Sculptum Est Prosa (Volume 2): The Voices of Silence

By Ivan Kireevskii

This volume explores the range and uses of quotations, echoes, and allusions drawn from thousands of intertextual instances that Kireevskii has recognized in his work. The principal interest of the echoes examined here lies in the revaluation of the poet and the theoretical issues his varied use of them suggests.

Through echoing, Kireevskii embodies and explicates his assertions of continuity in human development, his vision of interchange between the mind and nature. As a poet, he is a person who constantly experiences, sees, hears, suspects, hopes, and dreams extraordinary things; is struck by his own thoughts as if from outside or from above and below, as if by his type of events and lightning bolts; is perhaps a storm himself, pregnant with new lightning; and is a fatal person in whose vicinity things are always rumbling, growling, gaping, and acting in uncanny ways.

Listen very carefully because Kireevskii writes in a very symbolic form, and unless you are very alert in reading his words, you may miss all the implications. The reason why he is so symbolic is that he is so full of new insights and he has so much he desires to share and to give.

As with a hermit’s writings, you can always hear something of the echo of the desert, something of the whisper and the timid sideways glance of solitude—a concealed philosophy where every opinion is also a hiding place, every word is also a mask.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Nov 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781480870444

Ivan Kireevskii

A wandering ascetic, born stoic, was taught by Hume...where he learned to question the absolute. He became Vienna's myth-maker. He is Michelangelo and will paint you sadness. He is Montaigne and has relished solitude.He is Descartes...was born a devout stranger, never a child.

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Copyright © 2018 Ivan Kireevskii.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-7042-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-7043-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-7044-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962430

Archway Publishing rev. date: 11/05/2018

For my mom, Verna

Mom01.jpg

1922 – 2017

mom

if we could sit secretly

inside your presence

create illusory walls and doors

and then create illusory keys

we would find in you

the rose of eternity

but mostly…

we would see a part of ourselves

if we could transcend to the deepest

beyond the boundary of awakening

and wander at ease, into a multiplicity of instants

we would find in you

one free from the ordinary

unconstrained by narrow and lined paths…

an umbilical cord connected to the sun…

to the forests, the rivers and the clouds

and as bold as you pleased

you made it a mystery…

with the hope that one day we would understand

and today we do

as if in circular form…

holding nothing to excess

your blossom is full

your elegance contained

this day, we reach out to you

and touch your hand

we will take this rose

with a promise to replant

-IK

Contents BrushGlyph.jpg

land of mysteries

beyond the boundary

the backward step

darkness of a mountain tunnel

realms of thoughts

bewilderment of the finite

mystical stillness

unveiled

where once there was nothing

beyond all bounds

between two thoughts

imagined ocean

enter the relatively unknown

the mind-field of ahamkara

label the sky

attached to nothing

journey inside of me

the throne has become vacant

one abstraction at a time

secrets of ekāgrāta

introspection

cries of the unheard

realm beyond thoughts

of intertwined-ness

as if

that you may breathe

vast unfolding

a vastness beyond measure

a narrow ridge

does anything exist

between memory and mirage

the watcher

something i thought i was not

unending state of flux

sanctuary of mysteries

a backward-turning of thought

borderland

let sambodhi happen

where all boundaries have disappeared

in yoga

put the mind aside

existence

time

ocean of thought

clashes of thought

become the cloud

the curtain veils the cosmos

existence from the hinterland

thy bodhisattva

imprisoned brains

speechless and lasting things

in a mystic awe

this solemn play of life

start from nowhere

beyond a hidden mirror

crooked lanes

tales of gods

riddles of existence

the age of god

issa

where violins ask questions

where all contradictions meet

mutations of delusion

the wordsworthian allusion

universal myth

in the beginning (less-ness)

maze of providence

the moods of the trees

zazen

you become the shadow

talk to the rain

voyages of the mind

tṛiṣṇā

all is a dream

mu

true nature

anvil of the clouds

reality

painted thoughts

corridor of the labyrinth

nets of carved up concepts

abstractions of the imagined

countercurrents of consciousness

from thought to time

the dance of shiva

breathe

a trace of realization

in the tides of thought

from ants to asteroids

beyond the canons of logic

demolish the wall of illusions

where silence transcends

ardor of our recluse

that art thou

fall backward

a secret thread

misunderstandings about understanding

the inner meaning

become the universe

the world of forms

prisoners of time

the language of silence

Foreword BrushGlyph.jpg

Sculptum Est Prosa: Latin for Sculptured Prose

What is Sculptured Prose (Sculptum Est Prosa – Latin)?

It is the descriptive title I have given to the style of poetry that I write. On my website: sculpturedprose.com it states the following regarding my first book: Sculptum Est Prosa - The Voices of Genius:

Astronomers peer into the heavens, mathematicians devise elaborate theories, physicists construct complex machines, and philosophers search for the ultimate answers and indeed, the ultimate questions…

Imagine a sculptor walking along the beach, through the forest, or climbing a mountain in search of a desirable stone with the potential to be chiseled and carved into a work of art. As I read and listen to the geniuses of our current age and past, I search their words just as a literal sculptor does his stones… once found, he or she carves, chisels, shapes, molds and fashions them with artistry and precision.

In my current search for these potential gems, my discoveries have been found among the words of Sages, Dharma Teachers, Zen Masters, Yogi’s, Theologians, Quantum Physicists, Philosophers, thinkers and activists of all kinds throughout the centuries.

In this volume, I have carved, chiseled and sculptured these finding into poems…

These poems are haunted by their voices… in which their words have been sculptured to harmonize.

Preface BrushGlyph.jpg

These poems are my written and painted thoughts.

One must listen very carefully because I am a very symbolic man, and much is written in the abstract.

The reader must slow down and meditate on the various verses to grasp the symbolism embedded. Otherwise, I fear you may miss the message embraced in my poetry.

As a hermit’s writings, I want you to hear something of the echo of the desert, something of the whisper and the timid sideways glance of solitude… a type of silence, almost of concealment, that rings out in my strongest words, even in my cries.

Every verse is a hiding place and every word is a mask.

My desire is to project an almost hidden and forgotten treasure, a drop of spirituality under thick, dull ice, that has long been buried in a prison of mud and sand that may enrich the reader, leaving them feeling as if they have been made newer than before, broken open and sounded out as if by a thawing wind.

Acknowledgement BrushGlyph.jpg

I wish to thank my good friend and fellow Zen traveler, Ray Eigen Ball, for his contribution of many of the Miksang photos included in this volume.

Eigen is a lay student in the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism, headquartered at Zen Mountain Monastery where he studied with John Daido Loori, author of Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life. In addition, he now studies contemplative photography in the Nalanda Miksang tradition with John McQuade and Miriam Hall, authors of Looking and Seeing and Heart of Photography. Miksang (Tibetan for ‘Good Eye’) Contemplative Photography arose in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition in the 1980s.

Silence is itself the teaching that transcends words.

- JOHN DAIDO LOORI

Oh, what are you anyway, my written and painted thoughts!

What subjects do we copy out and paint, we mandarins with Chinese brushes, we immortalizers of things that let themselves be written – what are the only things we can paint?

… I only have colors for your afternoon, my written and painted thoughts, perhaps many colors, many colorful affections and fifty yellows and browns and greens and reds: – but nobody will guess from this how you looked in your morning, you sudden sparks and wonders of my solitude…

Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future- Nietzsche

there’s a center of quietness within

which has to be known… reach out and hold

the penultimate truth

beyond words, beyond images… known but not having been told

ivan kireevskii. Sculptum Est Prosa - The Voices of Genius

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