
Zen Sandwich
I am eating my zen sandwich by the side
of a blue lake . I hear the sound of
two wings flapping .
A fawn falcon plunges down the side
of the volcanic cone , its claws extended
like the landing gear of a plane .
As it skims across the surface — a sail-winged
skater —- the talons lacerate the taut
skin of that lake . It bleeds blue .
I love the imagery here!
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thank you: when you eat a zen sandwich anything might happen 🙂
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powerful imagery
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it was a magical moment, Beth; the fact that it was blue on the day we passed through was wondrous enough [ it often isn’t] but that ‘dawn-drawn falcon’ as Hopkins might say was a bonus 🙂
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Beautiful movement in your words!
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thanks; I had meditated by the side of the lake when the falcon appeared: I was truly ‘in the moment’
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Hi John,
Wow! Thinkable & nice post!
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so good to hear from you; thanks 🙂
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I really (really in italics) like this. So far I’ve read it at least a dozen times.
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I’m going to have to eat more zen sandwiches 🙂
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A really good painting with words. I wish I could get that on camera.
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so do I, Ulle but I was too late 😦
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You must have put best butter on that zen sandwich, it was beautiful!
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in the words of Macarthur Park: ‘I’ll never have that recipe again’
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😂😂😂
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Happy New Year, John. Have fun welcoming in 2021.
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Happy New Year back, Neil; I hope we both write some great posts in 2021:)
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WOW! So much great movement and imagery and clever allusion in this piece! I smiled hard at the “…sound of two wings flapping…” Love it.
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thanks, Ed: you know what’s funny? I actually first posted this three years ago but it got little traffic but I thought it was an ideal New Year’s piece so I posted it again: maybe the time wasn’t right first time around? There are songs like that too: that make little impact when first released but a little later they hit the jackpot; now that would make one hell of a post 🙂
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This is truly beautiful. My favourite so far! What a stunning image. If I had a notebook it would go in.
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🙂 thank you; you must get yourself a commonplace book; I’ve got a few of yours in mine 🙂
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🙂
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The stripped-down sentences make the moment sound more zen. Lacerating the lake, it’s vicious but also precise and skilful like a surgeon. Enamored with this one. You should write more zen moments, John.
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thanks. I agree 🙂
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You should write other things zen, John. It’s really a nice voice.
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I will certainly try 🙂
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I could certainly use more zen, so I’m sure there many others that could as well. I’m counting on you to make all things Zen, John. No pressure.
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at least you made me aware of it; I can get into a zen-like state if I take myself out of the world a bit; not a hard thing to do; my little haiku that someone commented on this morning ‘Rear View Mirror’ on my other blog was written in a zen-like moment 🙂
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I didn’t know you had another blog. Is it named the same?
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My haiku today. I post them on twitter–I’ve only been a tweety bird since last November. 😉
You tell God okay,
But broken hearts misbehave;
close your thighs and pray.
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I used your “zen” word in my poem. I hope you don’t mind.
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that’s fine 🙂 it’s not ‘my’ word to give anyway 🙂 I will have a read 🙂
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