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

[Tai Shi]

Today I made two new friends
Kaitan, and Matt
Matt is soon to receive
his Dharma name, and when he does
I hope he passes on his meaning,
Do do for my mind to know what you
w ill be.
I also learned that Kaitan has
A way with words
I beg him please let me know
W hat this new brother’s name
May mean.

Ga ssho
lah/sat
Tai Shi
calm poetry

[Kaitan]

Doubts about being certain
Certainly is confused
Thinking about thinking
Thinks that is thinking about thinking
But is just thinking
Ambitious yet insecure
Worrying about worrying
Not worrying that is worrying about worrying

Observing and contemplating the open sky
Murmuration of birds
Seems like a glitch
Always been there
Laughing and enjoying
Trying to survive

Gasshō

stlah, Kaitan

[Tai Shi]

I think today I made a friend
with this simple word of peace
Zen, I made a friend as we
Celebrate Peace, enclave
of Tre e leaf, thank you Matt!

Gassho
lah/sat
Tai Shi

zen

[Tai Shi]

zen

[Tai Shi]

The Last Snow

Thus, begins snow, even
As nightfall covers this
Land of corn stubble
And dry bean bushes,
My wife dawns her coat,
As she has pulled
Polyester parka over
Her shoulders.

What would I do
Without her, removing
Snow from this drive
Way, near our steel
Siding, what would
I do without her filling
My multi-colored pill
Keeper filled with relaxers
For my pain, diabetes
Medication for sugar
That could kill of my
Various mood stable
Pills, so what are their

Names, she shakes
This day's snow out
Of her hair, she asks if
If I would like to go,
"Would you like to go to
Active Generations?"
This senior center
Fourteen miles away,
Are always streets
Packed with snow,
Ice, will we slip, slide
Down through fair?
Can we fill this car
With gas, so we drive
Down Highway 38,
Easier than Interstate
90, we hate the traffic.

Arrive beneath awning
Before skidding the door,
It's automatic too, designers
I have thought of everything
Old people can easily
Walk over a warm grate
Blowing air through
Vents, warming entrance
Then I pull on my sneakers
So this fitness center
Won't get wet, won't
Soak the tiled floor, will I
Bring the janitor into exercise
Room to mop up this mess?
There are signs posted,

No food or drink, always
Take off street shoes,
Two locker rooms where
Women and men change
Into sweats, winter
Folks do not wear shorts,
Even most in sweatshirts,
To avoid this cold air
Floating down hallways,
Through passages, we
Cannot fight the subzero
Weather, there is no TV
On purpose so folks cannot
Tune into news, not even
Radios are allowed.

How do we find the weather?
News to know to go
Home, you'd think folks
Would know enough
To stay home, use their
Exercise equipment
They bought it last Christmas,
Speaking of which,
Come in less than
Ten days,

Our daughter will
Be flying in from Denver,
Her new University job, she toils
This year, students have
Told her in their impromptu
Evaluations that she is piling
Too much homework, three told
Her best class ever, hours and hours
And hours of work, writing
Calligraphy, she is Professor
Of Japanese, still our daughter
The holiday tree is not up, Some cards
Are not sent, snow has kept worried,
We all were inside for several days.
My wife wants to clean
Our home, me? I will exercise
Our equipment in her bedroom,

There was a time when we
Never slept alone,
Now she takes the bedroom,
I'm in the recliner, and can't manage
"Stiff as a board," bed, she always
Takes at 2 am, Says perfect for her back
We both have pain and have both put on
Pounds, my severe arthritis
Ankylosing Spondylitis
Rare rheumatoid state,
I even have trouble walking
Up steps, the doctor says, "No more climbing?"
I had a terrible fall last summer and all
They have decided I can't

Use these steps or any
Steps or any steps at all, must
Use my walker, never a cane
Again. I will never use my cone
I can't shovel our walks,
Snow, so she has taken
On this job of toil and grind
I know, my days are numbered
Then I will be in a wheelchair.
Rheumatologist said
No, if I will exercise more,
As every other day I travel to the gym
Maybe I can avoid a wheelchair,
I might even return to cane
Again, if I could, I would

Celebrate this finest
Christmas with our daughter,
We would imbibe our
Fake wine on Christmas Eve.
I know, mom has bought us
All iPads for Christmas, I went over
Board. She already has her gift
The exercise bike sits stationary
In our daughter's room,
When she cleans, she
Uses it, I have other extraordinarily
Nice gifts for them both,
Our house is floating in Christmas
Gifts; we love each other, every
Christmas, ergo overboard
I buy from the best mail-order
Companies, so I don't have
To venture to the malls,
That is all, everything
Is piled high in my study, I have
started my fourth book

I hope it is by the next
Christmas, complete. I foresee
It all, finished book in my
College Library, better
Than shoveling snow.
This book contains the best work
Ever. This book brings to mind
My friends like water seeping
To walk after thawing into cracks
Then to refreeze.

Gassho
lah/sat
Tai Shi

[Tai Shi]

Christmas War in Palestine

When writing poems
On snowy days, when birds
Come back on winter wings,
We shiver in our cold American

Homes beath of Arab war clouds
With rain withheld upon the desert
Rock dwellings, with dead roses
In villages ravaged by Israeli troops,

Children beg for bread,
Girls with baby dolls round
Campfires, wish for Ramadan
While across borders sing

More children for oil in Menorah
Light with Jewish song,
Why war rages with lamps
Until oil comes to Synagogue

Of God, how many days can
People live without food, where
Palestine was destroyed, and another
War where there's no Peace, treaty

Won with blood from the hospital
Attacks with drones flown
Into buildings of Lebanon,
Why Earth, those Christian's time

In North America, it finds
Buying Greatest Retail Saga
Money changes hands to wealth--
These are Children yet to cry

As Christmas trees bright
With electric lights, flame
With sight on Rohatzu evenings, where
Buddhists sing another Peace

When Black men ring
Bells in windy afternoons
When discount stores
Complete with the biggest sales,

Of toys In history, bitcoin rises
In value, when stocks are sold
In record Booms, another
Satisfied customer buys presents

For familiar US News Reports
Of the greatest volume, sold; ten
Thousand miles away, retail chains,
Snap shut drawers of change.

I sit next to my gifts,
Bought with my Social Security
Allowance, now I remember
Children of Middle Eastern

Wish only for food to fill
Hunger, divided loaves of bread
Of fishes multiplied in magic
From UN trucks across the camps

Roll into wars again, only
To navigate hunger. While children beg
For food, Old men, and women cry
For their family's return to Palestine.

Gassho
lah/sat

as if in a competition
i was
striving for recognition
waste of effort
nothing to win
nothing to compete for
I'm here
existent
all victories have
always
been in hand

Gassho,
Paco
sat/lah

[Jundo]

Buddha hanging out with Buddha
Buddha crying about Buddha
Buddha crying with Buddha
Buddha helping a Buddha
Buddha scaring Buddha
Buddha carrying Buddha
Buddha being just Buddha
Buddha sitting above Buddha
Buddha discussing with Buddha
Buddha is thinking about Buddha
Buddha thinking a lot about Buddha
Buddha is thinking about Buddha
Buddha thinking about Buddha
Buddha is thinking Buddha
Buddha thinking Buddha
Buddha not thinking Buddha
Buddha dreams with Buddha
Buddha meets another Buddha
Buddha dreams that is not Buddha
Buddha seeks again for another Buddha
Buddha writes a poem about Buddha
Buddha seeks for another Buddha
Buddha can not find Buddha
Buddha meets the Buddha
Buddha Buddha
BuddhaBuddha
Buddhuddha
Buddddha
Buddha

[Kaitan]

Buddha hanging out with Buddha
Buddha crying about Buddha
Buddha crying with Buddha
Buddha helping a Buddha
Buddha scaring Buddha
Buddha carrying Buddha
Buddha being just Buddha
Buddha sitting above Buddha
Buddha discussing with Buddha
Buddha is thinking about Buddha
Buddha thinking a lot about Buddha
Buddha is thinking about Buddha
Buddha thinking about Buddha
Buddha is thinking Buddha
Buddha thinking Buddha
Buddha not thinking Buddha
Buddha dreams with Buddha
Buddha meets another Buddha
Buddha dreams that is not Buddha
Buddha seeks again for another Buddha
Buddha writes a poem about Buddha
Buddha seeks for another Buddha
Buddha can not find Buddha
Buddha meets the Buddha
Buddha Buddha
BuddhaBuddha
Buddhuddha
Buddddha
Buddha

Gassho

stlah, Kaitan

[Tai Shi]

Thirty Years a Maple

For me to talk endlessly
To make up stories about Time
After Time is to be like my maple
In my front yard. First,
How can I call it my maple?
Does not this being
Of red and yellow in fall,
Of bear limbs in winter,
Of pale green shoots in spring,
Of depth in itself, of deep
Green in summer does not
This great plant that adds
Rings of wood, of pith
Each year, of great
The wood of flesh does not
This being living for itself
Which is not for my own? Has
Not the beauty of twirling
Yellow seeds in spring
To populate the earth with maples,
Is this not its own life, its own
High regard, a consciousness
Not unlike any mammal upon the earth?
Gassho
lah/sat
"泰士" Tai Shi

無害無賠 (Mugai Mubai)

A Maverick dented in the passenger rear
Tail light missing, school parking lot clear

My daughter comes out. No sense of fear
I called the cops. "hit 'n' run dear"

Then we found the note illegible and sad
Illegible name illegible number, somebody's dad

Too poor for insurance or so they say
But $10,000 or 180 day jail stay!?

I wanted to protect them. I wanted. I tried
The system is not fair. I couldn't have lied

I just don't have $4,000 to spare
This could be the wake up call from their nightmare

Better hit my truck in a parking lot
Then to hurt someone and leave them without

_/\_
sat/ah
matt

[Tai Shi]

To Tell Father Love

It's 7:18 in my morning,
In other places, it is 7:18 PM,

Winter comes on in late November,
The day of Thanksgiving begins at midnight

Trees are bare; often, the sky is gray
My father is not himself, and I have come

To Love him, like brown leaves, his body
Will dissolve. his mind will remain in his book

Showing how to make a lift from motors
Witing of steel mesh, and metal pullies,

Margret hurting from severe arthritis
Who could not ascend stairs into her

Motor home, he designed handicapped
Elevator taking this person from the ground

He designed a shortwave two-way radio,
For Tiny Autos, published it in a magazine

In his high school teaching, he worked for
For four years, at Sierra College he taught

For twenty-four years, I watched him
Earn his bread and raise my brother

Until I was six, and my brother was four
Time is for me to step out of his shoes,

In 1999. I was declared legally disabled
From rheumatoid arthritis of the spine.

Technically my age crept on me
Thirty years before his body became weak,

He was eighty-eight when our bodies
Said we were like Autumn Trees, fall

Of our lives, and I said to him when he
Turned eighty-eight, Father I love you,

He did not respond, this way, a man
Said no strong emotion, yet important

It is for me to tell him before he dies.
He saw the child grow into manhood,

"Father I love you," he had allowed me
To learn to write my strong Poems,.

To publish books of poetry, neither
Did we make money writing but we taught

For our bread, for our homes, and times
Our children grew, I could say, "I love you."

Gassho
Tai Shi

[Tai Shi]

From Their Shoulders

Beautiful crest of new snow
Last Tuesday, a white crystal
Wine snow, land of daughter
She was born in Greeley
At the foot of Rockies, she knows
She returns to the land where
Parents became full adults
Sober parents graduated

Master of Poetry, worker
Of this government, father
Taught thought writing,
Literature of poets,
Americans, English, he
Had earned a Master of
Fine Arts, Master of Arts,
Specializing in teaching
To help earn a livelihood,
Mother giving her graduate
Master of Arts in Social
Security, anthropology helping VA
Veterans retire, they
Moved to Plains State
South Dakota, daughter
Went back to Colorado
At the foot of Rockies,
She earns her livelihood
In the steps of parents,
Father still writes poetry
Mother edits his third
what may be his final
Book, Called after his
Namesake Zen poetry
Big Verse, Ten Precepts
For Kindness. Then
There are many more
Than one hundred ten
Pages of life to live
By, this is his winter, his
Winter of life, such

The beauty of fall, summer,
Springtime, with each
Others living in their
Free and clear fall swamp
Land, reclaimed from
Prairie, the place to raise
Little girl, bright shining
BA, MFA, PhD she went

Beyond her parents who
Said she should
Grow from their shoulders
Not their bootstraps, they
Will pass away now she
Has mother's brilliance
Father's direction, even
Through, this said, she
Never would write poetry
Part of her living like
Father when she writes
Poetry. She's more, is to
Climb from their shoulders
She is and was the only
The child because mom, dad
Could have no more, they
Taught her to give back
Not to take so she
Allows her students to do
Need not to toil over three
Hours each night learning
Her Japanese poetry,
They may devote themselves
To others like Father in
His first college classes,
Subjects, so she has
Learned more of spring
With her PhD in Japanese
Literature, comp lit

Theirs is not to major
Theirs to conduct business
Fly to companies, cipher
In their foreign language,
Theirs is Elective, hers
Is a career in literature
Language, among Aspens,
Out among pines, peepers,,
Streams, parents gave
Extra, livelihood in her own
Beauty, Spring, Summer
Fall, Winter, Spring, white
These years of Colorado
She toils like her parents,
On what is not Cherokee
Land, or Mexican border,
She gives of herself, she
Is like Zen father, Retired
Soldiers, for her mother
These are these days
Of Poetry, mother editing
Father's third book, father
Writing from his heart, daughter
Finding her heart, their
Mutual AVMs prevented

Daughter from marriage
Poetry became her brain
Child, even at age thirty-five
Writing books, publishing
Dissertation, she is brilliant
Climbing in parent's winter
From shoulders, she knows
Brilliance, poetry, giving
Much still like Mother, mom
Who sewed Halloween
Costume, gave lunches
To childish wishes, they
Always be giving
Family, aspens, students
Greeley, Ft Collins, livelihood,
Lifted from Lakota, Nakota,
Dakota, never taking Denver,
Giving to Mexican livelihood,
May they always be Spring
Gratitude, Meditation,
On Gratitude, giving from
2014 to 2025, still all
Those years of writing
At age five, My Little
Book of Poetry, She
Was just like parents,
Except in Japanese,
Reading Korean and Spanish
She gives willingly to others,
She behaves
From their shoulders, they
Are old, soon will pass
Away, she will for Mourning

Give of grateful
Family, she will
Write books,
Climb in the Rockies,
Leaving Black Hills
To Dakota People
She will write
Teach for a living
Provide retirement
For her young
Students, hers
Is giving never
Taking from boot
Straps, she found
Generous flight
Like a flock of Birds
Like a flotilla of fish
Hers is Dogen
She does not
Know it, yet
Reads Dogen
In the Original,
She fulfills her
Parents scholarship
She gives from her heart,
Not her AVMs all over
Her body, this one
Thing she inherited
From parents, yet
She rose above
Her limits, like
Mom and Dad, as
They did this for their
Parents, surmise
Giving lives,

Living lives,
Snowy winters,
The reality of living,
In these Mountains,
On Prairie, in Denver,
In Hartford, South
Dakota, the little
Home not on Dakota
Native Land her Apartment
Not on Cherokee
Land, always giving
Always from
Shoulders, life
Ever after.

Gassho
lah/sat
Ubasoku

[Tai Shi]

We have here many poems, many types written from the heart, and our Sangha benefits, the community is such a beautiful place, so try your hand at any type of poetry here in this bright section. Any member may write here whether lay member or not, whether priest in training or priest, just any member your hand and see what you can write from your heart.
Gassho
lah/sat