A Koan by Emily Dickinson

I'm reading Bring Me the Rhinoceros by John Tarrant, who presents a number of Zen koans and associated stories.  He quotes Emily Dickinson in one of the chapter headings:

"Friday I tasted life.  It was a vast morsel.  A Circus passed the house - still I feel the red in my mind though the drums are out.  The lawn is full of south and the odors tangle, and I hear today for the first time the river in the tree."

This strikes me with great force every time I pass my eyes over it.  It is like a hallucination or a peek into the world of an alien mind.  I can't make logical sense of it, but it seems true, and it makes reality seem more real.

I guess this is what koans are supposed to do.

String Quartets, with more to come

I am beginning to put some of my scores onto Lulu.com, so that people can order copies.

Here is the link to my storefront:  

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=3542096

I have put scores of my two string quartets there, and more will follow.

The Diving Bell and Butterfly

In this film, it was not the story that moved me, but the faces of the women and children, and the ocean, and the beautiful camerawork, and the exquisite sense of timing.

I love to look at faces anyway, but the main character ('Jean-Do') cannot move or speak, and human faces are perhaps the most meaningful things that he sees.  He learns to communicate using eye-blinks, writes a book, and tries in small ways to mend some of the broken things in his life.  

I would have liked more depth to Jean-Do's character; except for his paralysis, there seems to be very little there in the way of life choices.  His relationship with his father is important and touching - his rocky relationships with women, less so.

The film's most memorable scene for me: Jean-Do is dreaming that a young, 19th-century woman is wheeling him down a deserted hall in his wheelchair.  He suddenly can move, and he turns and kneels on the seat and kisses the woman.  This is one of the most erotic and least salacious things that I have ever seen.