No Regrets Journal - Summer 2016

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Summer 2016 Issue 18

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No Regrets, a journal of poetry, prose and images about the twists and turns in the search for love, meaning and community Clayton Medeiros, Editor, Poet, Photographer! claymedeiros@aol.com Neil Mckay (Johnny Trash), Webmster Submissions are by invitation of the editor Epublishing http://issuu.com/claymedeiros/docs Facebook page No Regrets Journal and haikus poems and photographs http://www.facebook.com/NoRegretsJournal

Being

We share being with all that surrounds us in the known universe and beyond. We share being in relation to others, in relation to the world, !in relation to all that is. My perspective on being is neither religious nor rational. It is a state of mind. It is a continuous intention. It is an intention of interaction with others. It is an intention of interaction with nature. It is an intention of interaction with the cosmos.

In order for there to be an I, there must be a you to establish a relationship.

I am here, I am here now. You are here, you are here now. We share our presence in the mystery of existence. I can be here in this moment in a relationship with you, with anyone, with ! anything.

The language of “You” as opposed to the language of ‘it” provides a ! threshold of mutuality, a door that opens beyond logic and rationality, ! beyond language, a commonality of something shared, an assent to the mystery of our lives in this world.

Our view of the world, our sensibility and sensitivity toward the world, !our language in relationship to the world is reciprocal with a shared !presence, a reciprocity engaged in dialogue, a reciprocity that can also be silent, interacting with our conscious self and our unconscious self as they evolve, as they manifest in space and time and dreams.

Each of us is at the center of the mystery of our individual life in keeping with all that we have experienced and witnessed. Being surrounds us, entices us, invites us, frustrates us, offers an endless array of opportunities to be here now again and again in the I relationship with You. An invitation to break down the barriers erected that create the emptiness of a relationship with it. Being is silent in the void of I and it. Being communicates in the interactions of I and You.

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There are minds and spirits unknown to us lost in the ever disappearing oral traditions of the past whether it be Homer, the Icelandic Sagas, the Dream Songs of Australia’s Aborigines, the harvest songs and dances of the Hopi, the beliefs of those who painted the Altamira caves. There are hints in these oral stories turned into written words and phrases across our many languages with their futile, yet enchanting, efforts to define and contain being’s mystery. Language’s flawed meanings are inadequate in the attempts to capture the inexplicable sensibility of a shared moment of I and You.

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Mutuality “is a form of grace for which one must always be prepared but on which one can never count.”* Grace is a state that stands alone without cause, without effect, without expectations. Grace is a doorway to shared presence that does not require explication or explanation. The opportunity for grace is always present in our lives.

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In many faiths, the I must be relinquished to successfully become part of the faith, to participate successfully in its institutional and spiritual practices. One gives up the I to be one with God. One gives up the I to be one with the cosmos. One gives up the I to achieve Satori. I believe that the I is essential for there to be a relationship with the You whether the You is another life, the natural world or the universe.

There must be an I to respond where each You is met without expectation.

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I and You is an intention of how to be. An intention to oneself, an intention to others, an intention open to possibility, an intention to nature, an intention to spirit. My intention is to be open to the possibility of mystery and being that only needs to be recognized to become manifest in my life, in the lives of those around me, in the world at large.

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*Martin Buber, I and Thou, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970 page 178

“It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists.� !

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Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Yes And No

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Nothing special just one of those moments Existence erupts into varied creation stories

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One of those moments where existence Collapses into various apocalyptic dystopias

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Once in awhile a simple compatible stasis Of beliefs in momentary reality

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Concretized to fit the science of the day Spiritualized to fit the faiths of the day

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As the universe dashes To the edge of time and space

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No future end in sight from An inexplicable Big Bang

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“...metaphysics is the physics of the unknown.” ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Lee van Laer

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Science and Mystery

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The elegant beauty of mathematics and science So often confused by day to day insights and wisdom As if only the measured only the measurable count Imagination chuckles at the simplicity of such a view Uncertainty and mystery so necessary to a full life Their denial detrimental to the factually assured Story film poetry music painting parse what we see Explore what hides at the shadow’s edge Just out of view like the boundary Of the ever expanding universe

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“...I respond to reality in such a way that I look on ! ! existence as a great mystery and that at times, at certain ! moments, this mystery carries a strong charge, so that it ! ! does have a religious character, and it is often in such a ! context that I write.�

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Tomas Transtromer

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Future events murmur outside my door No words I recognize just hints A sense of unknown intent As desire to be here and now But I roll over Pull up the covers Dreams call to me

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Door

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Perhaps trains engines dream when they wait on a siding for the next box car

Trains

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Boundaries

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Infinite thresholds of being Cross roads between not and is Between nothing and consciousness Diversity pushes back Against all attempts To define its presence To define its absence

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Continuous

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Light fades to shadow Shadow fades to darkness Darkness fades to dawn Dawn welcomes sunlight Ready to design the day

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intrusive sunrise !! ! ! dispels wistful morning dreams darkness becomes light

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stand so quietly in the silence of the tree share earth’s abundance

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I walk the lake’s edge breeze driven ripples whisper I pause to listen! !

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The idea peeked out from a little noted corner Bereft of history unexpected sudden welcome Never ignored simply not present until now For no reason to be excavated or found In the recent story line of life’s passing days Persistent once risen to attentiveness

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A Thought

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like dragons resting islands float in the gray mist await shining knights

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Silence

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Silence is greedy It prefers to not share Insights it may have

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Joyous tragic boorish Spiritual philosophic Nothing is to be said

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Night morning afternoon Darkness or light indifferent Receptacles for silence

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Immanence

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In the mist Of shadowed dusk Night awaits constellations Stars patient with our diurnal lives Night and day inconsequential In the slow galactic spin Of future’s cumulative past

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a song in the dark from everywhere and nowhere suddenly moonlight

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Basho

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“And when the sun has begun to sink behind the rim of the hills, I sit quietly in the evening waiting for the moon so I may have a shadow for company, or light a lamp and discuss right and wrong with my silhouette.�