Early Sunday Morning
BY EDWARD HIRSCH

I used to mock my father and his chums
for getting up early on Sunday morning
and drinking coffee at a local spot
but now I’m one of those chumps.

No one cares about my old humiliations
but they go on dragging through my sleep
like a string of empty tin cans rattling
behind an abandoned car.

It’s like this: just when you think
you have forgotten that red-haired girl
who left you stranded in a parking lot
forty years ago, you wake up

early enough to see her disappearing
around the corner of your dream
on someone else’s motorcycle
roaring onto the highway at sunrise.

And so now I’m sitting in a dimly lit
café full of early morning risers
where the windows are covered with soot
and the coffee is warm and bitter.

Interpretation of an Emily Dickinson poem, "Unto my books"

I have discovered the poetry section in our local library at Dougherty Station. It has quite some selection. Yesterday I started reading Edward Hirsch's book, "How to read a poem" -- my reward for suffering through a terrible week on wall street last week. Any American poetry book starts out with glowing perspectives on Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson's poetry.

According to the book, Emily Dickinson's biographer Richard Sewall loved the poets she read and found herself amongst them. Emily apparently called her poets "the dearest ones of time," "Kinsmen of the Shelf," "enthralling friends, the immortalities." I wanted to find the context of of these poems.

So I started with the most interesting phrase here: Kinsmen of the Shelf. And I found this poem:

UNTO my books so good to turn
Far ends of tired days;
It half endears the abstinence,
And pain is missed in praise.

As flavors cheer retarded guests
With banquetings to be,
So spices stimulate the time
Till my small library.

It may be wilderness without,
Far feet of failing men,
But holiday excludes the night,
And it is bells within.

I thank these Kinsmen of the Shelf;
Their countenances bland
Enamour in prospective,
And satisfy, obtained.

This poem is about the love of books.  The question arises what she means when she says "Kinsmen of the shelf": is she referring to books, to poems or poets. I think it was books. However, Dickinson biographer Richard B. Sewell says that Dickinson "saw herself as a poet in the company of the Poets – and, functioning as she did mostly on her own, read them (among other reasons) for company" So he thinks the poets who wrote these books are her "Kinsmen of the Shelf."

Another Poem by Emily Dickinson on Books

Beginning my studies
- Walt Whitman

BEGINNING my studies, the first step pleas’d me so much,
The mere fact, consciousness—these forms—the power of motion,
The least insect or animal—the senses—eyesight—love;
The first step, I say, aw’d me and pleas’d me so much,
I have hardly gone, and hardly wish’d to go, any farther,
But stop and loiter all the time, to sing it in ecstatic songs.


I would have called this poem, "the first step." The poem is all about how Whitman loving the journey that he has embarked upon. This is a journey of a student, a journey of a "Sikh"; he calls it "beginning my studies." From what I have read from him, I believe Walt Whitman could have been America's first celebrated sikh, one who realized the need for learning.

When Whitman started learning, he was so pleased by the first step. Every little detail of this step, the knowledge that he was taking the step, the power of moving that first foot, and the smallest lives he sees on his first step. Whitman is awe struck. He does not need to go any further. He has reached a state of bliss in his first step. He loiters around on his first step. Enamored, he keeps singing about his first step. Coming to the conclusion that every learner of life, every sikh comes to: that the purpose of life is to sing. Whitman sings his first step of learning. He is ecstatic.

Whitman is not so much different from a child in this poem. And I often think children do not have the baggage of adults and can really enjoy learning. They are awed by every new shape, every new color. The world seems so exciting. The child in us smiles when he is learning. Why is there a need to grow. If you remain at the first step you can make this smile stay forever.

Whitman is right. How beautiful is the first step! The first motion, first shape, first colors, first snow. Exhilarating! Shiv, savor the bliss of the first step of love until you can. It does not get any better.

This song would be sung in Raag Ramkali, the melody of "anand" or bliss.

"If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal and if they can't stop you. Then you become something else entirely. A legend."

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.

— Mahatma Gandhi




Timeless Truth Meditation

Although the idea of "One Truth" is inscribed in one of the mankind's oldest scriptures (Rig Veda 1.164.46, 1500BC), the beautiful couplet I am singing comes from Guru Nanak (around 1600AD).

Thanks to George Couttolenc from Mexico for composing and playing the beautiful music!

"Satnaam" literally means "True Name" and refers to God, the one who's identity remains true always. It was used as a mantra by several saints in India including: Bhagat Kabir, Guru Nanak, Guru Ramdaas, and Bhai Gurdaas.

"Aad Sach, Jugaad Sach
Hai Bhi Sach, Hosi Bhi Sach"
- Guru Nanak's first couplet that marks the beginning of his beautiful poem "Japji Sahib"

The rough meaning is

In The Primal Beginning True, Throughout The Ages True,
Here And Now True, O Nanak, Forever And Ever True.

And here is the poem that this inspired:

"Truth"

Rising with the sun
What was true
Will be at sunset
Still golden truth

Its Summer's warmth
Grey winter's dew
Autumn's red fall
And Spring's life too

Like hours pass
So Seasons do
Grey has a range
But Truth stays true

So In this new year
Last year's white truth
Like bygone millennia
will again ring true

Its reign will sustain
With it's royal blue
For ages and eons
Forever true

So Hold still my dear
As Vapor Flows through
You too will Be clear
In a moment or two

Why shy away from
Truth's boldness due,
And Why seek outside
For what's inside true?

Credit: Guru Nanak, George Couttolenc

Anna Johnson is one of my favorite reverbnation musicians. Her music is really very pure and touches your soul. And I just discovered some new music from her, temporarily called "Sweet Love" -- my prediction, this will be a big hit:



The other video that I like from her:



Her reverbnation profile:

Here is what I read this morning. This is an island that Yeats wants to go to. Although the island and the lake exists, this is really a fantasy, a utopia that Yeats creates. He sees, hears things that are beautiful to him and imagines them. This is how Raag Asa is sung ...

The lake isle of Innsfree


I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, 5
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; 10
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Isle_of_Innisfree

The Habits of Mind are a collection of 16 thinking dispositions identified by Professor Art Costa. Costa defined the Habits of Mind as the dispositions skillfully and mindfully displayed by characteristically intelligent people when confronted with problems the solutions to which are not immediately apparent. The Habits of Mind are not thinking tools, rather they are dispositions that inclines one to adopt a thinking tools and strategies.

Professor Arthur L. Costa is currently Emeritus Professor at California State University at Sacramento.

The 16 Habits of mind
1.Persisting – Stick to it.
2.Communicating with clarity and precision – Be clear.
3.Managing impulsivity – Take your time.
4.Gathering data through all senses – Use your natural pathways.
5.Listening with understanding and empathy – Understand others.
6.Creating, imagining, innovating – Try a different way.
7.Thinking flexibly – Look at it another way.
8.Responding with wonderment and awe – have fun figuring it out.
9.Thinking about your thinking (metacognition) – Know your knowing.
10.Taking responsible risks – Venture out.
11.Striving for accuracy and precision – Find the best possible solution.
12.Finding humour – Laugh a little.
13.Questioning and problem posing – How do you know?
14.Thinking interdependently – Learning with others.
15.Applying past knowledge to new situations – Use what you learn.
16.Remaining open to continuous learning – Learrning from experiences.