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

[Shawnzen]

My life is a river of bliss,
Ebbing and flowing here and there;
Always stationary and unmoving,
Always changing and on the move.

I am unborn and unbound;
I watch this play as it flows.
Faces, places, and circumstances
Reveal themselves as a mixture
Of pure happiness
And unbearable sadness.

ST

[Shawnzen]

No "my life"
No "non-self"
No practice
No attainment

All things, not-self
Self, undivided
Formless, I am all forms

Not here as opposed to there
I am here, I am there
I am empty
One Fullness

Gassho
Sat today

[Tai Shi]

Nice


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[Shawnzen]

Words, words
Like flying birds
Drifting through the sky
Like clouds in my mind
Feelings, feelings
Leaving me reeling
In pain, in pain
'Til I learn to let them go
Abiding in emptiness
Unhinged from forms
I disappear, I disappear
Unborn, unborn

-

Who am I, really?
I like to assume
Various things about myself
Confused, consumed
By obsessive thoughts
And emotional turmoil
Closer to death,
Oh, so afraid
Oh, such devastation

-

Worried about the future
Plagued by anxiety
Committed to dharma
For the sake of peace
Praying to the Lord
For safety and protection
From harm

ST
Gassho

[Tai Shi]

Shawnzen you have reminded me of my love of poetry and words. I love to even look at your name and wonder what it means. Thank you for writing a poem about words and poetry with heart. Poetry has been my life since I was 17 and you remind me why.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi


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[Shawnzen]

I tried to sit in the lotus posture,
But my legs fell asleep as they always do.
So,
Rather than torture myself,
I uncrossed my legs and sat in what people call "Burmese."
Abandoning my notions
And putting my faith in the practice,
I found some rest in this simplicity.

Gassho
Sat today

[Joe_in_Texas]

Easygoing

This moment is
What it is
And needs to be
Nothing more

I look
Through a window
Tinted with kindness
Kindness I feel deeply
Towards this moment

Allowing it to be
And feel
Just so

This is buddha

I finally understand
Why we bow
In gratitude

Sat today
Joe

[Shokai]

[Tai Shi]

Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi


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[Tai Shi]

Departure

My pain runs deep, my jaw, my sleep
Renounce the dark, and do not weep
Day comes on in gray, no where to stay,
Remember we are but ash, mother
Do not stay immortality renounce.
December is far behind, my jaw
My head seems without relief, mother
Do not return, but far you wander.
From star to galaxy, no way for me
To gather my ashes yet, I live alone
With her my Bodhisattva in our house,
She makes our food with honesty,
Her love a kindness, I asked her once
"Do you mind my care as your work?"
Retirement there, she sleeps yet
Each morning through, ten penny
Nail removed from my chest with
My Lidocaine, my rest, she snips
At clothe backing with bandage
Scissors in her hand this verse
Of my atonement gone, four vows
My refuge from desire, just one
Man my friend, in unity, my universal
Planet Ganymede and Io demi gods,
Where I shall rest my ash, in mausoleum,
Within my spectral light, where no one
Sees my days, where more money
Is saved, mean while where days
Do not grow dim, supplant grief Not
Time for tears, reach for Buddha age
To learn his wisdom of suffering lost
Life regained, my head filled with
Poetry I reach out for my friend
Ask him to slowly give what can
Be essence of my deeds, my
Equanimity, my gratitude, my loss,
When I depart her love I see
Myself clearly giving back my mind
Her genius fulfilled finally we rest.

Tai Shi
sat/ lah
Gassho

[Shawnzen]

Frustration
Confusion
Mixed with dispassion
An onlooker, Am I
A bystander on the sidewalk
I watch the chaos and commotion
The traffic in the road
From a safe distance away
My vantage point

Gassho
Sat today

[Tai Shi]

We Decide Together

I celebrated our end,
Light in garden, flowers
She and I together
Sold our Ashes in universal
Pire; red, purple, blue,
Flowers do not exist
Over our bodies gone,
Blue silence container,
Of our love planted deep
I do not care,
Life succeeds our wishes
Gone with earth over us
Always time for death
Over there the recliner
Chair in soil
Could not move
Damp with dew, remorse
Who will see our flowers
Impossible in earth, alone,
Elemental, Oxygen, Hydrogen,
Water, light Carbon, soft soil
Eternal, garden until space
Engulf our soil, nova, sun
Gone mad. fire engulf
Enough, blocks of sight,
Stems, seeds
Not personal prisms,
Prisons of our vapor as we
Rise from sleep, shall never
Wish again to waken, death
Frail, perhaps not Parted
From our sun engulfing all
Bringing our ashes to our star,
Fire, everlasting Lake of Rain
Clouds, distanced on our grass
Great incineration, retreat
Of life, Torrente of rivers,
Oceans dividing finally apart
As liquid rises to space
Matter spuing forth
All earth to join our joy, to fathom
Soft soil, fertile mind secure forever
In science, but her her life, I alone
To flowers, hers to garden green
We now reaches for hands, for thoughts.
Gone My chest, curved back, knotted neck
All but broken holds, my thinking. She
Takes my pain. I give her earth, sinew
To my shortened life, we solved thousands
Of years, ageless, we together rose alone.
Ageless, my nerves never steady,
Mind eternally gone, her thoughts giving
Reasoned quality of flowers, not sliding
Into silent days, blue Fern Lake, deer
Close, solutions slipped away, loneliness
Of mind given to our precepts hers truth
Of what she was to solve my anger gone,
Life solved for us both of. I gave me
Her joy.. She gave both of us child,
Small gift of life, wonder child born
In high risk birth, both nearly died,
Two weeks In pain, seventeen hours
Of labor. this hard birth near Front
Range, Sober miracle of life Rocky
Mountains, Colorado steep foundation
For us both child brilliant mind, thoughts
Turned to South Dakota my arthritis,
My body solved without travail I submitted
I asked again as when we sat softly
On our Cushions was this life made easier
In our death our resting place this earth.
I let her wishes for us both live forever
As I asked. She could decide
Is science is wrong, essence our own birth
Poor boy, poor girl we had been hurt.
Of millennia will be our blue flowers
Planted on the plains, hills of rest,
I asked again before the end,
At that time I ask her to make our plans,
"Do you know exactly
What is to be? Tell me now, I need
To know. Is your decision to be right.
Please, I do not know. Is it science
Or flowers in our bed, place of rest
After life what happens? You decide."

Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi

[Shawnzen]

Anger and resistance follow my actions
Down every rabbit hole of passing moments.
What am I angry at?

Floating in the vast exspanse
Of energy and emptiness--
Slowly, I unravel.

The Buddha said to abandon craving,
And therefore I abandon it.
How do I abandon my craving for non-craving?

An intuitive sense of Nirvana's presence--
A faith in the path towards it.
I let go, let go, let go.

Gassho
ST

[Tai Shi]

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

Remember friend if the poet might make a poem longer than 14 lines in English, one will lose the audience. I tell you If you dare like me to make long poems, you can even be a greatest poet like Homer but no one but scholars will venture into your lines.
Gassho
sat: lah
Tai Shi


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[Hōkan]

I Sat Outside

Unusually, I sat outside today.
My lover, the wind, caressed me with joy;
Her birds and cicadas sang for me.

And, yes, even though this was written on another day, I sat today.