prisa,
de esta urgente gramática necesaria en que vivo,
vuelva a mí toda virgen la palabra precisa,
virgen el verbo exacto con el justo adjetivo.

Que cuando califique de verde al monte, al prado,
repitiéndole al cielo su azul como a la mar,
mi corazón se sienta recién inaugurado
y mi lengua el inédito asombro de crear.

Rafael Alberti
(Entre el Clavel y la Espada, 1939-1940)

o pino

meio dia
o sol faz
o pino