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

[Koushi]

The rainfall matches my heartbeat
Rapidly, intensely, filled with purpose
Equanimity in each racing drop
Allowing time to simply be, falling
Always reaching the proper place
One day to see the journey end
Until then, we let the wind guide us
Is there no difference between blood and water?

Gassho,
Jesse
ST

[Tai Shi]

My Mother Listens
For our friend Jundo

Mother saw
What I know.
Approval? Fire in Poems?
I saw my own mistakes,
"Oh, teacher please be
Like us. See our wisdom,
These lives in poetry."
These robes sewn
Hands by our priest-to-be,
His time our robes, his gift
Where he had sewn our
Disability, his thoughts,
His life our debt. "Teacher
Can he show you each of us?
Our pain is our reward.
May we speak again
Teacher, in paragraphs?"
To reveal these friends
With brolken wings,
Our only hope to tell
Truth, gratitude, equinimity,
Usuri understands us most
Of us as you understood once
When you taught us genetic
Code. You who reached out
To know without happiness,
Hppiness, to learn by mistake
Our accidental zazen
Of wounded light,
Never our desires. You
Who spoke some truth
Who spoke never of fear,
Made two, or three mistakes,
Sentences of what? To consider
Trusted friends could never
Speak education to your ears,
Eyes, mouth, hand. Zen replaced
Mother's cries. She witnessed
My stories without fear,
My mother listened deeply,
She heard my voice inside my night,
She helped free my mind
Rid me of divided self, releave my sin
Of everlasting days with pain.
Mother looked deeper!
Listened with full heart, beauty, truth,
Brought me poetry natural
"As leaves on trees." We Completed
Our voyages, terrible public days;
Stigma as they shouted lies
Branded water into our eyes,
This sea of grief was gone.
Without lingering death,
Life everlasting
Our knees were bent.

Gassho _/|\_
sat/ lah
Gassho

[Soka]

Sat watching paint dry
Just sitting, facing a wall
It's already dry.

Gassho,
Phill
sat

[Daoren]

I saw today

I saw God today;
In the leaves as they fluttered by;
As the wind blew through the pines;
Present in the gray, overcast sky;
As the birds fly;
While the squirrels scamper;
I saw God today.

Daoren Bryan
Written 11/25/2020

Sat today/lah

[Tai Shi]

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

In Youth I Wept

Of Loving Kindness
Since sunset,
Words that make
Me weep into hands
Of indifference?
Rocks cry out!
Now love comes
For you, no chariot
Of compassion
As I understood
Words like nation
Militant, or patriotism
Revoke Humanity,
Jesus words
“The poor will
Always be with you!”
Buddhas lift songs,
Words in some sutras
To understand
Emptiness is whole!
People, I do not
Criticize Christ I’m
Gracefully falling
Into darkness?
My writing yet will
Spring into delight.
Life this is laughter,
My own equanimity
My own compassion
My love of humankind,
My father, my brother
My mother, combining
Care of the earth?
Moon rising in eastern
Sky while yet it’s day?
In caves of ocean
Trenches creatures
Make their own light!

Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi


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[Koushi]

A restless mind lost in thought
Spoken words mean nothing
As steam rises from my coffee
In a porcelain mug left untouched —
Burning a hole into the oak table
Haze builds around the warmth of the window
Rain tiptoeing melancholy against the pane
Gentle snaking tears to the earth below

Gassho,
Jesse
ST

[Seikan]

I'm finally having an opportunity to catch up on all of the beautiful poems that you have all shared recently. Just lovely!

Here's one that feels timely as we're expecting a bit of a snowstorm tonight/tomorrow here in New England.


Winter Mind

I draw the thickening gray skies up
Over this cold, tired world
Tucked in all warm and snug
The storm still yet to bloom

An ominous calm descends
As the sky begins to swirl
Winter’s icy tears crying
Upon my blood-warm cheek

Sitting quietly, watching
Thoughts and flakes mingle
Spiraling downward, slowly
Slipping below the fray

Silence unbounded
A return to zero
The lucid stillness
Beneath it all


Gassho,
Rob

-stlah-

[Koushi]

I stumbled into a decrepit graveyard tonight
Every headstone was cracked and covered in moss
Surrounded by whispers I put my ear to the earth
As I listened to the decayed bones of my ancestors
A haunting melody kissed my rain soaked face
To hear of longing heartbreak from cracked jaws
And misty eye sockets gleaning of recant memories
A multitude of broken hands clasped in prayers
Oh, I’ve never heard of such a sweeter orchestra
That will one day welcome me as I take my seat

Gassho,
Jesse
ST

[Inshin]

I'm finally having an opportunity to catch up on all of the beautiful poems that you have all shared recently. Just lovely!

Here's one that feels timely as we're expecting a bit of a snowstorm tonight/tomorrow here in New England.


Winter Mind

I draw the thickening gray skies up
Over this cold, tired world
Tucked in all warm and snug
The storm still yet to bloom

An ominous calm descends
As the sky begins to swirl
Winter’s icy tears crying
Upon my blood-warm cheek

Sitting quietly, watching
Thoughts and flakes mingle
Spiraling downward, slowly
Slipping below the fray

Silence unbounded
A return to zero
The lucid stillness
Beneath it all


Gassho,
Rob

-stlah-

So lovely.

Gassho
Sat

[Tai Shi]

Cave of mouth
Flakes open, asking
"Why are there no
Ordinary people, why
does roof feel pierced
Today, how is it
Different than two
Weeks ago?" No
One answers as spit
bathes tissue, torn
By bone, scarring
Prevents more
Pictures of wound
Pierceing night,
Sleep deep into
Wilderness, without
Aid of opiate, dancing
Megatons away from
Spine, one does
Not consider neck
Part of spine, it's
Just neck, bone
Disregarded, seeps
Blood like any other
Disoned appendage
Without Solace.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai shi

[Tai Shi]

Elemental Matter

Ominous is snowy
Field of frozen day
Before the light.

Day approaches our
World where sun
Bakes sands of seedless
Time to mend our poetry
In pools of brown rice.

Will food come to those
Who wait silently?
Dawn is nothingness.
Covid 19 asks again.

Lorries wait before
Sun where twin planets
As one star
Carine in centuries
For emperors sake,
Bread of inoculations.

Hope to reconcile
When we sit
Zazen quietly,
Emptiness reigns
Giving to the poor
Our purity of time.

In gratitude we write,
Our only choice,
Exponential Metta
Our grand new voice
Life remains
Of Master Hongzhi.

Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi

[Tomás ESP]

Hm... where do I focus?
Just Sit.
This is boring...
Just Sit.
What do I do for dinner?
Just Sit.
Oh, this feels nice!
Just Sit.
This hurts, it sucks!
Just Sit.
I feel great!
Just Sit.
Man, I am tired today.
Just Sit.
I wonder what other people think of me...
Just Sit.
Maybe I should look for another Buddhist practice, I do not feel any progress...
Just Sit.
Just Sit.
Just Sit.

JUST SIT.
SIT


Gassho, Tomás
Sat&LaH

[Tai Shi]

There was
A time
Torn tissue
Felt good
Talk about
Not today
Tissue’ okay
Born of light
Scissor or rock
It’s still my
Tissue
And all talk
Leads to better
Sharing, giving
To just listen
Listen,
Speak speak
So I may hear.

Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi


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[Tai Shi]

How shall I proceed
How to presume
I’ve found Metta, this
Gift of friendship
As I give all away,
As I’ve given worldly poems
To friendship
My fortune to her
My body to be burned to air
As I grow old have sat
Beneath my own Bodhisattva
Tree sat at Bodgyha as relics
Of all of us rise into nothing
We discovered the last hindrance
Let go even the body to nothing
After old age and birth Zen ah
Dogen Zendo is where we offer
Breath, no hindrance as breath
In ice is voluptuous and full
Given to the beloved,
We have lived out together
Promises the greatest of these
Is love Shi given all disclosure
To her this is beloved’s “crowned
Knot of fire’ the computer upon which
All is known in writing
The greatest of these is love, so love,
Is Metta, the Pali gives great knowledge of Agape the realizable
Made clear, all Metta to wold
Will young use wisely my personal
Love of ideas given to my daughter
Her paintings of Chess, I rise as books
My gift to our daughter her greatest love, her love, her love, love her Agape,
Gassho
sat / lah
Gassho


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[PeaceMan]

Deep in the woods
The path
Revealed itself

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mMbUoOuTDN_qOuuxqUldHYa1Aq18HqU8/view?usp=drivesdk

Jon
Sat