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

[Jundo]

I spend a lot of time taking care of this body but I’m not a fool and know it’s going away some day. Then I’ll be back where I started from and reincarnation is starting to sound like a great option lol

Sat/lah

Maybe rebirth is just going to the universe's hockey "penalty box" for a short stretch ...

Gassho, J

stlah

[Rich]

I spend a lot of time taking care of this body but I’m not a fool and know it’s going away some day. Then I’ll be back where I started from and reincarnation is starting to sound like a great option lol

Sat/lah


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tai Shi]

Receiving All Gratitude

There are friends who love me into writing
Into love of poetry, It is my full realization,

My zazen responsibility, this is why my Buddhism
Lasts more than 13 years, I have sat zazen for eight years,

What of my life? I have found Peace without salvation,
My calling in tears for humanity meaning of life for some,

Only two men, Gautama Buddha, Jesus as a boy
Where are women, Mother did the best she could, brother

Married three times, he lives unmarried now, his son lives
Unmarried with love, our daughter 34, in our little family,

Teacher of Japanese, years for my wife helping those find peace.
I taught diligently for my wife twenty-five years, she served,

Faithfully 32 years she vowed before clergy we would be friends,
Surgery after surgery only the simplest, more than priests

Life was in danger, then my ability to walk, I practiced breathe,
Her wisdom teeth horrid surgery, age creeps up on us, she has

Seen the edge of age, high blood pressure, more sacrifices
Body worn like my dust to dust, she's 68, I no longer drive

Two walkers inside, then outside. I find balance gone,
Still breakfast my responsibly...from yonder doctors give

Time to live. I live in loyalty, we have talked, vowed
Together to livwe into old age; one child our daughter, 17

Hours of labor gone, she may have died in childbirth,
Our family to love eternally, one baby made us happy

For us little family enough, we are meticulous in love,
Our humanity, now thirteen holidays in winter, reasons

From December to April, more people celibate family,
Fiends? What is God? Our world partly saved none of us?

We are joyful. I have lived long enough to see piety sing,
Shikantaza, half an hour, implausibility in this answer?

For Humanity, I sit mindfully, I sit daily for WORLD PEACE,
Ceasing all waste, love of life, I try to sit for children,

My arthritis which has finally crippled me, I sit
In Gratitude for letting me at 72 celebrate life lovingly.

Gassho
Deep bows.
Sat/Lend a Hand.

[Tai Do]

Thank you, Tai Shi!
Gassho,
Tai Do
Satlah

[Kaitan]

I love your poetry, Tai Shi. Thank you for sharing

Gasshō

stlah

Bernal

[Onkai]

Such tragedy. Such suffering or dukka. All part of samsara. Thank you for sharing, Tai Shi.

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[Tai Shi]

I Wept for More than One Billion Lives

Today I wept again, I looked them up
Again, the dear lives lost in World wars

In World War One 19,000,000, in World War
World War Two, War One More One, why gasses, then no gas

Only Two Million then Dresden China? No torture, torture,
38,000,000 million civilian, fifteen million military, water boarding,

Personal, some more than 9,000,000 pushed
B 17, B 29, B 52, B 1, B 2, F 15, fly death, bombs Away?

Into ovens, gassed, bombed with fire devices,
150,000 killed in two Atomic blasts, nearly

I am 72, will I live to outlive wars, at 72 can
Death be stopped, can calling of my vows Precepts

Others Ten Commandments, Isaiah declaring
No more human sacrifice? No more child murders?

I sit untouched in my study, seventy-eight
Years since death showered in terror from sky, from submarines

Skies, from the sea blasted out of waters
How many birds, fish, urchins, mammals running with blood?

From machine gun fire, 30:30 rifles turned from sport
To sport of killing men and women, tears from mothers,

From fathers to see their children turned to ashes,
Chard bodies, yet we did not learn from this devastation

In one battle in Korea 20,000, in Vietnam 55,000 Service
Men and women laying down their lives for nothing

For nothing as in World War Two, 53,000,000, what fraction
If the entire world were killed in atomic, hydrogen, atomic bombs

Nine billion, I can't write the zeros as we know one third
Of all wild-life has already been killed in Global Warming

Is this just is this beginning of science killing people, devistations
Because of greed for oil, for toxic waste, for precious metals?

Earth humanity swallowed in greed, swallowed for gold,
For silver, for all that we cannot eat, shall we eat each other?

As men single and married, children alone childish laughter
Carried in pickups-incinerated again by insensitive

Greed for oil, for World War Two 62,000,000 died
For nothing, so we are United Nations did not stop Iraqi Freedom

What freedom is it for one President of stupidity, one communist
To declare that 3,500 were killed, beginning with children

At the bottom of the World Trade Towers, we saw, almost
Five thousand in terrorist attacks around our bleeding world,

Why can't they stop? Why can't they stop strapping bombs
To stomachs, leaving life of 500 in burned buildings

This is today we see 500 burned alive by one man's
Insanity, is this what Zazen has brought me to, this

Realization that we are killing an entire planet sought
Out of greed, and power of two, three, four, leaders,

Men who willingly led humanity into one billion, I think
On the Thirty-Years War in Religion, killed thousands, thousands

Of people in the name of religion, is Zen responsible,
Protestant, Catholic Crusades Muslims into What we call Middle East

To Kill again in blood evisceration; I wept for sight of war when I was 10,
To kill another thousands upon thousands Jews in the name of Jesus

Or Burma, thousands of Civilians in the name of Buddha,
These two men, how many were killed in name of Buddhist

Persecution, in the name of Jews, persecution, in the name
Christians? What Europe, Asia, North American Indigenous people,

In Australia called Aborigines, in Canada, Dirty Indians,
Cherokee, Chainsaw masecure, sought with their own bows, arrows

To Oklahoma to reservations 50,000 men, women and children
In the trail of tears? South Dakota where I live Rose Bud, Pine Ridge?

Rows into hearts of little girls, little boys enslaved,
By White men, The Precepts violated, Ten Commandments, every

Turn, those believers in salvation never saving, turned
To the blood bath we call sacraments, I weep, I weep, I weep

Because I am Mahayana Buddhist, what of those Israeli
Killed of Egyptians for their isolation, Covid masks for nothing?

Of Jews in another land held captive, greed, hate, prejudiced
Murder, Inquisition, Over and Over, and Over is this why we? As baby?

Mamma, why me? I Sit in Zazen, why we Take Communism one killing
Of the Cross, or the Fire Sermon? We have killed millions for two men

In name of religion, Iroquois, Jewish, European, dirty Mexicans, Chinese,
Japanese, American hate, European Religion, Asian Communism,

Who walked earth for creation of Peace, Engels, we killed, Dali Lama
What of Lincoln, Jefferson, Were these presidents of civil wars?

Because we were made, monolithic killing Karel Marx, Freedom
Each other sport, worship, wonderment of humanity! Why Declarations?

Why why in the Name of God, of no God, of life, no life
Why would we kill each other in the name of no life? Why?

Did we invent the Final Frontier a World Without War?
At more than speed of light? Enslaved Black men, women, sold,

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Mellie, Dachau, Auschwitz don't you see killing
Is wrong. Even stop, try to stop even now in Ukrainian, why why my tears?

Why do we take ourselves to brink of Nuclear holistic, the brink destruction
The destruction comes, the solar system is enslaved, laser rays new destruction

Of Global Warming to destroy whole planet of communities poison, geed,
Avarice, Rape, pillage, we even invent songs to praise killing, to legislate war.

Tearful Tai Shi
Zen realization
I bow, know why we bow
Why we shake hands, why we shake
Heads, sat/lah

[Onkai]

Long Live Love! Thank you, Tai Shi.

Gassho, Onkai

[Tai Shi]

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

Walking Away

At 11:00 pm we watched love movies, long trech
Down Apalachen Trail, old people who follow
Their hearts, I am septarian though upright
I could never make poetry out of burning ashes
I have made these years of planetary systems

Whole Words, now I sit in day dreams colored,
Easy days, if she were gone, I could not clean up
Own messes, I'm not helples, could not climb
Down stairs for old Walker, newly purchssed
Walker too big, temporily into storage.

It's too wide for our little house, worn corners
Old silk curtains, our dorways covered with years
To be learned again, much of my health stripped
Away, I may someday need surgery, dyalysis,
Last fall gouged my leg, this fall I fell, broke my ribs,

My shin, kidneys faulter, brain concusion. I may be
Into my endings, only once at seventy-two, At sixty
I drove to hospital with gastric henorage. New knees
Equilibrium gone, could not die, revived, once more
Walked into our home, needed my walker

In Miami there are only sports cares or walkers,
For outings to church, or shopping. I sing my difficult
Notes, for solution, never content was ever retelling,
Today I began without histories, She cared with love
For me, cared for my needs, my gift, lay-z-boy.

Though enbarrassed, I'm finly content with my life
Not done with old age, still not afaid to die
Designing present stories found beyond past,
Respected Each other husband, wife,
Now to be content with less than money,

She follows me into our bedroom where I sing
Quietly. Lay on my back because of painful broken,
Ribs. Nurses scolded, "You must use your walker
At All Times, or you may fall to your death."
If old men hold their doors open for ending, why

Should we want more to give with less she
Tells me silly your fall could have killed you changes
Furniture for me, catches me when I fall into bed
She knows what she wants. Life with peaceful
Love like we quenched thirst with water for afterlife,

Child-like, contented, rubing our feet together,
Laughter, we could start a fire, she's brilliant
Like sky, I write with rain, never ashamed
Our playful past she says knees touching like forest fire,
Grassfire prairie. Rubbing feet togther, On Dakota

Prarie, we laugh yet there is virgin prairie,
Somewhere. Children as senior citizens, relief,
Forget death today. Too old, gray walkers,
Canes, motor propelled chairs, wheels,,
Bright aluminum, not new, she's says,

"Ou walking for shopping, strolling to parks,."
She's still in love with me, I say, "Must be zazen."
She says, "No, new medication." She knows
It's really us. My old self writing again daily
Floweres of new poetry. It's not just her,

Not medication, not just zazen, I write poetry
Because I love poetry. Neatly flowered, blooms
Of words. We know promised lands, more than
Four decads of life, milk, and honey. In space,
Already stardust, after death becoming galexies.

Gassho
sat/lah
Tai Shi

[Onkai]

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[Tai Shi]

Today I am Remarkable

Only Yesterday, sentenced time of West One
I was 26-years-old, completed
Days, days images unfolded away Wards

Like carpet of red, brown, Autumn
To Leave poetry, I had come to poetry,
Comfort, to what was poetry of living deadly

Study this book, psychology book, the 9th
Edition of book of mom's only dirty attempt
Psychology of the Day, Familiar Textbook

Held like dry grass How many days is two months
Of times court given surgery hospitalized, four
Placed on revolutionary drug, Pill Poems


Pills, given discharged, knew. Never new again
Into Bowels Of the Earth, psych hospital tubes
Psychology of windowless turned into doors,

Lights on, white wall three days before class
This was no ending, this was the beginning
Of community college, Psychology 101, nowhere.

Of my adulthood, knowing of more, away vortex
Of past, of trees outside therapy window
By Douglas, my brother, Court Ordered,

Told new diagnosis Schizoaffective Disorder,
I'd never seen visions or voices, or known indivisible
Rain, Wet days, three foot snow drifts screamed

Except the waking times into wooden shrines, spring
Of isolation where sometime I purchase before third
Hospitalization. I'd purchased sharp eyes,

Someone saved my life out of vortex
Courtroom, court order discharged where
Discharge to productive work insurance for new

Paying off $1700 college, my mother's house
With "The Familiar," going back Back to college,
Friendly libraries, unions, nothing to envy

Instructor, Mark Vonnegut, like me he went
Farther who I'd abandon for this vision
Father would have abandoned me to wards

Of Five Dollars, parking fee, activity, library
College Bookstore, I found Be Here Now, Zen
Mind, Beginner Mind first ed, Freud's mindless

Station of familiar stories, A on every
Test, every assignment I told Where I'd come
From, that I'd known grandmother roamed

House "I graduated" from Greatest School in Iowa,"
Where I'd never known freedom, vortex ate me up
Where I'd first attempted meditation, Lotus Bloom

Come from "nightmare of West One Ward,"
What I did wasn't earn easy over, over learning
What this surgery of life learned about "Modern

Psychology" say I know. Silver days of Power
I vowed to leave this Iowa heap, daily meals
On TV trays, too much shaggy dog hair

From her white dog never stopped moving
Never belonged in houses, entertained animals
Child care, four dogs two cats, unfixed females,

House, I studied on front porch rented Uhaul,
Browed beat up old Rambler heat hitched
To all my stuff, don't forget books,

Circle of Sound, driving through heat, clouds
To Thich Nhat Hanh, new apartment, 172 miles
Away study not knowing poetry of future,

This time Advanced Creative Writing,
Poetry, "Writing for Personal And Public Purposes"?
Mastery of school. I wrote of filthy West One.

Gassho
Tai Shi
sat/ lah

[Onkai]

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[Tai Shi]

West Two then Zazen

It's easier now when I forget
To take my medicine at 5:00 a.m.
I can take it at 10:35 a.m then
I enjoyed my cup of tea, my yogurt,
My muffins, walked away

To my study for study; for
Sunday Sit. Time to sit again to spend
Another day reading and writing. There was
A time with no freedom to read and write, a little
Misty before We sit for peace again, I'm
Comfortable except my neck is killing me.

Rope of pounding pain around my neck,
It this "Robe of Liberation boundless,
Field byond form and formless..."
I remember how happy I was to memorize
After brain surgery. The rope tightens. I know
I have forgotten my mornings meds
Then The Heart Sutra. Then Zazen.

BACK TO kITCHEN MEDS FAST TO STUDY.
Sunday after Thanksgiving 2023
I thought back to 1974 as I reminisced
About the year I graduated, I sit in Zazen,
From College, the college experience

Where would I GET job with my degrees?
Back then nothing much held any promises,
My GPA, well at least I had something. Snow.

Stopped me from becoming, I sit Zazen.
I Am a Zen student. I am 72, studied
Graduate school about eight years, what was
I doing after I left Sanoma IN 1974?

HOW DID i MEET Marjorie, "in grad school"
What was I doing? I have half an hour before
I sit, let's see." I sit Zazen

Nothing. "I'm not a doctor!" I screeched
In Wes One Psychiatric Ward, then
I had good behavior after someone

Posted; Stopping by Woods on Snowy
Evening. It was three feet deep
Already, I had good behavior

For two days, I'd lost time, I didn't
Know what Day of the week it was,
This man in white coat said "Steve."

"I'm not Steve." "I'd like to talk to you
In the nurses' station." "Okay."
"We've decided to move you to

West Two." "What's West Two?"
You'll have more freedom there."

"Then one more thing. We've
Decided to let you go home
For Christmas Day. You'll return,

Of course in the evening." I sit Zazen.
"Who are you?" "I'm one
Of the medical students. I'm just here

To try and get you introduced to
The idea of going to West Two,
Assigned to your case."

"By the way I was roommates
With one of your Buddies, Jack, second
Year of med school. He is

One of my best friends,
In med school." "Tell me something.
Is my diagnosis schizophrenia?"

Words fell on the concrete
Floor like a hammer! Student
Picked them up, 10 penny nails.

"When you get to West Two,
You'll have the opportunity
To stroll those paths in beautiful woods

Behind the Psych buildings. You'll enjoy
Those nice wooded paths." "Tell me
Doc does, anyone ever walk away

From the Hospital?" "Rarely, it's
More than a mile to the road.
There's no transportation when
You get there." I sit Zazen

"Say I want to know, is my
Diagnosis Schizophrenia?"
The senior year med student

Looked sheepish, "Yes, but
You will meet your therapist
After Christmas." "Say doc
When is Christmas?"

"You don't know? It's tomorrow."
"How long have I been here?"
"Don't you know?" It's a while. You can visit
With your nurse upstairs. You're

Under court order, Why don't you
Know the date?" " "Took me right
From the office." I sit zazen
"They had established I was broke.

I have $80 in my sock drawer at home."
Can I have some of my books when I
Get to West Two? I have a great History


Of Ancient Greece." "It's doubtful
They will let you have anything except
"Your clothes, but you can go outside.

I imagine it's getting uncomfortable
In those hospital gowns. But no belt,
No shoe strings." "How do I keep

My pant's up, my shoes on." "They
Have plastic ties that fasten your
Pants and your shoes. They come off."

Say, doc my spine hurts, what is it?
"Probably anxiety. Get your Stuff
Together. The aid will get you situated

Upstairs." Out the door without another word."
When I was 40, I learned my spine had
Ankylosing Spondylitis. I sit zazen

When I got there to West Two, college
Students were singing Peter, Paul,
Mary songs. Playing guitarists. Into this
Dimmed Room, overwhelmed with size

Of West Two, the smoke swilled
Up my nose. People could smoke.
Students Opened into a chorus of Puff
The Magic Dragon. I suddenly

Was a child of four. I began to cry
No one noticed as my face got wet.
Finally another song began. It was
Christmas Eve. In the ten days

In West one. I'D LOST TRACK
Of time. "When do I get out?" "You'll
See the nurse I'll take, get your stuff,

To your room. First I've Got
To introduce to you roommates."

He hadn't noticed my face was
Wet. Grabbing tissues from the table
I dried my face as I followed him

Down to the room. As this woman
Dressed as a nurse took me by the arm
""I'll take it from here, John." I sit zazen.

She walked back to the Day Room
Where several tables were playing
Cards. As this woman led me too

A small room, a plexiglass cage, I
Was afraid. "I'll be introducing you to those
People on the ward," I sat down

Quietly in the plexiglass room.

"I'll be giving you your medication."
She handed me a paper cup and several
Pills in a SMALLER paper cup, "I'll take my pills."

I asked again. "Can I have my books HERE?"
"There's plenty to read. Besides
We will keep you busy with PT, OT, Groups
And visits with therapy and psychiatry.

Were done. Lights out at 10, Go to your room.
Pick up your things." I obediently followed
Her down the hall. "There's the bathroom.

We'll get you food from the kitchen. Any
Preference? Tuna or Chicken?" "Ah, chicken
Please" Comes with a drink and chips, decaf
Or Seven UP? "Seven up." I sit zazen.

"Here's your room. Lights out in two hours,
That closet is yours. That bed is yours."
There were two other beds. In the window

I could see snow from the streetlights,
Tight woven screens outside the plastic
Window." "Want to follow me. I'll
Get an aid to help you now."

I would get to wear my, I sit Zazen,
Clothes for a while, one hour 45 minutes before
Bed, as I finished dinner, a man
Wandered to the table where I

Was gazing at the tube. "My name
Is Bill, what's yours? Want a smoke?"
"No, I don't smoke." "You will by the
Time you leave here."
Now I am into Shikantaza.


Gassho sat/lah
Tai Shi

[Tai Shi]

Why is she older than her 23 years?
She Was Different

She was 23. Died, Older than her bones
Her bones were 23; her bones are older
Then she smiles, older than she tastes
Our beloved daughter, it happend.
Her bones older than the sun beautiful,
Older. Then 93,000,000 miles away, Older,
Older than the earth, 24 hours a day,
5 billion years. It’s okay to be as old as the sun.

Quietly at first because sound 700,
Light years, 283,000 miles a second, stage
A bomb cloud at 25,000 feet, B29 as old as her
Bones are her bones, Here bones belong
Where is flux, what sucks, what? What Runs
To Muck, much to my surprised with surprise,
Heroshima, invisible. Destroyed in moments
Beautiful, she is different, after sees Hiroshima
She becomes that's why she does stink
Not is green, super orange, red, or yellow,
Not Smelling like fried rice, fried death,
Rice not coming from China, not realizes
She is not Chinese, she came to Heroshima
After this bomb, which bombs? The Atomic bomb

Turned everything to ash, which looked
Like bones, like tangled snow, powered
Bones, ash from bones, old bones, snow epicenter
Vaporized human beings, Where then bomb
Fell, encrusted child lay on this ground, shell
Of clothing, nothing inside, just shape of children
Girl, or boy no one could tell except that those children,
Before 8:15 local time; shining somewhat malnourished
Child, scarcity of food meant that that child ate no
Breakfast that morning, then at 8:16 that child
Was a shell of carbon and a handful of ash, ashes
That would be shadows of little girls or boys
No one could tell of these, less than 2% of uranium
235 exploded 15000 tons of TNT went off
Immediately, all at once. Radiation H bombs much bigger
Could flatten a city 18 miles radius from epicenter,


Does the fundamental Buddhist principle of all
People being good deep down inside apply to soldiers?
Who fires on opposing soldiers? How do we offer mercy
To those caught in the fireball of an atomic bomb?
What's this goodness of the pilot and bombadear?
New B29 planes flying at 25,000 feet, dropped
The 10,000 lb bomb from the ground, tiny chute
Overwhelmed, tolerate the unknown of not knowing.
Every time I peerform pieces of play on words,
When bomb droped plane jumped ten feet,
A bomb, H bomb, so cruelty deals with substance.
Unit from Army Air Corps we do workshops With
Body with breath, of teaching about things,
All elements we as human beings, music out of
Sound way in, what out of your mouth, physics
Of throat and air, transcend human culture,
Beginning human culture, 20,000 years
In our past, 20 centuries, 100 years each,
Think of twenty years done 200 times as big,
100 years, 20 centuries. Won without fight,
One more sight of bullets; how can we
See bullets? Now, and then, then and now
More fearsome, more horrible than 80,000
People killed instantly as smoke, ash, sound
Flattens city of wooden walls with more than 100 mile
Then, 150 miles an hour. hours of winds only 2%
Of sun radiation weald sword of light,?Hhow
Could German scientists? They came to this USA
Developed 5 A bombs, of U235, then Plutonium.
These bombs closed this war, Nagasaki WW2, war 2,
Another 70,000, war to end all wars; these have
Been happening since human kind took chunk
Of bone, fragmented it upon an anonymous head.

Jump Tardive Dyskinesia fights; my nerves,
Some days I jump with the best drugs
For mental illness; that’s what came of experiments
On prisoners, Acid flash. I’m placid of accidents.
There was this Jesus, before him Buddha, I know
Both, both precepts are loving kindness for ours,
Israelites, palestine of Jesus, of Mohamed, Moses
Sons and daughters. I am an old man. Ordinary man
Charles E Taylor, November 23, 2023.

Gassho
sat/lah

[Onkai]

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah