L'aura del Campo

Geography of my heart

Winter: 3 Ayyám-i-Há (February 28)

2006-02-28
morning, 51 degrees. 44 in Missoula, MT!

Finally warming up a bit in Western Montana. Here it might hit 70 today. Saw my first daffodil in bloom. The crocuses are hanging on. Very dry. We've had fires out in the fields. Need rain.

I'll have to remind my friend Gary that he is not too old to play hockey . Forsberg, Holmstrom and Sundin of the Swedish national team are all his age. And doing well.

SENSED

Seed-balls of the gum tree; song of the jay; young man, bald, orange beard, red sneakers; 4 stone hitching posts; plethora of orange cable co. flags; daffodil leaves burnt by the freeze; yellow forsythia in bloom; red twigs; abandoned orange; old corncob; 2 young women playing hackysack.

AL asked me about what Bahá'í is. There is no good way to answer in 25 words or less. but over the next month I will address it in pieces as it does define me and explains a lot of who I am and what I've done.

An attempt:

God loves Mankind and gives guidance through 'messengers'. Belief that Bahá'u'lláh is one
defines a Bahá'í. Fellowship, love and unity through knowledge, volition, action allows Oneness with eternity and creation.

GETTING TO KNOW ME #2

11. Countries I want to visit: Norway (since I was 12), Japan, Kenya, Mongolia.

12. Cities I want to visit: Dakar, Senegal; Istanbul, Turkey; Kyoto, Japan.

13. Place I'd like to go back to the most: Arequipa, Peru.

14. Mountains, seashores, hills or plains? Give me the wide open spaces of the plains! Love driving through Iowa, the Flint Hills of Kansas, Osage County, Oklahoma.

15. Bahá'ís from ______ have treated me the best. The answer: Illinois. Kevin and the entire Wright family, Leslie McCain, Sally Lewek, Keith Hays, Bill Baker.

16. People from ______ have been most generous to me. The answer: Oklahoma. Donna Robbins, Judith and Earl Anderson, Alan McKiel, Lee Warren, Jill Weeks, Dan Hayes, Susan Michaels and many others.

17. State I studied when I was 11: Tennesee.

18. Place I'd rather never go back to: Odessa, Texas.

19: States I've never been in: Vermont, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Delaware, New Jersey.

20. Places I've lived: Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New York, Ontario, Costa Rica.

21. Baha'i house of Worship I'd like to visit: Uganda (Kampala). Others are in Australia (Sydney), Samoa (Apia), Panama (Panama City), Germany (Langenheim), India (Bahapur, the most visited), US (Chicago), Chile (to be built near Santiago).

A site in Norwegian that has some photos:

http://www.bahai.no/index.php?id=143

Wikipedia on Bahá'í Houses of Worship:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahai_house_of_worship

22. My favorite number. 22.

23. My favorite quote from the Bahá'í Scripture:

“O SON OF THE SUPREME! I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou veil thyself therefrom?” (Bahá'u'lláh, The Arabic Hidden Words #32).


Sketched yesterday due to a prompt of Khalish asking for poems about Iraq. Unfortunately, this one did not come out with rhythm nor rhyme! Khalish runs a monthly contest:

POETRY IN RHYME - RHYTHM CONTEST-winner  (E) A monthly contest for formal poetry in rhyme and meter. #1017054 by Dr M C Gupta

Goat-path from Mosul

whose blood was that
that splattered on the wall
what call cried out
with one last breath
when bullets made these holes

the stones held silence
would not tell
the stories
of old bone or flesh
as blood soaked in

washed by rain
scoured by frost
no blot remains
ten years from then to now

save deep in stone
save deep in hearts
of stone [162.776]