thinking is not perseveration nor rationalizing not nitpicking

 Thinking?

Let’s say thinking is seeing what is passing through.

Thinking is this looking and seeing.

What is.

Passing through.

summer

 arrives

school’s

out

no

more

learning

we watch him fade into incoherent ill-will

 I cannot help my brother’s ignorance

He holds it tight out of reach — he is

Far too comfortable being wrong, we

Are not able to see him, covered as he is

With others’ grief, sorrow, and fear —

While he feels nothing, not caring 

Someone beyond recognition, a

Disappointment too profound to name

absurdus, (deaf, dull, out of tune)

 a sober. moment

Native man speaks about

youth on reservation

hanging themselves

his eyes travel lost distance

as we sit in prison room

talking about the between-

place after death, the business

we have to take care of ourselves

or others will suffer our neglect

and harm for not hearing Creator

Source calling true name 

out 

from 

under 

false

c'est si triste à regarder

For prison tomorrow, Voltaire, here #25 of 38 Oxford Reference:

25. Truly, whoever is able to make you absurd is able to make you unjust.                                Commonly quoted as ‘Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities’  Questions sur les miracles (1765)

Heartbreakingly accurate portrait of our contemporary sorrow. 

if war comes

empty pellegrino 

bottle

on faded

green tibetan rug

scent of white rose 

bush by road 

alone

as if whole 

world here

no reflection

blank mirror

memo from god

 My dear republicans

Stop doing what you’re doing

Even I am getting pissed off

until the see

Bevy of hermits? 

Why not,                                                                                                            

Our lives wither away like grass, but you O Lord are eternal. 

It remains impossible for me to comprehend that here is god, there is god , everywhere is god. And that this Reality is beyond time, beyond space, beyond matter, beyond thought.

So, yeah, let’s all be hermits in the spirit of Romuald.

Romuald (Latin: Romualdus; c. 951 – traditionally 19 June, c. 1025/27 AD)[4] was the founder of the Camaldolese order and a major figure in the eleventh-century "Renaissance of eremitical asceticism".[5] Romuald spent about 30 years traversing Italy, founding and reforming monasteries and hermitages. (Wikipedia)

Wandering ascetics going nowhere, rooted itinerants unsettling down, circumambulating asymmetric mendicants turning in and through dewy mornings — panoply of impersonhood  — hereness itself manifestating and hiding — to appreciate and serve the presence of each!

Ant. 3 Our years wither away like grass, but you, Lord God, are eternal.

Psalm 90
May we live in the radiance of God 
There is no time with God: a thousand years, a single day: it is all one (2 Peter 3:8).

O Lord, you have been our refuge
from one generation to the next.
Before the mountains were born
or the earth or the world brought forth,
you are God, without beginning or end.

You turn men back into dust
and say: “Go back, sons of men.”
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night.

You sweep men away like a dream,
like grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers:
by evening it withers and fades.

So we are destroyed in your anger,
struck with terror in your fury.
Our guilt lies open before you;
our secrets in the light of your face.

All our days pass away in your anger.
Our life is over like a sigh.
Our span is seventy years
or eighty for those who are strong.

And most of these are emptiness and pain.
They pass swiftly and we are gone.
Who understands the power of your anger
and fears the strength of your fury?

Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants.

In the morning, fill us with your love;
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Give us joy to balance our affliction
for the years when we knew misfortune.

Show forth your work to your servants;
let your glory shine on their children.
Let the favor of the Lord be upon us:
give success to the work of our hands,
give success to the work of our hands.

For God’s sake,  help one another!

June 19

Saint Romuald, Abbot

Optional Memorial

Saint Romuald was an Italian hermit born around 950 A.D. The son of aristocratic parents, Saint Romuald indulged as a lavish and thoughtless youth. Shocked by witnessing his father win a duel, Saint Romuald fled to a local abbey and entered religious life. Drawn to eremitic simplicity, he traveled through Italy reforming monasteries and eventually founded the Camaldolese Order. As Saint Peter Damian described, Saint Romuald’s goal was to, “…turn the whole world into a hermitage, and make all the multitude of the people associates of the monastic order.” [1][2] https://divineoffice.org/

Romuald

It’s that “God” thing.

The completely beyond.

The concentric invisibility.

The next thing you look at.

As the zen-hermit sang:

[Chorus]
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind

(Leonard Cohen) 

And all shall be hermits, until the see shall find them, and they sink into your wisdom like a stone.

this breath, then this, then…

 However it is

Just as it is

Our life

Back then

It began, ahead

It will end —Just that

Unsure what

To think — don’t

You won’t know

It has happened

So don’t know

Now — 

hard to know what will kill me

No peanut butter 

today, no Chivers

Marmalade

coffee,

Only

Wires on chest, imaging —

Treadmill, needle insertion

tell us thirty seconds before you collapse

cowbird sits on branch --

I sit by bay window, stress

test done, not yet dead 

objecting to honor

 It seems we are lost

In one man’s delusion, one

Party’s giddiness

i’m not sinning, i’m republican

bulky guys in masks

throw folks to ground, to cars, 

tough guys, flex-strutting --

we watch -- unbelieving -- this

unholy America 

what rough breast

 it's a strange time, strangely slouching

threats to bomb, then bombing

threats to murder, then murdering

laughing at atrocities, US Senator

thinks only political winning matters

world leaders hurl threats and missiles

on civilians and children calling it

the right of national pride to poke

and preen and smile, count money

mock everybody, hurt, hurt with spite

the world is folding in on itself

the anatomy of lies, frail body

depleting democracy’s blood flow

drilling minds with blatant falsehoods

our new spawn of deviant desperation

the orderly harmony of what exists

 doing dishes

listening to The Ethics

(Ethica Ordine 

Geometrico Demonstrata)

(1677) by Benedict de Spinoza

pots, pans, cups, glasses

spoons, knives, forks

(God as non-acting) he says

frying pan overturned on stove

Meyer's dish soap next to faucet

(God can form the idea of his own essence)

I feed cats, prepare dog’s breakfast

here in Maine at foot of Ragged Mtn

far away from seventeenth century

far from Baruch’s thought and agita

Albert Einstein named Spinoza as the philosopher who exerted the most influence on his world view (Weltanschauung). Spinoza equated God (infinite substance) with Nature, consistent with Einstein's belief in an impersonal deity. In 1929, Einstein was asked in a telegram by Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein whether he believed in God. Einstein responded by telegram: "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."^[198][199] Einstein wrote the preface to a biography of Spinoza, published in 1946.^[200] wikipedia

I like to hear people talk about God

It is a tumble worth the conversation 

like the man in prison thinking there is

too much "thinking, thinking, thinking”

(it was final circle, no riposting)

The idea of Jesus being 

"the last Christian, 

except for Spinoza" 

is attributed to 

Friedrich Nietzsche

Me... I’m just doing dishes, cutting grass

thinking about an electric trike

continuing with Baruch de Spinoza

filling black catcher bag with cuttings

Enso watching from dirt under lilac

inter … view

 Q: Do you practice?

A: There’s never a moment . . . I am not . . . practicing.

Q: Could you explain this for us?

A: No. I cannot explain this. This is all there is. It has no explanation.

Q: Do you have anything else to add?

A: There is nothing else to add. There’s nothing between us.

not again

he shot and killed the legislator 

and her husband in Minneapolis 

he shot and seriously wounded 

another legislator and his wife 

in Minneapolis 

they caught him yesterday

I know why he did it --

don't you?

yeah, you know

its the price of eggs

the cost of gasoline

spring rolls and won ton soup

once we get this

there will be no further 

murders, no foolish thinking

I’m happy to be of assistance

we cannot blame everything

on trump, not this ignorance

not this crazy belief that violence

and greed will solve the puzzle of 

making America greatly self-absorbed

hat lamp at 11pm

Two golden specks

Other side of fence

Stare back at me

Final ensō pee

Deer passing by

sometimes, only beauty is the response

 (Japan, photographer Jii Tewari)

invitatory, matins, harden not your hearts

 Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, 

The True God is Unity in Trinity, 

et Trinitátem in Unitáte, 

and Trinity in Unity. 

Veníte, adorémus.

Come, let us worship.

Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, 

The True God is Unity in Trinity, 

et Trinitátem in Unitáte, 

and Trinity in Unity. 

Veníte, adorémus.

Come, let us worship.

(Ps. 94) Veníte, exsultémus Dómino,

(Ps. 94) Come let us praise the Lord with joy:

jubilémus Deo, salutári nostro.

let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.

Præoccupémus fáciem ejus

Let us come before his presence

in confessióne,

in confessióne,

et in psalmis jubilémus ei.

and make a joyful noise to him with psalms. 

Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, 

The True God is Unity in Trinity, 

et Trinitátem in Unitáte, 

and Trinity in Unity. 

Veníte, adorémus.

Come, let us worship.

Quóniam Deus magnus Dóminus,

For the Lord is a great God, 

et rex magnus super omnes deos.

and a great King above all gods. 

Quóniam non repéllet Dóminus plebem suam,

For the Lord will not cast off his people: 

quia in manu ejus sunt omnes fines terræ,

for in his hand are all the ends of the earth, 

et altitúdines móntium ipse cónspicit.

and the heights of the mountains are his. 

Quóniam ipsíus est mare,

For the sea is his, 

et ipse fecit illud,

and he made it: 

et áridam fundavérunt manus ejus.

and his hands formed the dry land. 

Veníte, adorémus, et procidámus ante Deum,

Come let us adore and fall down: 

plorémus coram Dómino, qui fecit nos,

and weep before the Lord that made us: 

quia ipse est Dóminus, Deus noster, 

For he is the Lord our God: 

nos autem pópulus ejus,

and we are the people of his pasture 

et oves páscuæ ejus.

and the sheep of his hand. 

Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, 

The True God is Unity in Trinity, 

et Trinitátem in Unitáte, 

and Trinity in Unity. 

Veníte, adorémus.

Come, let us worship.

Hódie, si vocem ejus audiéritis:

Today if you shall hear his voice, 

«Nolíte obduráre corda vestra,

harden not your hearts: 

sicut in exacerbatióne secúndum diem tentatiónis in desérto:

As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: 

ubi tentavérunt me patres vestri:

where your fathers tempted me, 

probavérunt et vidérunt ópera mea.

they proved me, and saw my works.

Veníte, adorémus.

Come, let us worship.

Quadragínta annis próximus fui generatióni huic, et dixi:

Forty years long was I offended with that generation, 

and I said: 

Semper hi errant corde.

These always err in heart. 

Ipsi vero non cognovérunt vias meas:

And these men have not known my ways: 

quibus jurávi in ira mea:

so I swore in my wrath 

Si introíbunt in réquiem meam.»

that they shall not enter into my rest.

Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, 

The True God is Unity in Trinity, 

et Trinitátem in Unitáte, 

and Trinity in Unity. 

Veníte, adorémus.

Come, let us worship.

Glória Patri, et Fílio, 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, 

et Spirítui Sancto.

and to the Holy Spirit.

Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper,

As it was in the beginning, is now,

et in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.

and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Veníte, adorémus.

Come, let us worship.

Deum verum, unum in Trinitáte, 

The True God is Unity in Trinity, 

et Trinitátem in Unitáte, 

and Trinity in Unity. 

Veníte, adorémus.

Come, let us worship

(—from Neumz, feast of trinity )