Not Even the Coming of Sleep (New Poem with Brief Poet Comment)

"Not Even the Coming of Sleep"
by Tim Kavi

gentle birdsong
in the coming of night
fades in the coming
of my love
hushed silence
in your beauty

this angel took flight
to inform all
of Nature
in her love

She is precious
and true
real as my own soul
adores her
in love's might
Her sweet wings
outstretched
guides us to the light


and with her kiss
not even death
lays me asleep
for in her celestial
love
my soul does
safely keep

wherever
these words
be told
the song never broken
for no truer
words are spoken

I love you
forever true
that even when I
in fondness bid
adieu

there is always
Only You.

Brief Poet Comment: This poem is about love and death, and love transcending death.--T.K.

New Poem: My Love

My love
by Tim Kavi

dancing love
amongst the flowers
heaven scent
no earthly powers

can deny
my seeking after
you

OH my love!

I will swim
the widest ocean
climb the tallest
mountains
fight through
armies

just to see
you from afar

MY love!

your appearance
is so
delightful
many gape and stare

My love!

to see you
move
in the dress
with shoulders
so bare

you move
majestic and true
across the ages
the Gods
the sages
all saw You

golden skin
curls that flew
across the
Universe

there was You
in the marbled halls
sacred fragrances
evening chants
eternal romances

MY love!

there was you
in the cave
there was you
out in the open
in the wilderness
lifted up

to lead a people
across
the unwatered place

they burned and scorched

while you let me
drink of You
in the desert oasis
at night
I saw your secret places

My love!

it is no wonder
that I flew
when I heard it
was You
calling me
leading me

always
eternally
back to You.

presence (New Poem)

presence
by Tim Kavi

dancing beings
find each other
across many
lifetimes again
and again

why do they
find each other
sharpen each other
recoqnize each other
at such a time as then?

some flee again
as in great flight
some struggle
potential clashes
in a great fight

others turn softly
yet in might
urgency

heart to heart
there is a turning
a yearning
to know all
about the One

that you see
for the first time
there is a calling
to know

a setting sun
in the glance
of smiles
as the night
of mystery is begun

revealing
each other
taught by experience
what this life
might be

but when
the seeking ones
find each other
there is a shining oneness

that lights
the unconscious
night
shadows play
until real is seen

and at last
in dialogical meeting
a You is glimpsed


a Holy Presence
You are the
chrysalis emerged

in the glistening
mutual love
of You and me.

Redemptive Love (Poem) with Afterword and Predecessor poem.

redemptive love
by Tim Kavi

when I walked the dusty
roads in the back roads
of time
and faraway lands

I went there looking
for you
but you were not seen
O goddess

when I was hungering
for you
the woods and the hills
echoed with your
love

calling me
You were calling me
but you were not yet found

in that hallowed ground

there was wind
called thundering love
that led to lust

there was the sprinkling
of gardens
that collapsed
and turned to dust

and then there was YOU
in the clearing just
ahead

I saw you

it was YOU
and your redemptive love.

Afterword: this poem is about the search for love. In the purest sense love is redemptive in this poem because the implications are that the narrator in the poem is lost without it, was searching for it, and now, it has been found (again). It is redemptive in every sense, and yes a redemptive love is possible! Redemption means or implies a finding or bringing back, a refinding, or repurchasing value in something. In this poem the narrator was lost without it and finds it again. In this poem the narrator also finds a definite person--a YOU--that could be a physical person or a Divine figure. The first stanza is also a definite reference to an earlier poem I write. That earlier poem was written at a time in a faraway city where I personally had lost a love and was very lonely, yet this poem reveals the narrator is not alone anymore and indeed feels love's redemptive qualities...(the earlier predecessor poem is reprinted below)--T.K.

Long Highways
by Tim Kavi

long highways
bending
in the distance
disappear
from sight

these are
the moments
of my life
in the
approaching
white light

candles
flicker and die
the room
is dark
where I
dream still

soft thoughts
of a sweet
knowing
life's lessons
triumphant
in the face
of lovebeams will

lead me to the next life.

The Fact of Separateness: Dialogue with a Student (Philosophical Essay)

The Fact of Separateness: Dialogue with a Student (Philosophical Essay)
by Tim Kavi

Foreword: I have had a number of students in China or elsewhere that sometimes ask me questions. The following is one such discussion. Some of these are students I have had in an educational setting, some are questions from persons who view me as a 'teacher' for other reasons. Of course, I am honored by their respect, and must remember the seriousness of it; but most of all I want to be remembered for simply being ' a person'. There is much more potential for relating between person and person.--T.K.

Beginning the Dialogue: The Fact of Separateness

(Upon recognizing that One is apart from another).

Do not let the facts of separateness disappoint you. This is the distancing effect of the counterpoint of relation. I say to you it is not the quantity of dialogue and togetherness that always is the most significant--it is rather, the quality. When we speak it is to one another, when we are together it is You I encounter. When you happen to me and I you there is always the possibility of sweet fulfillment of meeting. This is especially true if you are always in your precious otherness--bringing your heart of dialogue where you voice your views that although different from mine, even oppositional from mine, we still care for each one in that moment of encounter!

You are always I and Thou to me in that graceful appearance of meeting. Meeting always appears by grace and not by forced will. When we do happen to each other it is always a complete moment yet a juxtaposition of the future hope foreshadowed in that dialectical moment and seasoned with the promise of dialogue!

The Dialogue Continues: A Response to the Statement of 'The Fact of Separateness':

(My answers to direct questions are in italics here)--T.K.

When I wrote this entry on separateness (reprinted above).. a student replied with these questions...

you ask: > Why did you use "moment" again and again? for me, you only seek "moment"? i don't understand.

I answer: > This is a good question, in what I wrote I used "moment" quite a bit. Yes, because I am a cognitive constructivist in part--I believe that human beings create their realities each moment out of what they think and perceive in the moment. Yes they bring their personalities, their pasts, and their futures to those moments. IN a sense, I do believe the most important reality we have is the one we are experiencing right NOW. (I am walking a pointed line here--because I do always value history, culture, and art--all reflections of things that capture past moments in the NOW of the past--but when we view them and interact with them they are even in the NOW--where the past impinges upon the NOW in those cases). SO when I say we encounter each other or have dialogue in the moment I am NOT saying we live only for moments or only have each other a moment--but that we actually affect each other in the only moment of time we experience that is the most real--the moment of the eternally present THOU, the present moment. Far from being a bad thing this is a good thing. Whn I adress someone in dialogue with the you, I want to be only in the real with you, only in the moment-- as that is where reality changes and encounters history. The past is past, the future is a dream or goal where potential unfolds, the present is where we love , see each other, and meet each other---therefore I use "moment".

you asked: > Why did you think "not forced"? , i don't understand.

I answer:> Now this question is also good. I mean the response we have to any other person can be a totally free choice of response . We have the freedom to choose how we will respond in the dialogue with that person. It is never forced because we have free will and freedom of choice!

you wrote: >Why are we "nothing more than..."? i don't understand.

I answer:>

Yes, this is a very philosophical point. Are we ever really "nothing more than.." ? Human beings are much more complex than simple or certain things that we refer to-- but in a bare moment of relating where we happen to each other--are we not nothing more than the total experience of each one of us happening to the other? This is a philosophical point of essentialism in a bare moment of existence! I believe that when human beings dialogically relate they are a sum experience of their joint mingling of each other--I affect you and you affect me--we are both changed--and therefore we are in a sense, nothing more than that really! (hehehhee at that moment).

You ask: > You think "we still care for each one in that moment of encounter", but i think i "always" care for my friends no matter what!?

I answer: > Yes, but even if a moment of encounter is marked by disagreement, (and I used the word 'THAT' moment to signify such a moment) where we are in disagreement --can that be caring? Yes I think so! SO that is what I meant. Yes, the answer to this is similar to what I write just below this. Yes, we can even care for one another if we wrestle with each other's potential even in opposition. By opposition I mean your difference challenges my "different from you" view--it stretches me to see the world differently if I will allow it. My world is richer because of the "you" then--so even if at the moment of opposition where it seems the most threatening to our peacful agreement--even that can be a moment of caring because we share the joint repsonsibility to address and learn from each other in dialogue.

you asked: > Why do you think me"you still appreciate me"? you should know i always appreciate you, i don't understand.

I answer: > Yes, I understand that you (personally) always appreciate me as a teacher, and I should know this, but here Western and Eastern ideas may clash. The Western person is not sure if another person always appreciates them if they say something in dialogue that makes the other person unhappy, sad, or mad! heheheh At those moments I can understand that maybe the other person wouldn't appreciate me! But it seems that wonderful friends still can--and that is what I meant really--so, it is a complement to say that those in an I and Thou encounter can "still appreciate" each other even if their views have just opposed each other! That is the wonderful beauty of dialogue and the ultimate challenge and responsibility of it, I think, -- can we still appreciate the other even if they said something that we found stressful, different from us, or even oppositional? So if the friends can do this, and even if the enemies ever could--we are talking about significant powers of social collective binding! Obviously I know that friends are not my enemies, but even my friends are uniquely different and their ideas may oppose mine at times! We are indeed talking about mind in the world!

Afterword: Collectively, these ideas represent a few thoughts on the relationship established by and impacted by the facts of dialogue and the aspects and dual nature of that relationship; namely, those of closeness and distance.--T.K.

Dialogue (Recent Poem)

"Dialogue"
by Tim Kavi

flexible bending
matter
stretching
across
the birthing
membranes of time

there is
a certain saying
that establishes
identities
for a moment

a view
a position is
stated
in living
morphing
dialogue

bending reality
to a new
place
strikes the pose
anew

I beheld You

hearing what is said
spoken
in movements
that bled

your deepest
sorrows red
yet will
bring tomorrow's
joys
birthed in love
no longer dead

ideas
live in the meeting
of two
until
there is a certain
greeting

in the breath
of what

I and Thou
said.

Under the Sheet ( New Poem with Poet comments)

"Under the Sheet"
by Tim Kavi

self chiseled
in granite
her form
was so beautiful
that the artist wept with
relief at the fashioned
creation
of doting love
and appreciation

for she had
formed herself
at least in part

where she met
the tools of his
art

the expressions
of his artful
dialogue
and the love
from his co-creative
heart

she always
was formed
outside of this

yet today
they met in the
sculptured expression
of their joint love

and when he threw back
the sheet
there she was

and he loved her more
than ever before.

comments:
this was just published on my Myspace blog . There is a double meaning in this poem, but it is another revelation poem, revelatory in the sacred and other sense--a revealing of love such as in artistic creation. However the materials always pre-exist and the shaping is done--this is a co-creative process. The She in this poem does not depend upon the He in this poem to exist--it is carefully shown that she already exists and has formed herself. This is really a mutual process this creation. She doesnt just guide his hands as the only scupturer--but She shows him how and where to chisel the stone as well. She actively chisels with him together. They chisel each other. In this manifestation, it is her goddess form that is revealed (told from the male narrator's perspective). As it is Her form that is ultimately revealed in their joint creative act of the birth of their love and the moment of revelation and consummation--She rightfully belongs to the artful expression of highest beauty--the woman who is loved as a goddess..--T.K.

Tim Kavi Does Online Poetry Reading

I had the distinct pleasure of being a guest on Kurt Weller's Plaza of the Mind Idealogue Show on Blog Talk Radio on 5-4-2009. Kurt Weller is an amazing host who fulfills the role of an avant garde think tank ! The recording of the show is available anytime by loading the following link in your browser: www.blogtalkradio.com/Plaza-of-the-Mind/2009/05/05/The-Plaza-of-the-Mind-Idealogue-Series-Ep-1001


If you go to this link it should automatically start the program just after you load the page I don't read poetry until about an hour into the show--and after a brief break at the 58 minute mark. Listening to the entire show is well worth it! You can visit the page anytime and the show will load and play automatically without you having to click on anything. Enjoy! --T.K

Tim Kavi is on BlogTalk Radio

Tonight at 8 PM PST (Monday 5-4-2009) Tim Kavi will be the guest on a Blogtalk show.

You can listen to the show live or download the show as a download after the live performance as it was recorded.

CLICK THIS LINK
The link is here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Plaza-of-the-Mind/2009/05/05/The-Plaza-of-the-Mind-Idealogue-Series-Ep-1001

Tim Kavi will be the guest on the Plaza of the Mind BlogTalk Radio show.

Monday 5/4/2009 LIVE at 8 PM PST

Show will be available for download afterwards.

POETRY READINGS, PHILOSOPHY, DISCUSSION

Other guest is Lee J. Keller (Tim's SF Writing Name) :-)