Saving the Rhinos and Me

Can we really save the rhino?
Or are we here to save ourselves?

Are we talking about the rhino?
Or are we talking about me and you?

Should we talk about them?
Or should be talk about us?

It’s hard when we have to look out there
When the answers are all in here

Is it the Rhino who’s running out of time?
Or it is us who are chasing the past?

Tomorrow seems to be now
And today seems to have gone by

We’ve all come from places near or far
Does your presence have a reason and a rhyme

How can we make our conversations
Mean more than what we came here for

Perhaps we all want answers
The question is: what is the question?

How can we find what’s good for the rhino?
If we can’t find what’s good for ourselves

Let’s try to listen more
To the calling that’s within

Let’s try to open up the spaces
For the wisdom we all have to share!



Carmela Ariza (Manila, the Philippines)

Spaces Made Holy for the Rhino

I sit on holy ground
As people open spaces
To try to save the rhino
there are spaces
Between us
Above us
Inside us
To voice
To listen
To Respect
And to suspend
We are holding the space
For a flow of meaning
That will be shared by all
Even for difficult moments
We seek to keep the space open
Today, I stand firmly on holy ground



Carmela Ariza (Manila, the Philippines)

WOSONOS 2012

In Stoke Newington Town Hall I fell in love with nothing,
and it was no thing that I loved.

Alone, knowing no-one and nothing I walked the circle
I got present
I was connected.

Presence,
absence.  
The empty space of the opening circle.
Profoundly empty,
containing no thing

Through me
everything and no-thing, in me
the circle, in me
the space, in me
the people, in me
butterflies and bumblebees.  In me
body, in me
mind, in me
image, in me
thought, in me
feeling, in me
sensation, in me
nothing.

It started at the right time
The right people were the ones who came
The only thing that could have happened
Was what happened
It was over when it was over.

The bees were buzzing
The ‘flies were flitting
The space was open.

The circle was squared.



Jonathan Coe (London, England)


(WOSONOS is the 'World Open Space ON Open Space', the annual gathering of OST practitioners wosonos2012.com)