Directions for happiness ~ is it so?

Woman dressed in white

I tell you
how the water
turned blue
how the boat headed
toward the horizon
the motor beating like a heart
of the woman dressed in white
preparing herself for the moment
24 white roses
in her arms
she knew his longing
I tell you
she meant to remain strong
yet faltered

April 24, 2008

~ Gwen C. Murray

Traveling through the years

Ode to a 70 Year Old

In New Guinea, Lahore or Kathmandu
Sleeping in beds not made for two
Admiring the beautiful Taj Mahal
Awake in Africa for the lion’s call
In Borneo we were often seen
The choice for headhunter’s new cuisine
Around the world I’ve traveled with you
I will follow you into your seventies too.

~ Gwen C. Murray

The days before life imposes

The beauty of children all over the world

~ photos by Gwen C. Murray

Chicken in Pakistan

store and product on the street in Pakistan

~ photo by Gwen C. Murray

That smile

I took this photograph in Pakistan in 1980, this small girl in school, a small building in the mountains with thirty students. Each student used a stick to write on the dirt floor to do their lessons.

~ Gwen C. Murray

What's on your head?

Waiting for something in Paris about 1985. They had no idea of those little bums behind their heads. 

~ photo by Gwen C. Murray

Spots from dinner in Burma

The boy with the watermelon was taken in Burma.

It was quite primitive at the time, I think we realized what culture shock was. Before we went through customs they counted my jewelry and made a list so I would return it on the way out. 

At the Strand hotel one could identify her table in the dining room by the spots from dinner the previous night.

The Burmese were lovely and the temples grand.

photos by Gwen Murray TRAVELING IN BURMA

Tiny girl

In the brown Moroccan village the color of sand In layers of dust and despair 

The child stands on a stick of a leg 

Wrapped in white cloth 

She will speak, begging for Dirham 

I see this tiny girl and do nothing 

I want to pay for her good health 

Soon she will be veiled 

Ready for picking 

Never ready for brown babies 

Who will tear her young flesh 

Demanding care she cannot give

~ GC Murray 2000

When it's funny, it's funny

Saturday afternoon at the movies ~

Time on a hill side

The Cold Hill Side

As months and years accumulate,
I miss you more and more.
Forgetting where I put the key,
I sometimes find a door

and other times feel stunned and lost,
though living in my own
body and life, presumably,
bewildered and alone

as the knight, kidnapped and released
to a dim world, who said
And I awoke and found me here
on the cold hill side.

by Rachel Hadas July 23, 2007

Dumb ways to "fall off your perch"

Interdependent we are

True spirituality is to be aware that if we are interdependent with everything and everyone else, even our smallest, least significant thought, word, action have real consequences throughout the universe.

Sogyal Rinpoche

What is and what was

I think I have reached that certain age when the past seems so much better than the future. It was and it is. I spend great amounts of time looking at slides, photos, letters and unfinished poetry. Lots of that. Hours pass and I am sitting in the middle of the floor surrounded by the history of my life. I begin to discard, my hand hesitates over the garbage bag….just one more glance. Despite my determination I am weak. Someone will have to clean up my life it should be me

~ GC Murray

Affection ~ I'll take it

We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.

– Dalai Lama

Your own light

The dancing Gods of India

Pashupatinath temple
Dawn is filled with smoke
We join the milkdrinkers
Wear no leather belts or shoes
Wet cow’s breath follows us
Gentle music of glass bracelets
Worn by women with kohl rimmed eyes
Filling their brass urns with sacred water
Pyramids of soft powders
Colors of egg yolks and blood
Await
The dancing Gods of India

~ Gwen C. Murray

Cambodia and young monks

Young monks at Angkor Wat, Cambodia ~ photos by Gwen C. Murray in 2011