Saturday, December 02, 2006

Mind and Form: A Poem on Esoteric Thought
By Don Iannone

It burrows its way through life like a mole.
Seeking and creating as it seeks,
and whatever it creates, it seeks again,
because it now knows its target.
Yes, the mind forever leaves its traces--thoughts,
some idle and lame, some subtle and deep,
some indiscernible from feelings and bodily movements.
Not just some organ in your head,
like your boozed out liver,
or your burned out lungs.
It's more like the air you breathe--
it's everywhere inside and outside you.
Mostly you think it's inside you,
but it's also outside the embodied you.
It's a creature and creator of habit.
It adores form, and
simultaneously abhors and delights
at the formless and unmet in life.
It loves form because each form
is a familiar and known furrow
created by an earlier burrow.
It loves the formless and unmet too,
because each is a conquest
to sculpt a form from the formless.
Over time, the mind learns to love itself,
and so it clings to itself and its creations, because
these are its children--
its offspring offered to all it has created, and
the make-believe separate external world,
which it has also created as a plaything, and
as a form against which to forge other forms.
It can only think of itself as a form
because it has low self-insight,
and only sees that which it has formed.
Its true nature, I believe, is formless, and yet
the mind can only grasp the formless as a form.
How sad, you say, that your mind
cannot grasp its true nature.
Don't sadden yourself with such machinations.
Even your sadness is a form, created by your mind,
as a futile attempt to give form to itself.
The answer? Don't go there either...
for answers are also illusory forms
seeking formless questions...
that are nothing more than your mind's gropings
to transcend form and reach formless permanence.
Next time you decide to visit reality, whatever that is,
don't think about it.

PS: Don't take any of this seriously. It could lead to
life-threatening illusions
.

24 comments:

Borut said...

Enlightening piece! ’Even your sadness is a form, created by your mind.’; ‘a familiar and known furrow/
created by an earlier burrow’. Like this in particular!

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Thanks Borut...it relates back to your 5/7/5 poem post.

Pat Paulk said...

"Form follows function". Best to take as litle as possible seriously.

anonymous julie said...

"It" - is us!

and, or -

God playing hide-and-seek.

Margie said...

Hi Don
Ditto Pat!
Excellent writing!

Margie

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Thanks Pat, Julie, and Margie.

This one hangs together for me, but it is complex. Hopefully it creates the right feel, at least. And of course, this poem is, well, a form...of expression and something my formless mind needs to create to see itself.

Anonymous said...

Wow! This is good! Nice last line, among many others.

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Hey Dan...thanks! Thought you might like this one. Now, would Richard like this one?

QUASAR9 said...

Hi Don,
Always a fine line
between illusion & reality
Always a fine line
between the true & imagined
Always a fine line
between what is & what is not

"To Be or not To Be"
was on my first T-shirt, I think
alas "all the world is a stage" lol!

QUASAR9 said...

PS Don -
I've enjoyed the previous posts
Now Einstein, he really knew what
a "bad hair day meant" - to him. lol!

QUASAR9 said...

PPS - Steppenwolf great track
"Like a true nature's child
... Born, botn to be wild!"

polona said...

excellent piece! will be back for another reading.

Kai said...

this is so wise....
i like it.

:-]
p.p.b-fly

iamnasra said...

Its riddle I was trying to work it out in my brain..You ahve given me homeowrk and then I was released...LOL At time the blues take a current within the air its leaves in days with that feeling..Im not sure if u got what Im saying

gP said...

great great wrting, cryptic and open, the opposites of things.

have a nice weekend.

J. Andrew Lockhart said...

WOW! I would have loved to hear you read this one. :)

Bob said...

As I can't leave a formless comment I will say I am stunned by this.
Thank you Don.

gautami tripathy said...

Your poetry is journey of sorts.

starry said...

Cannot explain the mind sometimes.

Anonymous said...

As always, Don, I really enjoyed my romp through your mind, particularly as we so often say the same thingt, only in different words.

I am back for a while, I hope, enjoying my life and the love that surrounds me, avoiding the commercialism of this season as best I can.

...Z

CE said...

The mind too creates the illusion of no-mind. Of two instead of one.
Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Hello all...thanks for your comments. They are much appreciate and give me courage and encourage to write. Thank you. Thank you.

Note to Z: So good to see you back, up and around. Hope you are feeling stronger.

DTclarinet said...

don- this is awesome. a fresh look at the idea of spirit

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Thanks David. Hope you are well.

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