After Rumi (on the certainty of fire)

If your knowledge of fire derives from words   you should seek to be cooked by fire!
There's no certainty until you feel the flame   come and sit in the nook of fire!

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[The above comprises my recasting (into couplet form) of the thought found in this literal translation from the Farsi of Jelaluddin Rumi]:

"If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words (alone), seek to be cooked (by the fire itself)
and do not abide in the certainty (of knowledge derived from others).
There is no intuitive (actual) certainty until you burn;
if you desire this certainty, sit down in the fire."

— Jalal-ud-Din Rumi; translated by Afzal Iqbal

"Pulling the page from the platen" [sonnet]

Nostalgia for long-lost days of manual typewriters
I belong to a gen    that still amid memory knows this!
sans internet or PC    we raised upon typewriters
were such innocents (though we didn't perchance suppose this)

you could clank out & mail a letter   affixing a stamp to it
OMG!  to receive such a missive   out of the distance!
and the feel of the keys   the resistance   bring a lamp to it!
for it wouldn't (screen-like)   self-illuminate its existence

and the ribbon   and the return!   with a knell so lyrical
hear it ring   from out the depth of your cogitation?
if it's true as they say   perfection itself is spherical
might we circle about   in an act of imagination

to that instant when pulling the page from the platen  look!
every line etched with sober demeanor    just like a book

Four Seasons & Eight Questions

If summer's the perfection of spring
if autumn is summer's completion
does winter show fall a new thing?
is spring merely winter's deletion?

If summer annihilates spring
if autumn belies summer's glory
is winter autumn's votive king?
does spring hide in winter's chill story?

If winter holds off spring's delight
if spring keeps in check summer's fire
does autumn fend off winter's night?
does summer suppress autumn's ire?

If fall had a crush on the vernal
& autumn were envied by spring
might winter in fact be nocturnal?
does summer at noon blithely sing?

an adage for the day (1)

Cool your heels   & soften your gaze       /
Idle your wheels  & brighten your days   //

In Rancho Mirage

In Rancho Mirage
the Prez meets the Prez
don't get out of Dodge
the Oracle says

In Rancho Mirage
the mirrors run deep
all those who make Haj
go miles before sleep

In Rancho Mirage
Obama meets Xi
is Maya a hodge-podge?
go 'n' ask the leafed tea