ah...

ah...

Drinking German beer

and trying to come up with 

the immortal poem at

5 p.m. in the afternoon.

but, ah, I´ve told the

students that the thing 

to do is not to try.

but when the women aren´t

around and the horses aren´t 

running

what else is there to do?

I´ve had a couple of 

sexual fantasies

had lunch out

mailed three letters

been to the grocery store.

nothing on tv.

the telephone is quiet.

I´ve run dental floss

between my teeth.

it won´t rain and I listen

to the early arrivals from the

8 hour day as they

drive in and park their cars

behind the apartment

next door.

I sit drinking German beer

and trying to come up with the

big one

and I´m not going to make it.

I´m just going to keep drinking

more and more German beer

and rolling smokes

and by 11 p.m.

I´ll be spread out

on the unmade bed

face up

asleep under the electric 

light

still waiting on the immortal

poem.

-Charles Bukowski

Ahahahahaha

Welcome home

ahahahahahah

Welcome home

Don´t run

just walk

silently 

up the stairs

and I will

welcome you home

Don´t stare 

don´t smile 

not yet

first I need to 

frighten you a little

Wait for my scream

then wait for my laughter

I can´t help but

play this game

Welcome home

ahahahahaha

I knew you would stay

I knew we could

 laugh ourselves

into the future

Welcome home

ahahahahahaha

- Kristin Hjellegjerde

Dalai Lama in New York!

Picture taken by Elton Melo

The Art of Happiness

A Handbook for Living

by

Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. M.D.

Elizabeth from the great and inspiring Elizabeth Avedon Blog put some gorgeous photos of the Dalai Lama taken by Richard Gere today. This made me inspired to write about "The Art of Happiness" that I read a while back. Dalai Lama will be in N.Y. City the next four days offering teachings and public talks at Radio City Music Hall.

Dalai Lama, the smiling, loving definitively deserving Nobel Prize winner is spreading his happiness, that he is known for in this book. Helping us learn to deal with our worries and to think of happiness as the purpose of life.

Here are some quotes from the book:

"The purpose of our existence is to seek happiness."

"If we utilize our favorable circumstances, such as our good health or wealth, in positive ways, in helping others, they can be contributory factors in achieving a happier life."

"The greater the level of calmness of our mind, the greater our peace of mind, the greater our ability to enjoy a happy and joyful life."

- I am working hard on this one...being calm....

"We don´t need more money, we don´t need greater success or fame, we don´t need the perfect body or even the perfect mate - right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness."

"If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness, then something automatically opens your inner door. Through that, you can communicate much more easiliy with other people. And that feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness. You´ll find that all human beings are just like you, so you´ll be able to relate to them more easily."

"Everyday as soon as you get up, you can develop a sincere positive motivation, thinking, I will utilize this day in a more positive way. I should not waste this very day. And then, at night before bed, check what you´ve done, asking yourself, Did I utilize this day as i Planned?"

"The turning-toward happiness as a valid goal and the conscious decision to seek happiness in a systematic manner can profoundly change the rest of our lives."

"We need to actively cultivate the antidotes to hatred; patience and tolerance."

Please let me remember this one:

"If there is a solution to the problem, there is no need to worry. If there is no solution, there is no sense of worrying either"

"So if our definition of love is based on a genuine wish for someone´s happiness, then each of us does in fact love himself or herself - every one of us sincerely wishes for his or her own happiness."

As the book opens with.

Dedicated to the Reader:

MAY YOU FIND HAPPINESS.

Love Kristin

I don´t know how

I don´t know how to stop the time
while I turn the pancake
change a diaper,
run the stairs, brush through the paper
pay the contractor, talk to the gardner
call the plumber that never shows
play games, hide and seek
Laugh a bit, cry a bit,
See lots of Art, feel the Art
Just be, be at many places at one time
I can´t miss out on the good times, bad times
try to be a good friend, mother, lover
just how can I sit down and just watch
the ocean for a few minutes,
When I don´t know how to stop the time?

Failing to Fall

Ten times trying
Ten times failing
the hours leaving
while urgently
grabing for the hours
I could sink
sink into an endlessness
of opportunities
bring me to dreams
I could not come up
with, not without
falling
falling
endlessly into a world
of no control

Metamorphoses

Atlas bearing the heavens from William Cunningham,

The Cosmographicall Glasse, London 1559

(The verse on the engraving is from Virgil´s Aenid)

OVID

The Metamorphoses

Book II

Yet Ancient Earth, child-bearer of all things

Was not subdued, surrounded as she was

By deep and shrinking seas and by her rivers

That sank to darkest wells down to her womb;

Though black with heat and soot she raised her face,

And as she lifted hands to shield her eyes, 

She shrank back lower than her usual place

While all things shook as though the world would break.

She cried aloud, "O greatest of the gods! 

Is this your will and is this my reward?

Why does your lightning cease? If this

Is death by fire, then let your bolt of fire

Bring death to me so I may suffer you

To cause my death; even now I scarcely speak -"

For flames and smoke had filled her mouth, her throat.

"See my charred hair, ashes are in my eyes, 

Across my face; have I earned this for my 

Fertility? For me who wear the scars

of plough and spade? And each year torn and delved

That grass my grow for cattle, grain for men,

And myrrh placed on the altars of the gods?

It may be I deserve and easy death,

But how or why has Sea, your brother erred?

And why has water, fallen to his share

As third of our estate, dwindled to nothing

And farther from the sky? If you have no

Concern for him nor me, look how your heavens

Blaze from pole to pole - if fire consumes them

The very universe will fall to dust.

In pain, in worry, Atlas almost fails 

To balance world´s hot axis on his shoulders;

If sea, land, and celestial heavens fall,

The very world we live in falls to dust,

Then we return to Chaos. Save, O Lord,

The charred remains of our poor Universe."

Othello

Watched the Shakespearian movie for the second time last night with Irene Jacob as Desdemona, Laurence Fishburne as Othello and Kenneth Branagh as Iago.

It is just excellent.... and reminds you about how destructive jealousy is.

"She that was ever fair and never proud,
had tongue at will and yet was never loud,
never lacked gold and yet went never gay,
fled from her wish and yet said 'Now I may.'
She that, being angered, her revenge being nigh,
bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly.
She that in wisdom never was so frail
to change the cod's head for the salmon's tail.
She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind,
see suitors following and not look behind.
She was a wight, if ever such wight were...
to suckle fools and chronicle small beer."


- spoken by Iago.