NOW by Marian Bantjes (30x40) published by 20x20

Don’t bother me.
I’ve just
been born.
The butterfly’s loping flight
carries it through the country of the leaves…
for long delicious moments it is perfect
lazy, riding motionless in the breeze on the soft stalk
of some ordinary flower.
The god of dirt
came up to me many times and said
so many wise and delectable things, I lay
on the grass listening
to his dog voice,
crow voice,
frog voice: now,
he said, and now.
and never once mentioned forever,
which has nevertheless always been,
like a sharp iron hoof,
at the center of my mind.

One or two things are all you need
to travel over the blue pond…
some deep
memory of pleasure, some cutting
knowledge of pain.
But to lift the hoof!
For that you need an idea.

For years and years I struggled
just to love my life. And then
the butterfly
rose, weightless, in the wind.
“don’t love your life
too much,” it said,
and vanished into the world.

— Mary Oliver (from Dream Work)

Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are, Coming to Our Senses, Full Catastrophe Living, and Arriving at Your Own Door, opened the conversation with a gorgeous poem from which the title of his latest book came:

The second poem Kabat-Zinn used was by a poet from whom the name of yours truly was inspired. (Thanks Mom and Dad):

During the discussion, he defined meditation as “attention in service of self-understanding and liberation.” He also used “awarenessing” as a verb in places where you might expect to hear “thinking” instead.

Both he and Bokara somehow started to blame technology for accelerating time, to which I respectfully disagree. Oddly enough, my brother gave me a book on just that topic this week, The Mayan Code, which asserts that time acceleration is a manifestation of the acceleration of consciousness. So perhaps it’s Jon Kabat-Zinn and Bokara who are responsible for this phenomenon through talks like these! Your thoughts (and awarenesses) welcome, of course.

ROFLOL from Hanna Gersen’s “Sigh,” a hilarious mad-libbed urban feminist reframing of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.“

April is here, the thyme is short, and Google Book Search is awesome! I am loving the ability to download full PDFs of books in the public domain (like The Gardener collection of poems by Rabindranath Tagore), navigate around the sections, search and see results highlighted within the text and purchase various editions.

I’ve also been enjoying Amazon’s “search inside” to find information and exactly the passage I want, but their site doesn’t allow me to link directly to that page or highlight the passages within the book.

The ability to access from anywhere (online), search and annotate is so compelling I would pay a premium to get access to a full digital networked version when I buy a current printed book. For some books, I’d prefer just the digital version, but for books I want to read in transit or cook with in the kitchen, paper’s still preferable.

The Gardener
by Rabindranath Tagore

46
You left me and went on your way.
I thought I should mourn for you and set your solitary image in my heart wrought in a golden song.
But ah, my evil fortune, time is short.

Youth wanes year after year; the spring days are fugitive; the frail flowers die for nothing, and the wise man warns me that life is but a dew drop on the lotus leaf.
Should I neglect all this to gaze after one who has turned her back on me?
That would be rude and foolish, for time is short.

Then, come my rainy nights with pattering feet; smile, my golden autumn, come, careless April, scattering your kisses abroad.
You come, and you, and you also!
My loves, you know we are mortals.
Is it wise to break one’s heart for the one who takes her heart away? For time is short.

It is sweet to sit in a corner to muse and write in rhymes that you are all my world.
It is heroic to hug one’s sorrow and determine not to be consoled.
But a fresh face peeps across my door and raises its eyes to my eyes.
I cannot but wipe away my tears and change the tune of my song.
For time is short.

There’s a version of this poem read to music by Liev Schreiber on a soothing CD filled with Tagore poems accompanied by music that has a name so cheesy I’m almost embarrassed to recommend it: “A Gift of Love II: Oceans of Ecstasy.” There, I did it. (mp3 song preview)

• Semacode | URL barcodes | practical ubiquitous computing
  Semacode’s Software Development Kit is a system for ubiquitous computing. Using the Semacode SDK you can create visual tags for objects and contexts, and read them using a mobile camera phone.
  (tags: ubicomp ubiquitouscomputing barcode mobile internetofthings)
• The Kaywa Reader
  Kaywa’s QR (Quick Response) codes are visual tags for objects that can be read on a mobile camera phone.
  (tags: ubicomp ubiquitouscomputing barcode mobile internetofthings)

2007.04.01 update: related NYTimes article by Louise story: “New Bar Codes Can Talk With Your Cellphone”