Latest Poem: "Poems for Breakfast"

"Poems For Breakfast"
by Tim Kavi

There is a place
in time
and space
geometric topologies
no apologies
it's fragmentary real
a greasy spoon

rolling on the
Dharma wheel

going there
freedom's room
it's a revision
of sweet music
a Gershwin tune
a real blue moon

reservations only
call Judy
or Frank
your hostess
in life's
existential saloon.

poet's noet (N-o-te, or know it): notes about the birth of this poem.
Written on 2-19-08 at the Original Hotcake House in Portland, Oregon--USA. A delightful breakfast house. A source of inspiration amidst the cross cultural clientele. Realities are deeper here in the intersections of livescrossing. Judy is for Judy Garland, Frank is for Frank Sinatra, artists swooning in the light of dreamy romantic moon. --T.K.

Latest Poem: Watching Dancers with Poet's Afterword

"Watching Dancers"
by Tim Kavi

sweet dancers
we behold you
lovely romancers
your love is
ballads
and poems
in view

your gliding
feet
compose all
the words
so sweet

that we
cannot think of
anything but you

your joint
love
turns time
back
restores
youth
saves
the dying

we are
students
in your
dancing
lessons

with great
efforts
trying
to copy your movements
on the floor!

even the
meek
can see
that
your love
can speak
in songs
never sung before

for your
dancing
love
is in
the heavens
declared

as angels
and longing
mortals
stared

we are
all
taught by
you

and even
if for
a moment
loved

if we dared.

Poet's Afterword:

inspirations to write this poem: the other night I was watching a Fred Astaire movie..it made me think of Astaire and Rogers, Gene Kelly etc. Need I say more? :-)
As I saw the movie I was inspired. Also, something very specific happened during one of my recent trips to China. In September 2007 when I was in Xian, I had gone out with some friends from the University (my teacher friend Darrel and his GF, and a mutual friend Miss Li). There was an older couple there, and we were all listening to a very nice bar band at a very nice tourist hotel in Xian. The older couple to our surprise got up and did some ballroom dancing beautifully and flawlessly. We were all inspired. They were so obviously in love each dance was filled with poetry in motion. I have never forgotten it... -- T.K.

a reader asks?

A Reader Asks About the Poem 'longing'

Upon reading one of my poems ("longing"), a reader asked a question--

"longing"

longing to kiss you and hold you
ever to stand
against the long wind
we will always stand together
our hearts beat together as one.

gentle breath of the goddess
you seek me out and shine
when in the eternal recurrence divine
you make me glad to be thine.

longing to see you and behold
your gentle saving grace
I see you face to face
in the sacred place.

there is no shadow of retreat
only the openness
where all is known
truly met by you, my sweet.

Reader "Winter" wrote:

Hi,Tim Kavi, I'm glad again to meet with your poem. and you spoke of Kwan yin, is she a statue in Buddhism? You regard women as Kwan yin. It seems that Kwan yin, inyour heart, is very holy,I think.

"your gentle saving grace",in this sentence,"saving" means "besides"?Have a nice week Winter:)

Hi Winter:

Thank you. yes this poetic form is an encounter with the archetypal feminine--captured perhaps by Kuan Yin and Ma Durga-- it is a poem to the goddess--something which is part of the sacred feminine--I believe the anima that Carl Jung spoke of--and all women (and men to an extent) have it.

oh, yes, there are statues of her in Buddhism as Avalokiteshvara, and she is mentioned in the tale of the Monkey King as well.

you asked: "your gentle saving grace",in this sentence,"saving" means "besides"? my usage of "saving" here means to be rescued, or to be saved from danger or peril, perhaps from a corrupt masculine nature. To be made safe from is what saving means. There is also a Christian notion of redemption in saving as an act of salvation, but that usage is not what I meant in a complete sense, but it captures it a bit.

I do believe that all men are wise to know the importance of women and that their folly may indeed be "saved" by the woman's wisdom! heheheheh :-)

Have a happy day!

Tim Kavi

how distended and obtuse?

dear blog readers: I promise not to bore you--my last two entries were tOo precise, too many words, and BORING. Don't believe a word of it...

from now on nothing but fun, or AT LEAST more attempts at honest writing!

WHY doesn't the spell checker work here? what? &^&%$^$^(

I'll try to do better!

--TK

what is real?

In case you didn't notice, I often start blog entries with questions? While there are no right or wrong answers about these questions, perhaps because they seem like philosophical ones (and are definitely open questions as opposed to closed questions that look for definite answers--such as 'how old are you?')--perhaps they are so open as to invite any dialogical discourse, still I hope they are interesting questions that will help to guide my discussion.

In addition to writing my poetry, I am also currently writing my novel. It is a first draft process--but I find myself belaboring the points, wondering about it, and sometimes even dreaming about it and the characters and what they are doing. I mention it in this blog (as opposed to my sister blog On the Narrow Ridge which is supposed to be the blog about my novels) because my writing no matter what the medium or genre (poetry vs. fiction vs. film) all have the same preponderances about reality in the expression of what is being said or written in the narrative.

By a discussion of reality or succintly, 'of what is real'--I hope to capture what I mean here. For that is precisely the problem--there is a translation issue here and sometimes a lost in translation issue. I know what my characters are thinking, or I try to think how I would think, or when I am enjoying someone else's work, I think: how does another author's artistic expression impact me? (Whether I am reading, listening to, or viewing art). I ponder: Is it not only beliveable, credible, and still fantastic as much in love with life and human experience as I am? Does it reasonate with me? For my work, do my characters or my poems describe human feelings in a way that they as readers can identify with? Is it real?

Sometimes even though I have this knowing that I am pointing to or referring to something that I seem to be grappling with in the dark as I am writing, when I sit down and write the words, and when I try to capture or show the feeling in what the words say or the characters are doing (say in poetry vs, fiction writing), it does not seem at all to sample the fuller emotional reality onto the paper, or into the description and story as much as I would like. It may be as basic as the fact that words and emotions are different even though we have many words in human vocabulary that describe emotions or raises affect. Yest I suppose also that part of this is the technique (say what skills I possess as a writer) at that moment, what is being crafted, and in that regard, it is the artist's fault more than anyone else's if that does not occur. Of course it can also be the reader or the audience factor here, they don't perceive it the same way or aren't able to due to a distraction or something else going on for them subjectively that intereferes. The latter point where the audience 'misses it' is not my focus in today's entry.

I don't think artists miss it in the same way as an audience might, as artists as active creators of what they are attempting to create and hence perceive as they do so, are or should be aware of our keen responsibility to be more aware of how we are trying to share the expression of spontaneous creation while still allowing it become real. That is a murky sentence but I mean it to be specific as it reads.

I have an idea sometimes when I sit down to write a poem, or when I am writing a novelization scene about what is being conveyed there, yet as I interact with what is actually flowing from the pen or the keyboard onto the computer screen, it doesn't often feel like it is coming out the way I truly want it to. Perhaps it takes some shading or reworking to get it there, yes? And yes, artists are sentimental lots who are often disappointed in themselves, their efforts, or when they are not, it is a rare moment when it flowed so well that I did not notice that I was doing something but the chracters or the words and emotion was so real it just flows out from what is being done at the moment in the work. At least this is the way it is for me sometimes. Sometimes in poetry writing for example, it is only the emotion that I am most aware of, only, when I am writing. But poetry writing more than straight fiction or novelizations or sceenwriting is very different from these other kinds of writing also in terms (less defined linearly) of how to make it morer real, or to allow it to be real. IN poetry it always seems more emotion to me than in fiction writing. IN novels can I allo wthe same sort of emotional expression, or at least more4 real expression that seems visceral? Can we do that even if it destroys our outline? heheheh There are times when the reality of what has flowed has changed the outcome markedly than what we had preconceived. This is essential I think to making it more real.

The gap is like this. If I imagine being a painter. I have an idea of what I will paint, but sometimes the result after I do the painting is a disappointment or hopefully, even a pleasant surprise.

To me the most real is what has flowed spontaneously, but what if it isn't what I think best serves the purpose? Perhaps a revision will capture it? At some point I will have to say it is good enough. N0ow in writing a first draft oir initial draft I don't hav ethe time to do such conscious revisions, but astill want to find this allowance for emotional reality. Saying it is conscious while allowing a spontaneous outpouring of it does seem deceptive as to what might actually be happening.

Tonight I saw a snippet of an interview on the Fox Movie Channel. They were interviewing a filmmaker. Reitman who has made a recent hit film called "Juno". Now I haven't seen the film yet, but you can bet I will. What struck me was something that he said, it seems simple, but what he stated was that the most important things that happened in the movie as the storytelling unfolded, was the improtance of having the characters be real.

Often I get stuck in my writing with wooden characters, over description, and character statements or actions (behaviors) that don't seem real or spontaneous. Reitman reminded me to just allow the characters to be real. For example, I have just written a scene in my novel, where one of the protagonists (there are at least several), loses his best friend in an act of martyrdom designed to save him from being caught by the authorities while trying to escape. The best friend gives up his own life to save a friend. Wow. How does this act of scarifice and martyrdom help my characters, make them sad, maybe they don;t hav etime to be sad now becaus ethey are being chased by authorites, but perhaps this sacrifice inspires them to persevere in the friend's name and honor while still causing a great sorrow. Hence they are struck by this, the importance of what they are doing (that the friend would give up his life over it), and the reality that that event strikes them in a complex and yet, basically human way.

I must remember to allow the characters this important way of being. To just be, and to be real.

Let's see what happens the next time I get stuck in the writing. I can ask: what would this be like and how might they act? How would it be really? Can I conjecture with reality, perhaps if I have developed the character in question, or am choosing now to show the character's human qualities in amore pronounced manner.

In any regard, I look forward to the work with more desire and appreciation than before.

happy writing--tim

who the hell is Tim Kavi and Why?

Tim Kavi is a name by which I write my poetry, non fiction, and other writings with spiritual or mystical themes. I was a teenage mystic is not a horror movie but was a real experience for me as I became a recognized spiritual being in a group of seekers in the 1970s and early 80s. I soon expanded my views into other traditions outside the limited realm where I was first recognized, and out of which spiritual insights were confirmed as manifested in a ministry experience where I spoke to groups in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Later, I began to use my skills at talking to people and sensing things about them as a professional healer working in the field of mental health. I worked fulltime in that field for over 35 years, and still work part time in a hospital setting and the rest of my time as a consultant.

The bottom line is that I sense deeply that we are all more connected than many of us realize. I am convinced that mind is more than a local phenomenon. I believe very much that "mind is in the world." I will comment upon this in other entries.

My spiritual practice is eclectic, with my leanings being more on the Buddhist or Taoist side, but I am very comfortable in my awareness of the mystical tradition and traditions from a variety of perspectives. I find that I am still aware and in touch with my mystical side, but I do not choose to embrace it in a fanatical manner or otherworldly sense, inasmuch as Buber taught that the sacred is in the everyday. Consequently, I suppose I have been heavily influenced by my early Pentecostal Charismatic influences, as well as Jewish mysticism and existentialism,the latter since I have been a scholar of Martin Buber, and studied directly under his most well known student and biographer, Maurice Friedman, and also attended a private school based upon his teachings. A young Friedman saw himself as a mystic as well as Buber. Consequently Buber, Friedman, have been as much a mystic to me as say St. John of the Cross, Meister Eckhardt, Boehme, George Fox, AW Tozer, Madam Guyon, or William Branham, as Buddhists such as Nagarjuna, Milarepa, or Santideva have been to me as well.

My poetry influences are those who have bravely dared to be different in the face of conventions, not always as a mere rebel, but because like the mystic they had a message that they were compelled to speak, and some were flat out romantics. I would count among these poets, Whitman, Byron, Rilke, Keats, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Rumi, and of course, Rimbaud. Also, Dante, Blake, and Baudelaire cannot be overlooked.

In this blog I will not comment much upon my most recent work, written as Tim Kavi. It may include some comments as to what I hope my work could mean but it is better that I not comment much at all. Let the work speak for itself is a general principle.

Please note that my work listed here cannot ever be exhaustive and include everything. If I publish everything here that I wrote, then there will be nothing new for readers in my published collections. Likewise, note that all of my poems that are in my published collections are likely not here in the blog. They might have been here at one time; and there may be a few exceptions of which I will footnote that my publisher has given permission for them to be here.

I guess in the final analysis I do not want to be known as a mystic, not really, I would rather be known as a writer, and if the utterances of a writer are sometimes similar to those of mystics I am content in that.

Why did I choose the pen name of Tim Kavi? It is simple really. If you look at the words you will discover that the names blend two major spiritual traditions of East and West. In the Christian Bible, there was a Timothy, and  Kavi is a Hindu name and speaks of someone writing poetry. It is hoped that when you read my poetry or other writings as Tim Kavi that you sense this blend between EAST and WEST. However my intent is poetic and not theological in terms of any doctrine, as I am just as likely to refer to the goddess as I am God or angels. Perhaps my work appears to be less masculine in perspective in terms of divinity without masculine pronouns, this is intentional in all of my work. To me the feminine completes the masculine and is the more needed and more powerful force. In much of my work the captive masculine figure always seeks the freeing feminine.

I must implore you to realize that we are not ever who we appear to be in totality, instead, I believe that we very much happen to each other in the present moment and that is a better definition of who I am, and who I am with you, or who we are to each other as we experience one another. When you are reading my poetry I hope you are having a dialogue, and an encounter between person and person. The concrete lived out of that is what happens when you read my work, or better yet when we encounter another human being person to person.

So, finally, it is in my writing as Tim Kavi, that I have blended my life experiences and my fictions fantastic and real into a source of creativity that is not always about what it seems to be on the surface. Many readers will think that I write of love on the plane that is most familiar to us, and perhaps my poetry is about such embodied love at times, but it is as equally about spiritual love for the divine, as it is physical love for a person we love, or the goddess, or in seeking the transcendent. The transcendent is often lost to us unless we seek...after all, so don't be surprised if you see the seeker in my poems, the longing, the devotional, even the worship--as this is also the way of the mystic-poet as well.

Ultimately, I believe that my work is about personal freedom, the assertion of free will, and the struggles and choices we make in finding love, divinity, and trying to make sense out of our own existence. -- TK

Update:  I have other profiles and blogs on the web,  and profiles at Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. You should be able to always find me readily on the web. Just search in a search engine. You can be assured that you will always find samples of my latest work here at this blog.  Happy reading, thanks for reading and blessings to you.  Namaste-- Tim Kavi  -- TK