What does it mean that I saw myself in the wind?
A horned beast in the Grass, and Christ in a Cow?
How can it be that Thought sounds like Love,
that Heart equals Mind, Snow has an eye,
and Water plus one is Eternity?
These things are somehow true;
the voice of Meaning drowns them.
Our words grow dry and empty
as eyes look through, not at them.
They point us to the world inside,
but Outside points to us.
The Wind has never ceased to listen.
Self Portrait in Wind
I thought I knew what Love is;
it sounded like my Eye, and I
told you how I Love so much I couldn’t tell you Why.
But the moment I belie Wo’ Ai,
you have another Eye:
A coiled Thought like Buddha sitting
claims the label “I”.
I thought I was Love, but Love is Ai. (I know for sure Wo’ Ai)
But what of I? It can’t be “E”,
because Sun and Moon make “E”.
The Sun and Moon make Change in me,
and lizards in my mind,
but I and Ai, I still can’t see–
which one of them is mine?
Ink is the blood of the Art of Calligraphy:
The Chinese language wriggles and writhes
under the constraints of an ordered civilization;
If it grows stale with history, the Art breaks it free:
calligraphers summon the soul of a word,
know it, love it
and breathe new life into it,
a delicate transfusion from old to new bodies.
The word appears ike an old friend in new clothing,
years later living a new life,
but still carrying the same essence,
the same character.
Love Breaking Free From Open Circle (with Ripples)
Abstract: Craig Holdredge’s “delicate empiricism” is the practice of learning something while maintaining the spirit of curiosity of the moment of discovery. This essay is an account of my spontaneous engagement in an ancient and complex discipline some have spent their lives learning. I approach it not as a discipline but an expressive practice, focused on the experience of doing it, fueled by the curiosity that comes from not knowing how.
