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

[Onka]

Comrade Tai Shi
You received the gentlest of slaps on the wrist for a post that was deemed I tiny bit too political. Rest assured comrade that I regularly receive a kick up the arse in private from Jundo.
Great news about getting out of hospital, I reckon Marjorie is the perfect person to help you stay off of those pills. Speaking of pills, it sounds like you're in a terrific headspace to be able to manage any and all withdrawals especially with so many years of sobriety under your belt.
Day by day my friend and in Dharma parlance moment by moment.
Be kind to yourself comrade.
Gassho
Onka
st

Sent from my SM-A205YN using Tapatalk

[Doshin]

Unfortunately, I too regard my words as too political and not after any Buddhist ideal, ideals, per Dharma-- so sorry Jundo, for I do not regard you as a Patriarch, or male status quo. You have been a trusted friend. I regret treating any country as pariah; one must first regard it's people. Since last week, I have been detoxing from Percocet (Oxy with Tylenol) originally prescribed for my arthritic condition, and I take zero now, and have had none since my last pill Sunday afternoon. I have the brave support my 12th step friends, and I have been hospitalized until today. As a poet I am happy my post generated interest, however my comment was not art. I believe first and foremost in art, and cannot regard current trends in poetry as what I learned in school, for I was made to hold high the good, the true, and the beautiful. There may be some obtuse meaning in form and content toward some obscure belief, but it is not art. For years I have been ill with this narcotic, checked myself willingly into Behavioral Health, where I received minimal professional help because of current trends in medicine, and I sat among patients who were not wearing masks, within 6 inches of each other; I came home with medical approval, will recover more fully with my wife who tells me it will take weeks to feel better and I hope never to take, or look at a Percocet pill again. I was on far too much, far to long to uphold my Undertaking of the Precepts. I made the decision after becoming depressed, entering to be observed by medical people. I regret if I hurt anyone in this Sangha which I hold dear, and love, and or follow with my strongest quality, my loyalty. Forgive me friends, for I care for Jundo, and all of you; we are all in this together. Of Lord Buddha, which is no Lord, smile of knowledge, asking not, giving much, let me me rest tonight though I might not sleep. Dear Sangha, I stand in silence, afraid of what my future holds.
Tai Shi
not worthy pf Calm Poetry
sat/lah
Gassho

Be Well Tai Shi

Doshin
St

[Kokuu]

The Game Changer
Check
Contents of bucket
Books and cushion
Present
A goalless goal
Is a goal
Unable to be
Ready?
For what
Lies ahead
Lies ahead
Lies ahead
Is already gone
Moving. Walking
150 metres
Up. Back
Strengthened
Spirit
Enhanced
Practice
Is Practice of the present
Needed?
Daily.

Lovely, Onka!


Summer night
the heat
reaches everywhere.
Longing for sleep
oh, for Master Mayu's fan*!

*Mayu, Zen master Baoche, was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, “Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why, then, do you fan yourself?”
“Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent,” Mayu replied, “you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.”
“What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?” asked the monk again. Mayu just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply.
The actualization of the buddha-dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like this. If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent. Because of that, the wind of the buddha's house brings forth the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river.

-- Genjōkōan (Kaz Tanahashi translation)

[Onka]

Lovely, Onka!


Summer night
the heat
reaches everywhere.
Longing for sleep
oh, for Master Mayu's fan*!

Nice! Poetry and a teaching.
Thanks Kokuu
Onka
st

Sent from my SM-A205YN using Tapatalk

[Tai Shi]

Poetry

Nigh after 12,
I settle into clean sheets,
Playing our game,
An afternoon of pleasure
Smells of town,
People home
From COVID 19,
I ask “Is there no god?”
Wonder if God abandoned
Nation gone willingly
Into deceit or he embodies
Deceit what one calls
Citizens out to life
Into better life, better,
Detention sequester our kids
Pass within one foot
28 centimeters from my back
Close enough to contaminate
Or no as whizzing bicycle
Vaults past my back
I’m lonely already my week
To walking to Precepts
I sat Metta each morning
At 5 in hospital that’s
What kept me life
In many ways to turn
Corner each evening
Bedtime or dinner,
That’s when I would
Buddhahood reach
Only in sitting
When I’m counting
Thanks to simplicity.
sat
Tai Shi
Gassho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tai Shi]

Poetry





My, I’m grateful and can even have Time, which I have, and Onka, you and I have time, or would I need at least partial Time. I can actually feel it now that much is gone and I have gained, I did sit 1/2 hour each weekday and walk loving kindness for Sangha.
sat
Tai Shi
Gassho
Deep bows


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tai Shi]

Poetry

What have I to give
Father but life soon
My body will stiffen
Cold ready for cremation
Fire of gas because natural
Death brought me warm
Solid chime as Sidhatha
Predicted. I move
To less attachment,
Died and left shell of life
Dancing on beach after
Crossing over to other
Shore I know now
Why Buddha became
My following life
Had taken for years
My blood too thick
Yes I’ll die of something
More believing in more
Than I ever did with reality
Induce I’m
Satisfied.
sat
Tai Shi
Gassho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tai Shi]

Poetry

Finally, I’ve lived
I’m sitting,
Trying when I sit
Through life of brain
My essence relieved
Established, no deadening
I feel accepted by my
Day of Shikantaza
Yes I rely on your compassion
This was “one step for man
One great step for mankind,”
Why not humankind where
We move in our Sangha
Away to our sitting,
Had hoped to sleep
By my side
I slept
Early
So early
Lord Buddha
Sutra lives in me!

Tai Shi
sat
Gassho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Onka]

Comrade Tai Shi
You're on fire!
Keep these words filled with strength and resiliance coming.
Gassho
Onka
ST

[Tai Shi]

Let's Be Honest

What would I do
Without honesty?
Is it Goodness
Resilience, unbelief?
Desire of flame,
Will my mucus
Membranes regain
Efficacy, more
Life as dizzying
I sit in easy chair?
Oh, Burgundy
Wine color
I cannot have
Except to sit
Clothethed in universal.
Hope, sweet, lingering
Upon as I sit. Seated
Dew on grass, how
Zazen. Could I know
Relife without
First day alone
In universe?
Hot with molton
Desire for Life?
With more Life
As Buddha like, I attempt
Relief from dizzy worldliness
Desire, Duka more than
I can grasp, ever grasping
Grasping without holding.
Someday my body will
Expire, I shall burn
In my aftermath of honesty.
My life, of grasp I now feel.
This is goodness as I let go.

Tai Shi
Gassho
sat/ lah
Lah fir real.

[Tai Shi]

Nigh after 12,
I settle into clean sheets,
Playing our game,
An afternoon of pleasure
Smells of town,
People home
From COVID 19,
I ask “Is there no god?”
Wonder if God abandoned
Nation gone willingly
Into deceit or he embodies
Deceit what one calls
Citizens out to life
Into better life, better,
Detention sequester our kids
Pass within one foot
28 centimeters from my back
Close enough to contaminate
Or no as whizzing bicycle
Vaults past my back
I’m lonely already my week
To walking to Precepts
I sat Metta each morning
At 5 in hospital that’s
What kept me life
In many ways to turn
Corner each evening
Bedtime or dinner,
That’s when I would
Buddhahood reach
Only in sitting
When I’m counting
Thanks to simplicity.
sat
Tai Shi
Gassho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you all it’s time fo sitting and Buddhist behavior even when I mix it with Christian golden rule or even compassion of Jesus as with the Buddha Sidhartha.
Tai Shi
sat
Gassho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tai Shi]

I like several simple lines in your poem, Onka, and the lines are image which I find necessary in good poetry.
Tha Shi
sat
Lah
Gassho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tai Shi]

The image begets a great question in your poem Kokuu, again as great a question as does the image in Onka’s story at the end of her poem. Good poetry goes beyond the narrative to open another reality.
Tai Shi
sat / lah
Brief to the point good commentary.
Gassho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Onka]

I like several simple lines in your poem, Onka, and the lines are image which I find necessary in good poetry.
Tha Shi
sat
Lah
Gassho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Simple lines for a simple student. Thanks for the kind words comrade.
Gassho Onka
ST

[Tai Shi]

My Own Anger

As I relieved
Of serious anger
By MAO inhibitor,
He gave me life,
Where I forgive,
Prepare me for death,
My wife side by side
Ultimate Shikantaza
Reality comes leaping
Like fox into night.

Tai Shi
sat
Gassho