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| The Tree that inspired this poem, long gone, but still in my head. |
Tree Memory
By Marion
(inspired by Tao Chapter 11)
The absence of my
old Oak tree
is as strong
a presence
as the tree was.
In my memory the
tree still stands.
I sit in its
shade on the
stump where it
no longer is,
dreaming.
4/1/10
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Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - Chapter 11
Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
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"A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen." ~Edward de Bono
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The leaves of memory seemed to make
A mournful rustling in the dark.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.
~Emily Dickinson, "Time and Eternity"
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What now? The majority of my life is behind me, in memory. I swing daily on a pendulum of hope & despair. Despair is so much heavier, though... I sigh...
