a star on the horizon of my heart

Ever in my life have I sought thee with my songs. 

It was they who led me from door to door, 

and with them have I felt about me, 

searching and touching my world.

It was my songs that taught me all the lessons I ever learnt; 

they showed me secret paths, 

they brought before my sight many a star on the horizon of my heart.

They guided me all the day long to the mysteries of the country of pleasure and pain, 

and, at last, 

to what palace gate have they brought me in the evening at the end of my journey?

~ Rabindranath Tagore

art by van gogh

are animals thinking and feeling?

~ Carl Safina

the green cookstove

A lonely man once sat on a large flat stone.

When he lifted it, he saw a kitchen: a green

Enamel range with big claw feet, familiar.

Someone lives in that room, cooking and cackling.

"I saw her once," Virgil said. "She was Helen's

Younger sister."  Helen's betrayed husband

Sits by the window, peeling garlic cloves,

And throwing crusts to Plymouth Rocks.

We'll never understand this, Somewhere below

The flat stone of the skull, a carnivorous couple

Lives and plans future wars.  Are we innocent?

These wars don't happen by accident - they occur

Too regularly. How often do we lift the plate

At the bottom of our brain and throw some garlic

And grain down to the kitchen?  "Keep cooking,

My dears," "Something good will come of this."

~ Robert Bly

from Morning Poems

who one is

One never knows who one is. 

The others tell you who you are, 

don't they? 

And as you're told so a million times 

if you live a long life, in the end you don't know at all 

who you are. Everyone says something different. 

You yourself also say something 

different each new moment.

~  Thomas Bernhard

first step

The first step in love

is losing your head.

After the petty ego

you then give up your life

and bear the calamity.

With this behind you, proceed:

Polish the ego's rust

from the mirror

of your self

~ Fakhr al-Din Iraqi

from Love's Alchemy

translations by David and Sabrineh Fideler