Archive for the ‘Exisitentialism’ Category
Wildflowers on Mt. Lemmon, Santa Catalina Mountains — Images by kenne
What is the late November doing
With the disturbance of the spring
And creatures of the summer heat,
And snowdrops writhing under feet
And hollyhocks that aim too high
Red into grey and tumble down
Late roses filled with early snow?
Thunder rolled by the rolling stars
Simulates triumphal cars
Deployed in constellated wars
Scorpion fights against the sun
Until the Sun and Moon go down
Comets weep and Leonids fly
Hunt the heavens and the plains
Whirled in a vortex that shall bring
The world to that destructive fire
Which burns before the ice-cap reigns
— from Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot
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“Global Warming” — Photo-Artistry by kenne
“Maybe it’s not about a happy ending.
Maybe it’s about the story.”
— Albert Camus
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Sunrise On Wildhorse Trail (Saguaro National Park – East) — Image by kenne
“Knowledge of that which concerns us infinitely
is possible only in an attitude of infinite concern.”
― Paul Tillich
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nearlywildcamping.org
If you are not, then you are dead!
— kenne
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Thomas R. Turner (May 23, 1942–November 13, 2014) — Photo-Artistry by kenne
This posting is the sixth, and last, I will be sharing from a long poem written by Tom
sometime around 1980 after his wife left him. Today is the fifth anniversary of his death.
24 to Harwood and Cropsy: No Road Back Home
(Taken from a Brooklyn Bus Route and the Title of a Blues Album.)
The nuances between us were scattered with the
January snows of Peter's arrival.
Ambiguities, second starts and brokendreams were too
Tangled up in Blue to
Cut to the exact place on the page where our rhythm had
Broken.
I'm not that young any more.
"Get off your stagnant ass and do something."
The scenario years later would speak.
The Pacific Northwest and a three quarter profile statement
Echoing out Denny's window
Why I never got a job during all those summers.
Only the facts she put to me.
I couldn't keep in step with the definitions you
Dreamed.
We speculated endlessly in different directions
Whether our togethrness might might imaginable be framed
From inside so that the usual connection between lover
And lover and loved and loved would be interchangeable but
Paradoxically unchanging.
(For my benefit, I suppose)
Was the fiction of my eroticism so damn necessary?
Somewhere I glimpsed you
Coming at me; balancing cryptic hats . . .
Laughing comic confusion.
Now I never see you anymore.
The summers are much colder tha used to be
In that other time, when you and I were young.
I miss the human truth of your smile;
The half-hearted gaze of your voice and all the things
That you'll always be to me.
Only thee is no comic relief
Just a
Curious translation of cracked nostalgia.
But lets
Skip the arguments.
I already know how the story ends:
A-not-so-crytic-message:
Don't be naive
You could only gaze into the distance at my life.
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Thomas R. Turner (May 23, 1942–November 13, 2014) — Photo-Artistry by kenne
This posting is the fourth of several I will be sharing from a long poem written by Tom
sometime around 1980 after his wife left him. Today is the fifth anniversary of his death.
24 to Harwood and Cropsy: No Road Back Home
(Taken from a Brooklyn Bus Route and the Title of a Blues Album.)
Closely watched trains came and went without me without us
I somehow missed you
Eyes have a way.
After love with my caliban sweat and noises
A vacant resentment would knife
From glares askance
First seen in the pain of Vanessa-labor.
And this is what happens when you love someone?
Progeny and sunburn haired sensualness
Prefaced Rare-Earth and a student nurse.
The ideology of lesbos intimacy had
Clandestinely raised its latent head.
But it doesn't matter anymore.
(You were the poet in my heart)
91st street was the end
Wasn't it?
Curious how our windows are always steamed-up
On Autumnal days.
(Was ANYTHING central?)
The "is-this-all-there-is" syndrome sums up the
Period: Existentialist discontent
With a walk-up duplex decor.
A matter-of-fact sexuality
Presaged a psychic-incarnation I couldn't see.
Lisa brought home a metamorphosis I didn't
Realize.
They cut your "tubes" after she came and that was that.
Funny how I thought even then that is was
All a matter of hormonal imbalance. Shit!
And what about you?
Paradoxes betray the limits of logic
Not of the reality we shared.
Your "passion" was stillborn though so damn necessary.
A dissolution of absence into substance sucked
Screaming through a Rimbaud-Day-On-Fire.
I could't laugh enough for the
Frivolity she needed but detested.
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Sunset January 22, 2019 — Image by kenne
We can speak without voice to the trees and
the clouds and the waves of the sea.
Without words, they respond through the rustling of leaves and
the moving of clouds and the murmuring of the sea.
— Paul Tillich
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Cactus Wren — Photo-Artistry by kenne
People demand freedom of speech
as a compensation
for the freedom of thought
which they seldom use.
— Soren Kierkegaard
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Follow the Narrow Trail (The Tucson Mountains) — Image by kenne
No Name Trails
My trails don’t always have a name.
They are the ones on which I roam
Gathering new views to capture
Sharing with others who read books
And write poems on the earth and sky.
— kenne
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Mt. Lemmon Trail — Image by kenne
Each day I try to develop myself beyond the conventional level of existence. I transcend the light of being through threads of space and time allowing me to see truth in different reflections. Most people adopt on view for the sake of security. I prefer to use all views than to maintain artificial boundaries to have one view. By utilizing all views, I can know the truth in much the same way I come to know a butterfly, a wildflower. To do otherwise is to limit oneself to what is always true.
As I shift a point of view, I have the freedom to transcend any actuality which I may encounter. By doing so, I’m able to accept the freedom and responsibility of being human and become more authentic in my expression, therefore better able to actualize my existence. By being flexible in my point of view, I’m better able to include as much of reality as possible.
— kenne
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Image by kenne
home is where I am
home is not where I am
always in between
I am an island of consciousness
I have a cosmic consciousness
always in between
life is now
death is now
always in between
existence is being
existence is becoming
always in between
I am free
I am in prison
always in between
everything is implicit
everything is explicit
always in between
nature is an artifact
nature is art
always in between
nature must be trusted
nature must be mastered
always in between
humans are good
humans are bad
always in between
a sense of law
a sense of equity
always in between
there is a natural order
there is no order in nature
always in between
life has purpose
life is purposeless
always in between
— kenne
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House Wren — Grunge Art by kenne
“. . . an artistic technique is discipline in spontaneity and spontaneity in discipline.”
— Alan W. Watts
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Blooming Century Plant (Agave) — Computer Painting by kenne
Sonoran Monsoon Season
The monsoon season is here.
Triple digit temperatures,
with cool mornings and
daylight at 5:00 a.m. —
perfect for a morning run,
as the sun rises casting
long shadows and silhouettes
of white-winged doves atop
the giant saguaro cactus.
Many years ago we
took a risk on love,
then seven years ago
we took a risk on life and
moved to the Sonora Desert.
Many thought we were crazy,
maybe we were at the time,
after all, what is life
without some risk.
Seven years of desert monsoons
have brought us closer to nature,
now more connected to life
we appreciate each day
and the opportunities
to continue taking risks,
increasing our capacity
to live life in unsuspected and
unpredictable ways.
— kenne
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Bug Springs Trail Landscape — Black & White Image by kenne
Silent knowledge —
the spirit is enlightened of itself.
Contemplate the void:
this world exceeds stillness.
— from Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, by Gary Snyder
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Somewhere in the Santa Catalina Mountains Continuing the Process of Becoming
I may not know where the trail leads,
which is what inspires me to take it.
Knowing and Not-Knowing
We are all concerned with our competence and the competence of others. Most people are interested in being more competent and surrounding themselves with competent people. The key to our level of competence is our level of knowledge.
In Zen practice, knowledge involves the interplay between knowing and not-knowing. It is important, however, not to conclude that not-knowing means you don’t know. Not-knowing means not being limited to what you know.
Maybe things are this way, but maybe they are not. (Philosophically, it can be important to help people realize what they do not know, is a necessary part of knowledge. But such a paradoxical thought, from a learning and teaching point of view, is confronted with the inarticulate expertise of not knowing that you know is a dead end. Thus, we are left with the only position for developing competence being that of knowing what you know.)
Accessing information can help us in cultivating our interplay between knowing and not-knowing. As an information seeker and frequent Internet search person, I know we can find information on all things thinkable. Today we have access to more information than ever before, but not all information is reliable.
In an earlier blog entry, I shared some thoughts on “Teaching in the Age of Google.” If you have a question; want to know how to do something; want to learn how something works; research a topic, well, just “Google It!” But, how do we determine who are the reliable authorities?
kenne
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