Morning Meditation On Right Speech

Bolstered in safety like a baby

Lightly perfumed in kindness

Faith in practice makes me

Show up, gives extra oomph

To the beginning of each day

As I try to reenter our stream

Rafting on those white waters

Which may lead to that path

Toward freedom and peace.

As Suzuki Roshi said about

Meditation In San Francisco

In Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind

In a fog you do not know you

Are getting wet but as you keep

Walking you get wet little by little.

 

Gerard Sarnat has been nominated for Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards. His publications include Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, MiPOesias, Blue Mountain Review, Canary Eco, Military Experience and the Arts, Brooklyn Review, San Francisco Magazine, and Los Angeles Review. “Kaddish for Country” was selected for pamphlet distribution on Inauguration Day nationwide. “Amber Of Memory” was the single poem chosen for his 50th Harvard reunion Dylan symposium. His collections include Homeless Chronicles (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014), and Melting the Ice King (2016).

Art can illuminate even the most elusive and difficult to comprehend ideas. Visual rules and tightly codified visual metaphors help scientists communicate complex ideas mostly amongst themselves, but they can also become barriers to new ideas and insights. Dr. Regina Valluzzi’s images are abstracted and diverged from the typical rules and symbols of scientific illustration and visualization; they provide an accessible window into the world of science for both scientists and non-scientists.