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

[Onkai]

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[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]

Long Live Love! Thank you, Tai Shi.

Gassho, Onkai

[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]

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

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

[Kaitan]

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

Gasshō

stlah

Bernal

[Tai Do]

Thank you, Tai Shi!
Gassho,
Tai Do
Satlah

[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.

[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

[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]

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

Gassho, J

stlah

I would accept that
Gassho
Muhyo
Stlah


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[Tai Shi]

Reincarnation Rich

As small boy of three-years-old
I felt the pull that God must reuse
Souls

Else he would run out of souls,
So into heaven as I saw sky space
If I looked up, so when it was time
To die,

Grandma Lottie's soul would asend
Into heaven, though she be mean to
Grandpa Arthur's soul, she might find
God

Forgiving enough to reuse her
Soul, and grandpa Arthur's soul.

Tai Shi
Gassho

[Tai Shi]

Buddha Bones

Finally this morning
In zazen I felt ripples
In black pond going out

It was my breathe again
Simple breathing back and forth
With moist mouth doctor

Had supplied one answer
To disease which ravaged my whole
Body in and out I breath

I sit zazen, lovingly
full without feeling of dearth
With moist mouth, looking

Forward to this Monday
When with another doctor
Doctor shall slip needles

Into flesh, flesh, Facet
Joints, numbed for six to nine
Months freedom with all

With all starts false and firm
Into flesh, again, again,
Dr Metz will offer solutions


To an age old problem
Of my genes, residing
In HLA B 27,

The marker in my blood
Forever in life eternally
Stuck red in corpuscle

Of every bone, all my life
All my days, as boy flat feet
Bones in feet were the first,

Then at eighteen, shoulders
Called everything they did
Not know what to call

This disease swelling joints
Until at forty pain burst
Through my spine, blood with gene

What to do it ravaged my sight
But today I see because
Of cancer drug that

Keeps my irises still
Though dangerous it be, keeping
Eyes still I see ripples in my mind

Fullness, my joints in
My back inflamed for many
Years with wrong drugs

Now kidneys function at one
Third capacity, I have stage
Three kidney disease, now

Four kidney failure, my bones
Have brought unsteady legs,
My back cannot rise up

But I rise up upon my
Silver walker, the black
With seat for walking to

City Park, with iPhone 15,
New model, my trusty D.S.L.R.
Below seat in blue compartment

I rise to my occasion to keep
Day bright in view finder
Because $4000 drug in syringe

Frees me from stiffness
Throughout torso, hips, neck
Spine bones, then muscle relaxers

Permeate my hamstrings
My abs, my trapezes my
Every muscle, then Novocain

Derivative patches cover
Strategic places on spine
To numb my joints further

Finally on patch so small
Dr Metz will stick me
With his needles, with microwave

The joints in my neck
From C 2 to C 7, lower back,
Tried with as few punctures

As possible, pain out, out
From pain to pain to numb
My Ankylosing Spondylitis

So my fingers tap keys
To make ripples of poetry
Beautiful with words,

Cameras with color, both
Rhythms I have found, rhyme
Fabric of my soul, my heart.

These bones are still
For six to nine months
More in flesh so poor

Stilled, may push my walker
When snows gone in March
May allow me until then

To walk in mall corridors
Hearing music of stores
With orange furniture

Electric stoves, insurance
Agents, Judo studios
When spring with greenery

Return, yellow corn flowers,
Bright red deep green begonias
Red roses, day lilies

Spot the Earth, walker
Over water where fish swim
Geese disappear into Horizon

Ducks wait for bread crumbs,
Chicks hatch from hens, Buddha
Bright days of gold sunsets follow

Horizon in west, wind begin
To sweep my bones, and flesh
Away, I become dust without pain.

Tai Shi
Calm poetry touched to my heart.
sat/lah
Great Gassho

[Meian]

my stories always go
in violence and suddenness

Unhampered by peace,
nor restrained by its cousins

Of mercy, compassion...
who needs forgiveness?

If each person is right -

and decides -
their way is the only way?

One road that leads
in many directions.

People don't think
to read the roadmap first.

Arrogance muddies wisdom,
as blind fury kills love and respect.

And still we'd rather fight and kill,
than work to heal the matters of the heart.

gassho. stlh


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[Tai Shi]

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

Meian, May I Get Your Name Right

Brother was a little boy, all his life
He has been growing up, now man
I was forced to grow at seven

I became Mama's little man, I
Have changed, I am responsible when 16,
Was still little. Man, through college, little

Man received the only F, denied understanding
I ever received because I was neglected,
Did not know how to be this man,

I did not know, then why father had abandoned
Me, I found him Because young people
Rainbow coalition of Black Panthers

Working in soup kitchen Panthers to find father
In California, teacher, I wanted to teach in college
To be like him. I ran to Mountains, Sierra

Nevada High Sierra, Donner, Tahoe, Rocklin,
Colfax B replace F, I gave up little boy, became
This man, began to teach in California, like dad,

His was Electronics, Math at Sierra College,
My GPA poetry Worthy of manhood, help with,
My father by other poets I determined not to neglect

Grinnell College U of Iowa, CSU, we married realized
Mother never belonged with father, both remarried
My new wife and me, solemn friends beautifully,

Vowed All for our lives there for each other
Then to Colorado where I truly grew, came to know
Her sacrifice of true man. gave what she wanted

Gave up intoxicants, worked for my bread, we had
Our child, I gave her poetry, MFA, became Pearl Poet,
I was meant to be. Wanted to be, could be

College, universities, had gone, finished
My degrees in spite of dyslexia I have worked
Published more than 65 poems meant to be poet,

Finally all came to me, I learned computers, to love
Her, Realized sacrifice mother first gave me poetry,
I Found in Sylvia Plath, mental illness, not so,

Worthy, for Marjorie she gave me, her songs
Of poetry, I gave my brother, in Pandemic his credit
As man, his children fatherhood, to be never bitter,

Finally brought himself into life he gave from his heart
To children into his life, gifts of love, care, understanding
From my essence, from poetry, gifts kindness learned

Of Life in song eternally, love greatest value
What they wanted for gifts, with his life, my heart,
Became reverently for them, finally for others,

Not money but sacrifice to charities, poor life turned
Loyal to Americans, Indigenous People, hats, clothing
Gloves, mittens, scarves, thirty or more

Forty dollars of my money to my brother, Deb, Ian
Taylor kids. Kids to Pine Ridge, photos to people
Who never experienced gifts of beauty, works of care.

Now My grown brother's birthday January 24th
He is 69, I shall give, love kindness fellowship,
I'm still big brother at 72, forty plus dollars,

For meals for children, little girl. Adopted ones
As grandpa, her brother, my nephew his family
Children. May I recognize now so become love

Men as we live with women, Alexandra, Deborah ,
Marjorie, women great in Sangha, all women we
Deserve women who can give always gift for women

Not demanding what is not freely, knowingly, given
This year brother turns 69, for me, he is grown with up
Son I was 60 when I knew gratitude, freely given

To daughter, Loving Kindness, manhood. I give to Meian,
Her right to her name, Onkai right To be Teacher and our Sangha,
May they have their birthright of name they chose, more

To be Priest, sister, care giver. I never want you to undergo
Pain, I never had sister, may I give you what I would give
All of you sisterhood, respect, care education, Dharma all

RIGHTS! Fruitfully in sovereign fullness, as women everywhere
Desire to work hard with sisters, brothers, kindred, families
At Treeleaf to embrace the Lotus Sutra with gratitude.

All to be Professionals, this rightfully yours. As I am Ubasoku
I have Read Sylvia Plath wept for you all sisters, common
Malady. You are all my sisters, as my dearest friends

This brilliant mind, Zen Teacher, Marjorie, Pearl Priest,
You have Highest Honers Priesthood, 4.0 at Iowa, brilliant
Hardest worker. MA for profession. MFA without intoxication,

She taught me to embrace love, give her love willingly
Our child, daughter to be responsible, caring, grandmotherly
Proven as our Child at March 27, 2024 accomplished dream

Professor Of Japanese, I watch Meian strives for Priesthood,
She received what Sylvia never had, a caring Sangha,
Meian, may we ever give your all your intellectual recegonition.

Great grand daughter, or sister, you have my respect,
Friend Onkai great ocean of love. The right to freedom.
You may study sit study become like Kokuu. deep

Strong, enlightened; this is what one works for,
You will find in much study, much sitting this tradition
Many there for this, strength in mindfulness; believing self.

Great Gassho, Deep Bows, Silence is greatest gift,
It's a calling, decision of the heart, your heart, find
Gassho. Charles Elgwyn Taylor. find your own depth.

Tai Shi, Kind Poet
sat/lah, Gassho