C.M. Rivers
~Now Flowing~
Tag: Inspiration
Stanley Kunitz’s Poem “The Layers”
The Layers By Stanley Kunitz I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray. When I look behind, as I am compelled… Continue Reading “Stanley Kunitz’s Poem “The Layers””
Pilgrimage
All day long, I see things a painter would paint. What is there to complain about? Even my own pain has been endured by thousands before me, and depicted by master sculptors. Pilgrimage, penance, failure, learning to hold one’s self tenderly, in friendship –… Continue Reading “Pilgrimage”
Basho’s Traveling Companion
On the jade-colored plate, yellow fruit. Between the window and folding screen, a bed, some clothing. In the stillness of the forest, water flowing. On the mountainside, plum blossoms. In the rain and mud, wild horses. From a bowl in the hermit’s shelter, steam… Continue Reading “Basho’s Traveling Companion”
Big Sur
A whale spouted by and I dreamt of the story my life could tell. I remembered many loved and lost, I received the world, had a conversation with the cosmos. A whale spouted by, the vastness deepened. I sat, hands in lap, left over… Continue Reading “Big Sur”
Dragon Gates
While drinking cold tea from a glass jar and dividing your thoughts between Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Neruda, you cut a kiwi in half the long way and consider the oval ring of black seeds at its heart. You always see Our Lady Of… Continue Reading “Dragon Gates”
Merlyn
The mountains are alive with fire, transcendent breath, vigorous and endless. Though they have been given a name, a part of them will always be nameless, and I could say the same about myself. I heed the call, after all, of mist-laden glades. I… Continue Reading “Merlyn”
Old Inuit Song
I think over again my small adventures, my fears, those small ones that seemed so big, for all the vital things I had to get and to reach. And yet there is only one great thing, the only thing. To live to see the… Continue Reading “Old Inuit Song”
Alchemy
The peacock struts around eating things that are brightly colored: plants, insects and snakes. Much of what it eats is poisonous. May we learn to move closer to pain, invite in the Lady of Sorrows to sit it at our table, as… Continue Reading “Alchemy”
Real Time
What have we been, in the very ground of our being? What might we become? These questions are of past and future. In trying to answer them, we will not find peace. Carry the wind of the present in your heart and you will… Continue Reading “Real Time”
Order from Homebound Publications to Support Global Reforestation and Independent Publishing
Add “How To Carry Soup” to Your Goodreads List
“If every 8-year-old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.” – Dalai Lama
“May I be the tiniest nail in the house of the universe. Tiny, but useful.” – Mary Oliver
“Who has not felt the urge to throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence.” John Muir
