Kate Vogt's Blog, page 10

Morning Song

To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate
love ’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the
beloved in your heart and a song of praise
upon your lips.

Kahlil Gibran

 

As the other side of the earth experiences piercing sounds of death and destruction, here the song  birds permeate the air with their sweet melodies.  Their voices are most pronounced in the early morning, bu...

BUTTERFLY – harmonious love

This
Sky
Where we live
Is no place to lose your wings,
So love, love,
Love.

Hafiz
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

The hill was steep.  Experiencing the intensity of walking up its slope, I felt my mind beginning to create storylines about cozy places with a steaming cup of tea in the company of friends.  My mind seemed to be unhappy with my reining those thoughts in with a concurrent focus on process of walking – the earthly terrain beneath my feet, the clear sky above, and the pace of my breath a...

SUNSET – shining the light home

I am a fountain,
You are my water.
I flow from You to You.
I am an eye,
You are my light,
I look from You to You.
You are neither my right nor my left.
You are my foot and my arm as well.
I am a traveler,
You are my road.
I go from You to You.

Zeynep Hatun

Our local neighborhood newsletter has a somewhat surprising addition.  Along with the usual listings of missing pets and discarded items is an enthusiastic lauding of late afternoon and early evening skies.  Comments by others responding to th...

SOIL – Ground of Love

I think God might be a little prejudiced.
For once He asked me to join Him on a walk
through this world,

and we gazed into every heart on this earth,
and I noticed He lingered a bit longer
before any face that was weeping,
and before any eyes that were laughing.

And sometimes when we passed
a soul in worship
God too would kneel down.

I have come to learn:
God adores His creation.

St. Francis of Assisi
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

It is winter now in the northern hemisphere.  Even though the tem...

Squirrel

If you want money more than anything,
you’ll be bought and sold.

If you have a greed for food,
you’ll be a loaf of bread.

This is a subtle truth:
whatever you love, you are.

Rumi
Trans. by Coleman Barks

Wildlife often grazes on a hillside outside our kitchen window.  Yesterday, as I was eating breakfast, a squirrel romped across the hill and then scurried up a tree.  After a few minutes, the squirrel darted back to the ground and began digging up and moving some of its stashes.  I am sure that ...

Heart Wave

Not speaking of the way,
Not thinking of what comes after,
Not questioning name or fame,
Here, loving love,
You and I look at each other.

Yosano Akiko
Translated by Kenneth Rexroth

As the postman rounded the corner in his little white van, he waved.  I raised my arm and moved my hand to and fro, waving back.  A simple exchange between strangers.  Yet, I was taken by the warm, loving sensation that flooded my body as if I were within the currents of this particular wave.   There was a sense of p...

Acorn – tree of life

There ’s a tree that existed before the woods,
in age twice as old.
Its roots suffered as the valley changed,
its leaves deformed by wind and frost.
People all laugh at its withered aspect,
caring nothing about the core ’s beauty.
When the bark is all stripped off,
only essence remains.

Hanshan
Translated by Tony Barnstone

My day began with my hearing a loud pop.  Then another.  And another.   Suspended somewhere between being bewildered and fearful, my mind felt useless.   This was a new sound ...

Ubiquitous Orange – a daily delight

You’re in my eyes.  How else could I see light?
You’re in my brain.  This wild joy.
If love did not live in matter,
how would any place have any hold on anyone?

Rumi
Translator Coleman Barks

 

Orange there.  Orange everywhere.  At our neighbors across the street, pumpkins of all sizes parade along a ledge showing off their shapes and orangish hues.  Further up the hill, persimmons glisten in the morning light.  Monarch butterflies dance through the air with their deep orangish color in contrast ...

Mountain – staying steady

Mountains are steadfast but the mountain streams
go by, go by,
and yesterdays are like the rushing streams,
they fly, they fly,
and the great heroes, famous for a day,
they die, they die.

Hwang Chin-i
Translated by Peter H. Lee

 

With the recent autumn rains, the streams are rushing once again. They bring a reminder of the broader landscape of where of I live.  Wetlands, which spread along the shores of the San Francisco Bay, gently begin to slope upward westerly toward the hillsides, eventually...

Autumn Surrender

What they undertook to do
They brought to pass
All things hang like a drop of dew
Upon a blade of grass.
W.B. Yeats

Signs of autumn are seemingly everywhere.  The sun is setting earlier and rising later.  Cooler temperatures are beginning to settle in.  And, the leaves on the deciduous trees have become so brilliantly red and yellow that I’ve gone searching in my closet for blouses with similar hues, and finding some tucked behind the pastel pinks and blues.  Likewise with food:  the colors are ...