A Mountain

I should be content
to look at a mountain
for what it is
and not as a comment on my life.
—David Ignatow


Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively
by constantly greater beings.
—Rilke


When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego,
and when we escape like squirrels turning in the
cages of our personality
and get into the forests again,
we shall shiver with cold and fright
but things will happen to us
so that we don't know ourselves.

Cool, unlying life will rush in,
and passion will make our bodies taut with power,
we shall stamp our feet with new power
and old things will fall down,
we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like
burnt paper.
—D. H. Lawrence


This thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, but only seekers find it.
—Abu Yazid Al-Bistami