Author: Reena Saxena

The past and future collided on a Friday night at the University of Toronto as Alice and Owen debated the question : Should Indian Reserves Be Abolished.

Alice was from the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve and was a strong advocate for indigenous rights and improving life on reserves. She was against the motion. She argued that reserves nurtured a sense of history and culture where indigenous languages, spiritual beliefs and values were shared. She passionately detailed the past wrongs of the residential school system in Canada and how many of the social and economic problems were linked to that experience. For…

What Fun!

It is First Line Friday! Welcome and let’s get writing.

Below,  we are prompted with a  first line, and we get to write the rest.

“This day was summer … etc. see below quote:

Inspired by Reena’s Exploration Challenge 76 – 2/28/19

memories of my yesteryears
my reflection a source of power

wisdom gained
propels me into my future

into peace
sometimes discomfort

but always forward
towards the refinement of myself

image link that will take you to info on the history of daoism

Reena’s prompt for Exploration Challenge #76 was to choose between 3.  Reena says:

There are a range of words/phrases to choose from – this week.

1. Disorientation

2. Live forward, look backward

3. You are made of stardust, and to stardust you will return

If you wish to write on one of these 3, please read below for rules:

FOR THE NEW ENTRANTS

There is no restriction on the format or the length of the piece. It just has to be your reflection on the prompt from the core.

Write a post on your blog, and link it up with here with a pingback, or copy-pasting the blog link in Comments.

I have chosen to write a haibun on this one:

You are made of stardust,

and to stardust you will return

This one strikes a chord with me, as…

image link

Today’s prompt is, “By the Number”.  I like numbers and after working in the accounting field for awhile learned that they do speak their own language.  I thought about trying to do something on my lucky number 17 or something about hexagrams from the I Ching, but the number most important to me is 10,000, for the 10,000 things.  In daoist texts, the 10,000 things are all-that-is.  I chose to create two poems today, both on the same topic, the tetractys form and the diamante form.  What is strange is, when I was out looking for a good graphic, I came across a page with the above diagram and see that 10,000 mathematically comes from the tetractys from Euclid.  How cool is that?  Click on the image link and it will take you to the page that talks about it.  At that point, I’d only written the…

किस सिम्त देखूँ
सामने है ज़िन्दगी
और तू पीछे कहीं

वो न छोड़े मुझे
कैसी विडम्बना
तू अपनाये नहीं

कशमकश में हूँ
साँसें हैं मेरी या
कहीं गिरवी रखी

देखूँ आसमां तो
दुआ करे दिल मेरा
न टूटे तारा कोई

चुभता हूँ अब भी
आँखों में तेरी अमित
है यह कैसी नमी

In response to: Reena’s Exploration Challenge # 76