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

[Onkai]

Thank you, Tai Shi, for the lovely poem.

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[Tai Shi]

My Tea, Shikantaza, Love, Salutation


Tea, as I sit quietly, silently Zazen
My cup, partial gone in my drank,
My in my mug, cooling for 30 minutes,
While I actually enjoy quiet, then
Gone Shikantaza, here Shikantaza.

What is this thirty minutes?
What is flavor of tea leaves,
Cooling water formerly boiling
Buildings warm from new
Furnace flame? Now October,

Leaves golden, turned from green
Yesterday's rain, blue gray
Under soggy drops of mold,
Damp pungent smell, of what
Do I hear? Is it my love

Quiet breathing now?
Escaping life of oxygen twenty
Percent, almost 80 percent
Nitrogen, other inert gases
Slithering between layers of air.

Thirty minutes, I hear bell chime
Young man simply says, what
Noise. Have good days, sits again
Burmese, up on knees, thank you
Have a good day, see you all soon.

say/lah
Gassho
Tai Shi

[Tai Shi]

Eternity

Before unraveling
Of blue green poetry,
Days of eternal winter
In failed shame of death,

Slanting up my walls
Relief from spheres
My window for stooping back,
Again Spondylitis

Sings in another key,
Circled fifths our song,
Minor pantheon, piano
Never learned in history,

Imaginary lines departing
From astral lessons.
Flatland my free voice
In another space opera,

Ws sing our departures,
I cannot speak of flowers or trees,
Old literal death of subatomic
Physical nakedness

Buddhahood solving kindness
Messages sent in verses
Mighty wonderment
Atonement of gardens ended

No spring, no summer, or fall
Eternal cold welcomed
Ways of thinking
Straight lines unconverting

Floating away into void
Black with time dissolved
Seasons never made again
Prepared rebirth cannot be

Except in atoms of energy
Photons, electrons,
Naked particles, protons
Exploded,, Neutrons yoked

Into nights of art.
Body ever ninety-eight point
Six degrees Farenheit
Astral plane five or fifty

Years becoming fayed
By wisdom your needlework
Not forgotten, but saved,
Majesty in love, your dignity

Created, catching up millennia,
Eons your trigonometry,
All planets disappearing,
Death of the bower of bliss

Spiral disk disease
Patterns in wondering
Why we are getting old
Knowing fear of blindness,

My dear do not cry,
Welcome solar light
Arounded forth dimension
Of our slanted points in earthen

Vessels, energy wherein we slide
To tombs of space,
Prepared for us, we couple
In dividing dust

Death's ashen arms
Around each other
Smoke our Master's Degree
Sacrificed into void

University of solar sacrament
Lectured emptiness
Enshrined in everlastingly,
In halls of space, absolute zero

Now provisional poetry,
Laid to rest, we will never see
Our own forever
This nova our only universe.

We made old sun fly, winged
Chariot without life; he ran,
Away, We did not hide reality
Disappearing smoke or energy

Willed by solar wind
Away from planets, burned.
Relativity forgotten
Platitudes to universal

Love, all left without
Natural grave. Without
Thy state of being
Caused or Effect

Religion gone
Brooding light years away
Descending on our shoulders.
Caused old Sol to fly away.

In entropy closed, nirvana
Dividing fifth dimension,
Now we do not depart
Are Universal collapsing stars.

Tai Shi
Deep bows
sat/lah

[Tai Shi]

Hoseki, you write mighty fine poetry. My advisor in my MFA program said this, "Always write from the heart. You'll never go wrong if you write from the heart,"

Charles E Taylor
Tai Shi

[Tai Shi]

Love Me

Today I am not ashamed
To be me, as one with comfort
Said once and now he is gone
Free to be you and me,
Realizing I stand alone,
Cannot tell her what to do
Cannot tell anyone
What to do I am simple

Brown pithy wood and I
Slather on our living room
Floor, I am an old rug
A hasick tattered by the cat
Wisdom like velveteen rabbit
Tattered to bits because someone
Loved the skin off the top
Of my head, I am bald my head
Hurts most days, worn blue

Taken for granted when I was a young
Man, I did not think I was a man
I always said I wanted the inner
Child, now I know like Wallace
Stevens, God is everything
Or he is nothing, so I call him HE,

The apple I ate yesterday
Has become the pear today
Yesterday's black tea, it has become
Peppermint tea today, when I
Wanted to be with people they
Were not there, so today I'm
Alone and I like it.

Today my watch announces 9:00
A.M. I am 9:00 playing and you shall
Have bald heads anyway, grow
Old any way anyway to grow
Old is my day because
I am a velveteen rabbit

How did I become Jocko
My rag doll when I was three
Years old, and then when I was four
My mother bought me a baby
Doll, and still I went fishing
With dad at age six and he
Left me when I was seven

I was the rag doll, the baby
Doll, the stuffed monkey
My father used to wipe
His windshield, and I cried
Daddy don't do that don't make
Me the stuffed monkey

Cleaning your windshield, daddy
Don't run away I love you daddy
Sold as an old man I told him
Dad I forgive you, and I sent
Him western books to read,
A radio, and a razor.
He does nothing, he's ninety-three.

I had grown up a man and
I told him, dad, I love you
Don't you see it took me to age 70
Just before brain surgery
To be the fisherman, a man
You wanted me to be a man
I am a man, I shave, I write,
I read, I caught you books, they

Where are my books, dad love me.
He talked dirty of his back.
I am not back, I am gone, I don't
Care. to talk dirty I am alone.
I like it that way, it is
All my friends except her,
We had a child together who
We raised, and she hated stuffed

Baby dolls, only wanted Lumpy
The rag bear, children are not
Rag dolls, she is getting her PhD
He finally admitted to me that we raised
Her, we loved her, now my wife
Is with me, Dad someone loves me,
Oh, I am not alone.

Gassho
Deep bows
lah/ sat

[Hoseki]

Hi folks,

I don't often write poetry but I was reading a discussion on Uji in a facebook group and I felt like I wanted to try and explore the ideas in a poem.

The mind of the great sage is none other than time

time does not change
times is change
change is not seen
change is always seen
eyes open; a hundred grasses
closed; the bright darkness


Gassho,
Hoseki

[Tai Shi]

Connections to
Charles Tai Shi Home

Dedication
初回 [しょ初·かい回]
First Time

Round game, final occurrences
Switching from carnal to incarnate
Body unformed now, flesh relieved
My wife and I play different
Ways. We satisfy with the mind

Simple Japanese game
While she learns Mahjong,
American alternations
Of these games, our Pokemon,
Go, we travel daily, tired, together
My body seeks equilibrium
Romance differed from youth

Switched as I was 40 Ankylosing
Spondylitis struck deep
Into back lower back, neck,

Chest, she took pity on husband
Let money fly, was it pleasing
I sought, until realizing
At 72, I am supposed mental
Reading, writing constantly
Give forth Hindu and asking

Relative to trees, conifer
Deciduous, known RAMA
VISHNU, Since I knew color
Combinations Restful blues
Purple, greens

Never red. orange, yellow,
Harsh until soil seeded
With life, seething insects,
Seed, microbes
Which make soil rich
With green Magenta,
Rose window, Versai
Tapestry of neural blue,
ultraviolet, bringer of life,

Living things, animal
Life never beaten down, liberated
To opening up, both remembering
Various plodded, now letting
Each other return to earth
Before onset of Ankylosing
Spondylitis, seized days, disk
Disease when child conceived
Return to midwest to purchase

Our home, it now is your
Home, our home, steel siding
Wooden, engineered oak floors,
Meant for you, starter home
Hundreds thousands, more
Sanctified with studied life.

Charles Tai Shi Taylor

[Tai Shi]

Connections to
Charles Tai Shi Home

Round game, final occurrences
Switching from carnal to incarnate
Body unformed now, flesh relieved
My wife and I play different
Ways. We satisfy with the mind

Simple Japanese game
While she learns Mahjong,
American alternations
Of these games, our Pokemon,
Go, we travel daily, tired, together
My body seeks equilibrium
Romance differed from youth

Into back lower back, neck,
Chest, she took husband
Let money fly, was it pleasing
I sought, until realizing
At 72, I am supposed mental
Reading, writing constantly
Give forth Hindu and asking

Relative to trees, conifer
Deciduous, known RAMA
VISHNU, Since I knew color
Combinations Restful blues
Purple, greens
Never red. orange, yellow,

Harsh until soil seeded
With life, seething insects,
Seed, microbes
Which make soil rich
With green Magenta,
Rose window, Versai
Tapestry of neural blue,
ultraviolet, bringer of life,

Living things, animal
Life never beaten down, liberated
To opening up, both remembering
Various plodded, now letting
Each other return to earth

Before onset of Ankylosing
Spondylitis, seized days, disk

Disease when child conceived
Return to midwest to purchase
Our home, it now is your

Home, our home, steel siding
Wooden, engineered oak floors,

Meant for you, our home
Hundreds thousands, more
Sanctified with studied life.

Charles Tai Shi Taylor

[Tai Shi]

Fly Away Wild Bird

As adjunct without fly
Out your of Degree, would
Prove them wrong be
Never morning's dove,
Your wonderment March,
1989. What would Message
Mean to us? I must let
You daughter live Laurel
Ann, PhD. If you desire
Not ABD, flame doubt I say
Your worth flight everything.
Of eternity. Juncture
In Iowa not mine but yours
To fire goddess never father
Whose Zen promise, do members
Wear black, this simplicity,
To see reality? You can know
This ultimately graduated is yous,
Renounce laity, for you are academic
Not Ubasoku, never in stern gifts
Spirituality, agnostic, nothing
But the blue bathroom vanity, dad's
Robe is yours, mantle of same,
Don't push but soar up away,
To your sea? is ocean worth
Black zazen unlike academic
Man found by Priests, Serving
No social clique, all given
Over, child of my seed,Wash U
My life. Never flown, now seen
Cells united in Love, It's time
To be your own method finish
Your doctorate, Japanese must
This reality be yours even Iowa
Where parents magnificently
Called brightest star, Reading Lab
Father's first university teaching
Job at in English, Now distinguish
Yourself find Japan, be your own
End, let all! Why do I wish
As parents found their academic,
Loving past, more professorship,
For you not Loyalty, your generosity,
It's time to end, to be your own
With wonderment. Give praise
To yourself little bird cast out
Away October costume cold
To door, your play Snow
White, dad gave you flowers
Acting away, kissed instead
Of lips you were child again
I saw mist part as I gave
You far away, your heart Ruby
Throated Hummingbird out of class
it's time, sweet six-year-old
Daughter I walked away, your thirty-
Four To memory, your accolade
Vision now sweet innocence gone
You are bird song now captive
In auditorium, you fly up, out
To window! Are you captive?
Little bird, little life take off
Find open glass, You blindly
Fly from wall to wall, door
Closed find another entrance
In window I watch you grown
Up Little child, is it mantle
I mistook, perhaps too tight
Given up because your death
Cannot Dive can't be stalled,
In fall fly away to your mighty
Fine performance with little help
One you never wished, awakened
Because he killed in X from Twitter
Your research damned never started
Sold in shameful heart to literature
Gone dreams, vision, seen
In some distortion social
Medium, those wonderful
Words slammed shut good
Midas touch Billion dollar
Deal dismantled your dreams
Your research turn to heart
Chapbooks like Americans
You thrive. Japanese research
Known all written your freedom
Justified as mother, help yourself
Why, Dad labors so writing
Heart some can call night
Bird song Publisher steal,Songs,
Poetry found copyright, asked
Junked as dishonest people demand
Sermon on the mount, some promise,
Personally grasped finally you see,
You find another way, please
Write your soul into first books
Fully ended of academy, outstanding
Research, beginning flight another
Little snow white bird, winter gone
Far away will wilt flowers, color bright
Frozen in light from stage floor
Show your own way away from door
Some slammed shut, freedom gone,
Find for your flight, your final flight
Creative art, let this praise
Be eternally yours, never gave
To father, his is done haunt not
Halloween headsman please
Do not falter, fly your promise
Of teaching impediment, another
Way from night driven out window
Imaginary door gone let guides
Help you fly out, away from clouds
In sky leave all behind find clear
Another way, even window
When door slams shut, open
The social medium broken nothing
To pieces, now time is short, going,
You will be thirty-five, never
Young bird anymore, time to fly
To leave nest on your own words,
Find your heart, write hours away
Before flame singe wings into death,
You can do this, you soar up never
Afraid to find your window open,
Open wide away, fly to freedom
Write your poetry's different song,
Without help yes, blue white girl
Be the woman you were born,
Snowbird of Dawn, another blizzard
In South Dakota landscape,
Migrate away; this morning write,
Praise, Fly away, you are gone.

Tai Shi
calm poetry sat/lah, given
To daughter, deep bows.

[WorkerB]

b.
St

[Tai Shi]

There are three loves
Two past loved too much
One grasped, then sent
Away, we were 20, we
Were angry for the sweater
She gave; did not knit
Me, her bathing suit, her
Towel, The second beer
And drugs, stein clay
Original, from Germany,
In there was on long ago
Did she know if it was
My child, or no child?
I never knew, then
There is this fimal. She
I have dedicated my life
Too, also, Oh, given my
Forty-four years, that
Little apartment in Iowa
City, that rustic apartment
In Iowa City, you gave me
All, I gave you part which
I thought was all, I had
Been hurt, three times before,
But you did I count
One who was only brief
She could not study
She left our college,
Enamored of scintillating
Situation, then you,
Ours was with even
A priest, ordered
From your mother
Your plod, plod, plod
To altars of choice,
Signed our document
We had passed two bloody
Blood tests, we traveled
That summer to Ship Rock,
New Mexico, seventh
Sacred mountain of Navajo,
Though I drank on res,
I lost pictures, all but one
Of Maroon Bells, after
Sobriety, it was just one
Year, you gave your body
Fully for our child, she gave
My all for your complete
To us, three, you gave
Our family, I had new
Family, I was orphaned
You had orphanage,
We two lost spirits
Had lost our way, I wept
For you, for myself,
Your rejections of Gods,
Your mother's death, me
With cloak of majesty, my
Friend failed, said heaven
Explained, I taught
Purgatoire was your myth,
Your thought no checked
References, mother wrong
Most we took in old age
After love's sport was
Just haze, we played
If our game taught us
One thing, how committed
We are in old age, forty-one
Years two months away from
Your God of rejection
I am the same never sure
Again, what we found
Deep everlasting reverence
For commitment, life of love
Our abode, our abode
Never did you attack me
We nor them have you
Desired, house with wood
Francine envied our life,
Our commitment of love
My Buddhism I pray let
My disease, not make
Me crippled, work, work
To ease my back so that
You and me, can pass
Our 80th year, you three
Years behind, I will always
Wait for you, always
Wait for you, though heat
For you is cold for me,
Our new furnace installed
Coming Saturday, gift
For me in my cold room
How I have come to love you,
I am seventy-two, why so long
Why did it take so long, why
Do we part, you deny years
If sport, except found
Morality in Buddhist precepts,
Our majesty, explained, found
True love, eternally we
Accept Buddhist heaven,
This our love eternally.
Deepest bows
Sat yesterday
Nor 23 hours
!/2 ago, I am found
My Priesthood, she is
My second place
Devotion passed
For Ubasoku, another
Day will bring
Another sting, sting
Let us run, run
To make old sol fire
Upon flood, polar bear,
Kindness we found
Only in each other.

Gassho
Great bows
sat/ lah
Tai Shi

[Tai Shi]

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

One Moment at a Time

for Kokuu, Meian, and Jundo

Es gut mir Heute
So I drank my way
Through Bavaria
In Germany,
I live my life one
Day at a Time,
Sometimes one moment,
My inflammation
Causes me to be
Everly mindful, today.

I pulled back my curtains
In my study, beheld
My dozens and dozens
O books of poetry,
The last a gift of daughter,
Migrations, WS Merwin
Buddhism soaked through
These pages, reverence
For life began
With my decision 10:00
Morning, sunny days
In The Rocky Mountains
In Fort Collins, CSU
Parking lot I made my
Decision to abstain
From All Ethyl
Alcohol, a promise I have Kept
Since Monday July 22, 1987,
More than half my life,
Yesterday that I
Affirmed my adherence,
To my entire promise since
That date, nor have
I abused Provider's
Orders, excuse, I cleared
Off my breakfast dishes,

I Sat Zazen for 27 minutes
Began about 8:00,
Studied Constitutional law,
Shall I see window now
Slant light, Shadow
May I ever be
Mindful one Day at a Time
Sometimes One moment
At a Time.

Tai Shi
Charles Elgwyn Taylor

[Kokuu]

Tai Shi, do you still read your Messenger? I sent messages on Friday and Saturday which are unread and a message on Gmail.

You seem to use so many different places, it is hard to know where to contact you.

Gassho

[Kokuu]

Early autumn, a storm
cuts through the heat.
My body too, flares with inflammation
needing its own cooling rain.
Over the hedgerow, the sound of children
battling over a ball.
Seagull cry, blue sky,
Namu Kie Butsu.


Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Tai Shi]

Saga of the intertwined,

Charles and Marjorie

Greek, Persian, Hebrew, Irish, Latin
Pearl : Child of light; pearl; jewel
Greek : Pearl My wife vowed
Solemnly, Designed in wonder
真珠 -- Pearl in Scotland
She is timeless, Child of Light
Timeless Pearl, In Sacred use
One who is true, She
My wife, has taken her vows
As she says even today
Presented me quiet,

Now spoken even at age
Has she brings to us
Gifts to see to speak
Quietly serene and true
We both devoted
To each other in eternity
Free of Alcohol she vows
As me she taught me
We did vow to be each
To each, to have distinguished
Sound from my classmates.

Of Kings have Been called
Charles. Don't be fooled I am
Nothing special I have
My soft side, Not popular
I was named less than
One hundred, never
Popular, Pearl you
Took me mailable

Solemn vow is taken
An individual "free man"
Vow consisted in a promise
You offer a sacrifice, if would
Give some assistance
In a difficulty; deliberate
Free promise, we chose
Each to each other

Charles, distinguished
Sound from his classmates.
free man Charles from Germanic Ceorl,
Meaning "free man". The name
Has been popular throughout history
Kings have been called Charles.
Hunger for learning, working hard
At his goals while studying
With diligently.

With affirmation "pearl". It is a
Nobility Marjorie Asian Foo Dog
Known as the "Lion of Buddha"
Although you are not exactly
With Buddhism. In Japan,
Some use you Lion
You ward off evil spirits
Attract health and wealth.

I am free, woman you
Vowed, this promise you told me
Seriously as in Solemnity assurance
Will do particular thing particular
Things will happen. Together we
You are bravery in betrothal
Given my Mary of clear light
Your sister, my brother
Robert, Douglas "bright fame".
Fame someone is intelligent,
Intuitive, graceful, or psychic.
My brother witnesed

At our vow we chose becoming
Friends, forty-one years
Our wedding vows have
To hold through sickness
And health we have
Traveled we lived together
Have parented our daughter

Lived together, husband wife
Wife leads husband
You told me as married we
Took our vows seriously,
We gave each other Laurel
Ann, we love each other
We care most for friendship
This is the gift we gave
Our daughter each other
Poet Teacher Friendship
To each other in Each
Separate, together
Independence Livelihood,
We gave echo the other

Soft pearl of yoyality you
With Charles Marjorie,
One together, as we are three
You, me, each other, three
Spend together, we lived
As we found January
Seven, 1980, married
June 12, 1982, vows given
Freely after two one half years
Until we needed was
With friends you would be
My friends, family witnesses
Until we have become

Known through reading
Writing be with those we
See, most our being,
Study more books every
See that our writing
Learner, largely not harm
Not aggression, freedom we
Know is love of others, given
Worldly gifts to serve more
To our world who would gain
Health education and to be

Classroom office hospital,
Departments where those
Bought food and clothing,
Ours has always been service
To others, to our worlds

Always be what visible
We see, and sit as only
Reality, just sitting,
Just being, Justly honest
More from eternity
Guesed equality, we
Treat others with equality
Others invited to our
Home each time for food
Shelter, sustance, drink
Sworn off all alcohol
Of this we are happy


Gassho bowing
Witnessed.
just sat/ leant
A hand.



"what happened to all those firm promises of support?