The Way of a Simpleton
30 years in a Soup Kitchen
will steadily cook one's mind, heart, and soul...
Boil anything that remains down to a fine, clear, broth and there you have Robert's chapbooks, "Old Dan of Walking Green Mountain" and "The Tao of Old Dan of Walking Green Mountain"...
Two chapbooks of "the way of a simpleton": the first, "Old Dan", is a collection of 25 poems featuring "Dan" writing of his hermit life on Walking Green Mountain: "Walking Green Mountain" could also be Dorothy's Place Hospitality Center in Salinas -- or anywhere -- wherever one finds oneself deeply embedded in living, in the "hermitage of the heart"... Here's one of "Dan's" poems:
12.
I woke up fumbling for words, but
It was as if my fingers were closing in on reality.
All day long, from boiling water
To drinking tea, from opening the window
To closing a book, from walking outside
To lazily stretching in the afternoon sun:
Everything today was covered by only
The sheerest of possible veils: if someone
Had come by asking for a peek, who knows?
But just maybe this Walking Green Mountain
Would have granted the seeker's humble request...
Me? I still have a mirror hanging in the closet.
25 poems that together form a "sort of little novel", and the deep interior life of one person living on the ragged-edge of awakening...
"The Tao of Old Dan of Walking Green Mountain" continues the story of Old Dan: he has decided to leave his hermitage on Walking Green Mountain for he has heard the call of suffering humanity. On the way down-trail, he is asked to share something of what he has learned: and so, around an evening campfire, he shares the message of his heart in the form of 46 "poems": each revealing another facet of the "Way", the Tao of the Divine Feminine... or, the "Way of a Simpleton"... Now imagine yourself wrapped in a blanket, sitting near the same campfire at which Old Dan is speaking... Listen:
22.
The way of the simpleton
is like a sweet bubbling spring
somewhere deep in the dark forest green...
quickly flowing in widening circles of sweet delight,
the water of this way is always everywhere
touching the toes of everyone...
but the secret the simpleton holds dearest
waits for the silence of a midnight moon --
then, only then, with clothes left on the shore
she swims in the glistening melding of light and water
until she disappears into the dance
of whirling atoms and unfettered flesh --
until the first fingers of the hand of dawn
rise above the distant mountain peak --
and she returns as the secret herself
and as Mother of the Day and the silent red rose
of every suffering heart
and every servant of the One Love Disguise...
31.
The beauty of the Mother
is confusion to the proud and self-assured --
and the simplicity of wonder
escapes both politician and theologian...
meanwhile the flowers continue to bloom
and the simpleton is drunk like the bees:
adoration, adoration, adoration with every breath...
down, down, down like the dropping of waters:
into all the hidden places that are filled
with the humbled, the broken, and the lost...
the perfect bowl of soup
placed in the coldly hesitant hands of the addict
settles all the accounts of the Universe.
And then on to the conclusion:
"Leap like the hummingbird! Jump from the nests of your lives! Risk everthing for the opportunity to love, and then to love without limits!" ... With that sudden proclamation, Old Dan stood, picked up his small bag, blessed everyone... and walked away into the night...
Altogether, 98 pages of an introduction into the mysticism of the Heart... and an invitation to enter upon that path or to deepen your awareness of this sacred journey... You may purchase the chapbooks through Middle Island Press (www.middleislandpress.com).
will steadily cook one's mind, heart, and soul...
Boil anything that remains down to a fine, clear, broth and there you have Robert's chapbooks, "Old Dan of Walking Green Mountain" and "The Tao of Old Dan of Walking Green Mountain"...
Two chapbooks of "the way of a simpleton": the first, "Old Dan", is a collection of 25 poems featuring "Dan" writing of his hermit life on Walking Green Mountain: "Walking Green Mountain" could also be Dorothy's Place Hospitality Center in Salinas -- or anywhere -- wherever one finds oneself deeply embedded in living, in the "hermitage of the heart"... Here's one of "Dan's" poems:
12.
I woke up fumbling for words, but
It was as if my fingers were closing in on reality.
All day long, from boiling water
To drinking tea, from opening the window
To closing a book, from walking outside
To lazily stretching in the afternoon sun:
Everything today was covered by only
The sheerest of possible veils: if someone
Had come by asking for a peek, who knows?
But just maybe this Walking Green Mountain
Would have granted the seeker's humble request...
Me? I still have a mirror hanging in the closet.
25 poems that together form a "sort of little novel", and the deep interior life of one person living on the ragged-edge of awakening...
"The Tao of Old Dan of Walking Green Mountain" continues the story of Old Dan: he has decided to leave his hermitage on Walking Green Mountain for he has heard the call of suffering humanity. On the way down-trail, he is asked to share something of what he has learned: and so, around an evening campfire, he shares the message of his heart in the form of 46 "poems": each revealing another facet of the "Way", the Tao of the Divine Feminine... or, the "Way of a Simpleton"... Now imagine yourself wrapped in a blanket, sitting near the same campfire at which Old Dan is speaking... Listen:
22.
The way of the simpleton
is like a sweet bubbling spring
somewhere deep in the dark forest green...
quickly flowing in widening circles of sweet delight,
the water of this way is always everywhere
touching the toes of everyone...
but the secret the simpleton holds dearest
waits for the silence of a midnight moon --
then, only then, with clothes left on the shore
she swims in the glistening melding of light and water
until she disappears into the dance
of whirling atoms and unfettered flesh --
until the first fingers of the hand of dawn
rise above the distant mountain peak --
and she returns as the secret herself
and as Mother of the Day and the silent red rose
of every suffering heart
and every servant of the One Love Disguise...
31.
The beauty of the Mother
is confusion to the proud and self-assured --
and the simplicity of wonder
escapes both politician and theologian...
meanwhile the flowers continue to bloom
and the simpleton is drunk like the bees:
adoration, adoration, adoration with every breath...
down, down, down like the dropping of waters:
into all the hidden places that are filled
with the humbled, the broken, and the lost...
the perfect bowl of soup
placed in the coldly hesitant hands of the addict
settles all the accounts of the Universe.
And then on to the conclusion:
"Leap like the hummingbird! Jump from the nests of your lives! Risk everthing for the opportunity to love, and then to love without limits!" ... With that sudden proclamation, Old Dan stood, picked up his small bag, blessed everyone... and walked away into the night...
Altogether, 98 pages of an introduction into the mysticism of the Heart... and an invitation to enter upon that path or to deepen your awareness of this sacred journey... You may purchase the chapbooks through Middle Island Press (www.middleislandpress.com).