May 6, 2005

vanilla leaf, originally uploaded by the view from in here.

Vanilla-leaf/Deer Foot - Achlys triphylla
Used by the Saanich of Vancouver Island; the leaves are often dried and hung in bundles to perfume the house with their sweet vanilla scent.

For Chris - Congratulations

Where Everything is Music

Don't worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn't matter.

We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.

The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
and even if the whole world's harp
should burn up, there will still be
hidden instruments playing.

So the candle flickers and goes out.
We have a piece of flint, and a spark.

This singing art is sea foam.
The graceful movements come from a pearl
somewhere on the ocean floor.

Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge
of driftwood along the beach, wanting!

They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can't see.

Stop the words now.
Open the window in the centre of your chest,
and let the spirits fly in and out.

~Rumi