Tibet: Farms and Office Spaces

This is a poem I wrote October 14, 2003. Right now I can't come up with anything decent to write about the tsunami tragedy. So, I thought I'd post this poem written upon viewing the film 'Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion.'



Tibet: Farms and Office Spaces

I've watched ou leading the prayer wheel
Around, itself a tall, wooden tsunami of intention,
Kind of like pine and redwood trees swirling
To the beat unheard yet heard, felt and shown.

Crying at the survival of burnt flesh and
Emotional watergush, we both are spectral,
Dreamlike machinations of a world not tall
With great gods of green and inverted life.

It is the concrete, mere sand and rock, that
Looms greyly, sometimes white-washed,
Above what used to be dirt, that is, earth,
Land, replete with worms, bugs and prayers.

There is blue, there is purple, there is yellow
And green, conjoined with this concrete.
Images of serenity yet to be born and yet
Then remembered, and soon to be torn down.

I want to tell you more about my longing
To know you, come into astral vortices
With senses over and over again enticed
And with much weeping more to be done.

Roots of radishes and potatoes might soothe
The hunger to be heard. Yet speech has been
Blocked--in your heart there is peace, and
In our hearts pain is truth, truth water and food.

A New Year in Spirit and Time

Today is January 2, 2005, a Sunday in California. Tomorrow will be January 3, 2005, and I will resume work as a teacher of physically and cognitively impaired children, ages 5 to 8 years-old. There are 5 five-year-olds and 3 over that age. Wow. Three of the children are autistic. Three of them have severe orthopaedic/cognitive conditions. One has Down's Syndrome and another a nameless cognitive thing. I have two aides and a nurse in the room. One of the aides sexually harassed me a couple of years ago and I didn't nail him. Now I have to deal with his subtle leers and nosiness. The other aide is also a man but he is a gentleman, kind and thoughtful. There are actually two nurses; they trade off weeks. The nurse I find most helpful to me will be there tomorrow. Something to be thankful for! She makes me laugh and see through the obstacles toward making this teaching situation less tense. Many people who think about K-12 education and especially that of special needs children have no idea how difficult it is to find like-minded people to work with in helping these children. I'm saying that someone doesn't have to have a compatible personality to work with me they just have to have the needs and safety of the children in mind first and not that of their egos. Find ego gratification in helping a child recognize a letter or learn to paint.

So, since I don't want to go to work tomorrow (for reasons implied above), I went to see Almodovar's 'Bad Education' today. This is not a film I would recommend to my co-workers. I saw it because I've seen practically everything else out there!?! (not really). This film taught me a lot about dreams and dreaming and film-making and image-making. I recommend it. It's getting to be about time to try to sleep so that I can get up tomorrow for my first day back of service. I'll write more about this film and others I've seen over this holiday break.