Tightrope Wonder, Discarding, After Backpacking

Tightrope Wonder

Precarious life,
To be present here
In this moment
Between birth and death;
Not unknown skyrocketing futures
Or dead-bogged pasts;
More difficult than the highest trapeze
Artist—our brief human
Awareness,
The poised tightrope balance
Of this present
Moment

--


Discarding

On the way to the town dump
Our junk in the back jostles in the turn.
Dark blue clouds curtain rain down.

I pull onto the miry dirt road
Past tall leaning one-story screens
Where many dark birds and wrens perch

But launch to flight as I pass and reverse.
Backing up my loaded van to trash heaps,
I get out and step through thick hogged mud,

Throw out our old broken stand and chairs,
A rusted bike, worn shirts and old ‘genes,’
Failed hopes and my grouchy frustration;

Yes, and my bulging head off-tilted
With church dogma, loads of heavy tenet,
And too many years of clouded regret.

Driving home—so empty and satisfied.

--


After backpacking

Yosemite
Half Dome
Granite monolith eoned in time
Glaciated but not destroyed
Majestic time lord
But unaware of anything--
Ever mattered

daniel
half done
fragile being decaded in years
ruined and soon inert
temporary time slave
but conscious of the Ultimate--
soon matterless

why?

--


In the Light,

Dan Wilcox

1st published in Tipton Poetry Journal
and the poetry book, Dark Energy

Color Me Fiery Red

Color Me Fiery Red

As a kid, expressive, creative, rambunctious, something of a wild card long into adulthood I loved vibrant Green-- for abundant life, for exuberant energy, vividly alive for beauty like in colors, emerald or jade,

for the natural world from creek to timbered woods behind our house on the edge of small Adams to verdant forest green glens of the Sierras, Sequoia, and Yosemite

But-- then, suddenly, unexpectedly, without conscious why; spontaneous, impulsively one day in middle life, I awoke not liking green anymore... viewing green instead as dull, insipid, sickening, repetitious, odd, over-done, humdrum...

Color me fiery Red--riveting, intense, striking sparks of light cardinal, crimson, scarlet burst into my eyes and consciousness —passionate, dazzling, blazing, heated, different...

as in exploding firework sky rockets, as pulsing red coals in a bonfire,

as an amazing psychedelic quilt by my sweetheart, like an Impressionistic painting, luminous, to ruby red lava in Hawaii’s volcano, fiery sunsets, and Utah’s red rock

Red forever

--Dan Wilcox

"Where would you most like to be right now?" Favorite Scenic Places

1. "Where would I most like to be right now?"*

So many scenic places nipping at me, but none has got the playful jaws to clench the "sight".:-)

Maybe on the Boucher Trail in the Grand Canyon in the spring or fall...

Or hiking along Glacier Point’s rim in the early summer...

Or looking for sea shells and agates on a warm beach day on the southern California coast, Morro Rock Strand or Laguna...

Or somewhere in the bright red and cream-shaded rock landscape of southern Utah in Zion...

Or walking on a mild summer day through the light and shadows amongst the giant sequoia redwoods...

*Question from How Far Will You Go? by Evelyn McFarlane & James Saywell



In the Light, Dan Wilcox

Beautiful Vistas

VISTAS OF BEAUTY
from our cameras

Sculpture by Oglala-Sicangu Lakota artist Colleen Cutschall
at Last Bighorn Battlefield, Montana

In the Light of Beauty,

Photos by Daniel and Betsy Wilcox

The Best and Worst List

While I continue to work on various long writing projects, I decided to get down a quick list of my favorites and the dissed--the best and worst about living, from the vital and significant to the mundane and inane:-)

THE BEST LIST:

Creative Writing--love getting the writer's flow, so into creating that one misses lunch, stays barnacled to the chair, streaming word rivers.

Swimming, snorkeling, backpacking, hiking, photographing

Transcendence/Ought--our ability of alternative choice, freedom, and creativity

Compassion, equality, human rights, honesty, kindness, empathy, truth-seeking, non-violence, forgiveness, fidelity, mercy, justice, gentleness, generosity, courage, perseverance

Long in-depth discussions and acceptance and sharing with others, even brief meaningful talk and/or joking at checkout lines

Getting published, achieving accolades

Why Questions, philosophical reflections and discussions

Libertarian-democratic socialist, parliamentary form of government

Romantic dates

Traveling, hopefully weekly outings, and at least one out-of-state vacation a year; visiting foreign countries in depth (though I no longer have the means or the stamina for that)

Energy of youth and early adult years

Spontaneity

Curiosity

Humor, puns, jokes

Long historical tomes, scholarly biographies
The Great Upheaval by Jay Wink, Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, Ringside Seat to a Revolution by David Dorado

Scientific books especially on astronomy, cosmology, anthropology, geology, biology, etc.
How It Ends by Chris Impey, The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins

Philosophy, worldview study
The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener by Martin Gardner, Sophie's World by Josteen Gaarder

Imagistic and narrative poetry

Art especially oil and tempera scenes, Impressionism, Expressionism, Realism, Van Gogh, Goya

Movies, TV Mini-series and shows—The Stand, Heaven and Earth (Vietnam War), Sommersby, Savior, Bruce Almighty, What Dreams May Come, Sleepy Hollow, Terminator 2, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Breaking Bad

In books—vivid suspenseful speculative/futuristic/alternate-history plots, and long historical fiction

Music-- Folk rock, ballads, rockabilly, hard rock, catchy worship music

Mountain Dew , in all flavors—Pitch Black, Distortion, Livewire, Regular, Baja Blast, Sangria Blast, Code Red, Game Fuel

Food--This became more significant after middle age:
Crab rolls, cream of crab soup, King Crab
Blackened Alaskan salmon, seasoned tilapia, cod, Cajun catfish, etc.
Wedge-cut seasoned French fries
Fish Veracruz-style

Pizza—thick buttery crust, lots of cheese, mushrooms, red peppers…
Rubio's grilled gourmet fish, Taco Bell's Baja Chalupa
Hot peppers such as jalapeños and spicy sauces (enough to make my ears smoke;-)
Kiwis, oranges, blackberries, razzle berry pie, large figs

Weather—sunny, hot and dry (from 85 degrees to 95)

Places—Pacific Coastline, Yosemite, Redwoods, Grand Canyon, Hawaii, especially Maui beaches, Sierras, Big Sur, tall trees

Historical trips such as C.W. Trails and Museums of Virginia and South Carolina

Animals—cats:-) hamsters, meerkats, dolphins, whales, seals, otters, beavers, talking parrots, song birds such as meadowlarks, hummingbirds, raccoons, iguanas, spiders; Sea World, zoos

Architecture—Modern Wright-style, Victorian

To be continued--

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Wizard of Awes: Part #2

My last post’s title was “Ah, Yosemite Falling Again.”

Ah—as in pleasant surprise, relief, regret, amazement…

But, of course, the main side-traveler is the pun, ah and awe, and an allusion to The Wizard of Oz, the famous children’s book and award-winning movie.

And the matter which so many thinkers have brought up--astrophysicist Adam Frank most recently this week on a NPR blog--where does the human emotion of awe come from?

Is awe only a movement of brain chemistry?

Is awe only a religious illusion?

Frank’s answer on awe is “about attention not attribution.” Don’t worry about attributing the experience, but focus on the validity of the moment.

But I’m an onion peeler. How can we find value in “awe” if it’s only an illusion of brain chemistry?

Is awe no more than an evolutionary adaption, a “misfiring” of natural selection, no more than neurons, etc?

Keep in mind what I am worry-warting here is neuroscientist Sam Harris’s infamous statement that even our sense of “I” is an illusion.

According to some scientists such as Sam Harris, we conscious primates and everything in existence from the Big Bang to me typing this sentence—all of it is determined. If so, if the “I” who is clicking my keyboard doesn't exist, but is only an illusion, then, of course, a transcendent emotional experience of mine when standing below Yosemite Falls is even of less significance, of no significance.

In that case, like in the children’s book and movie, there is no wizard of awes.

The transcendent feeling we humans sometimes experience when encountering the gigantic depths of the Grand Canyon, the intense and vast expanse of the Milky Way Galaxy while on a camping trip far from light-dense cities, or standing entranced on the walking bridge drenched in the spray from Yosemite Falls which plunges down into the gorge of Yosemite Valley thousands of feet below...

It’s all just atoms functioning.

No god wizard of religion, but no ultimate reality of philosophers and some scientists either.

I’m somewhat sympathetic to the skeptical view of religion. At present, after battling against some of the horrific delusions of various religions for 52 years, I've become skeptical of the usual supernatural wizards who are trotted out as the source of our awe when we encounter scenes that take our breath away.

But I find most atheists, not only sharp at showing the false pretentions of religion, but too often dissing the wonder of awe as well, too often claiming to know far more about the cosmos and absolute reality than even the most erudite cosmologist, and so often insistent it's all meaningless and purposeless.

No doubt this is why Einstein emphasized that he wasn't an atheist; he said wonder was the real basis for all science: "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed..."

"A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity...I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."
From The World As I See It by Albert Einstein

My own view is that the sense of awe we experience when encountering incredible natural vistas is inherent in us the same way that reason, creativity, free will, human rights, and ethical standards such as honesty and compassion are.

In this dramatic vista that has overwhelmed us, we finite primates encounter a touch of the beautiful, the wondrous, the infinite.

In the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox

Ah, Yosemite Falling Again

First, a reflection from NPR:
"Earlier in the day, looking down the rim of a canyon [New York's Letchworth State Park] cut over thousands of years by the Genesee River, I felt a profound sense of awe that cut me to the quick."

"But in that sense of awe, was I communing with anything extending beyond just a particular state of my neurons? My joke about the gods aside, was there anything religious about the feeling I, an atheist, felt looking across that vast expanse of river, stone and still blue air?"

"It's about attention not attribution."
From "Is Atheist Awe a Religious Experience?"
by Adam Frank, Assistant Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Rochester, New York
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/09/16/348949146/is-atheist-awe-a-religious-experience

Professor Frank's nature/human reflection is a refreshing experience. (Read the rest at NPR). His emphasis on wonder takes us in a different direction than the cold, dry comments by many other nontheists in recent years such as scientist Francis Crick's infamous statement: "You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.” The Astonishing Hypothesis, 1994

Gee, thanks. No doubt Francis Crick would say a similar thing about the falls of Yosemite--'nothing more than atoms...'

I remember my own awe-filled experience half a dozen years back in Yosemite National Park. Usually, wonder doesn't lead to humor but in this case it did.

Yosemite Falling Again

Gallivanting through the Valley
Visually assaulted by
Avalanching froth,

The white water rush,
Plunging,
Paradising
Cataract heaven
For the natural user;

Millions of gallons
Cascading from sheer gasping
Cliffs above
Gushing, Muirwonder-rushing Falls
Plummeting
Down,
Billions of liquid liters--
An awe-inspiring
Gusher;

God, what a jolt!
You forget to shut
Off the sky’s
Water Spigot?



Previously published in selah river,
a third collection of my poetry

In the Light-splashed,

Daniel Wilcox

The Pull-Out Coyote

Last September 2013 on our vacation in Yosemite, we saw this lone coyote standing by the side of the road, still as a statue...

The Pull-Out Coyote

Seven cars full of gawkers, so touristy,
Surrouded a rather chubby coyote
Standing still in forested Yosemite.

The excited travelers near Glacier Point
Grouped in the crowded National Park pull-out
Yanked up their cameras and cellphones for shots.

Such roving animals very seldom pause
In attention for us curious humans;
I wondered if this solo wild one here was

Wounded, rabid, dazed and confused, or sicker
But later when we stopped to ask a Ranger,
He said, "No, not likely--that's the sly trickster

Who stands like a furred statue for large handouts.
He's smarter than your average human huckster;
You know, the demanding ones by red stop lights

At busy road spots mooching for more money.
In contrast, this very cunning coyote
Has picked his eat-stop with parking a plenty,

Lots of room for his so friendly attendants
To pull off the highway with scrumptious treats."
If this master of the show doffed a Stetson,

We watchers wouldn't have been at all startled,
But surely have expected it from this coyot.
Ever see a critter pull tourists from his hat?



:-)

In the Light-Heart,

Daniel Wilcox