James Moore has published eight collections of poems and original art. He has spent his adult life as a resident of Washington State, much of it living off-grid in the remote hills of its North Central region, during which time he has worked as an alternative builder, climbing and vocational instructor. Retired and self employed with Opti-Mystic Arts, a fine art and design business, his spiritual and literary influences range from Lao Tzu, Buddha Shakyamuni, Longchenpa, C.G. Jung, Mises, Rothbard and Sowell to Gary Snyder, Robert Hunter, Richard Thompson and Dr. Seuss. "Sun Made Flesh and Fiber" In the woods of your own making every tree has a dark side and each, a whole, casts a shadow. Where can you turn to find a way through? Where can you run that does not lead back into? Trees, however dark and dense we find them, only grow by the light of Sun. They are in fact Sun made flesh and fiber, and we, Sun’s eyes as bright as stars whose dust we honor, have no home but here. (2019) "Nonmeditation" Watch the mind not like a cat sits watching for mice, but how a child lays gazing into the open sky as cloud-trains pass. Simply watch the mind, and eventually it will invite you in to meet the family. (4/2/22) "Becoming Familiar" One branch stands out on the fruiting tree yet the valley is filled with orchards in bloom. What is genius in time becomes the norm more through familiarity than hard work. But it makes me wonder who do I emulate and if even they can be followed. For me at least, the effort is an excuse for the genuine becoming familiar. (5/9/22) "Lipstick on a Pig" No matter what you do in samsara in the effort to improve samsara, improve yourself, improve others, it’s still samsara. All effort, all improvement, never leaves the wheel, but that doesn’t mean there’s only the wheel. The wheel is what spins, ever-changing, the embodiment of impermanence, but what it spins in spins around, spins for, is another story altogether. (8/19/23) "In Praise of Mindlessness" I’ve sought and found mindlessness in a variety of ways From dancing to climbing, meditating and painting, but in retirement I find it easiest mowing the arboretum. As I weave in and out of the randomly placed trees and shrubs and regularly spaced irrigation pipes I seek the novel and fresh at every turn. It’s best when I find it unexpectedly zipping off in a new direction exploring new pathways, carving new patterns. In these moments there is a rush as the spontaneous surprises me, creativity takes hold, and I can’t help but ride the moment. I’ve spent years aiming for this moment on a cushion and find poetic justice in the fact it is at last as easy as pie in retirement. Of course it’s not true mindlessness after that initial spontaneous instant. I have to make sure I don’t drive over anything. But random is always an option, and eagerly seeking it leads me to fall, or in this case, drive into spontaneous mindlessness again, and again. . The joy that accompanies the mindless is what interests me most. It’s a self-contained joy that feeds on and for itself. The German word, ‘funktionslust’ describes it best. The joy an animal gets doing what it’s meant to do which of course means it just gets better at doing it. This is how birds learn to fly and primates climb, how yogis become accomplished doing nothing and going nowhere, and how lazy old men get the lawn mowed, with effortless joy. (9/2/23) "The Heart of the Matter" What is it that really matters? Is it finding the answers to the big questions, - finding our place in the cosmology of it all - Or is it something else entirely, Something more personal and immediate, Something of the heart and not the head? I’ll leave it at that. (1/7/24)