Zen Poems Thread

[Eishuu]

What a lovely thread... really like the Hakuin monkey poem. Here is one of my favourites by Ryokan:


The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away,
and the weather is clear again.
If your heart is pure, then all things in your world
are pure.
Abandon this fleeting world, abandon yourself,
Then the moon and flowers will guide you along the
way.


Gassho
Lucy

[Guest]

A bird in a secluded grove sings like a flute.
Willows sway gracefully with their golden threads.
The mountain valley grows the quieter as the clouds return.
A breeze brings along the fragrance of the apricot flowers.
For a whole day I have sat here encompassed by peace,
Till my mind is cleansed in and out of all cares and idle thought
I wish to tell you how I feel, but words fail me.
If you come to this grove, we can compare notes.

Ch'an master Fa-yen (法眼Hõgen) (The Golden Age of Zen 238, 321 n.31)

[Eishuu]

Wild Geese You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

-Mary Oliver

[Myosha]

“Where there are humans,

You'll find flies,

And Buddhas.”

― Kobayashi Issa


Gassho,
Myosha

[Guest]

We meet only to part,
Coming and going like white clouds,
Leaving traces so faint
Hardly a soul notices.

-----------------------------------------

I’m so aware
That it’s all unreal:
One by one, the things
Of this world pass on.
But why do I still grieve?

-both by Ryokan

[Geika]

Thank you, Bobby. Lovely

[Eishuu]

Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent

-Ryokan

[Myosha]

O Snail,
Climb Mount Fuji
But slowly, slowly!
Issa

[Heion]

Like tangled hair,
The circular delusion
Of beginning and end,
When straightened out,
A dream no longer.
-Dogen (translated by Steven Heine)

Lots of wisdom in this thread!

Gassho,
Heion

[Kokuu]

Lovely, Heion. The first line reminds me of this poem by Izumi Shikibu (974-1034):
Lying alone,
my black hair tangled,
uncombed,
I long for the one
who touched it first.


Gassho
Andy

[Guest]

Space

Who am I?
Sitting alone,
facing a wall.
Cyber space in the Milky Way blue.
Disconnected modem connected to all.
Nothing but star dust,
we return to that
which we never were.

-Unknown

[Myosha]

I don't stop moving all daylong
before sunset I'm done
back home I wash off my feet and sleep
too tired to notice the mountain moon's passage
birds wake me up from a distant grove
the red sun's disc shines through the pines
today and tomorrow don't differ
the years are all the same.

-Stone house


Gassho,
Myosha

[Myosha]

For the time-being
Words scatter. . .
Are they fallen leaves?

Ruth Ozeki

[Myozan Kodo]

Gassho


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[adrianbkelly]

Snow
falls on snow-
silence

Santoka