2011.01.30 19:00 - Poetry as Practice #1

The Guardian for this meeting was Calvino Rabeni. The comments are by Calvino Rabeni.
This is a PlayAsBeing theme session on the topic of Poetry as Practice (the first in a series) sponsored by Hana Furlough and Calvino Rabeni.

Hana Furlough: Hi Cal
Calvino Rabeni: Good evening, Hana :)
Hana Furlough: Sorry I stepped away for a moment
Hana Furlough: Well, shall we get started?
Calvino Rabeni: Sure, what's on your mind ...
Hana Furlough: I love your poem about the joggers
Hana Furlough: it's very colorful
Hana Furlough: i like how you hint at the possibility of a novel through verse
Hana Furlough: that's what i like about it
Hana Furlough: it presents a million possibilities without exhausting any single one
Calvino Rabeni: thanks,
oO0Oo Resident: _/!\_
Hana Furlough: hello resident
Calvino Rabeni: the greenbelt was a place where those possibilities seem naturally presented
Calvino Rabeni: Good eve, O
Hana Furlough: where is the greenbelt?
Calvino Rabeni: Behind the house I live in
Calvino Rabeni: It used to be a railway
Calvino Rabeni: the man next door started a movement called "Rails to Trails"
Hana Furlough: and now people jog on it?
Calvino Rabeni: Now it's a park
Calvino Rabeni: Jogging, walking, commuter biking
Hana Furlough: very cool
Hana Furlough: the old funicular tracks here in kyoto are also now a walking path
Calvino Rabeni: For the log reader: http://wiki.playasbeing.org/Classes_and_Sessions/Theme_Sessions/Poetry_as_Practice/Selected_Poems/Calvino%27s_Words#joggers
Calvino Rabeni: You're in Kyoto for a while?
Hana Furlough: yes, i'm researching my dissertation here
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni smiles
Hana Furlough: so did you bring a poem to share today?
Calvino Rabeni: I have some ... how about you, Hana and 0?
Hana Furlough: i have at least one
Hana Furlough: :)
oO0Oo Resident: I might be able to find something :)
Hana Furlough: great
oO0Oo Resident: 'Joggers' .... nice Cal
Calvino Rabeni: ty
Hana Furlough: shall we start by talking a little but about poetry as practice?
oO0Oo Resident: OK
Calvino Rabeni: sure Hana
Hana Furlough: cal and i have talked about this a bit before
oO0Oo Resident: Who is that guy... Cal? I think I've seen him before.
Hana Furlough: i'm not so familiar with the western traditions, but in east asia there is a long tradition of viewing poetry as a Way
oO0Oo Resident: ;)
oO0Oo Resident: let's go down that path Hana
Hana Furlough: one aspect that dovetails nicely with the idea behind PaB is the notion of overcoming the usual subject-object split through the poetic act
Hana Furlough: smiles at o
Hana Furlough: :)
oO0Oo Resident: (::)
Calvino Rabeni: The idea of a Way means a lot in Japan, doesn't it ?
Hana Furlough: absolutely
Hana Furlough: there are many Ways, but I feel like the spirit is the same
Hana Furlough: is it like that with the martial arts, Cal?
Calvino Rabeni: I believe it is
Calvino Rabeni: There's an idea of throwing oneself into the Art of it
Hana Furlough: interesting
Hana Furlough: can you say a bit more about that?
Calvino Rabeni: in part the experience is defined and developed by participation - by doing it
Calvino Rabeni: there's an internal and an external aspect to the art
Calvino Rabeni: the external are the forms and patterns that can be observed and imitated
Hana Furlough: yes!
Calvino Rabeni: the internal is the experience of it ... something that can be developed and deepened over time, that is formless
Calvino Rabeni: but can be developed through practice
Hana Furlough: it's really the same in traditional japanese poetry
Calvino Rabeni: the spirit of it
oO0Oo Resident: less division between secular and sacred comes to mind
Calvino Rabeni: no division
Hana Furlough: precisely, oO0
Hana Furlough: it's to see that the Way is in all things
Hana Furlough: i think jazz is a lot like that, as well
Hana Furlough: practice is essential, as is minding the rules
oO0Oo Resident: samurai jazz
Hana Furlough: but there is also a spirit of ingenuity and flowing that comes highly valued
Hana Furlough: haha sure
Calvino Rabeni: I like the portrayal of the cultivated samurai as a master of other arts in addition to the sword
Calvino Rabeni: poetry and brush painting perhaps
Hana Furlough: right
Hana Furlough: that certainly seems to have been the case
oO0Oo Resident: yes
--BELL--

oO0Oo Resident: broad, and as Hana says, ingenius
Calvino Rabeni: and that aesthetic sense was regarded as necessary for ability in all areas
Calvino Rabeni: because of the realization that mind and world are one .. and can't be compartmentalized
Hana Furlough: aesthetics was integral to swordsmanship, too, no?
Calvino Rabeni: yes
Hana Furlough: yes!
Hana Furlough: in that sense, i see poetry as a Way of connecting to the world
Hana Furlough: of realizing that unity
Calvino Rabeni: so when I started practicing, at first I was puzzled by that idea - "do it with your whole self"
Calvino Rabeni: Yes!
Hana Furlough: yeah that is a difficult notion to grasp a hold of
Calvino Rabeni: And there's also in interesting idea .. that Arts present something - when they are getting "good" - that is utterly individual and yet universal
Calvino Rabeni: a particular poem can have a very unique "power"
Hana Furlough: exactly -- something that can connect artist and reader
Calvino Rabeni: and yet there's a "taste" behind it
Hana Furlough: something that can replicate and communicate that experience
Hana Furlough: that feeling
Calvino Rabeni: Yes
Calvino Rabeni: A poem might be "about" something ... say sound, or the act of speaking
Calvino Rabeni: but really, it is demonstrating the presence of mind and world
Calvino Rabeni: through that particularity
Hana Furlough: agreed entirely
oO0Oo Resident: sword of infinite sharpness... letting the direct dance with non-duality cut, and cut ones experience again and again (inner) while making tea, caligraphing, arranging flowers, diving and rolling, etc... poetry
Hana Furlough: the unity of subject and object
Calvino Rabeni: the aesthetic sense is a broad and unifying sense - a mode of perception - much more than assessing objects
Hana Furlough: well said
oO0Oo Resident: harmonising reletive world
Calvino Rabeni: a direct experiential access through subtle and holistic feeling to a whole situation of the world
Hana Furlough: it is to honor them and to put ourselves into right relation with the universe
oO0Oo Resident: connecting heaven and earth
Hana Furlough: : )
Calvino Rabeni: I like poems that are also about poetry and presence
Calvino Rabeni: there are a lot of them in many traditions and styles
Hana Furlough: can you give us an example?
Calvino Rabeni: Here is one by Rilke
Calvino Rabeni: Here Is the Time for Telling Here is the time for telling. Here is its home. Speak and make known: More and more the things we could experience are lost to us, banished by our failure to imagine them. Old definitions, which once set limits to our living, break apart like dried crusts.
Calvino Rabeni: ...
Calvino Rabeni: This one is short and beautiful
Hana Furlough: very very nice
Calvino Rabeni: it invites one into the present moment
oO0Oo Resident: yes nice
Calvino Rabeni: and invites others
Hana Furlough: and invites us out of old concepts
Calvino Rabeni: but it might even be something happening in the mind of the poet, a reflection of the experience of practicing poetry
Hana Furlough: indeed
oO0Oo Resident: sitting with a notebook, watching joggers perhaps.... and noticing the mind
Calvino Rabeni: watching the relationship of mind and world
Hana Furlough: speaking of an invitation into the present, here's a poem written by Masaoka Shiki at the ancient Horyuji temple in 1895:

When I bite into a persimmon,
the bell tolls
Horyuji temple

oO0Oo Resident: :)
Calvino Rabeni: short and sweet .. surprising and fresh
oO0Oo Resident: short and all encompassing
Hana Furlough: i love the way it feels
Hana Furlough: it suggests a moment and eternity, this sundown, this fall
Hana Furlough: then as now
Hana Furlough: fleeting and everlasting
Calvino Rabeni: sacredness in the experience of sensuality
Hana Furlough: yes exactly
--BELL--

oO0Oo Resident: "i love the way it feels [19:44] Hana Furlough: it suggests a moment and eternity, this sundown, this fall [19:44] Hana Furlough: then as now [19:44] Hana Furlough: fleeting and everlasting"
Hana Furlough: hello susan
Calvino Rabeni smiles.. welcome Susan good to see you
Susan Aloix: waits for the 90 secs before sending this..........breathhsss...:) greetings all....Hi Hana...thanks Cal..and you :) Hi samuo :)
oO0Oo Resident: :) Susan
Calvino Rabeni: There is another power that I associate with this idea of poetry
Susan Aloix: Hi EWan :)
Ewan Bonham: Hi Folkls..:)
Calvino Rabeni: which is the ability to bring something into presence in the moment
Calvino Rabeni: Good evening Ewan
Hana Furlough: hello ewan!
Hana Furlough: yes
oO0Oo Resident: Hi Evan. Be prescent with us. :)
oO0Oo Resident: Ewan*
Calvino Rabeni: I think the idea is that the presence experience is freshened for the person reading / seeing the Art also
Calvino Rabeni: Like biting into the persimmon
Hana Furlough: : )
Hana Furlough: i can taste that persimmon now...
oO0Oo Resident: eyes water
Susan Aloix: lol Samuo
Hana Furlough: does anyone else have a poem they want to share?
Susan Aloix: pulls out one....
Hana Furlough: :)
Calvino Rabeni: I have another, but I'll wait my turn :)
Susan Aloix: no no please go Cal if you dont mind...
oO0Oo Resident nods
Calvino Rabeni: Sure ..,
Calvino Rabeni: Another by Rilke .. this one called Bell

Bell Sound, no longer defined by our hearing.
As though the tone that encircles us
were space itself expanding.

Hana Furlough: Ahhh it goes so nice with the Shiki, Cal!
Calvino Rabeni: yes :)
Calvino Rabeni: this one gives me the shivvers
Hana Furlough: I can see why
Susan Aloix: oh wow that bell is encircling my brain as i hear it that way
Calvino Rabeni: it recalls a direct experience and a different state of consciousness
oO0Oo Resident feels bell jangling spine
Hana Furlough: and the feeling of a bell resonating through one's body
Susan Aloix: indeed
Calvino Rabeni: my body responds with spaciousness
Hana Furlough: yes
Hana Furlough: mimicking the bell
Hana Furlough: following its lead
Hana Furlough: in the dance
Calvino Rabeni: and it plops you down into a certain point in a process of experience
Calvino Rabeni: and in doing so opens up the experiencer
Hana Furlough: yes
Hana Furlough: a very large process and experience
Susan Aloix: amazing how impacting it is....its so simple
oO0Oo Resident: I've got one, but it's a bit longer
Hana Furlough: that's fine
Hana Furlough: let's read it : )
oO0Oo Resident:

Mindful
by Mary Oliver

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant -
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

Mindful, by Mary Oliver (Why I Wake Early, 2004) http://mindfulheart.blogspot.com/2009/03/mindful-by-mary-oliver.html
Susan Aloix: mmmm samuo
Hana Furlough: i love her poetic persona
Hana Furlough: she epitomizes appreciation
Ewan Bonham: In the seemingly little things..:)
Hana Furlough: yes
Hana Furlough: reminding us that the magic is in the details
Calvino Rabeni: Appreciation is a powerful gateway to reality ... not that this is a strange idea to Play as Being
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: but the poet really can practice that
Hana Furlough: that's what i like about the idea of poetry as practice
Hana Furlough: it is active appreciation
Hana Furlough: a conversation with the cosmos
Ewan Bonham: Yes, and in our own special way...like wrapping your arms around a concept..:0
oO0Oo Resident: we are invited to see
oO0Oo Resident: lost in translation sometimes
Hana Furlough: but more often than not, found
Hana Furlough: present
Calvino Rabeni: I think one of the motivations of doing poetry is to bring the reality back into the concepts
Calvino Rabeni: its like "having something to say" as a motivation
Calvino Rabeni: more like - having something to experience?
oO0Oo Resident: yes, and bravery to experience
Hana Furlough: do you mean like a way of getting in touch?
Calvino Rabeni: A fascination with getting at some very particular sense of being in the world
Calvino Rabeni: I agree 0, bravery plays a part
Hana Furlough: yes, indeed
Hana Furlough: it's scary to open up and express like that
Susan Aloix: yeah........the disolving of the subject/object spilt....much closer to lived experience
Calvino Rabeni: or to realize and struggle with what seems to hold one back
Hana Furlough: yes
oO0Oo Resident: much closer to true love
Hana Furlough: : )
Calvino Rabeni: reading / listening to poetry is like opening to nature ...
Calvino Rabeni: it takes a willingness to be present to it - once again
oO0Oo Resident: nature's voice
Calvino Rabeni: then the poem is a transmission
Hana Furlough: yes, indeed
Susan Aloix: yeah ...but not just *nature* but the intimate relationship of nature to the writer....the uniqueness of that conenction and yet the shared experience of it
Calvino Rabeni: one feels a meeting there
Calvino Rabeni: yes meeting another
Hana Furlough: regretfully, i must run now
oO0Oo Resident: yes, the 'way' Susan
Hana Furlough: but maybe next time, we can try a little group practice?
Ewan Bonham: Bye Hana
Hana Furlough: thank you all for all the inspiration!
Hana Furlough: until next time!
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, let's do that
oO0Oo Resident: OK np, ty Hana
Ewan Bonham: Nods
Calvino Rabeni: Does anyone have something they would like to share?
Susan Aloix: Rilke's bell has a beingness to it.....that bell dances for the poet...and each reader has their own bell
Calvino Rabeni: they must have their own bell to have a shared bell
Susan Aloix: ohhh ok...bye Hana...sorry i got here late....be well
Ewan Bonham: And each reader can place some emphasis on certain words...and even skip othere..
Ewan Bonham: Each reader makes theor own sense...much as in any experience..
oO0Oo Resident: the waves talk to the ocean
Ewan Bonham: Yet...the poetry allows me to focus and dance with the words..:)
Susan Aloix: yes ewan.....its generosity in that way is different from the novel for instance....it lets the reader dance with it
Ewan Bonham: smile, Susan..
Susan Aloix: < has a poem..
Calvino Rabeni: The short story invites one into its sitting room
Susan Aloix: yes cal
Calvino Rabeni: Great, Susan
Susan Aloix:

John Keats, 1884
Ode to Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines[10] that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Calvino Rabeni: For the log: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Autumn
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: Poetry takes time to savour -- teaches me to do that for other things
Ewan Bonham: nods...Cal
Susan Aloix: yeah still reading the last stanza
oO0Oo Resident: and savour is such a good choice of word for such a rich poem
Susan Aloix: indeed
oO0Oo Resident: ty Susan.... mmmm feel dolloped in honey Could be called Ode to Shiva marvelous
Susan Aloix: it is giddying the amount of abundance he floods your senses with...like summer has a relentless fertility
Calvino Rabeni: Like writing ... that's a discipline if you will, that takes some courage - to encounter an unknown poem, give it a generous place within oneself to open up, not knowing quite what it will becom
Susan Aloix: smiles....nice Samuo.......laughing about the dolloped in honey .....its soo rich.....and i like the ode to shiva idea.....:)
Susan Aloix: yes cal...its like meeting as new person......opening up to it
oO0Oo Resident: opening fully, and still... nothing to hold on to
oO0Oo Resident: poetry expresses that poignancy
oO0Oo Resident: fully alive
Calvino Rabeni: :) Susan, that's the same isn't it?
Susan Aloix: yeah.....Keats indulges himself fully to the moment...and is so conscious of the delights and the mourning in change...(seen in seasons changing)
Ewan Bonham: His descriptors include movements and actions where we may not think of them..
Calvino Rabeni: Sometimes poetry has the poignancy of reaching toward that connection ...
Calvino Rabeni:

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more

Calvino Rabeni: This is a challenge to the reader to do more than be resigned to a state of nostalgia
Ewan Bonham: And...seems to draw connections amonst the parts of nature..:)
Calvino Rabeni: btw that last stanza was Wordsworth - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode:_Intimations_of_Immortality
Susan Aloix: (nods ewan...love how nature informs us about change..potentially nutures us..and the poet can mine that nrturing source)
Susan Aloix: reads cals post
oO0Oo Resident: lineage
Ewan Bonham: nod Susan
oO0Oo Resident: Bumper sticker: LINEAGE: Be a Part of It
Ewan Bonham: smile
oO0Oo Resident:

where there is still a bell
there I will dwell

Susan Aloix: :) did you just write that samuo?
oO0Oo Resident: yup
Calvino Rabeni: smiles
Susan Aloix: lol thats gorgeous
Calvino Rabeni: it is
oO0Oo Resident: takes one to know one
oO0Oo Resident: and ty
Calvino Rabeni: the rhythm and sound - voice - music in it is exquisite
Calvino Rabeni: it's fun to say
Susan Aloix: sorry to throw such a big one as keats.....poetry is kinda demanding ...
Calvino Rabeni: hehe
Calvino Rabeni: I think it's good to be gentle with oneself
Calvino Rabeni: as the reader
Ewan Bonham: Yes, we are all practicing...:)
Calvino Rabeni: at least until some "muscles" are built up?
oO0Oo Resident: play as practicing alone... together
--BELL--

Susan Aloix: yeah you're right.....i'm thrown emails full of a friends poetry for feedback...i put the task off all the time....but when i say *right i'm reading it*...my gawd its lovely......you're thrown into another world.....reminded of sweet taste of wisdom and the healing in them.....
Ewan Bonham: Friends...I will excuse myself...and say good night..:)
Calvino Rabeni: Good night, Ewan
Susan Aloix: Goodnight Ewan. Lovely to see you. bye for now???
Ewan Bonham: Thanky you and i will be back..:)
Calvino Rabeni waves
oO0Oo Resident: _/!\_ Ewan. ty for your wonderful presence
Susan Aloix: < would it be greedy to ask for more Rilke?
Calvino Rabeni: Somehow it becomes a production, doesn't it ...
Calvino Rabeni: Yes,
Susan Aloix: lol
Calvino Rabeni: can I share one by Collins first?
Susan Aloix: please do
Calvino Rabeni: Humor at the way poetry is approached
Calvino Rabeni:

Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Calvino Rabeni:  http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20177

That link also has a sidebar with a good list of "Poems About Poetry".

Susan Aloix: lovely
oO0Oo Resident: the imaginary line between East and West
Susan Aloix: yeah Samuo
Calvino Rabeni: What I like there is the poet showing the reader how to choose among lots of different ways to appreciate the poem
Calvino Rabeni: that is bringing creativity into Play
oO0Oo Resident: good parental approach too
Susan Aloix: nice one samuo
Calvino Rabeni: yes, it's instructive
oO0Oo Resident: and celebratory
Calvino Rabeni: and written for a certain group of readers
Calvino Rabeni: I do like Rilke
oO0Oo Resident smiles at Calvino rabeni
Calvino Rabeni: Happily I've found some gems or flowers in his huge body of work
Calvino Rabeni: I think you'll like this one
Calvino Rabeni: .
Susan Aloix: yay
oO0Oo Resident: yay
Susan Aloix: lol
Calvino Rabeni:

Bodily Delight
by R. M. Rilke
If only people could perceive the mystery in all life, down to the smallest thing, and open themselves to it instead of taking it for granted. If only they could revere its abundance which is undividedly both material and spiritual. For the mind's creation springs from the physical, is of one nature with it and only a lighter, more enraptured recapturing of bodily delight.

Susan Aloix: and only a lighter, more enraptured recapturing of bodily delight. < wow
oO0Oo Resident: Nice Cal
oO0Oo Resident: poetry really takes the lid off
Calvino Rabeni: :)
Calvino Rabeni: Or opens the door to other worlds
oO0Oo Resident: mhmm
Calvino Rabeni: I like the poems that INVITE one into an experience
Calvino Rabeni: although I may be challenged to accept the invitation and go through the door
Calvino Rabeni: Poems stand at thresholds
Calvino Rabeni: And maybe]
Calvino Rabeni: an important question is
Calvino Rabeni: "Where do I want to go"
Susan Aloix: you sense a choice/ invitation? my mind goes there. How am i missing the choice point? lol
oO0Oo Resident: said the wave to the seagull... one nice thing is how first reading at some time, and second reading years later, can reveal the invitation that was not seen at first
--BELL--

Susan Aloix: wonderful points cal and samuo
oO0Oo Resident: and you Susan...wonderful just because
Calvino Rabeni: That last Rilke quote was mostly descriptive ... "about" a possibility more than offering the actual possibility
Calvino Rabeni: Here's one that has more "invitation"
Calvino Rabeni:

Entering
by R.M. Rilke

Whoever you may be: step into the evening.
Step out of the room where everything is known.
Whoever you are,
your house is the last before the far-off.
With your eyes, which are almost too tired
to free themselves from the familiar,
you slowly take one black tree
and set it against the sky: slender, alone.
And you have made a world.
It is big
and like a word, still ripening in silence.
And though your mind would fabricate its meaning,
your eyes tenderly let go of what they see.

oO0Oo Resident: I love that
Susan Aloix: ( ty samuo :)...and sometimes i loose the reading i had years ago....which is kinda felt as a loss perhaps . But equally an excitment about the re-connection with a poem.....((sees morrrre Rilke from cal...reads)
oO0Oo Resident thinks: Wow!
Susan Aloix: oh yeah thats stunning cal
Calvino Rabeni: (reading it again)
Calvino Rabeni: these sometimes tap a deep well
Susan Aloix: yeah......so well said *tap a deep well*
oO0Oo Resident: image comes to mind... perhaps not so deep as the poem
Susan Aloix: wants to hear it
Calvino Rabeni: I like to return to the lines that really stood out for me
Calvino Rabeni: "With your eyes, which are almost too tired"
Susan Aloix: love this line - With your eyes, which are almost too tired to free themselves from the familiar,
Calvino Rabeni: Yesss
Calvino Rabeni: which says so much .. "almost" is wonderful ..
Calvino Rabeni: that's the one :)
Susan Aloix: oh wow lol
oO0Oo Resident: toward the end of Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away', the visuals and soundtrack of the trainride through the water... the vast vistas, the magic
Calvino Rabeni: because it takes one to an edge of feeling ... and has the knowing one will go beyond
Calvino Rabeni: Say more, o?
oO0Oo Resident: just the feeling at the end of a heroic journey, having been brave, having tamed the enemies....
Susan Aloix: being transported away from the fimiliar
oO0Oo Resident: Miyazaki is a great poet
Calvino Rabeni: I wish I had that on tap to view it though your impression of it
Susan Aloix: never saw it Samuo....i must get it out
oO0Oo Resident: you'll hear the bell, if you ever see it... I hope
Calvino Rabeni: It's a story about a journey to the underworld and a return
Susan Aloix: smiles
--BELL--

oO0Oo Resident thinks Cal would enjoy 'Princess Mononoke' also
Susan Aloix: yeah the wizzard of oz type theme...the journey away from the familiar and into the unknown......we have fewer opportunities to visit the unfamiliar...no wonder people in the their twenties are attraction to the altered states of drugs.......there is insufficient support to go travelling with ones person into the unknown.....in a meaningful way
Calvino Rabeni: I think I saw that too .. quite a while ago. both great
oO0Oo Resident: yes Susan
oO0Oo Resident: which direction shall we go in?
Calvino Rabeni: Would you mind if I closed the session now ...? It's been a full two hours ...
Calvino Rabeni: You're welcome to stay of course
oO0Oo Resident: let's give them some other avenues
Susan Aloix: would i like princess mononoke too samuo?
oO0Oo Resident: YES!
Susan Aloix: yes samuo
oO0Oo Resident: np Cal
Susan Aloix: okay cool ty
Calvino Rabeni: let us remember that
oO0Oo Resident: appreciate that the editing of these logs could be quite a task ;)
Susan Aloix: lol
Calvino Rabeni: not bad, sam, I get in a rhythm
oO0Oo Resident: I learned here, that links might be more helpful
Susan Aloix: ohh nods...good thing to remember...links
Calvino Rabeni: this is a mixed medium... the chat later becoming a text
Susan Aloix: < is very glad i made it the poetry group cal. Thanks to you and Hana for making it happen. I will need to get going in a moment.....
Calvino Rabeni: Same here, actually
oO0Oo Resident: me too
Calvino Rabeni: we will have more on this Theme ... stay tuned for time / place
oO0Oo Resident: ty all for a wonderful invitation, into the invitation
Susan Aloix: Nods. Thank you both for the stimulating and nurturing session on poems....appreciated
Susan Aloix: nice samuo
Susan Aloix: okay Cal. I was lucky to make it to this one. I hope I can to the next one. Highly recommended
Calvino Rabeni smiles ... thanks for your contributions and presence
Calvino Rabeni: I'll enjoy editing :)
Susan Aloix: A pleasure.
oO0Oo Resident: _/!\_
Susan Aloix: Namaste
Calvino Rabeni: Fly well Susan and oO0Oo
Calvino Rabeni: _/!\_
Calvino Rabeni: Bye !

The Rilke quotes are from a very nice translation and selection by Joanna Macy:
A Year With Rilke
http://www.amazon.com/Year-Rilke-Daily-Readings-Rainer/dp/006185400X