Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Intimacy with Reality

     Artists, perhaps especially poets, are thought to be more sensitive to & thus more critically aware of present-moment reality. The average person may have 'thicker skin' than artists, is less affected by, less keenly interested in, less able or willing to deeply feel what's going on, and therefore floats along with the momentum of the times 'comfortably numb.' 
     Though most of us are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with how the world is becoming, we're so addicted to comfort and so averse to unpleasantness, that we allow life's harsh realities to fester & grow increasingly out of control.
     Artists, like prophets of old, are supposed to wake us up out of our sleep, mass hypnosis, autopilot, ... Artists, by way of poems, paintings, movies, etc bypass our superficial self-centered mind's filters, and communicate directly with our hearts & bodies


"With That Moon Language"
Hafiz

Admit something: 
Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me." 

Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise 
someone would call the cops. 

Still, though, think about this, this great pull 
in us to connect. 

Why not become the one who lives with a 
full moon in each eye that is 
 always saying, 

with that sweet moon language, 
what every other eye in 
this world is 
dying to 
hear? 

"Love Poems from God."
Daniel Ladinsky ed., Penguin Compass. 2002



“Before loss there was love.
After loss, love.

Before grief there was love.
After grief, love.

Our essence is never in danger.

When all else falls away,
Our essence can shine.

So, what does love invite of us now?

Jem Bendell
from his video “Grieve Play Love”




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