Tag Archive for: brother George

Finding the spirit within the physical world

As I move on with my daily life of exercise with caretakers, phone calls and Zoom meetings, I am still planning and doing, although at a much slower pace.

Impermanence

It is natural in many families to want things to continue on, to hope for deeper understanding, even to get better in some way. However when cancer or other illness strikes at this idea, the impermanence of life becomes a fact impossible to ignore.

A personal koan

My poem "A Personal Koan" is a way of addressing my relationship with my brother George. In many ways, our lives can be seen as a great riddle, a koan, that may or not be solved.

Selving: Let mystery remain

The act of selving is poet Gerard Manley Hopkins' idea of (and invented word for) the crucial human act of becoming one's self. My brother George and I came to realize over the decades that although we are brothers we found our true selves on different paths.

A Secret Voice

My book Interbeing contains a section of poems to my younger brother, George, who died in 2019, and now that I myself am in my tenth decade these poems take on a special resonance.