More............

Circular rainbow gazers

Circular rainbow that appeared around the sun on the last day (after the group photo on the lawn)!

Gyangkhang Tulku

Retreat 2009

KK

the crew

my boys

more dizzy's room

no comment necessary

As Jizzy (the artist formerly known as Dizzy)

said to keith yesterday, "you're already thinking about your dismount?" and it's true
can i just let go all the thoughts of apartments and baltimore and work and money?
but the future creeps in
here in my mind
amidst chipmunks and clouds and sitting
in the tent in the temple in the hut
at the picnic table eating a cinnamon raisin bagel
while i check my email...............

I Hear Them

The deer thunder through the forest. I hear them blowing air through their noses--hidden behind the bushes. The doe chomps field grass, cocks her head to listen, and prances before Drew and I (he atop a haybale).

In the Woods

This One Goes Out To You Yulia

Retreat Moments

Introducing...The Damp

No, it's not a superhreo. Yes, it is a creature of the night...Slithering around when least expected. The sun's shining, and then before you know it, The Damp creeps up and in.

Before the damp arrives I do things that seem to make sense like wash dirty clothes by hand, then hang them on my clothesline. And then comes a small downpur. And now they're really wet. And then comes this: actually, i'm referring to the picture at the top with the crazy clouds. And then my clothes are REALLY wet. And so I put them in th drier for 45 min. But then somehow, they're still wet. And then they're hanging in my tent--still wet. And then it rains and rains and rains for days. And I'm afraid The Damp will never leave!

Sticks Crackle Black in the Night

Small animals scurry around the tent. Sweet purple milkweed vibrates bee buzz (as Keith and I sit amongst it). And the spiders and the ants, flies and mosquitoes, inch worms and moths. And the snails softly moving over leaves as in dance--heads slowly swaying. Mornings of fog.

Here, The Nights Are Cool

Awakening to the chatter of birds; woodpeckers pecking; an old Tibetan man chanting mantras, ringing a bell--here in the forest. Here in the mandala of His Holiness Penor RInpoche. Where brown rabbits hop, rainbow flags flutter, and tsong smoke wafts. Where I'm exhausted by people and talking at meals and retreat to the quiet of my tent on breaks. Where Keith reads and I write or nap. Here, my friends Min and Noelle offer drinks of gingerale and lime juice in their dorm room, Vietnamese sweets--as they tell me how they mix cayenne pepper into chocolate ice cream cause it's good for stomachs and lowering cholesterol. Here, small children sleep on red cushions in the temple, chase white bunnies and each other in the field. Yellow butterflies dart amidst milkweed. And still, anger flares.

Upstate Take 2

We camped at the bottom of this little hill.

In the morning the grass was covered in tiny glistening water droplets and spiderwebs and dewey caterpillars.

Upstate

Endless fields and long grass and tiny blue wildflowers and deer and birds nesting in the grass.

And Holiness.

And the worst headache of my life. And nausea and tears.

Kalachakra 2007 USA

Palyul Upstate

Okay, so maybe you're one of the people who wonders what in the heck goes on in upstate New York where I've spent the last seven summers...In the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by haybales and cows and cornfields. By rain and rainbows. It is there that I live in a tent in a forest. There that His Holiness Penor Rinpoche spends the summer surrounded by his monks and crazy westerners like me. I can not describe how colorful it is. It is too everything. My poems fall flat...Above is a clip from last summer's Kalachakra empowerment.