Velvet Verbosity

Happy Tuesday! Last week, thanks to the wildly popular Secret Agent Mama, we got some fresh blood for the weekly 100 Word Challenge! So let’s get right to “the point”, shall we?

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

From Secret Agent Mama, who still boggles my mind with poetry written in 100 Words. Really Mishi, would you just cut that out?

How long has it been, dear?
Far too long, I fear.

I can still remember my first glance.
How we gave our friendship a precious chance.

I’ll never forget our laughter on that old couch.
For you I’ll always vouch.

How long has it been, dear?
Right now all I can think of is to jeer.

Fresh in my heart is sadness and pain,
I feel I’ve lost all that I’ve come to gain.

What’s the point of seeing you once more?
My heart is already way too sore.

How long has it been, dear?
Far too long, my dear.

I love how Judith Shakespeare only refers to “the point” in this classic little life tale.

“One mustn’t do that, love. It isn’t nice,” she says a tad absent-mindedly as she searches the shelves for the peanut butter. “Yes, yes, that’s good, dear,” she nods her encouragement at the chattering child. He goes on and on without really saying much at all. But it’s sweet and familiar, and she smiles. “Of course, mommy is listening,” she assures the Peter Pan and then the Nutella. “Uh huh,” she mumbles to the Skippy. Finally giving up on the idea of Jiff, she turns her attention to the little boy… and the finger that found what she could not.

Sassy Mama Bear, another new victim participant, also manages to weave 100 words into poetry. Sister…I hear you. Less stress is best.

I see it in the distance
just a simple glance

Not a light at the end
Maybe not even a friend

It stands guard to tell me
Open your eyes, see

It does taunt and tease
Promises to please

It leads us on a journey of stress
Something I need of, less

There is stands a beacon
And we just keep on seekin’

Where it leads we do not know
Follow we must, there we shall go

Follow they do our young ones
like we are their shining suns

The point means peace
At last a chance for final release.
~ Penelope Anne Bartotto
March 28, 2007

As always happens to me, my best writing is written in my head just as I drift off to sleep, and it is beautiful and perfect and inspiring. Then I wake up, forget the exact words in the rush of the day, and am forced to spit out something so much less than perfect and inspiring. Some day I will keep a recorder by my pillow, and I will whisper into it the perfect words that come to me as I slip into hypnagogic fantasy. Here are my 100 words.

We search our life maps, endlessly planning and reminiscing about where we’ve been and where we’ll go next. We hope to find the place where everything converges into one point, the summit of all our experiences and our lives. We look at a map to find our destination, but the map only tells us, “You Are Here”. The map never says, “You Will be There”. We can see where we’ve been, and plan where we want to go next, but we can never be anywhere but here, right now, on this very point. That is the point. Be here now.

This week’s 100 Word Challenge is from This Precious Life: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Path to Enlightenment by Khandro Rinpoche:

Hidden

I had the incredible privilege of meeting Khandro Rinpoche about 7-8 years ago in a one-to-one meeting. “Audience” is what they call it. This is when you are granted the opportunity to sit with the teacher alone to ask questions. Some day I’ll tell you that story if you’re interested.

If you would like to participate in the Velvet Verbosity weekly 100 Word Challenge, the rules, such as they are, are here.