Tag Archives: ego

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 4 September 2016 

Happy Weekend! For many of us in the U.S. It is a holiday weekend, Monday being Labor Day. For me it also meant having Friday off as well. It was an opportunity to catch up with family.

I am blessed to have a big family. Of course it is my own doing in part, having raised four daughters. Through them I have gained sons, grand children and grand pups. It is amazing how one person can sprout off in so many directions…from one to two, then four, then seven or eight, then sixteen and counting in a matter of a generation or two. I wonder as I get older if fate will allow me to see another generation blossom, launching me into “great” status. Would that be grand!

We have so little time that flashes by in a wink! We busy ourselves in passing with such petty concerns…He said, she said’s, I’m right, you’re wrongs’s, oh no you didn’t’s, can’t believe you just’s, I’m over it’s, talk to the hand’s or don’t talk to me at all’s. Our egos would like nothing better than to have us all to ourselves. There is a hefty price to pay for self-righteousness.

I don’t believe I have seen things quite as divided and contentious in my lifetime as it is right now. There are no fine lines, just walls…and we’ve become quite comfortable with crossing them.

In the end we all need to answer just one question. How we answer it makes all the difference.

Is being right and winning the most important thing?

If you can manage a “no” then it’s not too late…there is hope.

Be gentle with yourself and with those who share air space with you. Love while you can. Life is short and only as sweet as you make it.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 4 September 2016

we each hold a sacred trust
to become strong, resilient
love is consuming
with power to smooth rough stone
‘Twas a simpler time
let’s hope we can bridge the divide
I used to wish upon the brightest star
several minutes of polite conversation,
with open hearts
and minds
that quietly listen

~kat

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The Shi Sai, (formerly known as a ReVerse) is a new form I came up with during Poetry Month in April 2016. I’ve actually been writing shu sai for years but was inspired to give it a prooer name. It is a poem created by taking one line of verse from several poems of an author’s own collection. The shi sai is done as a review of a series or collection of poems and therefore, each line should flow in chronological order of the dates the poems were written (from oldest to new). The lines chosen should be the author’s favorite from each poem. This form works best if the author resists the temptation to read the full new poem before all the verses have been added. (It helps one to resist the impulse to change a line to make it “fit”.


April Poetry Month ~ A Poem a Day #17

The Tetractys, is today’s poetry form. It’s an invented form by Ray Stebbing, consisting of at least 5 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 syllables (total of 20). Tetractys can be written with more than one verse, but must follow suit with an inverted syllable count. Tetractys can also bereversed and written 10, 4, 3, 2, 1. 

Double Tetractys: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 4, 3, 2, 1

Triple Tetractys: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 10

and so on.

Ray Stebbing had this to say about his inspiration for the Tetractys: “Euclid, the mathematician of classical times, considered the number series 1, 2, 3, 4 to have mystical significance because its sum is 10, so he dignified it with a name of its own – Tetractys. The tetractys could be Britain’s answer to the haiku. Its challenge is to express a complete thought, profound or comic, witty or wise, within the narrow compass of twenty syllables.”

It’s a simple form with no rhyme constraints; just follow the syllable rules. It’s the perfect poetry form for a restful Sunday morning. I came up with a  few.

If there were spiritual advice columns…

“Soul
Seeking
Nirvana”
Find lasting peace
By refusing to entertain Ego.

yielding 

Trees
Extend
To heaven
And burrow deep
Extremes of longing, that bend on a breeze.

Digital Wet Blanket

You
And me
This moment
Eternity….
Love is in bloom; we must take a selfie!

kat ~ 17 April 2016