Napkin poem after seeing one of many of these little wonders (green chested hummingbird-wonders contained and unstrained!) today:

a little friend-florescent green hummingbird
came by again today, or suddenly appeared- darting here and there as always at will;
how many decisions you make
in an instant
which take me so long
to consider friend…and you
left an impression
on the cherry tree early blossoms-
parting them windlessly in discernment of your unexpected ways-
and me too. Thanks, decisive tiny one,
in motion in all directions at once-like a sheer imploded streak
on sky’s canvas today. A mini-firework for pleasure, you are.
May i be a color blade or sudden streak like you one day
growing grass in sky in all directions at once
at will. Until then
thanks for being you
little friend.

Certifications, i received in the mail this week (for ascending to Jerusalem repeatedly -from their mayor no less- and planting an olive tree in the land: gotta be certified for something! Therapy is easy, ascending while you’re planting is hard! As I’m sure someone must’ve said by now. But life’s that type of tight rope!

To plant an olive tree may be practically more important than to have ascended to Jerusalem, but I’ve been blessed to do both, and am thankful. I think that city and that olive tree will certainly out last me, and hopefully provide peace and shade to many, eventually!

Of course, with Jerusalem, i did more than ascend, i worked and lived there for a season, and have returned often. So I’m a return pilgrim, having ascended often.

But, still happy that I’m a certified pilgrim, and olive tree planter, as it turns out! I’m ok with that. I’ll put that on my cards.

He was a creative pilgrim and planted an olive tree or two among the nations, would be a fine tombstone. Although it may cost too much to put all that on there. Alas, just put, he loved many deeply. And planted some trees along the way.

Regardless any certificate of authenticity is fine by me! I’ve tried to live authentically! And happy to receive titles noticing my attempt. God seems to like us when we’re just being ourselves!

Noah in the ark:
I’m waiting, for this bird to return-
the one i sent in hope this morning; my wife’s nervous, and
we are fragile in here-cooped up and tired
but drinking wine, we made together.
i’m hoping to plant next-got some young vines in the cellar (some Beaujolais which will surely become vintage!), writing poems, and alive still…38th day on unseen waters…
and my wife is more lovely than ever in this deluge lighting-brings out her blue curves;
and my kids, well, they’ll make it
if this bird ever returns! I’m sure it will, it’s just a question of when at this point.
In the meantime, i’m feeding animals, got to know all their names by now!
And I’m, getting ready to plant my vineyard
when it all recedes. And God is still good
and these animals are wonders i keep
learning life from. And my family, well
i never loved them more than now.
And my wife, well, that’s a poem God
put in my hand, or slipped into my pocket,
before all this, and my own birth, and all these
endless floods of waiting.
And I think i know the Torah
by heart now, so we should be fine.

The speed of my dreams lately:
These days, I have lots going in the Spirit, and my dream life- it’s like a sped up animated Chagall painting. I have to interpret the symbols as fast as they are produced. Like watching a painter, paint in “real” time! Good art interpretation practice though. I’m getting in creative shape these days, at least! It’s like accelerated dream interpretation (for dummies, evidently!)

Believing is seeing, but also seeing well is believing! If we see things as they really are, we find ourselves loving them! Today’s hypothesis.

“Believing is seeing.” St Augustine said. You have to believe in order to see, as in fairy tales, which is why kids usually know more-that is, they see the context behind the text, more of what is really around us! The prophets were the same—they saw the angels in the sky as they looked at the normal day.
But I would also say, that you have to see well to know something. Or, as Martin Buber put it, “seeing is in the “I” of the beholder! To what degree I engage with you, i will encounter you.
If i see you as you truly are, i will certainly love you, or as CS Lewis pointed out, if we really saw one another in our glory, it would be like seeing angels all around us. Good vision leads to good knowing. Love of course is the ultimate inner camera lens, I always try to carry with me.

“At the end of his life, he only wrote poetry!” My favorite line today. The fellow had disappeared into his own lines….or become them!

Julio’s house
parrots and little models of buildings
and artifacts from poland and argentina
always a stew on
and mask workshops
and some artist dancing by themselves
we talked all night often
about it all
then improved into morning
when he died, i got his rainbow cape
(no less dull than Joseph’s I’m sure)
who knows how he had inherited it himself
but it still shone
like an art father does way into night, one
who never really dies.
he had brooms with two ends
both brooms
so one could switch it around for fun or cleaning two things at once, he would say.
I wasn’t sure it was practical. He laughed, you, who are too much balloon
and not enough potato, are talking to me about what’s practical…we would go on like this for hours; chaggal liked floating things, even violins,
but there were always potato farmers, like Van Gogh’s, nearby!
he had woodpiles he left
with single pieces of colored glass mixed in
to look like logs
so someone
would eventually notice them
there among the rest, ready to burn
he taught me
to read wooden table grain
as if everything were a potential collage
with intrinsic meaning in the grain.
his grandfather was a rabbi in Poland
so we talked Torah often
but that’s not what i recall most
it was dancing with the man in the woods
behind his magical house trying to awaken
one another to live well.
i still wish i had one of those two ended brooms
for sweeping clear everything at once, i’m sure.

You (bear tree in a pandemic and me)

The bear tree is still here on the next familiar ridge, staring out over bay waters with me and You (cresting over us both face to face like a crazy unmasked lover!);
all the people are hiding now until the coast is clear again to be;
to unmask, we must be with Thee;
but in the meantime, the bear and I sit together staring out at sea with You
and we are not afraid to be, even now, because of who we are with.

The evening birds today sang as themselves, one by one and together.
I listened and responded with my own sort of song.
They
seemed to like it, and we all left less interrupted i think,
Having together made a soundtrack for the sunset.

Reading my favorite prophet Jeremiah again today (Jeremiah 33)-my take away was a rope of Hope lassoed to Love! Sorry, i get little mini-homilies when i read on Sundays! Must be in my blood.

Jeremiah was looking out over a ruined city, still cindering, and a nation, still in tumult, and, after having lamented long, prophesied restoration and healing.

What a weird time to proclaim Joy, and wedding laughter. That the sound of party laughter would return. That all the scatted animals would one day come home!

Our times are very similar to Jeremiah’s! His life and times are a map for me.

Also Jeremiah represented what a real human was meant to be doing during such times of tumult and shaking. Lament with God, and proclaim hope and restoration, based on who God is. Woe and Hope go together in God. Woe with Hope! That hope rope he threw them is still needed!

Suffering while still tethered to Love’s endlessly long rope of Hope, is the way forward. Let’s throw one another Jeremiah’s hope rope these days.

This guy, in his personal life, was in a pit once, and and african man threw him one. As we look at the ruins, let’s prophecy hope, healing and restoration in one another’s direction friends.

Let’s overtly care about one another’s lives. Let’s go out of our way to rescue one another from the pits we find ourselves in-even, and especially the mental pits.

Let’s lasso one another away from hopelessness and depression, from unnecessary contentions, from useless cynicisms given the hope of healing and restoration; and, instead let’s lasso that Horse of Hope galloping forward in the strength of Love which pulls us out from all our wells of darkness, and ride it home! At least, that’s how Jeremiah rolled in his times! Jeremiah was tethered to something Higher! He was a prophetic cowboy in that sense! Let’s lasso the stars friends while stuck in the mud!