Africa

Image Credit



Africa
 -
We saw the child
Upon the Earth
- 
We saw the look
Of
Nothing
In
It's
Eye
- 
We saw the mother
- 
Empty Plate
- 
We saw that look
A thousand times
Closeby
- 
Shed our tears
Shed our tears
- 
But
Let it happen
- 
Children
Don't
Deserve
To
Die
_
Egal Bohen

-

Darfur
(Then)

Now East Africa (2011)

Eyes Speak Truer Than Do Tongues

You know
-
That eyes speak truer
-
Than do tongues
- 
Once caught
-
A look
-
The
Truth
-
It will foretell
-
Bright
As
The
Sun
-
Egal Bohen

For no one can fix on me what is ugly

A Thought for the Day
-From
The Meditations
Of
Marcus Aurelius

-

Begin the morning by saying to yourself:

-

I shall meet with the busy-body
-
The ungrateful
-
The arrogant
-
The deceitful
-
The envious
-
And
The
Unsocial
-
All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance
-
Of
What is good
And
Evil
-
But I
-
Who have seen the nature of the good
-
That it is beautiful
-
And of the bad
-
That it is ugly
-
And the nature of him who does wrong
-
That it is
-
Akin to me
-
Not only of the same blood or seed
-
But that it participates in the same intelligence
-
And the same portion of the divinity
-
I can neither be injured by any of them

-

For no one can fix on me
-
What is ugly
-
Nor can I be angry
-
With my kinsman
-
Nor hate him
-
For we are made for co-operation
-
Like feet
Like hands
Like eyelids
-
Like the rows of the upper and lower teeth
-
To act against one another then
-
Is
Contrary to nature
-
And
It is acting against one another
-
To be vexed
-
And
To turn
Away

-




Marcus Aurelius Antonius Augustus

Roman Emperor

160 t0 180 AD

-

And Still So True

Parmenides saw

Parmenides
Image Courtesy livius.org

If you should talk
Of
Nothing
-
Then no thing
You
shall
See
-
For
Nothing
Is not this world
-
Nothing
Cannot
Be
-
Nothing
Has
But
No
Thing
-
No
Thing
There
To
See
-
No shape
-
No sound
-
No texture
-
No weight
-
No density
-

So if you can describe it
-
Then do so please for me
-
For it defies description
-
It
Has
None
-
You will see
-
And
Should
You
Think
-
An empty space
-
Is
A
Nothing
You may find
-
Just think
What is around it
-
Something
On
Your
Mind?
-
While things exist
In every form
-
From
Thoughts
-
To
What you see
-
There is no such thing
As nothing
-
Only
Spaces
That
Are
Free
-
For
As long as just one thing exists
-
A no thing
You won't find
-
Don't speak of it
As if it were
-
It
Cannot
Be
Defined
-
So
Do not doubt
That all things are
-
For
It
Is
Clear
-
To
See
-
That once there was
A some thing
-
Only every thing
Could be

_


Egal Bohen

Pity

Look into thyself
-
What is it you see
-
Is it pity you find
-
For
Another
-
Or
Thee?
-
If the latter
-
Your pity
-
Will be formed
In
Your mind
-
By
A measure of arrogance
-
Your choice
To be blind
-
For your life is a gift
-
Not for you
-
All
Alone
-
But for all of the beings
That find Earth
Their home
-
And
As life is a war
Which we all
Have to face
-
Thinking first
-
Of
Each
Other
-
Should
Be
Our
Saving grace

-

Egal Bohen

Violet

Photo courtesy John Somerville


Sweet violet

-
Sweet thief of stolen smells

-
Of what

This blushing shame
On thy account
Doth
Shakespeare
Tell

-

Egal Bohen

Photographer

His world an image
-
In his mind
-
He Sought
To
Capture
Parts
Of
Time
-
That passed
As
Ships
-
Into
His Bay
-
Preserving
-
So
That eyes might
Gaze
-
Symbolically
-
In
Future
Days
-
Upon
The
Passion
-
He
Portrayed
-

Egal Bohen

Knowing

POEM
_

Knowing
Is
One thing
-
Being
Another
-
Distraction
The
Reality
-
Illusion
It's
Brother

_

Egal Bohen

Two Worlds Observed

Photo Courtesy G Mahoney



In
-
Intense
-
Deepest
-
Metallic
-
Blue
-
Shimmer
-
The wings
-
Of
Damsel
Flies
-
Playing
-
In
-
Warm sunlight
-
On the brook
-
That talks itself
-
Through green sedges
-
Across
-
The
Open
Meadow
-
To
-
Slide
-
Silently
-
Into
-
The
Shaded wood
-
Where
-
The
-
Dragon Fly
-
Alone
-
Swift and yellow
-
Hawks
-
Relentlessly
-
Geometrically
-
Up and down
-
Its
-
Course
-
n and out
-
Of
-
Its
-
Shadows
-
Forever
-
Searching


-

(Two worlds)
(Observed )
(Today)
(In )
(Four)
(Dimensions)
-

Egal Bohen