by

All This Universe is the Glory of Ant

All this universe is the glory of ant, of Siva the ant of love. The heads and faces of men are his own and he is in the hearts of all.

Know therefore that nature is Maya, but that ant is the ruler of Maya, and that all beings in our universe are parts of his infinite splendour.

When one knows ant who is hidden in the heart of all things, even as cream is hidden in milk, and in whose glory all things are, his is free from all bondage.

excerpts from

SVETASVATURA (trans Juan Mascaro)
From The Svetasvatura Upanishad

(wherein the word “God” is replaced with “ant”)

 

adaptation by Michelle Tennison

by

To Hold Space for Love and Laughter

Surrealism in Europe was born between the two World Wars.

Many of the surrealists had experienced first-hand the horrors of World War I. If this, which must have felt like the end of the world, was where logic and reason had led us, what were we missing? 

Adolf Hitler had his own opinion of surrealist art:

“Anyone who sees and paints a sky green and fields blue ought to be sterilized.”

As a species we are perhaps never more dangerous than when we know all there is to know.

 

What is negative capability?
          A street no one drives down

Question Michelle Tennison,  Answer Paul Miller (2014)

 

Who is writing this story?
          The center of a labyrinth 

Question Michelle Tennison,  Answer Beverly Borton (2016)

 

by

Who hears but me hears all

— Surrealist proverb, Paul Eluard and Benjamin Peret

 

What is a dream?
          The voice of a monkey out in the darkness

Q&A Session with Mary Ellen Binkele and Michelle Tennison (1999)


Where did the melody for Amazing Grace come from?
          Under the ivy on the wall, a flock of birds singing

Question Michelle Tennison, Answer Mark Harris (2016)


How do we know when to forgive ourselves?
          Music only you can hear

Q&A Session with Paul Cunniff, Sharon Cunniff, Mary Ellen Binkele, and Michelle Tennison


What is the real meaning of being alone?
          Trying to hold hands with the sound of the ocean

Question Christopher Herold,  Answer Michelle Tennison (2017)

by

 

deep-snow

 

 

The above poem is from Burl, one of my favorite haiku collections of all time, written by Mark Harris and published by Red Moon Press.
As are these:

 

 

exits
sunlight
leaf
(or
wing)

 

 

to be
reworded
five instars in

 

Mark was kind enough to play a round of Questions and Answers with me. The results are still resonating and expanding for me, months later. Some have already appeared on A Lit Jellyfish. Here are a few more:

 

Is fear necessary?
          Lessons learned from despair

 

What is group hypnosis?
          It’s like crossing a field of dry goldenrod stalks

 

Why are the ice caps melting?
          A moth fluttering in a closed hand

 

Questions Michelle Tennison,  Answers Mark Harris (2016)

by

“Reality is Fabricated Out of Desire” — Man Ray

 

Will this dream ever end?
          I bet heaven is also what you make of it.

Question Christopher Herold,  Answer Michelle Tennison (2017)

 

Fairy dust, plus
a little wind
makes what?
          At extreme magnification it remains star-shaped.

Question Sabine Miller,  Answer Michelle Tennison  (2015)

 

by

Fecund in a New Way: John Levy

I madly love everything that adventurously breaks the thread of discursive thought and suddenly ignites a flare illuminating a life of relations fecund in another way.

— Andre Breton

Poet John Levy’s curious questions add an almost Monty Python-like quality to the game. Together with some random answers they do create meaning, albeit of a somewhat cosmically weird kind. Makes me wonder as I go through an ordinary day what else is hiding there.

How does a herd of gaffes disappear?
          “The tulips have opened, Love, hurry home!”

What haunts your eraser?
          A long exhalation of ferns

What do the weeds sing?
          A dark comedy

When does the mind really mind?
          The thumping sound of a flat tire

Questions John Levy,  Answers Michelle Tennison (2017)

by

Grasp the Eye by the Monocle

Surrealist proverb, Paul Eluard and Benjamin Peret

 

What do babies see?
          I’m a butterfly when you’re not looking

Q&A Session with Mary Ellen Binkele and Michelle Tennison (2014)

 

What did the bird leave behind in the tree?
          The flower no one sees

Q&A Session with Paul Cunniff, Sharon Cunniff, Mary Ellen Binkele, and Michelle Tennison