Nuclear-Powered Clothes Dryer, An Etheree

If Madison Avenue advertising agencies wrote Etherees* they might come up with something like this Etheree to promote a green alternative to automatic clothes dryers.

free

on-line

clothes drying

method with no

hidden fees or costs

your clothes will dance dry in

gentle breezes—fresh and pure

you use the same safe, clean power

that grandma used way back in her day

our space-based fusion reactor: The Sun.

With the nuclear power plant emergency in Japan, I feel increasing urgency to trim my energy use. Simultaneously, I feel increasing pleasure when I do my small part to shrink my carbon footprint.

Today I am taking particular pleasure in the spring breezes blowing through Sebastopol because they made it possible to give my automatic clothes dryer another day off. I used my clothesline instead. 

Leaving the car parked for one more day, we walked downtown to do our shopping. We stopped at the Sebastopol Farm Market in the Town Plaza. Our neighbor Laura Shafer set up a spot to promote her business, Linedry.com. She promotes drying clothes in the sun.

Laura and me

As I talked with Laura, I realized that I can insinuate using clotheslines into my kindergarten curriculum. I plan to do that tomorrow. What reason is there for me or my assistant to hang up the cloth towels the kids use when they could hang them up and feel good about taking responsibility for the task? Duh! (Sometimes I wish I could teach 30 more years.)

I’d like to leave you with these facts. If you use a clothesline to dry your clothes:

You’ll save as much as $300 on your energy bills.

Your automatic dryer will last longer.

Your clothes will last longer, too. (Turn them inside out to reduce fading in the sun.)

You will enjoy the meditation of using a clothesline. (I promise you will!)

Your contribution to green house CO2 emissions will drop by as much as 700 pounds annually.

Please visit Laura’s website, Linedry.com

Inside-out your jeans

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*Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, ending with a final line of ten syllables yielding an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of writing that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.  Try composing one—you may like it!

It's a Small World After All

Many of you know that I'm a kindergarten teacher by day. Sometimes I sing that saccharine song that Walt Disney made famous: "It's a Small World, After All."

This is another way of understanding that idea:

 Small World, an Etheree

our universe holds a hundred billion
galaxies and each galaxy holds
a hundred billion stars most of
them many times larger than
our green earth—we cannot
quite understand just
how small our world
really is
after
all.

Would you like me to read it to you?
Just press the orange play button:

  Small World, An Etheree by Dan Gurney

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*Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, ending with a final line of ten syllables yielding an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It's also okay, and still and Etheree to reverse the sequence from 10 down to 1 and even to combine such progressions into compound forms of Etherees. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.  Try composing one; it won't take you too long. Who knows?  You may like it!

Sun Etheree

We believe what we see to be the whole truth.

The world is whole. It is complete. If we look deeply, the world will reveal to us more and more of its endless wonder, beauty and wholeness.

I took this photo yesterday at sundown on the coast of California.

Day’s sun slides down beyond the horizon.
Night’s cold darkness draws ever nearer.
 Brine breath of wind off the sea chills
my bare ears, cheeks, neck & nose.
Sweet voice calls out. My heart
leaps around the world.
Turning east, Look!
See the warm
rising
sun?

Let me read it to you:

  Sun Etheree by Dan Gurney by Dan Gurney

Like a Jigsaw

This one's for Sabio who wonders if there's any special magic to the Etheree form. I'd say, no, there isn't any special magic; it's more like working a jigsaw puzzle:

No, there’s no special magic in breaking

lines just so to make an Etheree

“poem” (if you insist on using

quotation marks on that word),

but counting syllables

does force me to take

more care writing

“poems” than

writing

“prose.”

*********************************
*Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, ending with a final line of ten syllables yielding an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It's also okay, and still and Etheree to reverse the sequence from 10 down to 1 and even to combine such progressions into compound forms of Etherees. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.  Try composing one; it won't take you too long. Who knows?  You may like it!

Space Etheree

The Rosette Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Brian Lula

When
staring
at deep space
images of
stars, nebula so
distant in space and time,
i marvel at how we can

imagine that we are somehow
not intimately related to
ALL earthlings both human and non-human.

—Dan Gurney

*********************************
*Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, ending with a final line of ten syllables yielding an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.  Try composing one—you may like it!

Karma Etheree*

Some Taoists believe that each of us has 36,000 gods and goddesses living inside us. We please these deities in us when we think good thoughts, eat good food, and take proper care of our physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health. But if we abuse ourselves, they’ll get up in disgust and leave.

Thich Nhat Hahn says that we honor our forebears and our offspring by cultivating mindfulness, compassion, and wisdom.

While thinking about these things, I composed this Etheree.

look.
every
breath i draw
each word i say
every bite i eat
touches for good or ill
my children, grandchildren and
unseen future generations.
each action pleases or displeases
all my forebears, human and otherwise.

—Dan Gurney

*********************************
*Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, ending with a final line of ten syllables yielding an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.  Try composing one—you may like it!

Mute Muse, an Etheree*

like
concrete
kwan yin who
stands wordlessly
in the entry way
of my house, sentry fey
spirit of lovingkindness
like her, my muse is mute, guarded
as i make love, sing, dance, cook, paint, walk
eschewing idle chatter, needless talk

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*Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, until the last line of ten syllables for an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.

Etheree Etheree

This is a poem about a form of poetry I enjoy writing:

Etheree Etheree


Just
as oaks
or poppies
unfold slowly
from a simple seed
so, too, do Etherees
little bit by little bit
gradually reveal themselves
homespun, modest, elegant, complete
in ten lines and fifty-five syllables.

Humpback Etheree

In the summer months I have the opportunity to explore my dream realms much more fully than during the school year when I'm out of bed by 5:15 to face the day. My most vivid dreams occur between 4 and 7 AM.

Dreams inform me about what's going on "behind the scenes" in my mind. Contemplating my dreams is worthwhile work for me to do.

The natural world speaks up to me in dream realms. The spirits of the natural world really are trying to wake us up to show us the damage we human beings are doing to all of the life with which we share this precious planet. I hope we wake up soon, and realize that the "economy" is not the most important thing to save on our planet. Life is.

What the trees, the plants, the birds, the fish, turtles, whales, bugs, and fungi have to say is very important for us to hear. I'm trying to listen.

Turning off media helps.

Here's an Etheree:

Shhh!!
Almost
unconscious
thoughts, scenes, tales, plays,
from dream realms show up
under the moon, surfacing
like a pod of humpback whales
singing ancient survival songs
just beyond the reach of our wisdom
Whales sound. We wake, and turn on TV news.


Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, until the last line of ten syllables for an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.

Self Portrait, an Etheree Poem

I

I'm told that when I fly somewhere it's like driving myself to wherever I'm going in a big ol' Hummer. All by myself. So the passenger cabin is like a huge caravan of Hummers way up high....and all the tailpipes spew the exhaust 7 miles up, where it does more damage....

Knowing this takes a lot of the fun out of flying for me. If I had to drive a Hummer solo to Ireland I'm sure I'd find a vacation closer to home.

But I'm not immune to the intoxication of  air travel, so for now I just close my heart and pretend it's less damaging to the atmosphere than it really is. I feel terrible about it. I sort of ignore my guilty feelings about the selfishness of flying. That's where this poem comes from.



"My
ticket's
free," I said,
"credit card miles."
I shut out the cries
from my heart and the hearts
of all life as yet unborn
who will pay immeasurable
costs for this phony freedom conjured
without shame by banks, big oil, airlines, me.



Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, until the last line of ten syllables for an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.

Nirvana

“Nirvana, the Third Dharma Seal, is the ground of being, the substance of all that is. A wave does not have to die in order to become water. Water is the substance of the wave. The wave is already water. We are also like that. We carry in us the ground of interbeing, nirvana, the world of no-birth, and no-death no permanence and no impermanence, no self and no nonself. Nirvana is the complete silencing of concepts. The notions of impermanence and nonself  were offered by the Buddha as instruments of practice, not as doctrines to worship, fight, or die for.... If you know how to use the tools of impermanence and nonself to touch reality, you touch nirvana in the here and now.”

—Thich Nhat Hahn

Seeing Nirvana as the substance of all that is resembles seeing the arrow in the Fed Ex logo. It’s always been there, but until it pops out, you realize you haven’t seen it even though you may have looked straight at it countless times.

Here’s an Etheree:

It’s
Often
Well-hidden
Under my nose
Like animal breath
Ultimate Nirvana.
Ground beneath loving-kindness
Here, now, near, far, above, below
Everything, everywhere, everywhen—
Empty heart-center aglow in the void.


TNH's suggestion to look for impermanence and nonself everywhere and with dogged persistence is advice well worth considering.

A Contemplation on Sequoia Sempervirens

My house was built in 1951, the year I was born.

Its framing and siding was milled from mature Sequoia sempervirens, Coast Redwoods.

These vererable trees are remarkable life forms.  The few ancient trees still living grow almost 400 feet tall with trunks over 25 feet in diameter. They are living wonders of the ancient world.

When the loggers came to the forest to take the lumber in my house, those trees were almost surely more than 2,000 years old. I don't think anyone cared to ask.

To “harvest” such noble beings to build modest homes like mine is, now, difficult for me to comprehend. Would we dismantle down the Statue of Liberty to “harvest” her copper sheath to make pennies?

I feel, sometimes, like I’m living in a crime scene, the crime being ignorance, greed, and delusion. I am a member of a society that cannot reliably see what is wrong with killing whales for pet food or redwoods for fence posts and railroad ties.

I’m doing my time on the meditation cushion. My next house will be made of mud.

And now, an “Hourglass Etheree” poem:

Rafter Creaks:

Here. Now. I get the holiness of trees
their bodies, in death, sheltering me
in my wood-framed, wood sided house
I hear the trees talk—faintly though
redwood whispers, soft, low.
At silent meeting
sitting with friends
night descends
rafter
creaks,
“We
trees give
endlessly
our ancient trade
taking earth, light, rain
to make oxygen, shade
blossoms, tea leaves, nut meats, fruits
wood for guitars, violins, flutes
cribs, cradles, tables, chairs, caskets, pews,
trunkfuls of foodstuffs for fungi to chew.”

by Dan Gurney

A Sublime Week

For me, it’s been a sublime week.

I shall  mention only two events, editing out the ten thousand springtime joys that swirl every day around this kindergarten teacher in early May. If I started recounting kindergarten joys, I’d ramble on forever.

Joyous Event One

First, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Tuesday night group, the Society of Friends, which met here May 4. We shared meditation, tea, the Dharma and warm fellowship. I felt nourished by all four.

I could feel Walter’s fellowship among us, blessing us, shining upon us. Saying things like that may sound a bit “West County,” as they say around these parts, but I could feel Walter’s spirit guiding us, encouraging us, and helping us see the Dharma and open our hearts. Walter was dedicated to opening hearts, beginning with his own heart, but helping those around him, too, and he’s still helping us. Thank you, Walter Blum. You are such a good friend. You are here with me, still, friend.

I believe that someday, science will catch up with Buddhism in these matters. It’s already happening to some extent in quantum physics and brain science. When science begins to find the reality Buddhist monks have discovered 2,500 years ago, modern skeptics will find the great joy and deep peace that are quite real and actually achievable by walking along the Buddhist path.


Joyous Event Two

Second, this week I enjoyed giving my very first poetry reading in public. Previously, I’ve read my poetry only to my wife and to the aforementioned Society of Friends.

Thursday night, May 6, I joined Sandy Eastoak in reading at Many Rivers Books and Tea. Our evening’s reading was titled “Poem as Native” and its theme was about reading and writing poetry as a way to open to our actual reality, Mother Earth and the web of life she supports. We experience the world debut of a new participatory poetry form: the Etheread. If someone asks, I'll describe it in the comments section.

Sandy, who is a painter as well as a poet, writes words that make my heart grow. I plan to share some of her poetry here on Mindful Heart in the future.

The poems I shared that evening have all appeared here on this blog. Thursday night was made the more sublime by being attended by special people: Sue from the Society of Friends, Jim Wilson, a poet who has inspired both Sandy and me, a grandparent of one of my kindergartners, among others. Why, you could find in the audience even the Mayor and the Vice-Mayor of Sebastopol—not the poet-Councilmember, sadly, but maybe it was good he didn’t come; there would have been a quorum!

Our evening opened and closed with songs of blessing and healing sung by a Native Pomo Indian healer, Armando.

Sandy surprised me with a gift of a double Etheree that she dedicated to me because she knows I’m beginning to fall in love with soil. The trees have been telling me about soil.

Here, I’ll share it now.


Dirt


he
wants earth
life below
the surface where
leaves shimmer greenly
& birds flit through shadows
he wants worms mouthing darkness
millipedes racing with springtails
through hidden dampness of pregnant soil
drama of decay & mycelium

the secret movement of nutrient breath
the slow leach of rain past roots & stones
gophers & moles twist through tunnels
round white grubs spiral beside
jerusalem crickets
& bacteria
by the millions
renew our
living
soil


Is there any gift finer than a poem?

Easter Morning Worship, an Etheree Poem

Friends
Meeting
To worship
Easter Sunday.
As we sat inside
In warm, still, reverence
Cold, wind-driven rain appears.
Downspouts chattered, car tires hissed, splashed.
Walk home under small, black umbrella
My shoes were soaked by Mother Mary’s tears.



Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, until the last line of ten syllables for an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.

Watch TV

DW and I got off to an early start today so we could take a hike to the summit of Mount Burdell in Olompali State Park not far from where we live. The weather was ideal for our purposes: cool and partly cloudy with gentle breezes.

The trail ascends very gradually about 8 kilometers and climbing almost 500 meters from the edge of the Petaluma River to the summit.

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in a meadow that yielded inspiring views east to the Petaluma River as it winds its way into the San Pablo Bay. We saw many birds. Quite a number of turkey vultures circled overhead so many, in fact, that when I got home I took a few moments to pen my third Etheree poem. Here it is:


Watch
TVs
In the sky
Turkey vultures
Aerial TVs.
(Not television, no,
Not even good nature shows.)
Ponder real buzzands, beings who
Fly with such skill that they steal our breath
They circle toward heaven, they dine on death.





About the Etheree form:

Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, until the last line of ten syllables for an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower. No rhyming is required, but it's fun to work in a rhyme or two if you can.

Vernal Equinox, An Etheree Poem

Photo of crabapple tree just out my back door taken March 20, 2010.

Earth
Is now
Poised between
Winter, summer.
All the news i need
Is just out my back door:
Crabapple fully blooming
At latitude thirty-eight north
Along the Pacific's eastern edge
Not the first day of spring, but its zenith.

Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, until the last line of ten syllables for an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.

Ungrudging

Ungrudging
an Etheree Poem

Hike
Foothills
March sunshine
Afternoon breeze
Something about trees
How they listened, calmly
To our grudging bitterness
Listened, absorbed, and drank it down
Grounded it root-deep in the earth so
We could hear the leaves sing, the hawks, the geese.




Consisting of ten lines, the Etheree poem starts with a one syllable line, then adds one syllable per line, until the last line of ten syllables for an overall syllable count of 55. In other words the syllabic structure is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. It’s an uncomplicated, unpretentious form of poetry that has the quality of slowly opening, like a flower.

For a fuller discussion of Etheree poetry, visit Shaping Words.