Oh, man. A bunch of us were listening the whoooooole time. That said, falling off a cliff with your eyes wide open doesn't mean you're not still falling off a cliff.
Follow up from my previous “poetry” post. During COVID but I feel still relevant:
For the poets...
Feeling the moments we are in...
Wondering about poets. What responsibilities we may have in these times. Knowing that the the reasons we write poems is likely equal to the number of poets.
What I love deeply about poetry is the paradox it holds: the voice of a single human being, often a vulnerable voice. Yet capable of finding its way into many hearts.
In these times that we are experiencing what feels, what seems like, separation, isolation.
As I am writing, a wren is building a nest in my yard, two doves and a squirrel are searching my grass for seeds and a flower, for which I have no name is about to bloom.
That which holds us is not separate, is not isolated from us.
Curious, that while we are “isolating” because of the virus, it is powerfully teaching us that we are an “us”. Our lives do matter in each other’s lives.
Poetry is the voice of belonging.
We live in the “house of belonging” *** even when it is unseen, unfelt. A house only entered through the door of vulnerability... what binds us together... what makes us human.
We need to give voice to our “belonging”, even when our words bleed.
Even if the words we speak go unheard.
Even if we only hear echos in our hearts.
Silence is not an option…
Michael Tscheu
*** The House of Belonging is both a poem and book by David Whyte.
Everything Trump is doing is designed to sap the ability of Americans to resist and oppose him, to destroy our democracy, to create a nihilistic totalitarian state.
Leonard Cohen…. I really started listening to his prophetic music before the first term …and just knew..listen to the lyrics now… Whoa… Was hoping.. but, it was a warning.. I do miss Leonard and David Bowie..
Do you hear the pure voice of Julie Andrews singing the title track for Trump’s tariff assaults?
I don’t think so. The medicine he is offering not just to Americans but to the whole world is more of the kind sold out of the back of an old jalopy to poor housewives by a travelling salesman or quack. A bottle of “Universal Remedy” that is guaranteed to make us all sick.
Leonard Cohen died the night before Trump was elected to his first term, like he knew what was coming and saw his time to check out. But, remember, Cohen also said that “there’s a crack in everything/that’s how the light gets in.” Keep kicking at the crack, let more light in.
I have been thinking of this song a lot lately. I am (in some ways) glad that Cohen , who died the day before Trump was elected in 2016, didn’t have to live through this. I would also remind you to think of the lines from his “Anthem”:
Oh, man. A bunch of us were listening the whoooooole time. That said, falling off a cliff with your eyes wide open doesn't mean you're not still falling off a cliff.
As my friend and therapist told me years ago: Even paranoids have enemies!
Dr Maria Morgenstern fled Austria with her sister to escape Nazi persecution!
"In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not to their poets."
• Jonas Mekas
Follow up from my previous “poetry” post. During COVID but I feel still relevant:
For the poets...
Feeling the moments we are in...
Wondering about poets. What responsibilities we may have in these times. Knowing that the the reasons we write poems is likely equal to the number of poets.
What I love deeply about poetry is the paradox it holds: the voice of a single human being, often a vulnerable voice. Yet capable of finding its way into many hearts.
In these times that we are experiencing what feels, what seems like, separation, isolation.
As I am writing, a wren is building a nest in my yard, two doves and a squirrel are searching my grass for seeds and a flower, for which I have no name is about to bloom.
That which holds us is not separate, is not isolated from us.
Curious, that while we are “isolating” because of the virus, it is powerfully teaching us that we are an “us”. Our lives do matter in each other’s lives.
Poetry is the voice of belonging.
We live in the “house of belonging” *** even when it is unseen, unfelt. A house only entered through the door of vulnerability... what binds us together... what makes us human.
We need to give voice to our “belonging”, even when our words bleed.
Even if the words we speak go unheard.
Even if we only hear echos in our hearts.
Silence is not an option…
Michael Tscheu
*** The House of Belonging is both a poem and book by David Whyte.
You want it darker....
Everything Trump is doing is designed to sap the ability of Americans to resist and oppose him, to destroy our democracy, to create a nihilistic totalitarian state.
I agree with this. It’s very dark.
When they said repent I wondered what they meant...
I haven’t had the heart to listen to the future because I overplayed it prematurely in 2019/20
"There is a crack in everything... that's how the light gets in." from Anthem.
Leonard Cohen…. I really started listening to his prophetic music before the first term …and just knew..listen to the lyrics now… Whoa… Was hoping.. but, it was a warning.. I do miss Leonard and David Bowie..
A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down?
Do you hear the pure voice of Julie Andrews singing the title track for Trump’s tariff assaults?
I don’t think so. The medicine he is offering not just to Americans but to the whole world is more of the kind sold out of the back of an old jalopy to poor housewives by a travelling salesman or quack. A bottle of “Universal Remedy” that is guaranteed to make us all sick.
Leonard Cohen died the night before Trump was elected to his first term, like he knew what was coming and saw his time to check out. But, remember, Cohen also said that “there’s a crack in everything/that’s how the light gets in.” Keep kicking at the crack, let more light in.
I have been thinking of this song a lot lately. I am (in some ways) glad that Cohen , who died the day before Trump was elected in 2016, didn’t have to live through this. I would also remind you to think of the lines from his “Anthem”:
“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”