Selected Works by Eihei Dogen

Ching-ch'ing's Raindrop Sound
Because the mind is free -
Listening to the rain
Dripping from the eaves,
The drops become
One with me.

In The Stream
In the stream,
Rushing past
To the dusty world,
My fleeting form
Casts no reflection.

One of six verses composed in An'yoin Temple in Fukakusa, 1230:
Drifting pitifully in the whirlwind of birth and death,
As if wandering in a dream,
In the midst of illusion I awaken to the true path;
There is one more matter I must not neglect,
But I need not bother now,
As I listen to the sound of the evening rain
Falling on the roof of my temple retreat
In the deep grass of Fukakusa.

Coming or Going
 The migrating bird
leaves no trace behind
and does not need a guide.

Worship
A white heron
Hiding itself
In the snowy field,
Where even the winter grass
Cannot be seen.

Zazen
The moon reflected
In a mind clear
As still water:
Even the waves, breaking,
Are reflecting its light.

Impermanence
To what shall
I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected
In dewdrops,
Shaken from a crane's bill.

 

Kenneth Rexroth: Your Birthday in the California Mountains

A broken moon on the cold water,
And wild geese crying high overhead,
The smoke of the campfire rises
Toward the geometry of heaven -
Points of light in the infinite blackness.
I watch across the narrow inlet
Your dark figure comes and goes before the fire.
A loon cries out on the night bound lake.
Then all the world is silent with the
Silence of autumn waiting for
The coming of winter. I enter
The ring of firelight, bringing to you
A string of trout for our dinner.
As we eat by the whispering lake,
I say, “Many years from now we will
Remember this night and talk of it.”
Many years have gone by since then, and
Many years again. I remember
That night as though it was last night,
But you have been dead for thirty years.

Thanks, Lumpy Pudding!

Halloween Pin Ups

Freeman Elliot, 1950

George Petty, 1945
 

 Gil Elvgren, 1958

Antonio Vargas, 1967

All Hallow's Eve

Link to the art source

Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818)

The House Of Dust: Part 01: 03: One, where the pale sea foamed at the yellow sand - Conrad Aiken

One, where the pale sea foamed at the yellow sand,
With wave upon slowly shattering wave,
Turned to the city of towers as evening fell;
And slowly walked by the darkening road toward it;
And saw how the towers darkened against the sky;
And across the distance heard the toll of a bell.

Along the darkening road he hurried alone,
With his eyes cast down,
And thought how the streets were hoarse with a tide of people,
With clamor of voices, and numberless faces . . .
And it seemed to him, of a sudden, that he would drown
Here in the quiet of evening air,
These empty and voiceless places . . .
And he hurried towards the city, to enter there.

Along the darkening road, between tall trees
That made a sinister whisper, loudly he walked.
Behind him, sea-gulls dipped over long grey seas.
Before him, numberless lovers smiled and talked.
And death was observed with sudden cries,
And birth with laughter and pain.
And the trees grew taller and blacker against the skies
And night came down again.

Autumnal Equinox

When Hades abducted Persephone, it set in motion a chain of events that eventually led to the earth falling into darkness each winter. This is the time of the Dark Mother, the Crone aspect of the triple goddess. The goddess is bearing this time not a basket of flowers, but a sickle and scythe. She is prepared to reap what has been sown.

Link to picture source

The earth dies a little each day, and we must embrace this slow descent into dark before we can truly appreciate the light that will return in a few months.

Celebrate the darkness.

Link to picture source

Unknown Beauty

I don't know who painted this, but it's lovely. If you are, or know, the artist please let me know.
I found it here and it put me in mind of the poem below.

UNKNOWN BEAUTY

She is sweet like my heart,
She is fragrant like my soul,
As sparkling as my eyes,
Tender and gentle
And lush like my sweet dreams;
As intense as my desires
She seizes my deep Self
In flames of pleasing pains,
In glows of unfulfilled desires
And I shudder within in poetic riots.

She is noble within like gold
And dazzles like diamond
In smooth black exterior;
She is all smiles like flowers,
All tender moods like full-moon
And inviting charm inside;
She rouses soul from deep slumber
To streaks of fresh light
That seeks to stream from far horizons;
New worlds open up
Where blend desires in mad dance
And hearts sing heart to heart.

Though unknown beauty,
I know her in every single fibre,
All inside and outside like my Self
As she indeed knows me;
I feel her entreaties from her eyes,
I hear her desires from her heart;
She speaks in silence and calls in shyness
And rouses sharp pangs of sweet desires.

She is an angel in her shyness,
She is an angel in her silence,
She is an angel in her desires
And an angel in her feminine softness
And liquid young fragrance
That visit my soul in joyous dreams;
She melts in my eyes
And streams to my heart
And seizes my soul,
She speaks from a pleasing halo
Where like a living sacred deity,
She spreads her charms deep to my Self.

She is calm in the eye of desires’ storm,
She is still while heart shouts for warmth;
Warmth calls warmth and desire meets desire
And we both meet in cool still distance.

The unknown beauty somehow attuned to my self,
I seek her and she me in unknown bond.

Praveen Kumar

Beverly Kenney, 1932-1960

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/beverly-kenney-mn0000866783

Evelyn De Morgan, 1855-1919

On her seventeenth birthday, August 30th 1872, Evelyn De Morgan wrote in her diary: “At the beginning of each year I say ‘I will do something’ and at the end I have done nothing. Art is eternal, but life is short”.
The De Morgan Foundation














Helen of Troy (1898)



















Medea (1889)



















Dryad (1884-5)

Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012

(CBS News) Neil Armstrong, the Apollo 11 astronaut who became the first human being to set foot on another world, has died. He was 82.

In a statement his family said Armstrong had passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.

The family described him as a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend, and also as "a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job."

Link to source quoted above












































NASA Biography page

Thank you for being an inspiration, Mr. Armstrong - rest in peace.

John Hoffman - Song of a Wanderer

I am a man who knows
Of sun and moon and star
Of earth and sea and air
And do not tell of them
Because I have no words

More about the author

Audrey Hepburn

"Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering - because you can't take it in all at once."










"The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years."











"The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy - it's all that matters."

"I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people's minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing."
All quotes from BrainyQuotes

Julie Poncet - Legs

The artist on 1x
The artist's web site

Daniela Mercury - E Carnival

The artist's web site

Sophie Solomon

www.sophiesolomon.com

Albert Einstein - The World As I See It

...
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
...

John William Godward (1861 - 1922)

About the artist

Alfonsina Storni - Sweet Torture

My melancholy was gold dust in your hands;
On your long hands I scattered my life;
My sweetnesses remained clutched in your hands;
Now I am a vial of perfume, emptied

How much sweet torture quietly suffered,
When, my soul wrested with shadowy sadness,
She who knows the tricks, I passed the days
kissing the two hands that stifled my life

More about the author

Jim Carroll - Valentine

Thanks to Lumpy pudding for this one



















The word

summons

to be bound

to cynicism

or elaborate expressions.

permutation

snakes through our lives

pasted

to seduce

to be

released, appropriately

unrelated

or something

lopsided

so that it can be

hard

and

warm

hope

from

your piece

to

please

to submit

John D. MacDonald/Travis McGee

"...to me organized religion, the formalities and routines, it's like being marched in formation to look at a sunset."
T. McGee, A Deadly Shade of Gold

Joyce Ballantyne

Wikipedia entry for the artist