[ARTS]: Big and Little Poetry--free verse, any verse.

[Kaitan]

The earth is round
And blue like an orange

-Eielson

Just found this Peruvian poet that looks very interesting, I felt some here would like him.

Gasshō

stlah, Kaitan

[Tai Shi]

Women Who Teach Me

These are women who suffer,
Birth pangs; who teach this blight
Caused by men, all sisters, wife,
Daughters, these women teach
Us all; all who look no farther than
Their noses in spring to understand
Only part of sister's pain; wives
Mothers, daughters, in-laws, women,
In travail, who shoulder growth
Yes, inside of time, of universal
Love, of bodies soft as light,
Withstanding storms, other sights.

Spring flowers open. Male, female
One plant to all seed, all humans
Take two. They mate in this beautiful
Dance of life, to spawn little ones,
Opening seed pods, opening to women
Ones who bringing that travail
Bare children, or do not to bare.

Withstanding men, men who suffer
Their own remarkable pain, women
Who give us birth, my only friends
From Sioux Falls, Omaha, Des Moines,
Friend Larry, and Harvey died as they
Told me soon women forget their pain,
Forget this child born to understand,
Reality of three score, two score, less
Than two young kids to mother who

Mothers their boys and girls in gardens
Of true love's happiness, difficulty
Of seeding children who grow up
To their own lives. Soon reality flowers,
Flowers with those men, with spring,
With summer growth, fall seeding
Again, winter like our ageing bodies.
Seventy-two, growing older. Children
Day by day, years away from my
Own death, my ownership of body,

Walking with six appendages
One walker with four wheels,
Two feet pushing before me,
Over land, over hills, with help
Of hands with women, mothers
Gone, In-laws going, wives, sisters
Sheltering like men, like brothers
Like husbands, brothers again
With hearing lost except their aids
Electric. These women bore him
Of her all inflammations. Of sky
Insidious. Germs, limbs entwined
Another in this dance of life,
In life; flowering trees apart

Of fire. In more travail of seed
Again planted human nature, pyre
Into our ground of being, into life
Eternal gathering of this reality
To teach us all to dance in night,
In painful losses of frail bodies,
Going. Hair lost, of men, as bent
Women stooping with age like people
Gone. Sisters all like old trees,
Of growth stands which chopped down
As fire wood. Sages told me as they died
Of bladder cancer, of mopping hallways,
Floors in this hospital of our own travail
That I too, soon would also die.
Some women brought to graves
Their own desire, some nature
Arighted light of darkness
In another death, another
Child gone again.

Gassho
Tai Shi

[Tai Shi]

Onkai you are so good to others and you deserve to be a Priest. You will be Reverend Onkai. I think of all the hard work it takes to be of service to our friends and those in need. I was in higher education for 25 years. I never thought I would be able to do so well in school but I am grateful for my education and good genes. For me it was always hard work.
Gassho
Deep bows to Onkai.
sat/lah


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[Onkai]

Congratulations to your daughter! It sounds like you're a family of scholars. I'm sure I would appreciate that if I met all of you.

Gassho Onkai

[Tai Shi]

ARTS: Big and Little Poetry--free verse, any verse.

I believe what I said that you would be a good friend to Marjorie! She is very shy and finds it hard to talk to people because of how intelligent she is. She earned a 4.0 at University of Iowa and earned 3.95 in her MA in anthropology. Her research was on the Navajo Nation. She studied women with alcoholic husbands who were not in their teens but older. She studied coping skills of the Navajo women. I taught at Navajo Community College while she studied the women and described in a model developed by Northwestern University. She studied a few museum classes and we had chosen the two most difficult subjects to get jobs. There were no jobs in English or anthropology. I found a full time teaching job in Columbus, NE eventually we moved to Colorado and I got sober we had Laurel. On May 10, 2024 Laurel will be in Washington University auditorium for her Hooding ceremony. We will drive there and be there to support her and celebrate with her. Dr Laurel Ann Taylor. Professor of Japanese at University of Denver.

Gassho
sat/lah
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[Onkai]

Thank you, my dear friend Tai Shi. Such kind words!

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[Tai Shi]

For Onkai

My dear friend Onkai,
When you say you
Like my poetry, I take
Notice because you

Are sensitive, and caring
You know what poetry is,
What we see in each other
See as poetry in others

You notice things like
Purpled faces, or bright
Ideas, bright minds,
For roses in delight

Daylilies come and go
You do not, you are
Faithful, listen to Onkai
Dear friends because

She is faithful without
Desire, she only seeks
To praise, to satisfy
Too give from well of love.

Listen carefully to authenticity
Listen to Onkai. You may
Not find more authentic
Person in your neighborhood.

Gassho
sat/lah

[Onkai]

Gassho, Onkai

[Tai Shi]

Day Lilies. Night Roses

I too have this joyful
Day for all my Zendo
Day lilies, more roses,

Friends, remember
I sit for each of you
Who have pain, sorrow

Wisdom renewed
Without more tumors,
Upon this white

Pink, purpled. Land let
Each. Of us know we are
There for each other.

Do sit tirelessly,
Sit with each stanza,
Sentence, word be poetry.

Weep not my people.
We can celebrate more
Than we know.

sat/lah
Deep now
Gassho

Calm Poetry
Each word this poem.

[Tai Shi]

End of Escape

This seventy-six F degree
Speed of air, withering
Riding over sea foam
To distant lands, some

Wisdom, some taught
Children, some community
Come together, wither not
Upon vines of indispensable
Thoughts, without dignity
We return to cat-
Like behavior, stalking
Pray, defeating another
Sunrise comes naked
Air. When will purely
Behavior realize
Falsity when this
Populace, return to
Come back to death
Knoll of desire, when

Humanity drinks
From spring of wisdom,
Spring of that which
Is taught with human
Endurance, with gathering
These to rivers of blood
This end of human dealings
What more we rise
Above our own death.

Gassho
sat/lah

[Tai Shi]

Peace Dove

Yes doves are Noah's
Gift to end rath of his God,
Let not today
Foreget Pandas. Eagles.
Lions, tigers, mountain lions
In North America, great herds
of Buffalo, let us not
Forget urge of Monarch Butterflies
Which in one season or two
Come close to extinction
Then Hide; for leather shoes,
Turtle soup, delicates
Taste buds in New York
Where rich may taste
Who buy Japanese beef bred
On beer, Kobi nostalgia
Avarices, to the extinction
Of Asians. we begin to realize
If human kind cannot change,
Time illuminates change, beauty,
Bringing back butterflies
Frogs, even Desert Monsters,

Dragons in captivity, death,
In Tibet, white Snow
Leopard, black bringer
Of Dawn, great, movement,
Golden clouds, crystal ponds,
Manifestations,
Of Humanity trying
To contain peaceful
Balance, maintain now
Electric cars; transformation
Of power will change us
Back to another willful
Earth with reverence
Food to eat again
Life in another reality,
Wisdom of these Buddhas,
Of valleys in forbidden
Thoughts, another day
Another way of peaceful
Coexistence, life together
Tribute in tenacity.

Let one more spring
Bring with each one
Each single Dharma
Teaching of Zen; cause
Some effect, mountains
Into Kingdoms rise, fall
Into another planetary
Form, Stars explode
To form other stars.
Species wither away
More as birds fall to earth
Upcoming valleys divided
Selves, righted reality
Universal painful change
Into life reborn
Of writhing death
Symptoms --caused
To witness another
Universal truth.

Gassho
sat/lah

[Tai Shi]

New Space Race

They planted cherry blossoms,
Hundreds of Trees, silk poetry
Three hundred not enough
Spring gift to Americans
Decades after they conducted
War, wars, wars, World to end
All Wars in France, Now Plumb
Village, beauty where trenches
Filled with gas, experiments gas
Geniva decided never gas again
Poor Hitler had been gassed do
Any remember cruelty to Jews
Why Jews, why Jews, we now
Remember nothing, German people
Japanese people spread harmony,
First to die in Ukraine, who
Knew Russian tyranny, why Ukraine
Why Ukraine, gassed, bombed,
After big World War came together
Formed Republic, so Russia sat
On Continent, where grudge sat

Then peacefully fought back
Little nation no Tyranny, no
Spitefulness, no Tyranny, peace
Guarded by Americas, Brittish,
All of Europe, Germany, Japan
Wanted no World War, filtered
Drones, then water, food, children
Why another gathering, China
Mongolia, All Slavic peoples

To define Yugoslavia, Tyranny
Given to Finland, others,
Netherlands to defend
Right to Christianity, Zazen
Japan not tolerated, why
No more war, nothing
To remember, gas chambers
Fear of Russia, dare say Putin
Vladimir, we never call him
By first name, just like
Adolf seasoning, never
To bring back, fear victory
Thirty more million,
How many with A bomb
Second, Japan surrendered
Peace, Peace, Peace Train
Another great war to avoid
Until Russia targets Americans
With horror, stop this killing
Mame for life, sound
Weapons, deadly computer
Viruses, both sides, China
Jumped on board

Navel battles, biggest
Sailing into US air
Force to strike precision
Space race, to moon,
Strike precision, to moon
Wild space race conducted
With Star Ships, first
Heavy booster, perfected
Slowly to form moon
Colony, reality with water
Found at poles, of course
At South Pole, will
We pollute another
Army in space, thousands
Of Satellites circle Earth
How can rockets avoid
Each Other, orbiters
Space Stations Russia
This anomaly, why fight,
Why fight, madness,
Chinese building own
Space Stations, Chinese
Super Power cannot
Fathom space, Europe
On Board, for humans
Japanese Astronauts
Whim becoming reality
Space race for colony
To our biggest orbiter
Our Mood Tides, what

Will become of Engineers
Who design largest
Rockets in History?
Tyranny death, not,
Be avoided with secret
Army in space, Space
Force seems anomaly,
Why do we all race
To destroy Harmony?
Destroy destiny, destroy
What could be near miracle
Miracle beats ancient
Pyramids, Pol Pot disturbing
Stopped this disharmony
Edy Amin disharmony
Stopped, why not moon
Disharmony? Take
No Atomic weapons
To space, disturb
Harmony orbit each
Other Who will be first,
Big heavy transporters
Eventually making fuel
On Martian Colony,
What comes of disharmony
Space harmonies, why?
Another field of dreams
Disturbed again war
In our Space Suits,
Who gets there first?

Gassho
Where is Zen
sat/lah
Tai Shi

[Tai Shi]

Such wonderful poetry!

Tai Shi
Deep, Deep bows
sat/lah

[Tai Shi]

Not Like Our Child

母親 Mother, you were my parent
Along with Dougie who was my brother,
We sank below this flood of filthy water,
With these rats and this scum, unbelief

When I tell this storey of destitute
People, they were us, we sank below
These rats, and scum, how did
Our dog Pokey, and our cat Tinker

Survive these swirling waters, I don't
Know, how the Bell did not Tolle when I
Sat Zazen, quite reach the foundation,
Waded out into gully, picked our

Cat Tinker, guided Pokey to rescue both
From swerling, then there was Buffer
The ferocious cat who picked that rat
Right of the winter, dirt and filth,

Rat into living room cat snapped
Its neck. I beat the rodent
With Broom handle; we through
That animal, dead as a doornail.

Moved to that house where Masons
Rented, again house with rats. I would
Hear them scurry up the ancient walls
Plaster on slats. I never saw one rodent

Our cats caught no animals up walls
Plaster, so I was not afraid, just heard
Animals up the hollow walls, plaster
Was to be seventeen, wait for college

If I would be accepted into The Little
Harvard of the Midwest, or I would
Be transported to University of Iowa,
I worked for shame magazine company

Collecting money to go to go to Grinnell
I left before I flunked out of
School to live with dad, called dad
From the start, he had visited once

To see our poverty, lack of bread,
White bread like dough, when I went
To Grinnell all I saw was food and dishes,
Delectable food, steak, halves of roast

Chicken I worked in rich kid's kitchen, heck,
My mother 母親 never bought our food,
We ate surplus food, commodities
Passed out to poor kids, to poor parents

Could not afford much except cornmeal
And Flour, pancakes, maple fake syrup
I lived with dad who I had not
Seen for ten years, sank into mystery

I returned from Europe, reapplied myself
At Grinnell College, must have been Waldo
Walker, dean of students, Nick Ryan both
Let me go back to school, no rats, poor

Cats became royalty of our family, Pokey died
Chasing First semester, pulled myself
Off Academic Probation, my GPA, 2.3, eventually
To graduate school because I pulled two

As, 2.87 at time of graduation, I sang
Of the Apple trees, the women I had known
At Grinnell College, TS Eliot, Wallace
Stevens, John Milton, Emily Dickinson "Who

Am I, to croke my name to an admiring bog,"
One F intro to math. To graduate school
Our years of therapy, made me mailable
Like gold MA, EdS 3.69, taught, MFA 3.9.

I became sober, we had our child, gifted child,
We grew up in poverty, we gave her,
Middle-class upbringing, outdid my misery
4.0 for her Middlebury, University of Iowa, 4,0+ MFA,

PhD at Washington University, St Louis,
Gifted, we marveled had raised gifted
Young Woman. Could we take credit, no!
Professor of Japanese, watch her Hooding.

Traveled to St Louis to see her hooding,
Honor, was Valedictorian High School,
Fulbright PhD, we lived in he evidenced
We found gold in her reality, focused life.

This is our story, I am seventy-two, she is
Sixty-nine, we still love each other, my
Spine, I sleep in Lay Z Boy for my back;
Sleeps in our bed, still love each to each.

Gassho
Tai Shi
sat/lah

[Tai Shi]

With
Starship

I left all for all who have written
Before we came to meet our lives
Together in our other worldly

Rhythm and verse which rolls
With thunder, into mountains
Enter Bodhisattva into likeness

Of thunder, into wisdom of ages
Twin ages, Mitt-re mighty listen
Twin brothers toward listening,

Another light performance, without
Notice life on Mars existed, mother
Earth will live as central position

With Sol, old sun with central light
As Elon Musk gives design to stars
Biggest Star Ship rise, as voyage

To essence central to human kind
With Buddha likeness infinitesimal
Limited never as humanity set forth

And they all said no, thus space limited
Never nothing, giving mother of recording
Each hour, what is your technique--less.

Gassho
sat/lah