NO MEETING NOV. 27

 Attached two things:  One, the announcement of the concert by 5X5   DECEMBER 7 at 7 pm 

and a  brief reflection on the poem Table discussed yesterday with a picture I took in Switzerland.

Wishing everyone the positives of sharing goodness,

Reflections

"A man filled with the gladness of living/put his keys on the table..." 

-- Edip Cansever, translated by Richard Tillinghast

Perhaps you have seen such mystery— a lake offering

a table, and in it, everything can be reflected —

the sky, the bright ball of sun playing a game

with the  clouds,  offering a pale dot

of blue in the reflection?

Everything,  meaning, mist suspended 

as it reaches to wrap the mountain

kissing two of its waterfalls,

and only a hint of human 

in an empty house 

where perhaps people 

put their keys down, with no need

for locking things up, and everything

has a chance to breathe freely. 

Everything, meaning the wanted as well

as the unwanted, hunger 

and fullness with room

for piling on even more.

Now that's what I call a table! 

Wouldn't you?

**rewrite below without the marvelous poem:

Reflections

 

Perhaps you have seen such mystery— a lake offering

a table, and in it, everything can be reflected —

the sky, the bright ball of sun playing a game

with the  clouds, offering a pale dot

of blue in the reflection? 

 

Even if not, even if you have never seen such a lake,

cannot see this picture of mountains rising above

a lake in a V, reflected in a lake, in a reverse V

making an hourglass, 

                                    even if you cannot see 

mist suspending its wrap in the mountains,

hiding a kiss of two of its waterfalls,

 

imagine the lake as a table that never runs 

out of surface, able to hold everything

and its opposite, able to hold emptiness,

abstractions, contradictions and all

you have lived, deepening 

reflection. 

                 You might ask, why bother?

The lake knows about weather, the dance

of wind and cloud with and without the sun,

first and second chances.  If you pause

to tap into the peace of a moment it is offering,

it is akin to an infusion of what some call grace.