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

[Kokuu]

after reviewing Gary Snyder's famous book The Back Country, I have concluded this four part collection, ground breaking book about Zen Revelation, is not about sitting. truly, it is not about Zen at all. This book is about Gary Snyder.

Do you think you can write poetry without including parts of yourself?

I have not read The Back Country and am curious to take a look now as I love much of Gary Snyder's work.

Gasho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Kokuu]

Thank you for your elaboration, Tai Shi!

I think it could be said of Jack Kerouac also that his book The Dharma Bums was filled with just as much (if not more) being a bum than it does the dharma!

The Back Country was published in 1967 and Snyder had been in Japan on and off since 1955, when he formally requested to become the student of Rinzai teacher Miura Isshu at Shokoku-ji in Kyoto and sat several sesshin. So his understanding of the precepts should have been pretty well established by then as he took Jukai and was given the dharma name Chofu, "Listen to the Wind". But The Back Country contains poems stretching back many years so I guess not all will be Zen influenced.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Onka]

Respectfully may I ask why this thread, as entertaining as it is is in this section of the forums?
Gassho
Onka
st

[Jundo]

Respectfully may I ask why this thread, as entertaining as it is is in this section of the forums?
Gassho
Onka
st

I have moved you'all to the funky art section.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Tai Shi]

Onka, Jundo, I respectfully agree; this thread IS about Poetry, and posting of Poetry!! About people who might not have a voice anywhere else even on this forum. I am going to delete my posts, which I thought might be interesting, and offer an apology to the people I care about most-- Folks who might not post anywhere else, and I ask Kokuu, who is like me in so many ways, who I care about deeply, to do the same. It's also about sitting, and talking about sitting which is what we are about in this our Sagha where we would not have a place anywhere else, where Jundo has made a home for us, where (most people) folks are welcome who say they can learn a different way, in poetry, or anything to become a part of something bigger than than themselves, a place where they can sit, and learn compassion even in and especially in all walks of life.
Tai Shi
sat
Gassho

[Tai Shi]

Thank you dear Kate, dear And Anna, dear Onka, and my friend Kokuu, and everyone who loves Buddhist poetry of all types, for everyone in our Sangha who makes poetry of sensitivity, of beauty, and of Shikantaza. Kokuu, do look elsewhere for a beautiful revision about you my friend, a truly heartfelt poem about our beauty as friends. Way, Way too much from me, If you can, think of some of these posts combined from me together, and my love of our Treeleaf Zendo.
Tai Shi
sat
Gassho

[Tai Shi]

Hi Kokuu and all; I find it most beautiful that Gary Snyder was given the name "Listen to the Wind" most beautiful for Gary Snyder's Dharma, and so beautiful that he was able to ""Listen to the Wind"" MOST beautiful as he spoke at a reading in Colorado while I was actually working on my thesis Autumn Inventories. I met him briefly as he walked out of the auditorium at U.N.C. and he knew my mentor, Dr Bill Hotchkiss, from Sierra College in Rocklin, California, the college where my father worked for 24 yeas as tenured faculty, and where I began my study of English Literature. Our meeting was about 30 seconds, and there is no reason he might remember me. May I suggest another Gary Snyder volume you might not own, and which I purchased in Denver about the time I graduated with my MFA, 1990, Left Out in the Rain, those poems as yet at that time randomly brought together and very good of course. I am certain that you, if you do not have this book, would enjoy it. I did go on after Sierra to finish my BA at Grinnell College, MA and EDS degrees at the University of Iowa, then taught composition, literature and creative writing at Central Community College; there I published my first poetry, and in 1985 left with Marjorie who continued her career with the government. I entered the MFA in 1986, and lost my TA in 1987 at which time I hit bottom and got sober with the 12 steps. The year between 1987 and 1988 I took a lighter load of one, then two classes at C.S.U. in my MFA program. I returned to part-time teaching at Front Range Community College, and full-time study in 1989, took my comprehensives, and in 1990 completed and defended my thesis. In 1991, I began full-time teaching in Illinois not far from Chicago. By that time my spirituality truly began and I read Zen Mind, Beginner Mind, and Peace is Every Step, but I was not sitting or meditating. In 1993/1994 Marjorie and I returned to teaching but we found living 90 miles from Chicago did not shield us from the daily murder or drug bust, and we were concerned that bringing up a 3-yr-old girl was not wise there, and besides in 1993 I failed to "get tenure, and we moved to South Dakota where we remained, and built our little home in Hartford, nine miles west of Sioux Falls. My wife has worked for the government more than 30 years and retired four years ago, and visited our daughter who lived four years in Japan, Chiba, and Date, Hokkaido. I taught part-time until 2001 at which time, because of my disabilities, I could no longer teach. I was never again "let go" from a teaching position. from 2006 to 2007 I taught developmental English part-time, temporary. My wife and I decided especially when I was 58 that I could no longer work even part time, and I retired permanently. I had worked part-time in clerk positions and been on disability since 2001, and it was just time to admit utter defeat. I had published more than 60 poems in little magazines and college journals, and in August 2009 I self-published my book Winter from Spring, in 2011, I nearly died three times, began to truly seek "something" in earnest, and about five years ago joined Treeleaf where one year latter Jundo allowed me to go through Jukau and I was given the Dharma name Tai Shi, calm poetry. About one year before coming to Treeleaf, I self-published another book, Meditations on Gratitude, and at one time both books were available through Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. I believe Meditations on Gratitude is still available. My time at Treeleaf, my friendships here, and my admiration of Doyu have all inspired me to self-publish again, one more book by 2023, and I've collected much of my work in one file already. Now I must edit, add and detract poems, and design a cover. My deadline seems "do able" because I must also save the money for publication.
Tai Shi
sat
Gassho

[Kokuu]

May I suggest another Gary Snyder volume you might not own, and which I purchased in Denver about the time I graduated with my MFA, 1990, Left Out in the Rain, those poems as yet at that time randomly brought together and very good of course

Thank you Tai Shi! I have The Gary Snyder Reader which contains poems from a number of his works so will check out the ones from there and definitely think about getting the full volume.

I hope you can make your deadline for the next volume of your writing.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Tai Shi]

Age of Compassion

My sixteenth year
Wrote dear first poems
Still collected in
Black volume written
In 1968 incomplete
Blue fountain
Pen to childish
Love blue, invisible
Her father as heart
Pounded in violation
Precept entreating
Safe love, without
Guarded between
Fingers touching
I attended colleges
Not sought in money
Intoxicants gone
Even for our own
Life, relived anger
Last promise
Love, gave no
Love for five years
Strong drink, then
January 7, 1980
Young woman
Teacher of right
Speech, right behavior
Talking on paper
Walked in groups
Together Rhetoric
One Oh One teaching
With Precepts Love
Eternal compassion
Pearl whose shining
Eyes no one had seen
Right behavior, drink
Intoxicant teaching
Lifted glory to my glory
Eyes, I fell, lifted
Finally readings, Zen
Buddhism, rejoiced
2018/2019/2020
Final Precept place,
Young woman
I with her become old
Original writing in black
Volume, Love compassion
Child conceived in marriage,
Shokai corrects me, dignity
I bowed Taishi, Oh Sangha
Our Temple all our world beckons.
Taishi
sat/lah
Gassho

[Tai Shi]

I have purchased two volumes of poetry to Learn of Wind, my right speech, oh dear friend Kokuu, before your ordination, together after in Ango, still friends as we exchange our bodies as in Plato, not as lovers and our children fruit of Buddha vine, we cannot violate friendship with moving now stilled tongue, I've purchased two volumes of Gary Snyder, like Andy, stone face, Kokuu, we know loyalty because of you I've come to know The Wind.

Sleeping in our house
Which paid diamond like taxes
Our compassion downed.

For Kokuu
my friend
Taishi
Gassho
sat/lah

[Kokuu]

Thank you, Tai Shi!

You write so well!

Which volumes of Gary Snyder have you bought?


speaking prayers
into the night sky
pilgrim moon


Deep bows, my friend
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Heiso]

I somehow missed this thread - such beautiful work. Tai Shi - I'm glad to hear you will be publishing more of your work,

Gassho,

Heiso

StLah

[Tai Shi]

Poetry

Seen bows to you all! Earthly universal thought is sought by all, and only a few friends outside Treeleaf Zendo know only a tiny part of my life so invested in these threads in my daily sitting Shikantaza lately as I have dealt with pain, and first medication that actually gave dome relief Remicade, then Cimzia, then Cosyntix, next now perhaps one that will last the duration, one only recently approved for my bone disease of Ankylosing Spondylitis Simponi, more than $4000 per shot, per four weeks. Now it remains to see if my insurance company will approve home use for medication injection sub q every four weeks, so more than $50,000 a year, and if not approved an infusion every six weeks at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls. Now for my dearest poetry-- Kokuu, the two books of essays by Gary Snyder, Chofu, Listen to the Wind, The Practice of the Wild, with new preface by the author, then A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds. For me My Book changed from Portraits of Their Lives, a book I may complete as my fourth and final book for I am 68, and this book For Patty Brown... entirely and only my writing, no one in or out of this Sangha, Treeleaf Zendo will be included, and as I now edit the rough draft over and over, and over... the writing, and cover are mine. To answer your question Kokuu, the complaint of much contemporary and modern poetry by critics, and the public is that it is largely inaccessible, and the public cannot understand. In Snyder's, Chofu's, work there exists a mix, and I refer you to "The Bath" as for some public readers too personal, though accessible, so how should the poet proceed? The poem is such that Jundo would not allow it to be published here and from The Back Country, admittedly early work by the poet, "Rip Rap," of which any subculture member would recognize as substance abuse. So where does a poet draw the line? Does the poet write for the public or for the self? Does the poet include such incidence as suicide, mental illness, and death as are in my first book, in several libraries, and which made valiant showing of sales, or my second book which included mental illness, much physical pain, and suicide, both books in the Grinnell College Library, one of the finest colleges in the US, or the second book receiving high praise from Professor Emeritus Bill Tremblay, the founder of the MFA creative writing program at Colorado State University. Who is right? Those who would censure all personal writing, so where would we be without Eliot, Pound, Lowell, Plath, Ted Hughes, Richard Wright, the whole cannon of modernists, HD, Marian More, contemporizing like Rita Dove, Gallway Kinnell? And, Chofu, Gary Snyder. I venture to say the criticism of modern and contemporary writers is accurate, and much of what these writers give us is for the educated, the studied, and those willing to look, and look again. And call me an elitist, but the average American has never heard of Basho, or the 5, 7, 5 schemes of the Anglicized Haiku. No, most poetry is not of the light-hearted, Would you have British leave out Keats who writes poetry, "As natural as the leaves on the trees."? Or seeking "The Good, THE TRUE, and the Beautiful?" So where does any writing become non-personal, even especially Shakespeare, and Andrew Marvel, and I venture to say even Milton, Pope, and Dryden?

Tai Shi
calm poetry
sat/ lah
Gassho

[Tai Shi]

Poetry

Thank goodness my biological medication fairly new on the market Simponi has been approved for home use at more money than I am given in one year by my wife. This biological related to Enbrel which I took successfully for more than 10 years and this may allow me lol to continue to write about my pain and arthritis ha ha. Lol I pick up my first dose at the hospital in the morning. Now to speak about more pressing matters Coronavirus which we as poets might consider writing about. Truly I believe in many ways poetry shows the state of humankind all human nature may be explored by the poet all good men and women. Consider Pablo Neruda and great poets writing all manner of topics and we as Buddhist poets must consider Compassion and Equanimity As each and all benefit from endeavor to control the spread of disease. Consider Denise Levertov great poets are not restricted in writing. I’ve decided to take a short break from writing to support friends an family as they deal with more pressing things.
Tai Shi
sat/ lah
Gassho


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[Tai Shi]

The pharmacy is mailing my Simponi pen should be here in the morning then the less I leave the house for an AA meeting only.

Keep distance
Six feet or more
Avoiding corona virus
Never avoiding
Those we love

This year washing
Washing I apply
Lotion, clean smell
Softens safety
Make sure to wash
Hands 20 seconds
Always, 20 seconds
Each time, then
Touch only ones
We live close
Every time we
Bump

Elbows, shower
Stay home
So much
Stay home watch
Movies at home
Popcorn and drinks
Not alcohol that
Used instead of wash
Wash your hands
Feel safe,

Tai Shi
sat/ lah
Gassho


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