Month: August 2017

POLONAISE

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

ballet dancer en point in imitation of Winged Victory
upholding her billowing banner

long-winged owl in flight

the double-yellow banded highway
entering green Romance

safe and dry before the deluge

will she dive into the pool
or just jump
after posing with her arms outstretched

“overwhelmed” or “swamped” fits the bill better these days

or remains locked up within synapses of thy cranium and heart
the little mysteries complicate our existence
give it minor excitement or turmoil

behind the apricot, white grape, and plum tomato
sake labels

a long flat stone
spans the meandering pond
of a Japanese garden

passing the gift-energy

oh, how you, too, bound eastward

this scream
from cascading streams
together, on fragile new wings
surely left out some news

to find rumors about us subsiding

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see the full set of Partitas, click here.

DOWNHILL FROM THE HEART

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Beethoven’s chamber pot beside the piano
revealed a man truly engrossed in his work
when there was nothing else to touch.

Not even another Zelda Fitzgerald, seeking
a Daddy-Daddy-Daddy who
never was what she’s expected
nor was I.

It was all downhill
from the heart.

She rather melted away, like the music,
at the end of the page,

while I expected another.

To continue, click here.
Copyright 2015

LIFE BEFORE DEATH

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I’ve come to believe that our faith should enhance life, rather than deny it, but what I see too often in the lives of many religious people is the reverse. In other words, true religion should bring us freedom, not bondage.

Well, it’s obvious that our brother has slipped back into bondage, under the deception of seeing it as freedom. For whatever reasons, I’ve felt that his one lifeline has been the route to Quail Lane, and that the Lord was calling him to follow. If he set out on it and then turned away, it would be ten times harder for him to make the effort again – both his stubborn pride and a sense of unworthiness, guilt, or whatever, arising from having failed to be faithful to the calling, block his yielding. Whatever demons torment him, there’s one that makes him fear some aspect of Jack, especially; my guess is that he needs to be confronted with something in a very loving and yet powerful way, and he has known for some time that the labor will entail pain, even if the effort will in the long run be well worth it. Whatever Jack has to offer, he appears to be the one Friend who can stand up to our brother and the demons. (So much for Jnana’s pop psychology/exorcism.)

His present lacking a motorcycle is encouraging news. My major concern at the moment comes from a fear that he has returned to his old drug habits and culture. The recent job history seems to point in that direction.

~*~

For more Seasons of the Spirit, click here.

WORKS, WORTH

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

not by intent, exactly, when repairing rotten sill
and ripping away needless wires
strung overhead, but under the floor

at times, a two-man job, with banter

still, keep an eye open for the unanticipated byproduct
in this case, a jest
envisioning a beer and wine cellar under the kitchen

nothing fancy, but acknowledging
the homebrew art
and gratitude for a place to age bottles decently
as for the wine, a house rule price limit
imposed by a glutted market

in season, the bulkhead would open its wings
on the shaded grilling garden, to the north,
or its cavern of contemplation within

a place of solitude and spiders
Squirrel would frequent

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see the full set of Home Maintenance poems, click here.

 

NOMADS

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Some cultures believe a man’s spirit exists in the soil of one’s ancestors. My grandmother’s ground furnished my own, with her muddled knowledge extended in part through Grandpa. But I never knew Mom’s parents, who had been born in other states. Here, though, apart from the Indians, we are all nomads. Many of us, spiritless nomads.

~*~

In this Census round I ponder multiple categories of Hispanics: Mexican, Mexican-American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, other Spanish, Hispanic. Also, some of the other categories I keep encountering in the Valley: Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Hawaiian, Guamanian, Samoan, Eskimo, Aleut, other (specify). Indian (Amer.) print tribe.

I have no idea what I am other than a homogenous WASP. English? German? Norwegian? Czech? Not a clue.

Kokopelli, for his part, is offended there are no distinctions between Hopi and Navajo, even if he’d checkmark both and a few more.

For more insights from the American Far West and Kokopelli, click here.

PRELUDE & FUGUE 38/

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

 

in a salt marsh
in a lush gorge
against a glacier

*   *   *

at sunrise twelve horses
set out far below
a totem pole at sunrise in a salt marsh

horses set out below a totem pole
of twelve waterfowl trumpeting

at sunrise, yes, twelve horses
set out far below waterfowl
in a salt marsh

graze for yourself in a lush gorge
the agenda opens rhododendron
or a bald eagle on ash-covered slope

growling, yes, rhododendron openly graze
in a lush gorge under the bald eagle
the agenda of fish covering a slope

there, the rhododendron blooms
growl in the lush night, in its  gorge
the agenda you graze, hovering

no bald eagle on ash-covered slope
growls its agenda on ash-covered
rhododendron grazing into night

~*~

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see all 50 Preludes & Fugues, click here.

AT HEART

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

waging peace
restores harmony
uncovers common values where only conflicts
and differences in appearance surface
steps outside dominant viewpoints
teaches children alternatives to consumerism
which is self-centered at its core
engenders instead the practice of doing good work
reveals to us the unfavorable implications “God bless America”
extends to the rest of the world

O Holy One, waging peace reaches
to alienated people
envisions a holistic economy
embraces scholarship and meaningful labor
recasts globalization
to profit people in general rather multinational corporations
and powerful elites
fosters democracy and equality
rather poverty and powerlessness

*   *   *

Christ’s profound message of peace and justice
is seldom presented fully, much less heard or understood

each person needs to be respected and loved first
as a child of God, at heart

Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
To see the full set, click here.

EMPHASIZING THE LIVING WORD

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

One point Quakers have emphasized is that the Word of God is Christ rather than the Bible. It’s a point made clear in the first chapter of the gospel of John, where what is often translated as the Word – or the Greek philosophical concept of Logos – was made flesh and dwelled among us.

Fundamentalists, in contrast, insist the Word is the book, usually in a King James translation, or so it seems.

Some Christians, aware of the difference, will speak of the Living Word, meaning Christ, on one hand, and the Written Word or some variation, on the other.

The consequences of these differing understandings can be drastic.

In his book Seekers Found: Atonement in Early Quaker Experience, Douglas Gwyn cites another criticism of those who claim their religious authority springs from Scripture. Summarizing John 5:45-47, he says: “Moses, the legendary author of the Torah, will be the witness against those who have staked their salvation and spiritual authority upon Scripture.” It’s a remarkable turn in the argument. Moses, after all, had met the Holy One in the Burning Bush. There was something much more compelling than the written words to draw upon.

It was a first-hand experience rather than a retelling. For Friends, of course, the Holy One was (and is) present in Meeting for Worship and in faithful daily life.

Quakers advanced another concept they called gospel order, which was living in that faithful daily awareness. Again, citing Gwyn, the pivotal early Quaker George Fox “wrote of gospel order as the restoration of the relations between man and woman in Eden before the Fall.” For Friends, this became the basis for allowing women to establish and manage their own Meetings for Business at a time when the very idea was scandalous.

It all points to another central point of dialogue: the source of authority in our various identities and practices. These understandings are important, I sense, because they can profoundly affect our outlook on life itself and the ways we live within it.

And yes, no matter how much we might “question authority,” at some point we still need meaningful structure in direction – individually and collectively. Just where do you find it, in your own experience?

~*~

More of my own reflections on alternative Christianity are found at Religion Turned Upside Down.

WE AGE ALONG THE WAY

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Being mindful of what’s right in front of us can always be a challenge. Here are 10 new items from my end.

~*~

  1. One definition of high summer for me: going to the beach for a swim at low tide and then stopping at the commercial fish distributor on the way home to pick out three lobsters followed by a stop at a farm a bit down the road for a dozen ears of corn picked just that morning. We’re soon feasting in the Smoking Garden, no problem making a mess. You know, the one-pot cooking thing for starters.
  2. Someone’s cell phone goes off during worship, insisting “Please say a command.” On the page of the open Bible next to me is an answer, “That your joy be complete” (Jesus, in the gospel of John). Who’s to argue? Not a bad command, is it?
  3. Falling walnuts hit the roof of our kitchen and sound like falling limbs or falling wooden boxes. Just where are our squirrels?
  4. The joys of a sharp black fountain pen, excising a draft to lace.
  5. There’s a restless in the core of our Seed. Usually, we try running from it. In silent worship, we stop to face it.
  6. As a writer, I’m an orphan. And yes, so is the Lone Ranger, once unmasked at the mirror.
  7. How deeply productivity is built into my psyche!
  8. Inspired by Richard Brown Lethem’s painting “Wink/Blue Table,” I like the idea of a poem or story being its own table rather than representing something else. Even as its own Table of Contents. (Where he’s a monkey, I’m a squirrel – rather than the hawk I’d envisioned.)
  9. “Closure victimizes thought” – Donald Revell on John Ashbery.
  10. Step on a nail in the garden. What a sore sole the next day! In contrast to sore soul.

~*~

They're everywhere.
They’re everywhere.