Apple Farm Community
Apple Farm Community Inc. 
12291 Hoffman Road  
Three Rivers ° Michigan ° 49093 ° U.S.A.
 
(269) 244-5993

​E-MAIL  (click icon below)
  • Apple Farm Community
  • About Apple Farm
  • Donate
  • Writings of Helen Luke
    • The California Meditations
    • Apple Farm Pamphlets
    • Old Age: Journey Into Simplicity
    • Dark Wood to White Rose
    • Kaleidoscope
    • Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On
    • Parabola Journal
  • Contact
  • Calendar
  • Thursday Group Videos
  • Apple Farm Blog
  • Farm Publications
  • Apple Farm At Home Retreat
  • Links

​Following the Brush: A Wabi-Sabi Meditation

4/28/2019

0 Comments

 
a Zuihitsu by Marilyn Ashbaugh 
Note on genre: zuihitsu is a form of prose-poetry that emerged during Japan’s 11th century (Saito). Translated as “following the brush,” zuihitsu collects observations, notes, personal feelings, and quotes in a seemingly random and associative manner, ‘not too close, not too far”, leading to surprising poetic expressions and insights. Or not. When cultures collide there can be collusion. 
_________________________________________________________________
 
Atlantic Coast, Florida
 
Life can only be understood backwards.  – Soren Kierkegaard
 
If you want to know the future, heat up the past.  - Chinese saying
 
 
Nothing Special* 
My father never spoke of it directly.  When I was a young girl, he told me to never confuse a priest with God.  And never let a priest tell me I was special, for that would be a lie.  Never be alone with a priest and never enter the rectory, ever, for that would be a sin.  I was more afraid of my father than I was of any priest, so I followed what my father told me.  

So when the new young priest with the big smile enters Sister Margaret’s eighth grade class to ask who would like to “babysit” the rectory phone, no one questions why the priest couldn’t answer the phone himself.  All my classmates raise their hands. Everyone likes the handsome young priest with the big smile.  

a flycatcher

dives for the butterfly

morning mass
​
*Published in Presence, issue 62.  Voted best in issue.
___________________________________________

Mountain Empire, Arizona

Pink Satin*

I open the door to an apparition.  Seated in the small space is a ballerina.  Her hair forms a perfect bun atop her head.  She too wears a pink leotard with pink tights, the ones that fold open at the feet.  Her one foot is completely wrapped in tape.  Her hands lightly fold around her exposed foot as if she is caressing an injured bird.  Her foot is raw and bruised and her toes are so misshapen as to appear broken.  She briefly meets my eye with a look of determined composure, and then proceeds to wrap her foot.  

My cheeks flush.  I look away as I gather my pointe shoes and gently close the door.

on pointe

we tie pink satin ribbons

around each ankle
 
*Published in Presence, issue 63
________________________________________________________________

Maurer School of Law, Indiana

behind the black robe

a white robe. . .

a butterfly wanders through
 

looking on paper

for jurisprudence

cut to the bone
 
_________________________________________________________________
Good poetry makes the universe share a secret.  –Hafiz
_________________________________________________________________
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident -Arthur Schopenhauer

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    ...it is in part by our response to the great stories of the world  that we too can begin to find, each of us this individual story expressing the symbolic meaning behind the facts of our fate and behind the motives that determine the day-to-day choices of our lives.  -Helen Luke, The Inner Story

    Archives

    February 2021
    September 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    March 2016
    February 2016

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly