Feather Breath

Observe

the feather breath

of the moon

 

misty white

in a black

sky

–Terry Chitwood

Mind Moves

“In China,  Ch’an/Zen approaches to calligraphy had long maintained that the character of a man [or woman]—his [or her] level of individual realization—could be observed in the ch’i or life-energy that moved through his [or her] brush and left an imprint of its passage in ink on the rice paper. The same Zen insight suggests to American poets that the practice of writing poems is not so much to make a thing (let alone to secure prizes, awards, or grants) as it is to trace the way the mind moves” (The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry edited by Andrew Schelling, p.20).

Butterflies are Born

Black ink streams across the pearl-white paper tracing a hidden songline of the ancient Aborigine sitting in silence. The Aborigine sings the world alive. From Australia to China to North America, the sound of the moving moon-mind reverberates. The mind moves into sound . . . songs emerge. The mind moves into words . . . poems emerge. The mind moves into people . . . butterflies are born.

Photo Credit: Photo by Theo at Flickr Creative Commons.