Zen Poems Thread

[Guest]

I thought I would start a thread for Zen/Buddhist poems. Or simply poems that touch you or your practice deeply. Or maybe a poem of your own.
This has always been one that has stuck with me for many many years:

Maple leaf
Falling down
Showing front
Showing back
-Ryokan, Japanese Zen poet

Gassho
Bobby

[Myosha]

It is present everywhere.
There is nothing it does not contain.
However only those who have
planted wisdom-seeds will be able
to continuously see it.”

- Dogen


Gassho,
Myosha

[Tiwala]

This is one of my favourites. I copied it down in my to do notebook where I log the day's jobs and some random thoughts. I forgot to copy down the author, but I think it's Ryokan Daigu

How many times since I came to this place
Have I seen the leaves green and then gold?
Wrapped by vines, the old trees have turned dark,
The bamboo have grown tall even in the valley's shade.
My staff has rotten from the night rain
My robe frayed from years of wind and frost.

In the vast silence of the universe,
For whom do I meditate
Each day and night?



Gassho, Ben

[Kokuu]

Lovely idea for a thread, Bobby.

I am currently reading The Selected Poems of Li Po. This is one of his:

Alone, searching for blue-lotus roofs,
I set out from city gates. Soon, frost

clear, Tung-lin temple bells call out,
Hu Creek's moon bright in pale water.

Heaven's fragrance everywhere pure
emptiness, heaven's music endless,

I sit silent. It's still, the entire Buddha-
realm in a hair's-breadth, mind-depths

all bottomless clarity, in which vast
kalpas begin and end out of nowhere.


I love that one of Ryokan's too, Ben.


Gassho
Kokuu/Andy

[Genshin]

The sound of maple leaves falling
in this mountain village
makes it hard to tell
a rainy day from one that is not.

- Ryokan

Gassho
Genshin (Matt)

[Nameless]

Really have to get a book of Ryokan's poems. Great thread idea Bobby. Here's a few I was putting together on the Three Marks of Existence:

Anicca:
Dawn breaks, horizon caressed
The sun sits high over head
Sinking low birds start to call
Silence settles and night falls

Anatta:
"I am just a tree."
To view thus just delusion -
I am the forest

Dukkha:
To not cling to the noon day sun
To not push from the coming night
As the trees fall, the forest departs
To view as such brings peace into life

Gassho, John

[Myozan Kodo]

Some lovely stuff.
Deep bows
Myozan

[Jishin]

I love this quote from the Waters and Mountains Sutra by Dogen:

"Understand the meaning of gives birth to a child. At the moment of giving birth to a child, is the mother separate from the child? Study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child. This is to actualize giving birth in practice-realization. Study and investigate this thoroughly."

Gassho, Jishin

[zdlee]

Not strictly Zen (he was a Jodo Shinshu priest), but this is one of my favorite Issa poems.

A new year--
the same nonsense
piled on nonsense.

-Kobayashi Issa

Gassho,
Zac

[Guest]

Wonderful everyone.

Gassho
Bobby

[Myosha]

crossing long fields
frozen in its saddle
my shadow creeps by
- Basho

favorite bicycle-ride poem


Gassho,
Myosha

[Myosha]

Grains of white rice held by a black bowl
Soft matter of the brain cradled by the bowl of the skull
The open sky fills and flows
Over the bowl of branches held
Up by leafless trees.

Anzan Hoshin

[Myosha]

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

L. Cohen ('92)

[Myosha]

The moon reflected
In a mind clear
As still water:
Even the waves, breaking,
Are reflecting its light. - Dogen (on zazen)


Gassho,
Myosha

[Myosha]

in blossoming trees
suddenly he's hidden...
my son
- Issa