Thursday, January 27, 2022

When Passion Does Not Need to Turn to Love, but Becomes the Wound Through Where Gratitude Finds You

 


“Some people are like a bad oyster” I was once told “no matter how many times they get into hot waters, they never open up.”

A comment I got for my last posting  (https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2022/01/love-is-only-freedom-from-attachment.html”  read:

“it reminds me of the music of Vladimir Cosma and the lyrics of Norman Cimbel performed by a Greek singer”

I am not sure, but perhaps it is a reference to “The Power of Love” sang, among many others, by Nana Mouskouri since 1984. Interestingly, during many of my challenging times, I listened to the Spanish songs that Mouskouri so beautifully sang. Her crystalline voice and pragmatic attitude gave me hope.

And that took me to Rumi, a poet philosopher who has touched my mind in his seemingly straightforward lines.

“The wound is the place where the light enters you”

Sure, light is part of enlightment, yet I am not sure it does anything to the wound.  Even a closed wound is not necessarily healed. That is a reminder that sometimes I have cherished, but never forgotten.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

Am I wise now? And if I change myself, would the wounds disappear?

 

… I thought about two photos I took in Portugal. The one on the top of this page is from Oporto. Early morning shot of the beach. Many footprints there, but the man is walking alone. His head down.

Another photo from Portugal, this time from Nazaré – many footprints there too but the man is not alone.

Or is he?

 


Both of these photos have been published in books, but that means less to me than what they mean.

… Among the emails I got about the poem I posted one read:

“Too short. I was looking for lengthy reflections on the topic.”

 

I leave the reflections to the readers.

 

January 27, 2022

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2022

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Love is the Only Freedom from Attachment. When You Love Everything, You Are Attached to Nothing (Mikhail Naimy)

 



 

Beauty

It is not in what

We see

 

As passion

Turns to love

Sometimes

 

And yet

In what

We overlook

 

Dependency

Finds

Love

 

Taken

For

Granted

 


January 22, 2022

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2022


Mikhail Naimy . "The Book of Mirdad: The strange story of a monastery which was once called The Ark" 2011.

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Silence of the Deep

 



 

 

Sunken ships do not float again

At low tide

 

And yet

The winds they once

Harnessed

 

Upon

All seas

Remain

As storms

Or soft zephyr

 

Sunken ships do not float again

At full moon

 

But deep in darkness

And silence

They still dream

Of open

Seas

 

And bathe

In

Stardust

 

January 11, 2022

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2022

Thursday, December 23, 2021

To Breathe Fire Again

 





On the path where I walk with my dog, someone had given life to a dead tree. This morning, a dragon looked over the path.

Volcanoes wake up hibernating mountains. Memories make us dream again. And mirrors reflect upon our changing faces over time.

Or, are mountains simply dormant volcanoes? Do dreams remind us not to let memories in the past? And, do our aging faces hope that mirrors, one morning, would reflect back the spark we once had in our eyes?

No matter. On that path the now dragon-shaped old tree is just a dead tree for my dog. But a moment of reflection for me.

 


December 23, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021

Monday, December 20, 2021

The Way I Want to Remember Then Paint to Forget

 

 



Old leaves fell

And we walked

Over

Them

 

It was all silent

In the forest

Except

Our path

 

Which we never chose

But it took us

Where

The night ends

 

… Then

Old leaves fell

Even when

Our feet forgot

 

That the forest

At night

Makes

New paths

 

To take

Alone

At

Sunrise

 

December 20, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021

 

This is a painting I did for memories I hope to recall more than once

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Saturnalia

 




 

Every candle burns

Only once

 

Every dissonant cord

Finds its tremble 

On a violin’s bridge

At intermezzo

 

Or when dormant

Unwept

Next to an unkept

Promise

 

Every candle burns

Only once

 

Then it becomes

That dissonant promise

Of sunset skies

Over parched lands

 

Where I lost

My violin

As I forgot

How fingers travel

How fingers bleed in silence

Over steel cords

 

To recall a name

As lonesome

As a candle

Flame

 

Yet candles burn

Only once

And my flame

Has now found

Its sunset 

Sky

 

December 4, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Cactus Flower

 



You do not need to be

An open wound

To be

A wound

 

You do not to be

An undealt card

To excel

At the game

 

You do not need

To hear the Orinoco flow

To celebrate

The promise

Of every rain drop

 

And you do not

Have to go

To Torino

To claim

“Me ne frego”

 

But you need 

To return

In a new form

And surprise

Yourself

 

November 19, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021