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

[Kokuu]

That is beautiful, Tai Shi. Thank you, my friend

[Tai Shi]

What of Me

She said "I am no one,
who are you?" We sit
and wonder what it does
What just sitting does
To the mind, to the soul
If there be a soul, to heart
Body, blackened for fire
Creased this other mended
Rakusu has me as a given
The ultimate gift, one I asked
For, why ask, he gave freely
He is a priest, he is tired
I am old, I am carding, to walk
Away from fire, recompose
Poem about me friend
空, こくう, kokū, empty space
Empty sky, Kokua, one
Who serves,虚空, こくう, kokū
Which is it? Empty Space,
Empty Sky and another
Kokua, one who serves,
My ultimate thanks, poem
Wish were here, he slowly
Is friend, and many, many
Call him a "friend one who
Serves, one who is empty
Space, Empty Sky," this man
Who meets with me
Once a month, who
I look to who is my
Young brother, not he who
He is a Priest, one who serves,
Kokua, Kokuu, empty
Space, Empty Sky.
虚空, こくう, kokū
May I know when
When you go away
When to hide my Rakusu,
When to be, not be
I am he who brings the picture
Of my rocks in Hartford,
In Sioux Falls the falling water.
We are serene, we are Rakusu,
As I show my daughter's
Academic Regalia, what I
Have to offer Kokuu
My friend of openness.
Doctor of Philosophy
In Biology, in spirit
My friend
Who teaches me?

Gassho
lah/sat
Tai Shi
Peacefully

[Tai Shi]

Freedom of Disability

Today I find lectures
Of cognitive behavior
Full of laughter, ideally
Gone from yesterday’s
Fourteen below zero F,
So in warmth I am like

Men on whaleboat in 1800s
We jar, we turn this capture
Boat meets spray, salty air.
Every wind across Pacific
Ocean, I know oceans of poetry,
Have I seen both anger, kindly,
Read of despair but Today I
Know I shall live long, prosper
Without labor, escape indignity
Of our country, work, labor

From manual strain, escape this
Reward of disability, why by
Thought of life, I be on whaling boat
Aching I have known indignity,
Of course I will be in your presence
Dreams are my love for you
We are dying to be friends with
Our past enemies work for blood
I know the answer be what
Not why, not work, sigh back
Wait I don’t work except our child
At spring chatter, scribe now
Of paper more than paper
Electronically mind over matter,
She knows poetry, my gift to her,

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Simply cut lose from right
Shoulder to left, I am free, more
Love in me, I am not alone
I don’t have to strain every
i have no crime for I will be free,
Of labor because of arthritis
In my body race towards pain,
Muscle, shatter my own bones
Blinding—chasing these great

Humpbacks, oil not needed
For my lamp, I rest my head
On my air pillow, rest tonight
Spring be reality for me, let
Me see green wavelets in majesty
Of this depth, this salt mist flung
By whaling boats, I am free, I
Have no work because I am
Disabled, rough across my calling

Given name Charles, now become
Tai Shi, in Japanese, calm poetry,
Peaceful Poetry, I am thankful
That like some women don’t
Have to grind what I have, bones
Where I am free to write poetry.
Marriage, fatherhood, laughter’s
Reality of Life, my passion for poetry
This same gift to my wife and daughter
Words of truth, figures of life. Poetry’s
Own edifying story about how we
Write our hearts in our own blood.

Gassho
lah/sat

[Kaitan]

Spining a fidget spinner
keeps me busy
spinning the shinny and smooth ring
around my thumb
a gift from grandma
I love her



stlah, Kaitan

[Tai Shi]

Weak Is My Body

I am weak, I am big Of another
Verse, any verse, I am a Poet dear!
Now my name is clear. Then Tai Shi
Away, I panic within a sphere, listen

Once again, panic in my name, for
Tai Shi? Quick now, once again, let--
Be calm poetry, did Zoom lock me out?
Once I took for granted Zen teachers,

My teacher, all teachers, lest I
Forget, Lest I forget my splintered
Neck, Ankylosing Spondylitis, now!
Then, my future unto death, life

Profound, pain every moment, away.
Arthritic back, knees gone, identity
Of rarity, this is every day, please
Give me more time, Am I ready?

I am disabled, told not to lift more
Everywhere, 15 pounds, 5 kilos comes
Round, I push my limits, this simpleton,
Could the undoing of my sharp vertebra

Finally, I have bought new shoes, to
Help my swelling feet, anticipation
This is a rare earth. Rare diseases kill.
Let me find again what dear Marjorie

Said. She told me long ago, "You should not
Lift more than 14 pounds. Give
Yourself some room." There are reasons
I ( became a poet). I am not strong,

My body stings among dispositions
Of relic,, My rheumatologist says,
"Your disease is getting worse,
Don't be surprised if you come

To a wheelchair, or back to walker,
Push yourself around, be good to yourself.
Again physical therapy." The first she
Has been kind to me in a while.

I am frightened beyond my normal
Mood. My hands change, too; with
Broken pain when I type, with difficulty!
Day reveals more somedays I may not

Write. anger pain surges, in my thumbs
With my rigid fingers, "I push on,
On to where? what is beauty?" I ask.
"No one can tell me. My hot fingers

Press keys. Do I destroy, do I maintain
The index finger of my right hand is
Death-defying hands, writing blood
Under my skin. I push my aching digits on."

Gassho
lah/sat

橙翁終幕 (Tōō Shūmaku)

I spent the evening in a boardroom
Just down from the oval office
Just me, Baron, an aid named Nick,
And of course the asshole-in-chief himself
Only, He wasn't that much of an asshole
And he was often really funny and nice
He seemed to really like me and my jokes
We talked very informally, like human beings
I was diplomatic and told him what I thought
I told him about the comparisons to Hitler
And he shook his head and said he hated that
My mother had been a politician
We talked about different slogans for him to use
He liked the advice I gave him and explained
"Sometimes the world needs an asshole"
The rot in Washington was controlled by money and which could only be obliterated and built anew with money
For better or for worse the globalists grip was loosening
I told him I had protested, the G7, the WTO and IMF
I told him I had protested the destruction of ma and papaw
I'd taken pepper spray, zip tied, hogtied
And thrown in the back of a van
Maybe it was time to watch it all burn
But why would this nice orange Grandpa
Be left holding the flaming bag of shit that was America?
Because they knew this was the end stage
And their bunker was finished 4 months ago

_/\_
hōsai

[Tai Shi]

The poem deals specifically with quantum physics and the paradox of ordinary matter in the universe.

[Tai Shi]

gassho
lah/sat

[Tai Shi]

Tall Mountain

I sat in the morning's mountain
Tall Mountain Pass, sitting ever
Each morning at 6:05 a.m. gather
Thought to release, to live by,
To walk this way to our Shikantaza,
To our reverence, to our wisdom,
To be one, out of one, leaf lying
On the ground, we pick it up.
Wonder of no thought, or wonder,
We are one, one people, one
Flower, one wisdom taught
In the community, one, three, three
One, Buddha, one Dharma, one
Sangha, how to realize oneness
One being, everyone, being
Flower bloom, there is no sex,
Only bloom, only flower, we have
Come this long, long long way
The path of wisdom of teaching
Of community, Then for life, then
For honesty, then for tenderness
All resurrected in morning dew,
In the essence of water, of humility,
Of Equanimity, come to sun rays
Filling science, of knowledge, mini
Wonderful, largeness, tiny study
Matter, study beyond the atom, beyond
Hydrogen, beyond Helium, beyond,
Axis of matter, energy, liquid, solid,
State electron, ever looking beyond
What we give to reality, speed, motion
Individual beings, the essence of reality,
Reality caught in a reflex of time, of notion
Broken chain of being, of wonder, how
To move in solid gas, liquefy each sub-atomic
Particle, sand castle in billions, of billions
In divisible, cutting, wonder, wonder
Of wonder, motion through time, energy,
Gone into universal suns, each infinitesimal,
Sight, rods, cones, retina, humanity
Largely relativity, time, and solid motion--
This is our visible galaxy, galaxies infinite,
Stop the music, morning, noon, evening,
Night, morning, back to the wonder of the infinite.

Gassho
deep bows
lah/sat

夢醒丑刻 (Musai Chūkoku)

The night after the polar bear gave me a sniff
I just let go and said "do your worst"
I cycled 1300 km and stayed at a temple on Shikoku
I waited a bit and then my friends showed up
Yukon in full kesa was surprised by the big hug
It turns out they did open that temple in the middle
of the fire. He did eventually realize his goal!
So happy for him and for all of us.

_/\_
hosai

[Tai Shi]

Thank You, Write Again

For all let us write, One, two three... Thank you all for the many poems, thank you all for those dedicated to Treeleaf Zendo, to fail not, and to give forth like Elm, Conifer, Douglas Fir, all never, confined not, giving green this Maple seed, will come in two or three months, offering green, amber, brown, green seeds, growing Trees, giving forth, thank you for coming here to be with us, all manner of poems, all types of free verse, of those may verse, Big Poetry, Little Poetry, April Verse, Summer verse, Autumn verses, Winter Verse, all verses, all Poets, come forth, bee, insect, worm, yes be, yes be... keep writing for art and being, may we be together, Thanks being, thank you write again...

Gassho
lah/sat

[Tai Shi]

For Shokai

Our teachers drop out our sky is bright,
Morning in February, every snow in us
Cold we must find our teachers where
So where are you? Could it be your friend?

Your wife befall with sight gone, do we sit
Alone someone else rings a bell, more like
You not but more like a gong, where is bright
Satisfying tone high mournfully everywhere?

We sing your praise your song, your ancient
Voice, we as birds for thee, we sing with thee
What becomes of thine audience, the sun felt
Rays ninety-thee million miles away as we

Sit this, this morning without thee, wondering
What becomes of Treeleaf without you?
What sorcery, magic not, this may sickness
Of family matter be, your wonderment where

Can all be with us this morning, this bring
Us without, where are you? We sing in silence
Bright us to sit in quiet, each to each we are in sight
Nine of us in rows, young and old, women, men

Radiance, we sit quietly in peace calm poems
Each of us, we know, your being, two days
I have been absent from you without rows and yet
What of me, what of thee, we sing your praise.

We sing of thee, what becomes of ocean bright?
Sun with you we cannot function fully even though
We are alone, we plod down soil like those without
Draft horses, we pull, quietly sit without a teacher.

Gassho
lah/sat

Hosai, I like this poem very much. Could you provide more information about this poem please and please give us some insight into the story behind the poem?
Gassho
lah/sat

It is based of the French version of the Canadian anthem.

_/\_
sat/ah
hōsai

[Tai Shi]

First Joy

What is joy?
What is it to a baby girl come forth
Into this wold, to know this
Is the miracle, be there ever miracles
In this life, our only protoplasm
We shall ever know, this
Be worth every suffering I have KNOWN
I suffer this hell that tells me “You
Don’t belong here!” Yet, that baby
Girl child has made every moment
Of grinding white teeth on porcelain
White sink near where underneath
Bathroom vanity sink with waterproof
Shower, that gaurds the chemical
I shall be here in my purpose driven
Pain that says, “You belong here if only
For them!” Yea I do walk this vain formation
Of death, but I will never give in because
I love them both she cursed me for demanding
Baby girl be born with forceps, tearing
Gash no knife every knife could tear
Tears for momma she sacrifices
Her memory for what happened to her
This promise I made, no more, you my love
will never suffer so again to this damnation
That abortion I don’t think IT ever should
Have been because on holiday, to watch
To believe you both are best friends, that
She shall gaurd you as I have dyed, cannot
Be with you, my love, at the end, that ours,
Our lifelong love, will continue to flourish
In an accadeic proliferation, that we
Will meet agail, my love, loved baby, I gave
Up anymore children because our love will
Travel across us to you and me, my blessings
Three of us shall always live together forever
In rhyme after nuances of creation in this
Unity of our life, our senecio of love inspires love
Love each other, we turned her free, to her own heart.
We are our own creation our own people we love her.
Gassho
lah/sat

[Tai Shi]

VATS ARE SO COOL

I am 73, my wife and I have been married for 42 years.
I know that we have been together for 44 years. What
Did we do for the first st two years that made us different
From many couples at the time and what did I do
To insure our marriage would continue as a family marriage?
Our continued partnership was not guaranteed, we
Might have sacrificed our beauty for what liquid?
What did I have to give up to get this beauty
What is called Fire Water by a culture it nearly
Destroyed by proud people? Why did I promise
Myself that I could sacrifice myself in this pool
Of abysmal situation, not even thinking of my life of being
Natural in my head and innocent thoughts which
Would have destroyed me clear to the bitter truth
Of my heart my soul mysteriously dying in vats of grapes
Barely even wheat and potatoes which makes man
Woman fools in creation and which has made some
Go on to bitterness, despair and anger for life
What did the Buddha ban from his beautiful Four
Noble Truths of Life and his love of life in his heart
What do we find in even The Five Mindfulness
Trainings, beautiful Thich Nhat Hanh and deep
in Cambodian Forests what does every Buddhist know
Which may be indelible in this world and which can
Destroy everything even life. The world is not ready
To be gobbled up by this bottom of the ocean which
Cannot exist without the knowledge of death? Blessings
For my wife, even now such as this causes strife in my life!
Though. This be long in my past life I am plagued with fear!
Anger, continual damnation into no wisdom in belief in death!

Gassho
lah/ sat





Life brought the beauty