The marshes have their own unique way of commiserating with the human condition. Along half a mile of floating boardwalk through a marsh in Saw Mill Creek, a tributary of the Hackensack river, I encounter parallels to my own life. The Kingsland marsh discovery trail on an impoundment in the Richard DeKorte Park, southern part…
A hint of ethnicity and fiesta politics ~ spotlight on little Manila
Awake now, scrolling through the miasma of reality that includes surging statistics on everything devastating, including the diminishing sunspot activity of our very own star. Scanning too the algorithmically curated factoids of the day and then, the morning takes on a decidedly Zen turn to meld into the present and the now. It’s a lazy…
A road less travelled ~ The Old Mine Road
On a cool weekday earlier in May this year, having driven for miles to synchronise existential thoughts to musical rhythm, alongside a fine tapestry of sounds created by Erik Satie, Herbert Pixner, Evgeny Grinko, Estas Tonne and others, I found myself meandering along chords that lend themselves to such peripatetic philosophical pursuits. I finally arrived…
The order of the spiral
Equiangularity in nature ~ Rethinking a philosophy in life Time has certainly moved on from a place of incipient chaos and uncertainty to one of order and hope, although this wouldn’t appear to be the case with current events seemingly spiraling out of control. This schema of perception itself serves nothing except to create…
Revisiting Sidney Lanier’s ‘Hymns of the Marshes’ in Mill Creek Marsh
Before Spring at Mill Creek Marsh, Atlantic Cedar Stumps Graveyard It was a sunny Sunday and a walk through an emerald green oasis in the middle of suburban concrete made for poetic respite. Parking was so very easy, for not many people visit this area on any given day, but it…
Nan-e Badoom inspired by a Sufi hymn of Amir Khusrau
Life revolves around sustenance and sustenance lies rooted in bread. Single celled yeasty organisms, continuously budding, like producing like, as they slowly sustain themselves on the enriched artisan bread flour that I knead along with a dash of yogurt, some milk and ghee, to create a soft dough for preparing Naan. Naan…
