The skull of my face
is back again
to pull you in
as such a friend
The face of my skull
with all its might
will wrap you up
and squeeze you tight
Tiger Spider Argiope trifasciata (revisiting) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
(NOTE: The following poem is not against voting; it is opposed to voting by people who are easily duped and who turn their backs on the environment.)
This from the witch
of the stir from the brew
whose Halloween terror
came flying for you
She brings you bloody terror
wrinkled skin and loss of hair
and all the rats and spiders cheer
as she circles the air
But all the ugly terror
that she drapes as the night
doesn’t equal the brainwashed zombies
soon to vote with all their might
Halloween Wolf Spider … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Don’t be a second-hand, hodgepodge mix of what others (in your life) programmed you to be; perceive directly, without mere conditioning/reaction.
Quixotic, extremely idealistic behavior is often based on dead, old patterns; look at life afresh, without dead blueprints.
Don’t merely pigeonhole others with an old, categorizing-oriented brain; perceive with fresh and lucid eyes.
Many of us take immaculate care of our overly fancy cars while we guzzle sugar, starch, alcohol, and processed foods like there’s no tomorrow.
To habitually take refuge in old-fashioned beliefs may be like finding protection in a rainstorm by depending on an old, torn, metal umbrella.
Roses are red and violets are blue… wake up and realize that what you perceive is you.
Female Monarch Butterfly … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
I’m a bit scary
but I’m not nearly as scary
as American politics
Another Halloween Spider … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Merely sitting on your can
with eyes closed
with legs crossed
while supposedly “controlling ‘your’ thoughts from a distance”
(in order to get something)
is not it.
Fruit-fly on a small leaf … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Spiders weave strings of time
between then and there
Tonight, dangle as dream
Zip up and down
crocheting the fabric of seem
Tonight, enter scream
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In reality, Elongate Long-Jawed Orb Weavers are not at all dangerous. People who turn their backs on the environment (and who vote for those that do) are what is extremely dangerous.
Elongate Long-jawed Orb Weaver … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
The elderly Lo Zu was sitting on a huge fallen log next to a beautiful pond that was not far from the village. A much younger man, who was an atheist, came by and said to him, “Many people in the area say that you are a great wise man, a holy man, but if there is no God, then you are not a holy man, you are nothing.”
Lo Zu invited the man to sit next to him on the large, fallen log, which he did. Then Lo Zu, said (while smiling), “We two can agree on one thing; I am nothing.”
“Then there is no God,” the man pronounced with confidence.
Lo Zu then said, “‘God’, for most everyone, is an image (or series of images) that they have learned. (They will insist that it is something much more than absorbed images.) To these images, they associate power, dominance, kindly (special) protection, fatherliness, and unlimited knowledge. However, these images (and their associative emotions) are self-protrusions of thought/thinking.”
“And so not anything real?” asked the man.
Lo Zu then said, “The sign on the road, just outside of town, that has the name of the town upon it, is not the town. If someone steals the sign, they are not stealing the town. If someone wants to visit the town, they do not crawl up the sign. Additionally, to really be sure that the town is there, one must visit the town.”
“I see what you are getting at,” said the man. “So, you are suggesting that one, such as you, can visit God.”
“Not really,” said Lo Zu. “If one, through supposed will and choice, decides to visit ‘God,’ one is visiting one’s own learned images, one’s own learned thoughts and strong emotions associated with such thoughts. Such a ‘visiting’ is usually a self-deluding form of acquisition that involves greed.”
“So there is no real God,” the man insisted.
“Jumping to conclusions,” Lo Zu suggested, “may be as foolish as worshipping mere self-fabricated symbols, mere signs. A strong belief that there is no God may be as superficial and primitive as a strong belief that there is a God. Holistic perception inquires (without accumulated patterns) into what might be sacred; it inquires with a passion that surpasses beliefs of any kind (and actually finds out).”
“So what are you saying?” the visitor queried.
Lo Zu replied, “I am saying that I will not encourage you to worship or to cling to any symbols of power, any symbols of divinity. Worshiping self-created or learned images, that one projects (from what one absorbed from others), is similar to worshipping parts of oneself. It may be that the true answer has to come to you. (It cannot merely be visited, like an ordinary town.) The true answer is probably rather unapproachable, but that may be a real key; conclusions, accumulated images, and greed cannot expose it. It is beyond foolish grasping. The internal images of self are nothing when foolishness ceases. When all of the windows are open and the room is not filled with garbage… only then can the breeze, perhaps, flow through.”
With that, Lo Zu stood up and began walking with his meandering cane and said, “We must go; we see someone carrying a heavy burden and we will help them with it, to a certain point. You can come along also… unless you prefer to remain stuck where you are.”
Bumblebee covered with Golden Pollen … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
fungal eggs aplenty
ready to bounce into sweet life
far from all of the utter madness
*************************************************************************************************************
Per Michael Kuo (0nline):
These odd and fascinating little fungi look for all the world like tiny birds’ nests. The fruiting bodies form little cuplike nests which contain spore-filled eggs. The nests are called “peridia” (“peridium” in the singular), and serve as splash cups; when raindrops strike the nest, the eggs (called “peridioles”) are projected into the air, where they latch onto twigs, branches, leaves, and so on. What exactly happens next is not completely clear, but eventually the spores are dispersed from the egg. They then germinate and create mycelia, which eventually hook up with other mycelia and produce more fruiting bodies.
Bird-nest Cup Fungi (each one was around 5mm in diameter)… Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
When this poem was being written
we asked for help
from the Gods of Creativity
but they were all on vacation
The only one at home
was the God of Waste and Rubbish
and so this poem reeks like garbage
By the way
the God of Waste and Rubbish
is also the God of environmentally negligent
American politics
Tomenose Burying Beetle in Halloween Colors (These beetles eat rubbish and carrion) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
At the very bottom of my gorgeous face
you may see what looks like a dreadful mouth
and a little above that
a large nose
and a little above that
two glaring eyes
And if you happen to be
one of the lucky ones
who is able to see these things
then I will crawl into
your midnight dream
and come again
around Halloween
to get a taste
of your warm bloodstream
*********************************************************************************************
These Tiger Spiders, Argiope trifasciata, are very large and are common web-weavers in our Illinois area. They are so common in our Illinois area (in the fall) that i have — during nature photography outings — gotten used to inadvertently walking into their webs and having them crawling on me. They, in reality, are perfectly harmless and get off of me (on their own) before i need to bother to remove them myself. However, they are not harmless to grasshoppers and — nevertheless, during this U.S. holiday season — they may be visiting you tonight! Lots of them!
Tiger Spider (Argiope trifasciata) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
The dichotomy between the “perceiver” and “that which is perceived,” is essentially (psychologically) illusory and nonexistent.
To overlook and ignore others is to be partially dead psychologically — as so many are — while one merely concentrates on a small point, called “me.”
Forget what everyone taught you about life and death; go out, sit with nature, and look at everything as if for the first time.
Peace will never come as long as each of us belongs to some separative group.
If to be typically human is to abide by commercialism and to pollute the planet… then we need to become superhuman (and green).
To function all of one’s life in predictable, knee-jerk reactions of self-projected selfishness is safe, easy, comfortable… but also, unfortunately, dead.
Aphids up close … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Many of my fellow bloggers
have a close and wonderful
relationship with the animals
in their lives
(whom they often photograph)…
such as Scifi, Francis, Curious Introvert,
67steffen, and others, with their dogs;
others with their cats,
Linda with her pet-like squirrels,
and others with their cuddly pets.
So i tried to get close to one
of my sweet photography subjects,
a wonderful wasp.
It stung the hell out of me!
********************************************************************************
I was just kidding about the sting… but i was so close to it that i could have kissed it! 🙂
I did get stung by a wasp (while just walking along by the riverside) a number of days after taking this photo, but i am so impervious to bee and wasp stings — i don’t even swell up whatsoever — that it meant nothing to me.
Not so friendly wasp … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Lo Zu, after one of his frequent walks into the fields and wooded areas of nature, came walking into the village. He stopped to rest for a while and leaned on his sinuous pole, his meandering cane; nearby, a small group of men, all of them sitting together, continued to repeatedly laugh hysterically.
Lo Zu realized that they were laughing at the fact that a nearby dog was repeatedly chasing its own tail. Lo Zu continued to walk again and came closer to the men who were laughing. He heard one of them say, “That dog is really ignorant!” All of them, except Lo Zu, continued to laugh at the dog as it continued to chase its own tail.
Lo Zu turned to face the sitting men and said, “It is so easy to come to conclusions; conclusions that are wrong.” Lo Zu further went on, “That dog could chase that cat that is a little way down the road, but cats can quickly scratch and the dog could easily get a gravely injured eye. Likewise, the dog could chase after that man walking across the street. However, the man could kick the dog or throw something at it, injuring it. Instead, the dog takes the prudent approach and, for great exercise, chases its own tail. A most intelligent animal! I, myself, walk daily to the meadows and woods to enjoy the sweet butterflies and creatures; therefore I get quite a bit of exercise. I see that dog exercising ‘most every day also. Sometimes I see it chasing butterflies, which is also a very wise and safe form of exercising. Exercising often is great intelligence. I see you men sitting around here a lot each and every day. Do any of you exercise?”
“Not really,” said one of the men. (The men were no longer laughing.)
“I didn’t think so,” replied Lo Zu. He further added, “The beginning of this doglike life always chases its own end; let the dog be your teacher.”
Black Swallowtail on Thistle Plant … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
A Halloween colored dream
came swimming beyond scream
and then a cruel green witch flew by
if you know what i mean
*****************************************************************************************************
One of our pet Koi Angelfish:
Fire Red Koi Angelfish … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Here’s a cozy little poem for you in this Halloweenish time of year:
Sleep well tonight my little darlings
Here’s a little factoid to dream about tonight…
Scientists say that people
during sleep
each swallow an average of
around 8 spiders yearly
A nice warm dark moist place to visit
Bon Appetit!
It’s not little spiders that will really harm you and your children, it’s miseducated, traditional, ordinary people who let the environment go to hell.
Spider on Wildflower … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Life is not a game. Too many of us go through life as if the mission is to be totally entertained. Most people are afraid of death, yet they may not have ever truly lived. Very many people assume that they are alive. To go through existence merely imitating others and spewing out what was poured into one by society… may not be “living” whatsoever. It is so easy to conform. It is so easy to just fit in the machine and be another cog in the wheel. Only a very few have been visited by that timeless energy that enraptures and transcends consciousness.
To inquire — to really inquire — into whether or not the sacred exists, takes great passion, great profundity. A stagnant, indifferent mind could not do it; stagnation and indifference make the actual answer all the more elusive, for the answer lies beyond limitation. To find the true answer necessitates that the mind be of considerable order and completeness. An incomplete mind is never fully alive, never fully whole.
The world has far too many seeds (of consciousness) that have never sprouted, that have never really begun growing. The answer is immeasurable and cannot be communicated about via mere fragments/words/symbols/patterns. The minds of most people consist largely of mere fragments/words/symbols/patterns.
We can change.
Green Grasshopper on his favorite leaf … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
When we two
met
it was the most
enchanting, beautiful thing
and it still is
We were destined to be
togetheryou
see
Torenia Summer Wave Violet … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
This isn’t one of those fake
flowers
all artificial
It is a growing (yard-flower)
of life
It doesn’t have artificial
bottle-sprayed
drops
They are genuine drops
from the
crying skies
What is important
is not in
the pictures you take
or the money you make
What is important
is to be
someone who is
not artificial
and not someone
stuck there to be yanked
from strings by
mediocrity
Bellis Pompomette … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Many whom i know eat meat.
Some of them have two legs,
some of them have eight.
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NOTE: Now and then, since October is the month of Halloween here in the U.S., i will likely post a few more spider photos than usual; not that spiders are really all that “scary” but that people associate them with Halloween (which is kind of fun and silly at the same time). 🙂
Spider with Prey … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2018
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 