Cambodia and young monks

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

Is that you, God?

I’m looking for God again
The small southern churches welcome me
Where are you from and what church do you go to?
But they ask in reverse order
First the church
My lips form the answer
Buddhist
But I am cautious
A newcomer, hesitating
You’re a sinner aren’t you?
I laugh but they are right
In this strange new world of a million churches
I am lost
How can there be so much holiness
In one place?
The Baptists win

~ Gwen C.Murray

A sacred holy place

Varanasi, also Benares, Banaras or Kashi, is a city on the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, 320 kilometres southeast of the state capital, Lucknow. It is holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and Jainism.

Imagination

I believe imagination is stronger than knowledge
That myth is more potent than history
That dreams are more powerful than facts
That hope triumphs over experience
That laughter is the only cure for grief
And I believe that love is stronger than death

~ Author Unknown

Talk to me of nothing

“You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long.” ― Rabindranath Tagore

All photos below taken by Gwen C. Murray on an overland trip with her husband Jerry from Beijing to Pakistan in September/October of 1994.

The Dowager

The Dowager Empress of China

Fattened like a Buddha
Filled her mouth with the state jewels
Kept her talon nails
Long, curved and blood red
Like ancient lacquered knives
Protecting her from her own subjects.
When she died her ivory teeth
Were the color of gravestones
Sealing the ancient vault of royal diamonds
Until the revolutionaries
Slit her throat
Yielding finely carved jewels
Dazzling in blood

~ Gwen C. Murray

Guatemala ~ some photos

Guatemala

Photos taken by Gwen C. Murray on a trip to Guatemala in 2005