Revisiting

Keep me in your thoughts

While time resumes its pace

While this narration carries on

And leaves us in its wake

Of the words that passed between us

Let them not be in vain

Eager is my wandering mind
To visit them again

Unforgotten

There the fine line descends 

Through broken promises

Old but not forgotten

Under sorrows heavy charge

Eyes now dry

Of rivers long since passed

From battles not forgotten

A furtive glean no more

A heart now silenced

In wistful sullenness

Weak but not forgotten

Gone with Spring for now

Apologies

Apologies to the clouds 

for not following their way.

Apologies to the leaves 

for not cushioning their fall.

Apologies to the oceans

for not listening to their tale.

Apologies to you, my love,

for all that I am not.  

Just Because

Let’s say you are a woman of great caliber and ideals let’s say you’ve got ambition and one or two degrees you may even speak some Urdu, Russian or Farsi and in your native language you publish astonishing poetry But the simple fact that you are a woman justifies the reality that no matter how much you try there most certainly will be some reason why you never reach that high Because miraculously there is always something that clearly will let you know that if you are a woman the limit will never be the sky... 

Let’s say you’ve got something that you feel passionately about maybe being a teacher, a guardian, or a nurse but yet they won’t fail to point out that you took a rather unpromising turn because there certainly is no doubt that how ever much you put in very little ends up on your account. But the simple fact that you are a woman justifies the reality that no matter how much you try there most certainly will be some reason why you never reach that high Because miraculously there is always something that clearly will let you know that if you are a woman the limit will never be the sky... 

 Let’s say you became a doctor, a lawyer, or software designing geek Let’s say it’s something clever Something men usually do seek And let’s say that you are really great at it and Work long hours week after week So you can buy a penthouse in Manhattan, two sailboats, and villa in the south of Crete But the simple fact that you are a woman justifies the reality that no matter how much you try there most certainly will be some reason why you never reach that high Because miraculously there is always something that clearly will let you know that if you are a woman the limit will never be the sky...

Whether you manage your kids with nannies, an extended family or two Whether you have opted out of the double day as some clever ones will think is good to do Whether you put off your career because you have it all thought through Or whether you are the income earner The one off to London or Peru The simple fact that you are a woman justifies the reality that no matter how much you try there most certainly will be some reason why you never reach that high Because miraculously there is always something that clearly will let you know that if you are a woman the limit will never be the sky...

Hope less

We can always hope for the best outcome but it would be naive to expect the best to come out in humans trying to hold on to power. Please join the effort to support the civil uprise against the Syrian regime. Do more and check out Avaaz.com !

In the Distance of a Night

And here we are on the other side
minds bedazzled drunken and laden
on the morning of that last night

With speech slow and memory quiet
what we promised lingers
in the darkness of one long night

Some words may be drawn to light
but more still will be left behind
in the distance of a night

Painfully Plain Pleasures

Theorists disagree about the number and quality of our basic emotions. Some list as many as eleven (Arnold), while others reduce their number to only four or five.

One study (Parrot 2001) lists six primary emotions, including love, joy, surprise, anger sadness, and fear which lead on to a longer list of secondary emotions such as longing, pride and exasperation, which again connect to an even larger list of tertiary emotions (for a complete listing go to changingminds.com).

I like to keep with Marrow' approach who limited the list to two basic emotions, pain and pleasure. However, I would like to qualify this by adding that both pleasure and pain often are merely anticipated. Whatever secondary or tertiary emotions may be connected to them, more often than not they are not based on the actual experience but rather on an perceived or anticipated experience.

Pain or the anticipation of pain is, of course, directly linked to our feeling of security and how we estimate our chances of survival.

Belonging to a group, being accepted and valued by its members, for instance, plays a very important role in our human evolution. This is true especially for women, who due to their vulnerability as physically generally weaker and reproductively more involved sex, have been (and in many environments still are) very dependent on protection through others.

According to this approach, anticipated pain, this underlying feeling of insecurity, can bring on all kinds of emotions, including those usually not linked to pain as for instance in the Stockholm Syndrom (love for an abductor). And, by the same token, it can help explain why in abusive relationships there often is much talk about love.

As to my own feeling this morning, they are definitely leaning more towards the side of pain. And yet, a vague but nevertheless powerful feeling of loneliness earlier today has been somewhat eleviated by a brisk morning walk across the fields with a few friendly faces along the way.