The Buddhist Dark Night of the 'Soul'

(Buddha's Wisdom) Breakdown or breakthrough.

• Catholic/Christian mystics understand, “To get your breakthrough, sometimes God needs to break you.”
• Dark Night of the Soul: What it is and how to move through it

Dark Night of the Soul

The Dark Night of the Soul (Spanish La noche oscura del alma) is a phase of passive purification in the mystical development of an individual's spirit, according to the 16th-century Spanish mystic and Catholic poet St. John of the Cross.

St. John describes the concept in his treatise Dark Night (Noche Oscura), commenting on his poem of the same name.

John of the Cross, 1656

It follows after the second phase, the illumination in which God's presence is felt, but this presence is not yet stable.

The author himself did not give any title to his poem, which together with this commentary and the Ascent of Mount Carmel (Subida del Monte Carmelo) forms a treatise on the active and passive purification of the senses and the spirit, leading to mystical union [1] or "yoga" through samadhi.

El Greco "View of Toledo" (Google Art Project)

In modern times, the phrase "dark night of the soul" has become a popular phrase to describe a crisis of faith or a difficult and painful period in one's life.

The poem

Dating and subject: The poem of St. John of the Cross, in eight stanzas of five lines each, narrates the journey of the individual (soul, personality, persona, ego, self, spirit) to mystical union with God or the Godhead (Brahman). More

The Dark Night of the Soul

By St. John of the Cross

Dark Night of the Soul (by ogipavkovic on DeviantArt)

I. In a dark night,

With anxious love inflamed,

O, happy lot!

Forth unobserved I went,

My house being now at rest.

II. In darkness and in safety,

By the secret ladder, disguised,

O, happy lot!

In darkness and concealment,

My house being now at rest.

III. In that happy night,

In secret, seen of none,

Seeing nought myself,

Without other light or guide

Save that which in my heart was burning.

IV. That light guided me

More surely than the noonday sun

To the place where He was waiting for me,

Whom I knew well,

And where none appeared.

V. O, guiding night;

O, night more lovely than the dawn;

O, night that hast united

The lover with His beloved,

And changed her into her love.

VI. On my flowery bosom,

Kept whole for Him alone,

There He reposed and slept;

And I cherished Him, and the waving

Of the cedars fanned Him.

VII. As His hair floated in the breeze

That from the turret blew,

He struck me on the neck

With His gentle hand,

And all sensation left me.

VIII. I continued in oblivion lost,

My head was resting on my love;

Lost to all things and myself,

And, amid the lilies forgotten,

Threw all my cares away. Source

• The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Douglas Adams)

Renee Good's ICE poem 'To Dissect...Pigs'

(DemocracyNow.org) "We had whistles. They had guns": Nationwide (ICE out for Good campaign) protests over ICE killings

(KTLA 5) Massive Los Angeles uprising: peaceful anti-ICE protest

On Learning to Dissect...Pigs

By Renée Nicole Macklin [Good] R.I.P.

Police Pig I (creator.nightcafe.studio)

i want back my rocking chairs,

solipsist sunsets,

& coastal jungle sounds that are tercets from cicadas and pentameter from the hairy legs of cockroaches.

 

i’ve donated bibles to thrift stores

(mashed them in plastic trash bags with an acidic himalayan salt lamp—

the post-baptism bibles, the ones plucked from street corners from the meaty hands of zealots, the dumbed-down, easy-to-read, parasitic kind):

 

remember more the slick rubber smell of high gloss biology textbook pictures; they burned the hairs inside my nostrils,

& salt & ink that rubbed off on my palms.

(Pod Save America) Shocking new video of ICE police state abuses in Minneapolis goes viral

under clippings of the moon at two forty five AM I study&repeat

               ribosome

               endoplasmic—

               lactic acid

               stamen

 

at the IHOP on the corner of powers and stetson hills—

 

i repeated & scribbled until it picked its way & stagnated somewhere i can’t point to anymore, maybe my gut—

maybe there in-between my pancreas & large intestine is the piddly brook of my soul.

 

it’s the ruler by which i reduce all things now; hard-edged & splintering from knowledge that used to sit, a cloth against fevered forehead.

can i let them both be? this fickle faith and this college science that heckles from the back of the classroom

AOC opines on Trump and JD Vance's killer ICE agent who killed Good

 

               now i can’t believe—

               that the bible and qur’an and bhagavad gita are sliding long hairs behind my ear like mom used to & exhaling from their mouths “make room for wonder”—

all my understanding dribbles down the chin onto the chest & is summarized as:

life is merely

to ovum and sperm

and where those two meet

and how often and how well

and what dies there.

• 2020 Academy of American Poets Prize | Academy of American Poets

Some donuts with that, Fat@$$? Starbucks employee draws on cup and gets fired (MSN)

• Literary Hub » Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE, was a prize-winning poet. Here’s that poem
• We are not "pigs": Disabled woman pulled from car for blocking agents in Minneapolis
• PIG!? Starbucks apologizes for 'PIG' cup given to Kiefer officer
• Starbucks Corporation apologizes for 'pig' cup given to deputy (MSN)
• Starbucks employee serves LA sheriff's deputy coffee with hand-drawn pig on cup
• Three little pigs dressed as police officers in a city alley with brick buildings in the background | Adobe Stock
• Pig [Trump official?] wearing fashion costume, disguised as a police officer in urban cityscape
• ICE Out for Good concludes Day One with overwhelming peaceful actions | American Civil Liberties Union
• Who is killer ICE Agent Jonathan Ross? Amy Goodman reveals the truth about this misogynist murderer on Democracy Now! today

(Late Night with Seth Meyers) Noem flails on CNN over ICE shooting; protester schools Fox News; Trump's oil meeting: A Closer Look

Kimmel on Trump's response to Minneapolis: send more ICE agents, get Nobel Peace Prize

(Jimmy Kimmel Live)

Standup comedy: Minnesota not so nice (Sammy Obeid)

(Sammy Obeid) Minnesota not so nice | stand up comedy

Renee Nicole Good Is Murdered

By Cornelius Eady (1954–)

The killer is the one who chooses to kill.

Up rides the super cops,

The cancellation squad.

A dormant virus, melted from

The ice pack,

And the conversation

Is end-stopped when

The shell cracks her

Car window, does its

Dumb duty,

Brings silence

To a poet’s mind.

The President says:

You’re a terror bot

If you don’t comply.

Homeland security

Puts on a ten gallon

Texas size hat,

Says see what f*cking

With the bull gets you.

There is a picture of her

Just before it tips rancid,

Just before she’s dragged

Into how they see her.

I wish I could read the words

As they blaze their last, unsuspected

Race through her skull.

A language poem that ends on

The word

Impossible.

• Renee Nicole Good Is Murdered by Cornelius Eady (Poems | Academy of American Poets)

ICE on Good: "F*cking b*tch"

Israel/USA foment protests in Iran as pretext for attack by Bibi lackey Trump

Man drives through anti-Iran crowd

Poem: Death, be not proud; Buddhism

Why Death is NOT the end – The Buddha’s Wisdom on Dying and Beyond
(Buddhism Podcast) Sept. 11, 2025: Buddhism Explained. Discover the historical Buddha’s timeless wisdom on life, death, and what lies beyond [rebirth in endless samsara]. In Buddhism, death is not the end—it is a transition in the endless cycle of rebirth. This video explores key teachings such as

• mindfulness of death (maraṇasati),
• the Five Remembrances, and
• the Path to Nirvana (Nibbana)—the ultimate freedom beyond rebirth and death.

Through the story of the mother Kisagotami, the Buddha’s “Three Knowledges,” and profound insights into impermanence, we learn how to transform fear into understanding and live with clarity, compassion, and purpose. Let Death become a teacher, not something to fear.

• 00:00 - Death in Buddhism: Teachings from the Awakened One
• 06:56 - Why the Buddha understood Death so deeply
• 13:08 - From doubt to understanding, from understanding to liberation
• 19:03 - Living with this understanding.

Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud

By John Donne

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

• "Death Be Not Proud," Wikipedia:

Mara's daughters: Craving, Lust, and Surfeit

"Sonnet X" is also known by its opening words as "Death Be Not Proud." It is a 14-line poem, a sonnet, by English poet John Donne (1572–1631), one of the leading figures in the metaphysical poets group of 17th-century English literature.

Written between February and August 1609, it was first published posthumously in 1633. The poem is included as one of the 19 sonnets that comprise Donne's Holy Sonnets or Divine Meditations, among his best-known works.

Most editions number the poem as the tenth in the sonnet sequence, which follows the order of poems in the Westmoreland Manuscript (c. 1620), the most complete arrangement of the cycle, discovered in the late 19th century.

However, two editions published shortly after Donne's death include the sonnets in a different order, where this poem appears as 11th in the Songs and Sonnets (published 1633) and sixth in Divine Meditations (published 1635).

What is it about?

What I meant was... (John Donne)

"Death Be Not Proud" presents an argument against the power of death. Addressing Death as a person, the speaker warns Death against pride in his power.

Such power is merely an illusion, and the end Death thinks it brings to men and women is in fact a rest from world-weariness for its alleged "victims."

The poet criticizes Death as a slave to other forces: fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. Death is not in control, for a variety of other powers exercise their volition in taking lives.

Even in the rest it brings, Death is inferior to drugs. Finally, the speaker predicts the end of Death itself, stating, "Death, thou shalt die." More

• Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud | The Poetry Foundation

A Late Summer Night's Dream (poetry)

As the summer winds down, the Altadena Library is having its Open Mic on Monday, Sept. 8th at 6:00 pm at Callisto Tea House on Washington and Altadena Dr. (Open Mic Night, Monday, September 8, 2025, 6 - 7:30pm - Programs — Altadena Library District) FREE

• Callisto Tea House, 1359 N Altadena Dr. (Map)

• Aveson Black Box Theater
• 3051 N. Lincoln Ave., Altadena, CA 91001

Tuesday is the Odes to Altadena Poetry Workshop. All are welcome as this enclave returns to its rich history of art, activism, and writing. FREE

Bestselling author Janet Fitch will be reading! Thursday marks the return (from its usual summer hiatus) of Mandy Kahn's Deep Dive Poetry & Fiction at the Philosophical Research Society (PRS.org) historic mansion's Religions of the World Library on the next hill over, above Glendale, next to Griffith Park, at the eastern entrance to Hollywood (Tinsel Town proper). FREE

• PRS.org (Calendar)

Altadena Poetry Review Celebration
Saturday is the massive Altadena Poetry Review Celebration (2024-2025 Virtual Edition) at the Altadena Main Library Community Room featuring poets published in the anthology, including Mary Anne Berry, Don Kingfisher Campbel, Hazel Harrison, Ron Koertge, Noriko Nakada, Anna Mixtlan, Thelma Reyna (Golden Foothills Press), Lynne Thompson, Pam Ward, Alene Terzian-Zeitounian + OPEN MIC. Hosted by Altadena Library Co-Poets Laureate Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon. (This event will be livestreamed at youtube.com/AltadenaLibrary for anyone wanting to tune in remotely). FREE

• Altadena Poets Laureate - Altadena Poetry Review Celebration - The 2024-25 Virtual Edition, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, 3-5 pm
• Altadena Library District | Altadena CA | Facebook
• Altadena Library District (@altadenalibrary) • Instagram
• AltadenaLibrary (@AltadenaLibrary) / (Twitter) X

Of course, the whole of the community will be at Eagle's Hall for the free festival "Regrow Altadena" walking distance just down the hill along the miraculously unburned Christmas Tree Lane. (Both are on the same street at the same time, one on Woodbury, the other on Mariposa). The music and dancing from one may echo up and disturb the poetry readers if they whisper at the mic all NPR-style, so speak up or deliver those poems and attempts at haiku (haibun) as if they were spoken word with verve.

• Poetry and Garden - Poetry and Zine Workshop with Xitlalic Guijosa, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, 11am-1 pm
• Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum Events | SeatGeek
• Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Poetry events in Los Angeles (7/26)

This week is the end of Love's Labour's Lost and start of Doctor Faustus at Griffith Park

The Bard: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

This town is full of rebellious writers, standing up to Trump's fascist agenda with his Gestapo ICE. But LA does it differently, with flare and pizzazz, poetry and spoken word. Come out to Santa Monica's historic Rapp Saloon inside the Youth Hostel to see it live. There's more going on. On Sunday, the Village Poets have a regular reading at Bolton Hall in Sunland/Tujunga, right in the foothills. Next weekend, the Eagle Rock Library hosts an open mic with that this month features Lynda Crawford. The SPARC (South Pasadena Arts Council) has a reading every Third Thursday. For anyone looking for the Bard himself, IndieShakes.org is at Griffith Park all summer with FREE Shakespeare in the Park. Or, if Hollywood is your bag, the Emmys are coming up soon.

• What happens at these poetry readings?

Eagle Rock is on the Eastside of Hipsterville

Next weekend, in the afternoon, Eagle Rock Library (part of LA County's system) has its bimonthly Open Mic: Open Mic Poetry | Los Angeles Public Library

• 5027 Caspar Avenue
• Eagle Rock (Los Angeles), CA 90041
• Phone: (323) 258-8078
• lapl.org/branches/eagle-rock
• Instagram

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: Share your original poems, lyrics, spoken word, or just enjoy listening. Each poet will have five (5) minutes to read an original work. To read, sign up on arrival.

Poetess Lynda V. E. Crawford (Poets & Writers)

The featured speaker will be Lynda V. E. Crawford, who says of her poetry, "I write poems to sneak behind eyes, blow through ears, and stretch voices." Crawford was born and raised in Barbados and now lives in California. Both home countries sway her writing. The Pushcart Prize nominee's work has appeared in national and international journals including Prairie Schooner, ArtsEtc Barbados, The Caribbean Writer, The Galway Review, The Bookends Review, California Quarterly, and Exposition Review. Crawford is the author of the poetry collection Washing Water (World Stage Press, October 2024).

For ADA accommodations, call (213) 228-7430 at least 72 hours prior to the event. Para ajustes razonables según la ley de ADA, llama al (213) 228-7430 al menos 72 horas antes del evento. More

3-minute history of Los Angeles' Rapp Saloon in Santa Monica

What happened?

3rd Thursday Poetry: SPARC (7/17)

It's every third Thursday (except December). Tonight's show put the spotlight on two artists featured on Wisdom Quarterly, an environmentalist and a poet dealing in race and esteem issues as a Vietnamese American poet. We discovered a new talent that stole the show, painter Ekaterina Sky. She was performing Earthcentric slam poetry, passionate about restoring nature from all of our manmade disasters.

What else you got?

There is no ART without ARTists who share.

Poetry is running rampant across the city, spreading culture and resistance, saying "no" to Trump and ICE, fascism and racism, Tinsel Town excesses and the dumbing down of a digitally-addicted society. There's more. Tonight (Friday, July 17, 2025) is Rapp Saloon's 14th anniversary with Hostess Elena Secota at the Youth Hostel in Santa Monica.

• The Rapp Saloon (historical 1st brick building)
• Hostelling International, Santa Monica
• 1436 2nd Street, Santa Monica
• FREE/all ages (donations appreciated)

Sunday inside historic Bolton Hall

Bolton Hall Museum historical landmark (Sunland/Tujunga, Southern California)

 

Poetess Maja Trochimczyk

Village Poets of Sunland/Tujunga is happy to welcome poets Hilda Weiss and past Poet Laureate Maja Trochimczyk on the Third Sunday (July 20th), 4:30 pm at Bolton Hall Museum. There is also an open mic where poets are invited to participate in the open reading segment of the event. It is hosted by Alice Pero.

• Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga
• Bolton Hall Museum
• 10110 Commerce Ave. (off of Foothill),
• Tujunga, California 91040
• Village Poets of Sunland & Tujunga: Calendar

Bolton Hall is a Los Angeles Historical Landmark built in 1913. Reading starts at 4:30 pm and goes to 6:30 pm. Refreshments served. Free street parking available and at Elks Lodge, 10137 Commerce Ave. Park, behind the building, a short walk from Bolton Hall, across the street and down the block.

• Independent Shakespeare Co., Griffith Park, Los Angeles
• Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Happy B-day, Yeats: 'Second Coming' (poem)

Where are you going, sir? - Bethlehem. - But why, sir? - Don't worry about it.

.

Portrait by his father J. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats (June 13, 1865–Jan. 28, 1939) is among the greats. Today is the commemoration of the Irish poet's birth.

Irish poet W. B. Yeats was a dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature.

He was a driving force behind the Irish literary revival, and along with John Millington Synge and Lady Gregory founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years.

Wm. Butler Yeats in 1923

He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature and later served two terms as a senator of the Irish Free State.

A Protestant of Anglo-Irish descent, Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland. His father practiced law and was a successful portrait painter (painting him at right). He was educated in Dublin and London and spent his childhood holidays in County Sligo. 

• Swift's "A Modest Proposal"

Saint Issa on Roman cross

He studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. His early poetry was influenced by John Keats, William Wordsworth, William Blake, and many others. More

He is remembered for many poems, perhaps most famous of which is this particularly poignant and prescient piece:

The Second Coming

.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

How to convert Jews

Should Jews be forced to convert again?

• The Second Coming (poem)
• Yeats in Bedford Park, Chiswick's Local Web site
• W. B. Yeats; Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Spring Begins: Vernal Equinox (3/20)

Tibetan Buddhist Goddess White Tara (among other Taras), whose name means "star"

(NBC News) Deadly storms expected across USA as millions brace for tornadoes before spring

Now it's called March equinox in the U.S.

No one seems to have told the rest of the country, but where the sun sets (West Coast), the sun rose this morning to a new spring. Everything is green and sunny, cool and moist, and a person's thoughts lilt towards thoughts of 

The Spring Equinox, also known as the vernal equinox, is one of the four solar festivals of the year. The equinox — which translates roughly in Latin to “equal night” — is when the sun sits vertically above the equator, making day and night equal across the planet.

Buddhist Angkor Wat, Cambodia, on the equinox

Persephone, Goddess of Spring (animalia-life)

The Spring Equinox officially marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and there are celebrations around the world to usher in longer days and springtime. [This is the real traditional New Year's Day, when the Earth (Tierra, Gaia, Bhumi) renews herself in preparation for another cycle.]

In some cultures, this day also marks the beginning of the new year, which in Iranian (original Aryan) culture is called Nowruz. The Spring Equinox is a brilliant time for new beginnings [like maybe a nice spring cleaning], no matter how one celebrates on March 20th.

Here are some Spring Equinox Activities...  More

• This is the best time to begin a regular meditation practice, graduating to walking meditation, mindfulness in nature, and deep stillness to see things as they really are.

An outfit just for practice helps.

Do the basics: Put on all white. Find a quiet spot apart from distractions. Use this spot over and over again. It becomes powerful. Set down a mat and cushion (a bundle of leaves or grass is enough to get the tailbone higher than the knees). Sit. Inhale deeply. Release. Do it again a few times, without forcing the air out. It's just about letting go completely, so completely that the body hangs as if held up by a clothing hanger, not stiff, not slack.

You're a baby in white, so go easy.

Straighter is more comfortable, even though it doesn't seem like it at first. Posture is important to attention. Bring (advert) the attention to the present moment, this moment, and to stay in just this moment, remain aware of the breath. Which breath? This breath, just the one happening now all by itself. Become the watcher (not the commenter, fixer, improver, slowdowner, or anything else), just the watcher. This is mindfulness -- clear awareness of the present without evaluation.

Whoa, what a trip! What was that? I want that again!

Set a time limit in advance and keep it. Even if it would be nice to go longer because it is going so well, know the time of rising. Even if it is going horribly with raving lunatic thoughts of a psychopath with lurid fantasies and wrath, lust and revenge, delusion and a lightshow, know the time of rising. The mind will thank you later.

Ten minutes is a good start time, slowly working up to an hourlong sit. That seems impossible now, but in time, whaddyaknow, it suddenly is possible. What changed? I'dunno. This practice is about persistence. It does itself and then there is no effort. The enemies of that are expectations, unsettled greed or desire for achieving something, and the Five Hindrances. They will come to hinder. They are already present. They can be overcome. But whether or not they have been overcome, persist. This is spring. This is the beginning. Have "beginner's mind" in place of the "monkey mind" that usually rules the cage. Smile. It helps.

Instructions are confusing because it's so simple.

It is easy to say that "meditation is NOT about thinking." That's clear. That's easy to see. Don't indulge thought; just let them be by turning your attention to this subtle breath that keeps changing. What is difficult to grasp is that "meditation is NOT about not-thinking." Not-thinking may happen. It doesn't matter. As that is not the goal, if it doesn't happen, it's okay. Giving attention to one object and bringing attention back and back again and again ("Begin again" as Sharon Salzberg says) is what is important.

Feed me, Phone-Momma! Feed me more!!

The mind like a petulant and insolent child will resist. Let it. Bring it back. Do not scold it or become upset. Let it be. Surrender completely to this moment, whatever is in this moment, not being moved to do anything no matter what the mind says it must do. See what happens. Could the mind be wrong no matter what it feels or demands or insists is true?

How did Siddhartha Gautama do it?

We'll never see things as they really are so long as we keep believing that we already are seeing them that way. We have never been seeing them that way. If we had, we'd awaken. We'd be enlightened, which is to say, Dependent Origination would make sense. And it doesn't, does it? (Hint: It's a practice, not a theory). That's a whole different kind of meditation called insight (vipassana) after getting good at this kind, which is called serenity (samatha). Don't jump ahead. Let it go. (If all else fails, sign up for a free 10-day Goenka retreat. Everyone should do at least one in life).

TODAY IS ALSO

• SPRING BEGINS - March 20, 2025
• SPRING EQUINOX - March 20, 2025
• MARCH EQUINOX - March 20, 2025
• GREAT AMERICAN MEAT OUT DAY 
• INT'L DAY OF HAPPINESS - March 20
• ALIEN ABDUCTION DAY - March 20
• ASTROLOGY DAY - March 20, 2025
• FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH - March 20
• DOGS IN YELLOW DAY - March 20
• NATIONAL PROPOSAL DAY - March 20
• KISS YOUR FIANCE DAY - March 20

POEM: "Locksley Hall"

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Greco-Roman Cora

Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 't is early morn:

Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the bugle-horn.

'T is the place, and all around it, as of old, the curlews call,

Dreary gleams about the moorland flying over Locksley Hall;

Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts,

And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.

Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest,

Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the West.

Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade,

Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.

Here about the beach I wander'd, nourishing a youth sublime

With the fairy tales of science, and the long result of Time;

When the centuries behind me like a fruitful land reposed;

When I clung to all the present for the promise that it closed:

When I dipt into the future far as human eye could see;

Saw the Vision of the world and all the wonder that would be.—

In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast;

In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;

In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;

In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. More

• Buddhist temple: Angkor Wat on the Equinox
• NationalToday, March 20, 2025; Alfred, Lord Tennyson (The Poetry Foundation); Ashley Wells, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen B. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly