ON and ON and ON

Sunday

3.22.2020
The day stretched out 
Then shrunk to evening

5:30 p.m.

Manhattan View Eastward as the 'ongoing' goes on. Cool, clear air drifts through my rooms three flights up from deserted City Streets and the little dog who lives below barks for his absent companion.

 

~*~

7 p.m

Church bells tolled at 6 and news on the radio reminded me that our Administration is actively defending itself with promises of protecting all of us and tightening the rules more.

~*~

The Weighing
by Jane Hirshfield

The heart’s reasons
seen clearly,
even the hardest
will carry
its whip-marks and sadness
and must be forgiven.

As the drought-starved
eland forgives
the drought-starved lion
who finally takes her,
enters willingly then
the life she cannot refuse,
and is lion, is fed,
and does not remember the other.

So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.

The world asks of us
only the strength we have and we give it.
Then it asks more, and we give it.

~*~

Supper Time

 ~*~

Social Distance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WimbyL_25Nw&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3KLha3Dw7Vm7sdID1v-iduKVMs4oL7X63LY70bgi-EK2fZ1AGvfMCL9RQ

Midnight Stroll

 Bought Incense.
 walked twenty blocks.
looked up at blooming trees.

What a long week it seemed.
I wonder what this next will feel like.
Months? We shall see.
~*~

ONGOING UNKNOWN

Sunday

I am embedded within the ongoing unknown.

Though living seems actual, though there are other beings everywhere and we are never really alone, though this was always so, now that it's manifest, it feels deeply isolating.

The Buddha taught that every thing is impermanent, fleeting and that nothing has a lasting form. Dreams, once we've woken up, are also fleeting, formless and intangible.

*

"For all we know, we may never meet again"

https://youtu.be/8ZkOOsm7O3Y

~*~

Monday

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”

(from 'The Tempest' by Shakespeare)
~*~


Tuesday
Two photographs shot during a brief walk about late Monday evening. I stayed off the Web and puttered about in between naps all day.

Almost all the newer residents in my building have left town and the silence is both wonderful and disturbing. Even my Zendo is closed for the duration and we do not know what that duration will be.
'Months' is the newest projection.

Such a perfect storm of disrupted events:
our elections, the census and the collapsing economic scene.
~*~


Wednesday
Daffodils bloom in tree wells around Gramercy Park,
sheltering in place in the dark

~*~

EAST VILLAGE to AVENUE B HARVEST

Keep the East Village Real

It's a website dedicated to protecting the boutiques, bodegas, shops and theaters that make our neighborhood unique by stopping the homogenizing onslaught of banks, fast food and chain stores.

(see links)

Two Survivors

1.
(Still open for business)

2.

(Elder tucked in for a read)

~*~

Saturday Garden Annual Harvest
Run entirely by residents of the Lower East Side/East Village. Most everything has been planted or built by garden volunteers of the past nearly four decades.

(Mindy Levokove, Founding Member)

Raffle tickets $1

(extraordinary prizes see link)

Bill Buchner and band played

Dahlias along the fence

Taller than me

Windsock

Plenty of Places to be alone

Ripe Fruit

Lambs Ears

Another Photographer

Almost Ready

The Sweetest Scent

Thin spider webbing woven with plant hairs

Dove Vignette

Hidden Mask

Clouds of White Florets

Astounding Foods
Pasta, grains and Bean salads, Bagels, Hot Dogs, Chicken, Veggie burgers, Juices and Teas, Condiments. An endless all day service to the community for free.

Beautiful Fence “the Wave” was built in 1997

Reluctant Departure

5PM

LINKS

"Keep the East Village Real"
http://ktevr.com/

Avenue B/6th Street Garden
http://newsite.6bgarden.org/

"LONELY'

Today I wrote this single word

"LONELY"

My search for rhymes--absurd.
three hours spent on this word.

 Not one...

 Not one more...

 Not one more word.

~*~


Post Script

https://youtu.be/1raSUYAr0s0

SLEEPLESS

It's just a fact. I'm not complaining.

Lately I've been living a 'Day for Night' reality. Film makers know that's when you shoot scenes at night but light them to appear as day.  It's usually used to make shooting in heavily trafficked conditions that would be impossible to shoot otherwise. That may even figure into why this has come about, Manhattan can be extremely stressful when it's up and running at full speed. Everywhere, technology appears on the streets promising connections many will not necessarily find useful. We miss the old businesses and familiar faces in these up-scaling days

It has gotten so much worse in the past few years and since I'm not the young and ready for anything I used to be, I think I'm just avoiding the effort. I keep my shoes and my rainbow purse near the bed just in case I have to get out in a hurry, which is always a possibility.

My circadian rhythm has gotten on this track and I'm trying to coax it to change while my favorite monkey friend looks on sympathetically.  Of course, reliable "Teddy'" is always nearby for comfort.

Tapping into Zen practice weekly helps keep me sane.
The drum beats as we chant in unison, then silence.

After, I stop by the altar that honors departed benefactors and members.  There on the lower right is my friend and writing buddy Kalinda whose third round of cancer took her away recently. You may recognize others there (yes, that's Phyllis Diller on the upper right).

 I shopped at Trader Joe then on 6th Avenue, and wandered around the corner to a famous graveyard:
"Shearith Israel’s third cemetery was consecrated at 21st Street just west of 6th Avenue in 1929."

 (See link)

~*~

At home one rose bud from my river walk exudes  its delicious aroma still.

Life and Death Forever and Ever
~*~

Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Shearith_Israel_Graveyard

THREE DAYS to SATURDAY

Wednesday

2.15.2017
This world map is what I see first and it actually looks like this from the next room in half light from a curtained window--it's just a folded National Geographic map, unfolded and tacked up on the bookcase there with the light bouncing off creases distorting it beautifully. 

 However, this is a more accurate map 
The Authagraphic map of 2016

https://youtu.be/ghiZVlfLdVg


A few days without news has been therapeutic:

I transcribed and edited one flash fiction, completed and posted "Red Week" at the blog after adding a music Video (see Link below), Left some Valentine posts at Face book, began another short story, edited a poem, rested, had a new neighborly encounter (story to come), re-read Adrienne Rich "Poems Selected and  New 1950-1974", meditated, answered emails, posted letters, listened to music and the last three discs of "Boys in the Trees" by Carly Simon, finished knotting a three string necklace which now I only have to get the Venetian glass bead drilled for a clasp, and shot some photographs of the rescued cactus that suddenly began to grow fingers right after the January election.

Manhattan is cool and pale today.

According to the Tibetan calendar this date is auspicious for a haircut. i didn't get one but did go to the Zendo for two hours and slow walked back East after.

~*~


Thursday
2.16.2017
See the green draining away?
Winter's begun it's turn today.
There will be desperate visitations,
recapitulations and one more fierce snow show,
but every Northern body will know
It's only Spring arriving slow.

All the long day I wandered aimlessly,

unfocused until...

Thursday kindly...disappeared.

~*~

Friday

2.17.2017

In an effort to understand current events,

I found myself following the money trail...

https://youtu.be/uQUkaEVe7II

 Oh Damn, Oh drat. Oh, weep and wail.

You get what's been paid for on the Money trail.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Afternoon Walking Therapy
Another long term neighbor gone. Carlos and Mr. Sjoburg were once our Superintendents here.  When they were removed by the new landlord, they continued at their apartment where they raised two wonderful daughters, paying rent. We were friendly. Recently Carlos had been very ill and then they were gone, probably to New Jersey to be with one of their daughters we speculate.

Pigeons and bus stop Signage encouraging gambling
East 23rd Street off Third Avenue.

Public art on a building at Lexington and 24th Street

The Historic Armory at 25th Street on Lexington Avenue
just some of the many battles commemorated...

 The Sixty Ninth Regiment Armory was completed in 1906. The building is still used to house the headquarters of the New York Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment known as the "Fightin' Irish".  It has many other uses as performance space and event rental.
(see link)

 160 Lexington Avenue at 30th Street now houses the high end retail Dover Street Market but with a rich history as a Women's Art School.
(see link)

Then doubled back to home.
~*~


Saturday
2.18.2017
Before I read my morning emails, the news or weather, this beauty from February's page of my Florida Wildlife Calendar...and the patch of light almost overwhelming the bark because there was a light source above illuminating it when I took the picture.  I allow myself to Imagine it might be a message from the sun.

LINKS

Red Week
http://mscomfortzone.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-red-week.html

69th Regiment Armory'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/69th_Regiment_Armory

160 Lexington Avenue
http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-school-of-applied-design-for-women.html