on a choppy sea  around                                              the Pole                        no directions    but heaps of stones &                                                    somewhere the stars                                                                                                                                                   say: I am not human.

 

"Taking its bearings by the heavenly pole as the threshold of the world beyond means that this presence then allows a world other than that of geological, physical, astronomical space to open before it." Henri Corbin, The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Shambhala: Boulder, CO, 1978.

 "They recognize the Great Dipper as a herd of reindeer; the three triangular stars of Cassiopeia are the three stone supporting a celestial stone   lamp; the Pleiades are a team of dogs in pursuit of a bear; the three glittering brilliants of the belt of Orion are step cut by some celestial Eskimo in   a steep snowbank to enable him to climb to the top; Gemini are two stones in the entrance of an igloo; Arcturus and Aldebaran are   personifications; and the moon and the sun are a maiden and her pursuing lover." R.E. Peary, Northward over the "Great Ice": A Narrative of   Life and Work Along the Stores and Upon the Interior Ice-cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891-97. 2 vols. London,   Metheun  and Co., 1898.

I said to you,
I am not human
And you
looked at me
and said, no
perhaps you
are not
G. Sonnevi.
From, “I said to you.”

Looking up
rough and steep---
what force
the trees look like works of magic
and all of the stones
are possessed of powers.
M. Soseki. From, “Strange Peak.”