sna poems #147: badfish creek wet prairie and spring seeps

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it’s been months since our last sna’s. so i took a christmas-octave interurban drop-off/pick-up to spend some hours walking in dane cty. first up was badfish creek wet prairie, a wet prairie that, while bordered by ditches running to badfish creek, has an intact interior hydrological system. since there’re precious few intact prairies in general in wisconsin, it’s important for understanding such habitats.

saw a couple pheasant on my way in, gatekeepers. they let me pass and i had about a mile walk to the actual site, and couldn’t stay real long as i had to meet my brother at the next site. but an enjoyable jaunt around in the dry grasses in the unseasonable warmth.

a.

the ditched wet prairie

and weak sun

kiss because they must

b.

among the grasses

a red bell—

winter without cold

c.

shocking red and green

in the ditch

stooped for midday meal

saw this on the way out:

closer:

celebrating the 50th anniversary of swami abhishiktananda’s mahaprasthana

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swami abhishiktananda (1910-1973; aka dom henri le saux) was a french benedictine monk and priest who felt called to live in india in order to set up contemplative monasteries there. he ended up staying the rest of his life and discovering more than he had bargained for in the general life of india and particularly in advaita vedanta. he never renounced his vocation as a monk or a priest, and he is said to have achieved final awakening right near the end of his life. i was introduced to swami abhishiktananda by my amma sr. pascaline coff and had the great privilege of collecting and translating his french poems a few years back.

this year on december 7th marks the 50th anniversary of swami abhishiktananda’s mahaprasthana (great departure). several of us who admire swamiji and his message of awakening and interreligious respect and affection will celebrate on december 6th at 10.00 am central standard time.

prior cyprian consiglio, fr. adam bucko, jon sweeney, and others will be gathering on zoom to share meditation, song, and talk on swamiji. if you’d like to attend as well, you can email jonmsweeney@gmail.com to receive the zoom link.

pax/shanti

alive and well, also a page found out in the wild

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hi everyone who gets updates from my blog: it’s been a bit.

as anyone who knows me personally will know, not only am i not a “digital native,” it’s hard for me to visit for too long too. computering burns me out, and i was (for me) very online there for a while. so, i backed away but am starting to feel able to come back some. not to mention that b/c of a variety of factors (including recently buying a house in my beloved city of milwaukee), we haven’t been out to sna’s regularly for a few months. hoping that will change soon.

but, i’ve been finishing up my new collection of poems, be radiant, with my publisher fernwood press and been drafting a new book on contemplation in our current moment. so stay tuned on that.

i’ll have another post later today or tomorrow for an event i’m co-organizing, but in the meantime, thought i’d throw out there that i recently discovered thru twitter (just can’t call it ‘x’) that i’ve got an author page on paul deane’s website that explains and documents modern alliterative verse. so that’s pretty cool. you can take a look around the site for other alliterative-interested folks if you’re into that kind of thing. 🙂

thanks, paul, for keeping the alliterative lamp burning!

sna poems #146: moonlight bay bedrock beach

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a gem. moonlight bay bedrock beach is a dolomite beach that is sometimes covered by water and sometimes not. we had a fabulous time walking along the shore, in and out of the water, onto dolomite boulders looming out of the water, rock hopping, etc. an incredible habitat, very unique.

first ids of painted cup paintbrush, hidden spike moss, low calamint, narrow-leaved loosestrife, little green sedge, american three-square bulrush, and meadow anemone.

a.

hopkins’s flame-catcher

here and there

hunting on the bay

b.

a spare claw pale blue

gulls feeding

dolomite island

c.

just me and the toad

admiring

wind-waving paintbrush

sna poems #145: mud lake

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mud lake is a marl-bottomed lake that drains into lake michigan via rieboldt creek. i had my family drop me off on the side of hwy 57 to tromp in, but quickly ran back to the van to get a hooded sweatshirt for the deer flies—such swarming i couldn’t take it. but w/ only partial face exposed, i got back in and the sun and breeze were doing a real number on the swamp: water and cattails undulating, dragonflies everywhere, and new forbs. too short a visit, but a blessing nonetheless.

first id of bladderwort, swamp milkweed, deer flies, and smooth saw-grass.

a.

moth on swamp milkweed

and deer flies

all over my hands

b.

land of dragonflies

and monarchs

the swamp’s yellow mouths

c.

beneath tamaracks

saw-grass sways

flowering july

sna poems #144: kangaroo lake

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we’ve driven over the late-1800s causeway thrown across marl-bottomed kangaroo lake heaps of times. but we’ve never stopped to walk around, until a couple weeks ago. it was hot, and the bugs were starting to come out, but it was a fun time nonetheless. ovenbirds singing in the trees, new plants, the lakeshore, a narrow path leading thru cedars, and dryad’s saddle almost as big as my 6-year-old!

first ids of sensitive fern, and sulphur cinquefoil,

a.

the ovenbird sings

her sun song

walls of juniper

b.

blue-tongued shoreline spike

a tower

for mud-bodied frog

c.

a six-year-old pack

on my back

running to laughter

sna poems #143: wedde creek savanna

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wedde creek savanna is a black oak savanna, a formerly characteristic habitat in southern wisconsin. open-grown black oaks, jack pines, so many oaklings, and lichen everywhere underfoot!

a good evening walk, tho’ so many ticks. first id of pixie cup lichen, lyreleaf rockcress, and sundial lupine!

a.

marquette westering

whip-poor-will

last night’s memory

b.

red-tipped pixie cup

stretches out

under oaken shade

sna poems #142: observatory hill

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observatory hill in marquette cty is a large outcropping of rhyolite almost two billion years old. tallest point in the cty, oak and hickory forest on the slope, a spectacular glade community toward the top open to the sun.

we spent a good amount of time soaking it up in the glade, laying on the rhyolite. first id of motherwort and tall wood sorrel!

a.

the hickories proud

in the sun

spiderwort in bloom

b.

the glade lives exposed

rhyolite

and blue dragonflies

new essay on swami abhishiktananda

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this year is the 50th anniversary of the passing of swami abhishiktananda, benedictine monk and sannyasi. and i was invited by dimmid to write an essay on how/why swamiji’s life and message are still important and instructive for their journal dilitato corde.

swami abhsihiktananda was, it’s said plenty but bears repeating, a pioneer of interreligious dialogue, leaving his native france in 1948 for india and never returning. his embrace of advaita and his struggle to articulate his spiritual message in terms honest to the reality of his “double belonging” to the church and to the vedantic tradition make him an immensely compelling figure.

as i did with fr. bede griffiths a few months ago, rather than focusing on the more outgoing aspects of swami abhishiktananda’s thought and life, i turned to the foundations of his formation in monasticism. in this essay i look at his close and at times fraught relationship with the psalms.

it was good fun to write, requested as more of a reflection than a scholarly essay, so i placed myself in this one more than i usually do. other interesting takes are being added as the issue fills up in celebration.

requiescat in pace et lux perpetua luceat ei.