(Poem 29 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
This winter bouquet
celebrating my new job
marks the occasion.
@Home Studio – Inspired by flowers Erica gave me to celebrate my first day of working in the corporate world (and I chose a Haiku style because I am currently reading a book about Haiku) – 29th poem of the year
(Poem 28 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
The nine-tailed fox
thinks it’s undignified
to disguise himself,
but will if the situation
warrants camouflage.
Subtle subterfuge is
more his speed, slick
acts of cunning that
leave the victim confused
and questioning the cause.
He finds humans dim-
witted, lacking in pure
essence of the divine
nature he’s sworn to
protect, but accepts
that they have a place.
And until they learn theirs,
he’ll scheme and deceive,
entrapping them with sly
trickery out-maneuvering
their attempts to one-up
fate with inane arguments.
His only weakness is
kindness, and his inability
to refuse reciprocity, for
debts of favor must be
repaid, but beware his
devious recompense.
@Home Studio – Inspired by my Korean Drama Tale of the Nine Tailed – 28th poem of the year
Tale of the Nine Tailed. Directed by Kang Shin-hyo and Jo Nam-hyung, Performances by Lee Dong-wook, Jo Bo-ah, and Kim Bum, Studio Dragon, 2020.
Runner ups for the AI Nine-Tailed Fox photos to accompany my poem:
(Poem 27 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
“Because it is completely relative, your viewpoint cannot be called real.” Deepak Chopra’s The Way of the Wizard
I am experience become
memory ad infinitum no
other being can replicate.
You walk a separate path,
even if we travel together.
Do not bemoan the lonely
Dog Star during winter, for
what is a star but light?
There is no space between
Sirius and me, as we are
part of a continuous field
of light bridging from my
eye to his glow and all
the years in between.
And when the Dog Days
of summer are at their
peak, his hot breath
inspires longing for union—
our single drop joining
the ocean of consciousness,
which is both all and yourself.
Please forget me, the once-
living thing, forget every day.
Only then can we meet
again with fresh eyes
stripped of outworn
depictions, the real revealed
and seen anew.
@Home Studio – 27th poem of the year
Chopra, Deepak. The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want. New York, United States of America, Harmony Books, 1995, pp.47-51.
(Poem 26 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
“Relativity allows us to bend our belief in linear time.” Deepak Chopra’s The Way of the Wizard
Let’s grow younger each day
until we disappear at birth
defying immutable laws,
escaping such silly fairy tales
as death, for we know better.
Growing older is a worn-out
habit that traps us in time;
beings of light are not subject
to the man-made principles
of minutes and seconds.
False logic dooms us to repeat
the spell of mortality where we
insist on quantifying eternity.
We must unwrap our layers of
contrary beliefs to find immortality.
There at our core beneath
our deepest fears, lies the
deathless part of ourselves,
The part of us that “must be
unborn if it is never to die.”
@Home Studio – 26th poem of the year
Chopra, Deepak. The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want. New York, United States of America, Harmony Books, 1995, pp.41-46
Runner ups for the AI birth, death, timeless photos to accompany my poem:
(Poem 25 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
Tuesday at Three
is our time for tea,
our standing engagement,
my dragon and me.
Once per week,
we let the leaves steep
and whisper the secrets
the two of us keep.
We laugh and cry,
eat pickles and rye,
stir cream and sugar,
and share some pie.
He’s never dressed,
and that’s the best
because he eats so much
he needs room to digest.
We always say
we’re going someday
to surprise the locals
at the nearest buffet.
But if we did,
we’d end up amid
a crowd of onlookers;
heaven forbid.
We’d rather meet
at our little retreat
where friendship and gossip
make tea time complete.
@Home Studio – 25th poem of the year
Runner ups for the Dragon Tea Party photos to accompany my poem:
(Poem 24 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
“This body is like a roost that my thoughts come home to, but they fly in and out so fast that you might as well say they live in the air.” -Merlin, Deepak Chopra’s The Way of the Wizard
Scatter gold dust to the wind-
a reward to her for giving all
the answers to who we are.
Knowing a name means little
these days, for titles are mere
representations of nothing,
lacking solidity, misleading labels.
Analyst, mother of three, married,
divorced, married again –
an unconditioned being hemmed
in by components, containers,
barriers…
We become invisible, hidden,
buried under too many layers
by the weight of the past.
Mother worries they’ve gotten
themselves arrested again.
Wife is pleased he’s proud of her.
Writer toys with the next best
word to make herself sound smart.
To shed the roles like a too-hot
fleece and notice who is thinking
those thoughts awakens the
awareness of the observer.
This nameless state is the real,
pure, fundamental self, the I
behind the I, the untouched
silent soul beyond the noise,
beyond breath, beyond life,
beyond…
@Home Studio – 24th poem of the year
Chopra, Deepak. The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want. New York, United States of America, Harmony Books, 1995, pp.35-40.
Runner ups for the AI gold dust on the wind photos to accompany my poem:
(Poem 23 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
My elephant thinks
she’s invisible, despite
the fact that I speak
to her daily and offer
to take her wherever
she may wish to go.
She prefers to lurk in
doorways, eavesdrop on
my conversations with
prospective employers and
watch Korean dramas
over my shoulder.
We’ve settled nicely
into a routine of
keeping each other at
trunk’s length and eyeing
suspiciously any behaviors
indicative of confidence.
She likes it when I nap,
over-schedule, talk on the
phone, or make pictures of
elephants in living rooms
with other elephants in
paintings and televisions.
I like it when she forgets
her vow of silence,
tells me what it’s like to
take up so much space,
to fill the room with herself,
and trumpet her name.
@Home Studio – 23rd poem of the year
(Poem 22 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
This person so intrigued
the Crown Prince
that he nicknamed them
Drizzle in honor of his
favorite weather.
Friendship born of intellect,
shared sensibilities, and wit
creates the game board on
which all future maneuvers
rely, regardless of gender.
The game is set, the stones
properly aligned, the trash
talk spoken in earnest,
and thus begins the falling
in love one move at a time.
@Home Studio after watching the 1st 2 episodes of the Korean period drama Captivating the King – 22nd poem of the year
In the Joseon era in Korea, they played a board game called Baduk (Go) an abstract strategy game with pieces called stones. Mongwoo is the Korean word for drizzle and the nickname given to the opponent by the Crown Prince because it drizzles the first time they play against each other.
Captivating The King. Directed by Cho Nam-guk, performance by Jo Jung-suk, Shin Se-kyung, and Lee Shin-young, C-JeS Studios, 2024, Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/81742990?trackId=255824129.
Runner ups for the AI drizzle photos to accompany my poem:
(Poem 21 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
“…I forgot whether I was dreaming of this dragonfly or whether it was dreaming of me.” -Merlin, Deepak Chopra’s The Way of the Wizard
Merlin once ran around waving a
butcher’s knife like a mad man.
Arthur, alarmed, pleaded with him
to stop and explain himself.
Merlin said he wanted to try thinking
the way mortals seem to do,
chopping and dissecting,
using the mind like a blade.
The violent force of rationality
divides, dissociates, isolates, detaches.
It is the opposite of awareness
which unites, marries, coalesces.
The intellectual universe glue
is knowingness, not “knowing things”.
We see not by sight, but by tapping
into the water of life at the source.
The “mind behind the mind”
must be the “eye behind the eye”
for the seer to stay the same
no matter the scenery.
Depending on the observer,
this poem could be merely ink dots
on wood pulp or electronic pixels
rendered on a screen, or it could be
ideas and information—awareness
manifesting itself in “storable form”.
The eye reading this poem
is an energy cloud miraculously
capable of perceiving images.
Yet, that same eye cannot see
radio waves, neutrinos, dark matter,
love.
“Who saw the eye before the eye saw anything?”
This poem exists because a
consciousness wanted to share
this code and unfold strands
of energy to be revealed to
another consciousness, you.
Are you dreaming this poem or
is this poem dreaming you?
@Home Studio – 21st poem of the year
Chopra, Deepak. The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want. New York, United States of America, Harmony Books, 1995, pp.29-34.
Runner ups for the AI cosmic oneness dragonfly observer photos to accompany my poem:
(Poem 20 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)
Beauty watches Aiko (the husky) sleep.
She studies the paws positioned
in perfect running formation,
as though young again, racing at
breakneck speed faster than thought.
She notices the rise and fall of
breath and memory, dream and peace.
A double winter coat invites nestling,
and Beauty contemplates placement,
position, cause of least disturbance,
optimal geographic juxtaposition
of functional grace, busy relaxation,
dutiful nonchalance, operative indifference.
There is an art to being both beautiful
and resolute, relevant and immaterial–
a skill to pondering both nothing and
everything—and she has perfected it.
@Home Studio – Watching Aiko and Beauty together – 20th poem of the year
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