BodyMind – Mine Quick Voice of Aquarius

The Way of the Prodigal

This blog mail is a bit longer than usual -I hope you will find time to read it. My usual habit of writing weekly has been broken due immediate pressing concerns -and likely ongoing, but in case you are wondering it’s not because my health and the health of my family is the cause!

Before I give you that advice, allow me to remind the key points of my previous blog posting.

Breathing begins in the womb of your mother as a pulse activating and developing every part of the BodyMind. It’s a primal function which corresponds to the natural Earthen world our matter and mind is made from -and of course, it is also influenced by your mother’s BodyMind, which whilst it instinctively blends with the natural order of development can also influence the character you create of yourself.

When you are born and start breathing a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water, we are immediately connected and influenced by the outside world environment that ultimately governs our perceptive nature. Post birth the harmony experienced in the womb is lost and the instinct of survival is born. The uniqueness of your individual self has one overriding purpose -the restoration of harmony.

Breathing has three parts, in-pause-out.

Depending on how you are exerting yourself and/or emotionally and mentally focussed on something, the three parts of breath will vary in their time signature. The more you are mentally and emotionally maintaining a focus on something the inward breath will be shorter than the outward breath and the pause will hardly be noticed. When you stop doing the activity the middle (pause) breath will lengthen, the intaking breath will shorten before the outer breath does. What this tells us is this -the shortening of the inward breath stresses the mind, which in turn incapacitates the body. Longer inward breathing which can come from exercising or physically working an activity naturally ceases when the body demands rest.

If you work yourself up mentally and emotionally during any activity the benefit the body naturally manages is lost -because it’s being ‘told’ by the mind how to behave.

The breath ‘key’ is the middle or pausing part. If you are unduly stressing the volume of oxygen ingested (the energy giver) is lessened, which has a domino-like effect causing unnecessary stress to become resident. The middle breath loses its managing role, benefits are reduced, and problems arise. In this world where birth right freedoms are being suppressed by actions intended to defeat viral infections nothing is more important than your health. If you breathe right the immune system will continue to strengthen -even in the over 60’s where science tells us it begins naturally to weaken.

You’ve probably deduced from what I’ve said that undue stress is created by inefficient breathing cycles. to correct this, we must first acknowledge our breathing patterns are largely unconscious -or if you care to see it this way, the result of lifestyle habits. On anything unconsciously activated we only become consciously aware after the event. It’s clear we can’t change anything to the better until lifestyle habits are changed that are causal to bad breathing practises.

So, the very first thing you must do is treat habit with habit -like with like.

Our energetic natures are governed by naturally occurring patterns and movements -the same forces which causes trees to grow, animals to multiply, and all other forms of earthly life manifest life and death cycles. These are the constantly reoccurring sun and moon cycles, the movements of energetically charged particles in our outer atmosphere, and the planetary forces in our solar system influencing life on Earth.

Individually we characterise ourselves in relation to these natural forces -good, bad and indifferently. We all spend much of our time in reactive mode, in other words responding to what we classify as need. The busyness of life is on the increase -technology has developed so rapidly, day-to-day consciousness is being driven by it.

Take two common examples. Junk mail or Spam as we call it -how did they get your address and/or your email? Likely you don’t take any notice -delete or bin them, but read them or not they demand your attention. Maybe for only a few seconds -few minutes at the most. Even when you do not take notice of the content, they affect your breathing patterns. Mobile phones are even more of a problem -when the phone rings or a text notification is sounded, you take notice and often respond. Mislay the phone or forget to take it with you and mentally you (a) may feel lost without it, or (b) worry where you left it. Tiny amounts of unnecessary stress build up during the daily cycle -and this is not to mention the advertising you ignore or silence on the TV when at last during the evening you feel you can relax.

It could be manageable if these stresses were to zero out at bedtime, but of course they don’t, because we are not now talking about thoughts and feelings, we are talking badly adjusted body rhythms.

In practise what this means is we absorb unnecessary stress -changes that are so very gradual we unconsciously accept them as Right Order. Instinctively we react -that part of our BodyMind knows we are not in a Right Order state but on its own account can’t tell you how to change it. So, what does our personality mind do? It looks for breaks, holidays, and diversions.

Does all this sound familiar?

It should do because we are all caught up in a maelstrom of movements we do not control. As I said before we must treat like with like. Change our habits. In days of Yore the natural elements determined what routines we adopted -doing so to get the best out of ourselves when they worked in favour of what we wanted to do. The world now is a different place -bar a few indigenous people who still can, we must create habits that make the best of our so-called civilised world.

This is how -begin your day with purpose.

It doesn’t have to be a world inspiring idea; in fact, it is better not to be. Keep it simple and objectively realisable. So, if you want to be more loving to a person -that’s helpful only if you can express it as a recognisable action, which when achieved satisfies the purpose. Whether it be a purpose associated with work, pleasure, or passion, it stands before the day single-minded. Of course, it will not go unchallenged and if you succeed in accomplishing it before the sun is at its height, give yourself another purpose. And should be assailed by demands you do not agree are good, or meet to your purpose, acknowledge them, accept their reality -then let them go.

This is what the mind must do on all things at all times.

Acknowledge, never ignore, respect and do not judge. Accept -recognise the reality you face has powers you do not control. Release -be that by actions which fulfil your defined purpose, or be that because you have no need, because otherwise it would destroy the unity of the BodyMind.

This is the key of all ancient teachings -the only known way to unite the warring parts of body and soul. The key to harmony which can only be turned by the personality mind. To breathe rightly is to know oneself.

Know this and you will understand why the prodigal son was feted by his father.

The poem I share with you this week is a love poem -because this is what this post is about. Love is what binds us.

Love’s Credo

Fuse emotion and thoughts in one
their hidden sounds are symphony,
where words and moves unwedded coil
in past and future memory.

Stand and shout and jump for joy,
the white moon waxing sets the tide
moves our mind and seeds our life:
the joyous soul we cannot hide.

Tomorrow comes tomorrow goes;
Time cannot erase or change
the union that the law agreed
was right to be a binding creed.

Mission Impossible

Photo by Domen Mirtiu010d Dolenec on Pexels.com

As promised in my last post I’ll introduce you to the mechanism that can transform our warring parts into a unity -and more to the point begin the training that can enable continuity beyond the grave of the Self you become aware of.

First, let me advise you how the ancient masters introduced their pupils to the way of ways.

Irrespective of the pupil’s station in everyday life, whether they were rich, influential, or poor and uneducated, they would be treated equally. They were given menial tasks to do -never for their own purpose of supposed need, always as benefit for others. These were often the dirtiest jobs possible, like cleaning latrines, and at no time were they given higher purpose teachings.

Needless to say, the fall out rate was high.

Interestingly, a teacher in modern times, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1877-1949) used similar methods of introduction. Born in Alexandropol, Armenia, trained as a priest and physician, he travelled widely the remote regions of Central Asia and the Middle East before setting up his Institute for The Harmonious Development of Man. At the Château du Prieuré near Paris in the nineteen twenties he attracted many young intellectual/university type students. He put them to work preparing foods in the kitchen, cleaning the toilets, and digging holes. He would tell them he was searching for underground springs to supplement the water supply to the château -as you might expect many holes were dug without getting results. Again, the fallout rate was high.

The purpose of this introduction was to engage the instinctual nature of BodyMind with the rationally minded ego, which develops in the day-to-day world as the controlling driver of our consciousness.

Some found this humiliating and accused Gurdjieff (as others had done with past teachers) of wanting to make them servile to him. In reality the teacher intended these ‘exercises’ to give birth to instrumental self-awareness -a life-living form of consciousness, which was able to encompass and activate the higher nature of the BodyMind. The logic of this conversion (if we can call it that) was simply this -eternal self-awareness is only possible when the BodyMind is harmoniously whole -and that must include connecting and expressing the root nature of Self as born into this world.

We are all born with awareness of the higher nature.

The innocence of the child is a magnet drawing us into their world, and mothers have an intuitional awareness of the child’s nature, which develops in pregnancy and forever thereafter gives them an inner knowledge of the child’s identity. However, as we all know we fast lose that innocence as the consciousness of the outside world gains our attention and presents us with choices. We form personality to protect and guide us into adulthood. Whether we are religious or not, we develop standards of behaviour that enable our interests -and it is those standards that argue fiercely their right to be heard and acted upon.

The herd mentality has standards of behaviour enabling us to be open with others -making us feel wanted and accepted. If we reject the herd mentality, we must hide our standards of self-being -else we are seen as ‘rogue’ and are criticised, ignored, or otherwise branded weird and uneducable.

It is the ‘rogues’ the ancient masters were most interested in because they saw them as having retained the inner awareness of the child, and therefore were most likely to succeed in converting their adult nature into instrumental BodyMind harmony. History shows families allowing their children to live in Ashrams and other like communities as pathways to develop spirituality through service to others.

So, am I saying in our modern technologically driven world we need to retire to Ashrams, monasteries, and other such closed communities to succeed?

No, I am not. Neither am I saying closed community living is a sure way of achieving BodyMind harmony as often religious and philosophical scruples maintain the ego’s rational right to remain ‘King of the castle’.

So, is the true path so narrow all but a few can find and practise it?

No, it is not -there is a way in which you can live and function in the ‘herd’, be acceptable to your friends, loved ones, and neighbours, hold and maintain positions of importance in the secular world -and still be able to develop BodyMind Harmony. And not appear weird or odd!

I called this piece Mission Impossible because it does ask of you actions many would say are consistently unachievable in today’s world.

The reason why history keeps repeating itself is because Man’s habitual self doesn’t work to free himself from the cycle of rebirth.

The first step you take on the self-called ‘narrow’ path is invisible to others!

You need to re-engage the very first thing you did when you entered this world from your mother’s womb. It is to rediscover how to breathe correctly! And believe me -there is much more to breathing than expelling and intaking air! In my next post I’ll advise the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of doing this….

The poem I have written for this week illustrates the difference between ego perceptive consciousness (the Stone Man) and BodyMind awareness.

Song of the Sea

Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea
wherein thespian arts are founded,
on the whisperings of immortality.

Earth genius, maker of machinery
hear before claiming, this invocation.
Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea,

thesaurus more precious than history,
an interlocking alien kingdom:
the whisperings of immortality.

Stone Man, creator of insanity
repeat after me this incantation.
Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea,

where sceptres and crowns were facsimile
long before Archimedes heard in song,
the whisperings of immortality.

Knights and Bishops, guardians of the Tree,
Knowledge, and Faith, have you now forgotten?
Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea,

of mistakes made in your liturgy
by making your God of wisdom, to wrong
the whisperings of immortality?

I wait the last act of this tragedy
powerless to prevent consummation.
Beyond the Stone Man lives a psychic sea

where his soul sits under the Bodhi tree
ever present awaiting earthly union,
to share the whisperings of immortality.

First steps in Self-Healing

Having said the immune system is not only a physical entity but has a mental and emotional counterpart which is always part of the health solutions we seek. The premise to achieve good health is ‘as above so below’. This saying is a popular modern paraphrase of the second verse of the Emerald Tablet, a compact and cryptic Hermetic text attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus.

Another way of describing this premise is by the principle of correspondence -not I hasten to add as scientists do, having a selective meaning in quantum mechanics, rather in the day-to-day common-sense appreciation of its meaning. Like unto.

In health terms if we say we feel good, we mean some kind of balance is being experienced between our mind and body. It isn’t saying everything is hunky dory -indeed we might be in the process of suffering illness or injury or struggling to emerge from some dark place emotionally and mentally. What it is saying is the balance of health is tipping in the right direction. Like unto. The change driver can be mental, emotional, or physical.

And when the inner nature of our energetic BodyMind posits itself as the change driver extraordinary things can happen. Reports of Yogis who have lived hundreds of years are too numerous to be dismissed. Feats of endurance and death-defying conquests overcoming impossible odds are reoccurring patterns in recorded history. And in daily life our admiration extends to neighbours and friends who have stoically extended their active lives by refusing to accept prognosis of terminal illnesses.

In some circumstances the change driver be activated by the physical form of the BodyMind.

Here are a few examples. Two people have a body-blending sexual union and in the aftermath they feel mentally and physically wonderful -indeed they might also say they feel spiritually united. A person addicted to a stimulant of some kind will say they feel good on experiencing its effects. A pain sufferer who has a high threshold of resistance will say they are coping okay without pain relieving medication. People taking drugs to combat illness can say they feel better when the drugs kick in and stabilise their condition.

These prior examples show the ‘feel good’ factor is temporary and dependent upon repeating or maintaining the physically induced ‘inputs’. Now -look at the same examples which can have a negative mental and emotional outcome.

When the body-blending sexual union is driven by desire to relieve mental and emotional frustration -the result is exhaustion, a kind of peace which temporarily drives concerns ‘out of the window’. It does nothing to enhance mind and body union. When the stimulants addicts take wears off, they are back where they started, the harmony they experienced is absent. The person who is able to resist extreme pain without medication not only suffers tiredness from the effort, but they can also lose function physically by the resistance they manifest. People dependant on drug medication to overcome illness not only alter the natural chemistry of the body -they affect the ‘chemistry’ of their mind.

It is said we are what we eat. Some 60 chemical elements are found in the physical body, but what all of them are doing there is still unknown. Roughly 96 percent of the mass is made up of just four elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, with a lot of that in the form of water. The remaining 4 percent is a sparse sampling of the periodic table of elements.

It is generally agreed we can ‘engineer’ the mind to control adverse physical responses, as we also admit damage control is rarely permanent. By the same token we acknowledge uncontrolled emotion can injure ourselves. Only when we treat the physical body with the respect it deserves are we able to achieve healthy balance of the BodyMind.

The physical body manifests an intelligence on its own account -we can be aware of this by changes in the mental and emotional feelings experienced. Although we most often only acknowledge this intelligence after the fact, there is an awareness, sometimes described as ‘gut reaction’ forewarning of change. Before you think of dismissing this statement soberly remind yourself we have been physically evolving for tens of thousands of years, and analysis shows we are hybrids -having genetic roots arising from other biped, quadruped, and other ovoviviparous species. You only have to look at the functions of these other species present in our modern-day world to realise they express an instinctual intelligence which governs and guides their form of life.

Man is also instinctively intelligent, however, in the course of evolution we have programmed our brain minds to behave rationally -or to put it in simple English; to think, amass, and recall thought. And we conceitedly describe ourselves as self-aware beings, distinctly different and more evolved than any other form of earthly life.

Self-healing can only be lastingly achieved when both minds, above and below, are treated in tandem. To do that we need to re-install and develop instrumental consciousness -learn from the world of nature how that is done.

So, having understood how and why self-healing can work -in my next post I’ll look at means and methods you can employ to activate the self-healing nature of the BodyMind.

Having recently lost my beloved cat -here is a poem that reminds us they are more intelligent than us humans!

Cat Secret

I couldn’t match the ease of her repose,
those watchful half-closed eyes unseeing
would not blink or curiously follow threat-less change.
Yet in a moment she could walk, run or leap,
engaging organ, bone, and muscle to action
apposite events. Instinctively known.

Self-named Creator, war maker, king of beasts.
Really? I tried but never could BE as she.
Unimpressed, she knew I needed her –a kind
of insolence aware of my demands -making me
question – is she a form of life I’ve yet to live?
Did I not pass that way on evolution’s path

Cat secret understood?

Yet, when she called for food or care
I would hasten as if her soul demanded
desiring body it has not, and resting
in dreamless sleep fear possession-
that something I am not would uncoil
in my head, mocking my intelligence.

Now she has passed me by, heading
to the grey havens and the Mirrorless Sea,
her secret intact. Now my kingly nature
sits squat upon Eternity’s endless shores
beggaring love, ears a-cock to hear again
her demanding call, the herald of rebirth.

Your Health -Above and Below

In self-healing terms the first step toward self-management is to recognise the physical body is not simply a combination of physical chemical pathways, observable and treatable scientifically.

What we call our mind; the emotional, mental, and spiritual (or higher) nature is energetically related to our physical conception. In other words, self-healing powers embrace the BodyMind -the entire spectrum of life giving and taking influence, and our health (body and mind) is dependent upon the interrelationship of energies that comprise this union.

You cannot divorce the relationship between body and mind and expect lasting good health outcomes.

Health treatments -be they for the recovery of mental and emotional disorders, or body repair, holistically benefit from the BodyMind approach, which will always take a causal view of a person’s health needs.

Key to management and maintenance of good health is the immune system ‘above and below’.

‘Below’ the body’s immune system is a wonder to behold. It defends us from attacking bacteria, viruses, and parasites. A vast network of cells and tissues constantly on the lookout for pathogenic invaders, and when an enemy is spotted, a complex attack is mounted. It consists of many types of cells, organs, proteins, and tissues. Crucially, it can distinguish your tissue from foreign tissue, and can dispose of dead and faulty cells and clear them away out of the body.

Made up of special organs, cells and types of chemicals that fight infection, the constituent parts in our bodies are white blood cells, antibodies, the complement system (proteins whose actions complement work done by antibodies), the lymphatic system, the spleen, the thymus, and the bone marrow. In common parlance the lymphatic system consists of tubes producing cells that clean and dispose of bacteria -a dustbin cleaner. The spleen is a blood filtering organ that removes and destroys old or damaged red blood cells. The thymus filters your blood and produces a type of white blood cell called T-lymphocytes. Bone marrow, a spongy tissue inside your bones, produces red blood cells of a type that carries oxygen, white blood cells we use to fight infection, and the platelets we need to help the blood clot.

An underactive BodyMind immune system does not function correctly and makes people vulnerable to infections. It can be life threatening in severe cases. If the immune system is overactive we can suffer from allergies, foods, medications, stinging insects, hay fever, asthma, hives, dermatitis, and eczema. If it compromises and attacks itself, autoimmune diseases arise, including multiple sclerosis, hypothyroidism, type 1 diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels).

The BodyMind’s mental and emotional immunity has a physical relationship with the limbic system located between the brain stem and the two cerebral hemispheres that govern emotions and memory, within the hypothalamus plays a key role activating the sympathetic nervous system, which is a part of any emotional reaction. The cerebrum, the large, outer part of the brain, controls reading, thinking, learning, speech, emotions, and planned muscle movements like walking.

If we are not emotionally and mentally balanced, i.e., harmonically expressive of our BodyMind character, the immune system will labour to achieve its purpose, identifiable illness, and disease -physically and psychosomatically can take root.

How we manage our mental and emotional nature is critically important -and it must account for the instrumental nature of our consciousness. We are not islands, or containers -at best we are houses with controllable front and back doors, and viewable windows we are able to curtain, when we are not openly inquiring. The house ceases to be home when all the doors are locked, and the windows barred. The BodyMind becomes a prison.

In purely physical terms there are 11 organ systems in the human body, the integumentary system, skeletal system, muscular system, lymphatic system, respiratory system, digestive system, nervous system, endocrine system, cardiovascular system, urinary system, and reproductive systems (male & female). All have self-healing, self-managing capability peculiar to their own design -yet they all are dependent upon the BodyMind immune network of ‘fighters and defenders’ to work efficiently. And as described the emotional and mental counterpart is a key player which has the potential to drive change and ensure compliant health of the BodyMind.

So, there you have it -put the immune system right, ‘above and below’ and you are your own Master.

Next week I’ll talk about the How’s and Why’s. Microcosms and Macrocosms?? All will be revealed.

The poem I’ve written for this week is a reminder that every moment of our lives is recorded -just as the bay rocks hold the music of the sea.

Jewels of Memory

Bay rocks hold sung music
of the timeless sea.
Smooth faced archipelago’s
thrust the shore seeking waves
into cuts of ebony dark basalt pillars
to thunder down
and suck back the shifting sand.
Giving ebb and flow
chasing grains that move
the face of geography.
Baring pebbled bones
psychometric jewels of memory.
to us, the fossilised visage
of the years before….

Forward -into the Present

In last weeks post I talked about the power of nature, how we ourselves can be stimulated to rediscover the child within. I guess like myself you will have childhood memories, some good, some not so good -but on the whole we recall the good. These memories come back into consciousness in a number of different ways -they can be awoken by children, things they say and do, reminded by something we read or view, and they can also return when we feel oppressed or restricted causing us to retreat from the impersonal expressions of life. And during the past year for many social restrictions have disordered routines -had you think aimlessly, wonder what day it is, had you bed late, fill hours with TV you would otherwise not watch -and in general lose the forward looking nature previously common to the order of your life.

What happens now?

As of this week children return to school, care homes relax some of their restrictions, outdoor meeting can tentatively begin. What is actually happening is a shift of consciousness. People are beginning to look forward, visualising more interactive socialising, anticipating normal working hours. Expressions of frustration, injustice, and anger will find voice -and for some the child within will behave badly. Yet for most ‘picking up where you left off’ will be acts of joining together broken ties, reliving purpose, strengthening the bonds of love. What will happen, however we express, is a forgetting.

Many have had weird and wonderful dreams -some that frightened, some peopled by strangers -who somehow we knew, and some suggesting long lost feelings were yesterday’s experience. Youthful expressions of movement and change -desire and need having the same meaning. Yet, as you know, such remembrances most often retreat and disappear before breakfast is done. And do we remember to remember them? We try of course, particularly if they gave us good feelings -even the best of effort fails after 24 hours. Now ask yourself this question -how much of your past can you remember?

Not a lot -is it?

Even autobiographical writers struggle to remember their past. As honest as they maybe they will be selective -some parts of experience will never see the light of day. Critics of the self-confessing famous will take a stab at their recollections, inferring intentional memory is recorded to express their desire to be remembered, for posterity to benefit from their life’s purpose. And personally? Give it some thought -some efforts, achievements, expressions of thanks received. Are they forgotten -are you taken aback by recall, and you did more than you are currently thinking you did? The stark truth is we forget more than we remember.

Why are we so forgetful?

The reason why is because our BodyMind is not designed to be a repository. It’s not a bucket that fills with life’s experience, growing heavy as time passes -finally to plunge into the abyss of death. No. We human beings may be complex creations, but in essence we are no different to all other forms of life -we are instrumental by design, or to put it another way, we in common with every other form of life are borderless beings.

As I write this I’m listening to music on the radio. Just happens to be of the kind of music I like. As the songs come and go I get a strength of like feelings -when the DJ talks between tracks I ignore what they say. And do I remember what I had good feelings about, maybe also tapped my feet to -10 minutes ago? No I don’t. Are those experiences available somewhere for me to re-experience? Yes they are. In this technological world we now live in I have choice ways. I can record -I can hear those same songs again because someone else has recorded them -or I can simply wait until I hear them again on another station at another time. And what about the DJ’s annoying chatter I blanked out because it didn’t interest me to listen -has that been recorded by me, whether I like it or not?

The answer is yes, but in same way my like of songs are not stashed into a bucket of experience -they, like all memory good, bad, indifferent, and ignored, are available but rarely brought back into present consciousness. You don’t need to be psychologist to know that we are selective by nature, yet be reminded we are not the choosers we like to think we are. Life’s experiences are mainly caused by reacting to conditions of life about us at any one time. Our rational minds in most instances will label reactionary knowledge as chosen to know.

Man’s conceit is his undoing. He assumes he has (or can have) control over his own experiences. In reality he does not.

As you look forward to a return to ‘normal’ life, do not be regretful of opportunity missed, of expressions you did or didn’t make, or wish you had. Life has not been shortened –time is not a measure of values, be it by years or nanoseconds. Memories should not define you. If you are brave, moments will fulfil -they alone will forward you, engage and satisfy. Life so lived is a great adventure and will forever keep you young.

As I’ve been talking about memory, about time, the poem today is not mine, it’s the first verse of ‘Burnt Norton’, the first of the Four Quartets by TS Eliot.

Burnt Norton: Verse 1

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.
Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?
Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
Round the corner. Through the first gate,
Into our first world, shall we follow
The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.
There they were, dignified, invisible,
Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,
In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,
And the bird called, in response to
The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,
And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses
Had the look of flowers that are looked at.
There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting.
So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern,
Along the empty alley, into the box circle,
To look down into the drained pool.
Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,
And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,
The surface glittered out of heart of light,
And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.