Arlene Corwin Poetry

     It’s Amazing

What’s amazing?
That a body which we take for granted
Changes in a minute’s second.
Nose, ear, heart;
Parts identifiable or not;
Unseen parts that smart,
Which of a sudden,
Ligament and vein unreckoned,
Each condition, known, unknown to body’s self
We stand amazed;
We cave, amazed and fazed,
No weapons there to freeze the state –
A phase, we hope.
The scope of nature limitless.
We watch in expectation, dazed,
Because we thought we’d always be
The same unchanged and youthful me.

From G. B. Shaw, his mind and tongue
Who understood life’s short and long, life’s evensong
‘…Youth is wasted on the young’.
A pity.
It’s Amazing 9.29.2021 Circling Round Ageing; Nature Of & In Reality; Arlene Nover Corwin

  From A Meditator To Every Fellow Meditator
           (and those who wish to be)

Everyday, every room,
Every poem and every syndrome;
Every small and large place;
Every action, every space:
In the bed, at the sink,
Washing dishes, cooking one ingredient;
On the loo:
My meditating places since year ’72.
Meditating throws the mind in,
Up and down;
Mantras;
Contemplating concepts:
Peace and purity,
Power, knowledge, love, bliss:
The nature of reality.
Or simply chatting with your God
Through mind,
For mind is all we’ve got.
If then you are wondering what it’s about:
Yes, it certainly has much effect.
From A Meditator To Every Fellow Meditator 9.23.2021 The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative II; Arlene Nover Corwin

Climates Change, While…

Hurricanes
Wildfires,
Rains in torrents,
Great volcanoes.
Heat waves,
Droughts and sea waves…
Changes happening in slow advances.
All one’s chances of survival –
Choices, treasures, pleasures,
All the measures of success
Erased, erasing.
Sacred scriptures writ, collected,
Are they, are they all correct?
Perhaps if we can just stop f—k—g,
Stop increasing, mucking up
The global figures;
Stop expanding and collecting!
Can we slow it down, at least,
This bestial-lc self-corrupting?
Let us pray and let us try;
Love our selves and planet nobly.
Life is worth it.
Earth, its tiny girth worth troubling,
Doubly working on the effort.
Climates Change, While…9.22.2021Our Times, Our Culture II; Arlene Nover Corwin

What Do We Want?

it’s simple, really.
Life, of course.
Accompanied by
Productivity, health and meaning:
Lack of fear – all that’s demeaning.

As for music, as for jazz,
Which is nucleus,
We make mistakes.
They’re built into the give and take,
The smooth and shake,
The beat and bar.
They come and go, so
‘Stead of scolding self,
Play loudly, definitely.
Then and ever, rectify!
By and by the right will stay,
The old mistake will go away.
And there you are: a jazzy star.
Filled with spontaneity, creativity:
Maturity.
What Do We Want? 9.20.2021 Vaguely About Music II; Arlene Nover Corwin

  I Love You In A New Way

Away from you, discovery new,
I love you in a new way.
Strange to feel, strange to say,
Reactions new, unusual,
Tears that well, like some cliché,
A heart that swells – again cliché.
The so-called ‘newness’.
Old as those who lived in caves,
But loved exactly as all loving craves,
My solitary man,
I never can express it with exactitude.
I only know it feels new and fresh and true.
Ever old, never old, I love to love you
This new way.
I Love You In A New Way 9.16.2021 Love Relationships II; Arlene Nover Corwin

Hi There God #2

Hi there, God!
You’re always there.
No need to ask or beg or pray
That you come down, help night and day
You’re there!
Somewhere in air, placed, staying where you are;
So I come up to you instead
Inside my head,
Yours ever there and stable,
Mine approachable and able;
Capable but inconsistent.

That’s the good thing about being God,
Always there with properties, each pure,
Each having equal & opposing power.
Trick: to catch the good, then train and stick.
To make it work
T’aint’ easy, but one tries –
To catch the ‘I*,
Link it to You,
Learn what to do,
And do it!
Hi There, God 9.16.2021 God Book II; Arlene Nover Corwin

(Hi There God #1 (scribbled one day after heart attack)
Hi there, God!
You’re always there,/no need to ask or beg or pray
That you come down and help, staying permanently placed as you are.
So l come to you instead/In my head./Letting mind, it’s qualities
Dwell on your qualities;/Yours ever there and stable,/Mine approached when able,
Always capable, but changeable and inconsistent.

That’s the good thing about being God. Always there, exuding qualities,
The properties of which are pure – are their opposites.
(Each energy having its equal and opposing strength and length.)
The trick is to catch all the good ones, train and stick to them.
T’ain’t easy but one tries:
Tries to catch the I, link it to you, learn what to do,
And do it!
9.15.2021 )

     Beards Revisited

I’ve re-considered.
Noticed that some men look more good-looking;
Handsomer, more striking than they were before.
Think David Niven, Errol Flynn and Ronald Colman: men of glamor;
(I’m the generation ‘dinosaur’).
I’ve looked around with eyes anew.
Beards sculpted, youthful,
Framing cheek, mouth, jaw –
Renewed my view, my attitude,
Giving much more latitude
And softening perspective.
In conclusion, seeing beauty
Where I saw no possibility.

To those I criticised –
I do apologise.
Beards Revisited 9.12.2021 Our Times, Our Culture II; Arlene Nover Corwin

Tell me if this ‘reaches’ you. I would hope it’s not abstruse, obscure or rarified. ❤️

Routine & Ritual But Where Is Truth?

Interest in the self;
For in the self is everything.
Where is Truth?
In self it lies: deep in, unnoticed,
Searched for, sought: through circumstances, incidents;
In events, interpreting, projecting, seldom recognising
It is the truth we’re after:
Big or little ’T’ or ‘t’:
The lesser always relative, the bigger absolute.
We generalise a lot, lose sight of what is really meant,
What we were really aiming at, talking about.

We are so full of mottos, slogans,
Bywords, platitudes, our own cliches.
We live apart from looking inwards –
Inwards where the whole thing lies,
Where all things lie,
And lies do not.

Days filled with routined ritual,
Traditional, conventional;
We do not know the self that well;
(The well of depth, the well of truth.)
“Know thyself,” said Socrates,
Plato too.
Know, know, know to find out how and what and who…
It is Self’s You that holds what’s True.

Routine & Ritual,But Where IsTruth? 9.10.2021 Circling Round Everything ii, Arlene Nover Corwin

Tell me if this ‘reaches’ you. I would hope it’s not abstruse, obscure or rarified. ❤️

Routine & Ritual But Where Is Truth?

Interest in the self;
For in the self is everything.
Where is Truth?
In self it lies: deep in, unnoticed,
Searched for, sought: through circumstances, incidents;
In events, interpreting, projecting, seldom recognising
It is the truth we’re after:
Big or little ’T’ or ‘t’:
The lesser always relative, the bigger absolute.
We generalise a lot, lose sight of what is really meant,
What we were really aiming at, talking about.

We are so full of mottos, slogans,
Bywords, platitudes, our own cliches.
We live apart from looking inwards –
Inwards where the whole thing lies,
Where all things lie,
And lies do not.

Days filled with routined ritual,
Traditional, conventional;
We do not know the self that well;
(The well of depth, the well of truth.)
“Know thyself,” said Socrates,
Plato too.
Know, know, know to find out how and what and who…
It is Self’s You that holds what’s True.

Routine & Ritual,But Where IsTruth? 9.10.2021 Circling Round Everything ii, Arlene Nover Corwin

Rosh Hashanah: The Jewish New Year 5782

Something to remember;
Not routine or ritual but something vital,
What is really being told
Is that a culture is alive and well,
Five thousand seven hundred
eighty-two years old.
Whether you take holy scripture to your heart,
Or you do not,
The prophecy of a new year
With optimistic hope and cheer
Exists in all traditions
In their search for a completion of perfection;
Every alphabetic letter with significance,
Every number having function;
An occasion and a celebration
With a meaning and a purpose.

These aside,
Let us ride out 5782
Contemplating self-examination.
“Shana Tova” everyone***
Rosh Hashanah 5782 9.7.2021 Our Times, Our Culture(s)II Arlene Nover Corwin
**Happy New Year