report from a silent retreat
serra de monchique
summer twenty twenty-two
_____________________________
approaching silence
stepping into open space
no step steps will take you there
it it not there
it is not here
*
the skin of mountains you see
is made from the mirage of paths
*
things begin falling awqy
arrayed yet ungraspable
slowly
the hand opens
the mind
stillness is
*
the heart realm
home to all
paths
here and there
crossings you
movement incessant
closures
none
*
in its fullness
just empty space
knows no hurdles
the heart
*
whose heart whispers
here in this mountain heat
bracing for unflinching winds
everything open
laid bare
before the rocks
before the sky
becomes breath
*
nightfall over the valley
echoes of footsteps on stony pathway
fading
maybe it's the bell ringing
waves loosened into the air
*
from the ridgetop
red moon
full
emerges
meeting you again
city lights shimmer
in the hazy distance
*
sitting together
to one another unknown
knowing not needed
just days of silence
presence of the immeasurable
it is closest
maybe time
maybe space
this is the beginning
both of forgetting
and remembering
*
questions slowly move into silence
find the peace of
absence of response
released
become resonance
opulence of response
*
what you thought you had to
leave behind to walk
freely among echoes
yet did not know
hs been here
here and already at rest
at rest
and at home
dissolved in the morning light
*
great absences
immaculate blue sky
the clouds
the clouds and the many things
leave us wordless
were we to listen
silence is here when
everything else is gone
nobel companion
*
silence is nowhere
abode to the mind
resting in that plenitude
unstirring
*
mind has nowhere to dwell
the time of an utterance
revisions itself as the sea
wind sweeping the surface of waters
the time of a breath
to appear and disappear
this is us and
the many things
we follow the trail of birds
into the scented evening
*
the world that is the other world
but only to be found here
is the mirror of silence
*
to find it
one must step outside of it
no one steps outside of it
it is
erasure of what divides
*
it cannot be found
it is radiance
what we call vastness is its passing
from where to nowhere
light here
dark here
right here
*
in its wake
constellations trace their path
that distant murmur
*
late night
we are asleep
to draw cooler water
dreams merge
at the mountain source
keeping vigil
the toads in the pond
*
just to sit
moment after moment
simplicity invites
be present with
presence of what is
*
vastness
what is it
abundance
abundance is what
what is alive
