More Aphorisms by Eric Nelson
Posted on June 1, 2010
Filed Under Aphorisms | 6 Comments
Eric Nelson, whom you may recall from this 2009 post, is back with some more of his haiku-like aphorisms. Some of these sayings have unmistakeable Zen overtones, such as the aphorism below about the green mountain. Yet others, like the one about chickens and hawks, are much more in the proverbial tradition. An interesting combination, since Zen-like aphorisms tend towards the paradoxical while proverbs are much more matter-of-fact, a mix that gives these poems/haikus/koans/aphorisms a tinge of Eastern mysticism along with a dollop of Mid-Western (or maybe Southern?) plainspeaking.
In the gray brain nothing
Is black or white.
The dead know nothing,
The only thing
You can’t imagine.
A thousand shades of green
Make the mountain
A singular green.
Whether you see them or not
Stars are always there,
Always falling.
If you’ll have chickens
Expect hawks.
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The dead own nothing, not even themselves. This makes them just like the living.
The pickled brain
Can more easily be understood,
But it’s still dead.
Things move from “benefit of clergy” to “benefit of camera.”
In early life he wrote of his travels, in later life of his travails.
“What do you collect?” “At present, only rejection letters.”
Keep on trucking, you migh go somewhere you’d like to go…
This poetry of the haiku is shock contemplation.
If you expect hawks, expect to be asked whether by ‘hawk’ you mean members of the Accipitridae family, or more specifically, the Accipitrinae subfamily.