An Evening After Work

In a feral garden
behind the market
jasmine wings beat
breezes
over an orange and green
petal-leaf sea.

Day’s pains gained
pilgrim memories
of battles waged:
neuron to synapse
sheathed in conflict
and misdirected
intention.

Comma,
interlocution,
temporal juncture
transcendent,
immanent:

Remand one for the other,
the pounding, the thrumming;
rise naked, unashamed
in still, silent
care-less breezes:
no where,
soul-will
breathes dream
irreducible
in heart not mind
reaching
no thing but
only
one thing.

No void,
wholeness of
oneness with
purpose in
origin;
of quiddity,
what is to be
loved for
Love’s sake:
all-encompassing,
sensing,
affecting
infinite stillness by
insignificant movement.

In this span of transition,
dream of jasmine,
stand,
release what never was
yours to grasp.

Raymond the Alien

Raymond nearly alien
rubs his ancient feet;
head down, blanket-wrapped,
rests on a ledge by the street.

Present but invisible
to commuters driving fast:
do you count the hours that pass?
or ask yourself of what value is
a life that neither takes nor gives
but only shakes a weary head
at what has never been?

There’s food around the corner
and shelter from the rain.
You are detached, ignore
the rising sun that births the day
and offers you another way
to overcome the vagaries
of likeness and conformity
among your fellow men.

What are we to do with you,
stranger from another world?
Can we heal your hurts?
Can we befriend
this lonely man
who offers only misery,
the pains of God
Who hung upon a tree?

International Films

Following is a list of most of the international films I've watched, mostly since mid-August, 2009. A few were seen earlier. Not all are necessarily recommended.

Mexican
El Mariachi (February 3, 2010)

Swedish
The Seventh Seal (Bergman) (Dec. 22, 2009)
Babette's Feast (Sept., 2010)

Italian
La Dolce Vita (Fellini)( mid-October, 2009)
8 1/2 (Fellini)
Amarcord (Fellini)
And the Ship Sails On (Fellini)
Caterina in the Big City
Juliet of the Spirits (Fellini)
Night of the Shooting Stars
Planet of the Vampires (made 1965)


Spanish
Eskalofrio (Dec. 17, 2009)
Pan's Labyrinth

Japanese
Ping Pong (watched 10/29/2009)
Welcome Back, Mister McDonald (watched mid-October, 2009)
Andromedia
Aragami: The Raging God of Battle
Cafe Lumiere (one of my favorites)
The Dimension Travelers
The Family Game
King of Beggars
Linda Linda Linda
Paprika
Taste of tea
The Twilight Samurai
Zebraman
Zeiram
Zeiram 2

Chinese (Mainland, Taiwan, Mandarin, Hong Kong)
CJ7
Re-cycle (10/21 - Hong Kong and Thailand)
Stolen life
Mercury Man*

Thai
Chocolate

French
Flight of the Red Balloon (August, 2010)
Mon Oncle


*=presently watching

William Saroyan, The Human Comedy

(The following excerpt is from William Saroyan's 1943 masterpiece, The Human Comedy. An older teacher comments to sixteen year old Homer Macauly on how she views her high
school students.)

'What my children appear to be on the surface is no matter to me. I am fooled neither by gracious manners nor by bad manners. I am interested in what is truly beneath each kind of manners. Whether one of my children is rich or poor, brilliant or slow, genius or simple-minded, is no matter to me, if there is humanity in him -- if he has a heart -- if he loves truth and honor -- if he respects both his inferiors and his superiors. If the children of my classroom are human, I do not want them to be alike in their manner of being human. If they are not corrupt, it does not matter to me how they differ from one another. I want each of my children to be himself. I don't want you to be like somebody else just to please me or to make my work easier. I would soon be weary of a classroom full of perfect little ladies and gentlemen. I want my children to be people-- each one separate -- each one special -- each one a pleasant and exciting variation of all the others.'

Yes

Moved by a soft breeze,
quiet as owl wings,
curtains brush windows
in the wall facing east.
Invading breaches in fabric and glass,
blinding sunlight slips past,
bathing the room with shimmering rays,
moment by moment reveals the day.

Tic Tic Tic
The mantle clock clicks,
marking but not making
the switch from what is
to what has been.
In this time present, one second
slips and descends
into the unreal territory
of petrified time,
act couched in memory.

Regret, sad dry waste days,
poor choices made,
cruel words said
where crafted words failed.
Failure to grasp peace,
to lose objectivity
and detachment from what others think:
dogged by what was, fearing what may be.

But in that pause of time present,
bated breath between seconds,
I hear your “Yes."
"Yes," in silent eloquence.
"Yes," carried in the wind's breath.
"Yes," rises from the pages I read.
Amid pensive, fearful dread
speaks your calming "Yes."
With one "Yes"
What was ends.
'Now' begins."

--by Jeff Henry

Pope St. Leo the Great (4th century) on the Incarnation

Invisible in His own nature, He became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, He chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, He began to exist at a moment in time. Incapable of suffering as God, He did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, He chose to be subject to the laws of death.

Folds of sedimentary layers - Benicia State Park, CA. Example of plate activity.

An example of tectonic pressure below the Carquinez Strait. Notice how the rock layers run to the left of the person, then behind him they fold at a nearly 45 degree angle.