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Seikan
01-28-2021, 08:56 PM
Hello Everyone!

When it comes to poetry, what are you reading these days? If you’re not currently reading anything particular, what are some of your favorite poets/poetry books?

If you’d like to share, please respond below and consider including a photo of the book(s) as well (a simple list is fine though).

Just like my tea cabinet, I like to keep a number of poetry books within arm’s reach and “sip” from one or two of them each day.

Currently, I’m spending most of my reading time with the following books (although this can change on a whim):


Happy Life by David Budbill
The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse translated by Red Pine
This Present Moment by Gary Snyder
The Voice at 3:00 A.M. by Charles Simic
Jane Kenyon’s Collected Poems
The Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth (the black hardcover in the below photo)


Let’s use this thread to share updates on what we are all reading from time to time. There is so much great poetry out there, and I find that personal recommendations are often the best way to learn about new books to read.

Happy reading! ;)

Gassho,
Seikan

-stlah-


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210128/8270e0afc1031a0553c6e7dfeae646e3.jpg

Yokai
01-29-2021, 03:41 AM
Thank you Seikan

You've inspired me to dig into 'The Complete Cold Mountain. Poems by the legendary hermit Hanshan' Trans. Kazuaki Tanahashi & Peter Levitt.

It's been sitting on my tablet for over a year! [morehappy] Maybe I'll give writing a whirl too...maybe!

Gassho, Yokai (Chris) sat/lah

Shōnin Risa Bear
01-29-2021, 03:55 AM
Have been sticking to Bood things currently. Hsin hsin ming, acupuncture needle, grass hut, Stonehouse. Then there's this quite odd book, Zengo -- a study of well known zen phrases such as "the cypress tree in the courtyard" -- these phrases are poetry on the surface, fire and ice beneath. _()_

gassho
ds sat/lah

久須本文雄 Kusumoto Bun’yū (1907-1995)
Zengo nyūmon
禅語入門
Tokyo: 大法輪閣 Daihōrin-kaku Co. Ltd., 1982 An Introduction to Zen Words and Phrases
Translated by Michael D. Ruymar (Michael Sōru Ruymar)

Shōnin Risa Bear
01-29-2021, 04:02 AM
There is some Red Pine and Cold Mountain in this playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHRH3Ul6SJZ283PBHw-lwMtmc7R9q-E8n

gassho
ds sat and lah today

Seikan
01-29-2021, 04:16 PM
Thank you Seikan

You've inspired me to dig into 'The Complete Cold Mountain. Poems by the legendary hermit Hanshan' Trans. Kazuaki Tanahashi & Peter Levitt.

It's been sitting on my tablet for over a year! [morehappy] Maybe I'll give writing a whirl too...maybe!

Gassho, Yokai (Chris) sat/lah


Cold Mountain is a treasure for certain! I have the Tanahashi translation as well. Hmm. That would be a nice complement to the Stonehouse book that I'm reading. Perhaps I'll add it back into the current rotation as well. ;)

Let me know if you dive into it soon.

Gassho,
Seikan

-st-

Seikan
01-29-2021, 04:24 PM
There is some Red Pine and Cold Mountain in this playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHRH3Ul6SJZ283PBHw-lwMtmc7R9q-E8n

gassho
ds sat and lah today


Shonin,

Thank you for this. You have so much in this playlist that I'm not familiar with (poetry and beyond!). This is perfect for the next few arctic-like days we're having here in New England.

And thank you for the Zengo Nyūmon suggestion. I found a copy of that English translation online (https://sites.google.com/site/mdruymar/home). I panicked a bit when I saw that it's over 400 pages, but like many poetry books, it appears to be more of a day hike and not a thru-hike kind of read (if you get my metaphor). ;)

gassho1

Gassho,
Seikan

-st-

Tai Shi
01-29-2021, 07:56 PM
Shonion Risa Bear, I have added this formal name to my personal spelling list as I have with other priests. and priests-in-training, and I consider these videos essential in my training as a lay person. Thank you for being an accomplished poet. My training as Haiku. and Sonnet practictioner has been underway since I entered these threads. However, my training at Colorado State Universith was primarily in free verse. I know that Robert Frost considered free verse like playing tennis without a net. I purshasd your book, Shonin Risa Bear, a truly beautiful Zen poetry book of a house holder, hut holder. I am a House Holder, too, but really the house belongs to my wife. In my book Medititations on Gratitude, I wrote a progression of poetry toward a point of denying suicide. In my last poem I will undieing love for my wife, "Marjorie/ Give all to Marjorie." I portraed in the second poem before my last, Brian who disappears has asked me to have coffee before he leaves for North Dakota. I am schedueled to work at my volunteer job. He begs me, but I say "no" not knowing what this means. His sister calls later to say he took his own life. Fiinally in my mid-sixtiys, I renounce suicide, suicide my exit at the last, this shortly before I entered Treeleaf. I was stuned with his death, and at the funeral his sister gives me his 22-year madallion. I had given this Brian to mark his anniversary of sobriey. When this happens at the funeral, I begin to cry, for I had asked for the madalion from my good friend. She makes sure I recieve this marker in his life. It's odd, but people like me often say that their only goal is to die sober. Often I think of Brian. and I think to myself, "Yes, he died sober!" I find meanining in his tragedy, for I had given Brian this chip. Today I say, "My goal to die a natural death, and die I want to be sober." Until the end I want to be there for my family. My wife and I are close. We care deeply about each other. In the final poem I explain in beautiful language, I will everything to my wife, everthing I own. All my love is my greatest gift. I want most to die sober for myself and for her. In these videos, and even with our own Treeleaf Zendo priests, what happens at time of death? Are they married, and will someone mourn for them? Certainly they will die sober, for we take vows to undetake toe Precepts. William Carlos Williams writes of the dead body in one of his poems. Is the body an ugly thing? Is that why many cremate the bodies? Brian was cremated. He had little to leave his lady friend. Did the family take all. My wife will mourn for me. Brian spoke often of his lady friend, "My lady friend." I never met her, but Brian was very Ill with a nerve disorder. When I think of Brian, I feel that people like me are like Zen Priests because each year claim humility at our "Birthday," I am 33-years old though 69 and in a creamony we recieve our madallions marking that year. Sometimes poety is read, often passages from the Book which has helped us to stay sober. Most of my madallions I gave to the club, not from 25 on. I love my wife and she will get everythig, not my madallions which will go back to the club. What happens to the belongings of monks and priests? Do they give all to Zendos, does someone mark the passing? Who gets the belongings? Nothing in any video has told if this is natural passing, and, of course, who will mourn.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi

Shōnin Risa Bear
01-29-2021, 08:41 PM
You are very kind, Tai shi. Concerning the matter of belongings of the deceased, here in the West it is all about wills and families, perhaps elsewhere as well, but historically there were strict rules about it in the Ch'an and Zen monasteries. A sample (going well beyond three sentences here) from the Chanyuan Quinggui:


A placard is hung announcing the auction of the deceased monk’s possessions to the assembly. While the bell is rung, everyone enters the hall. First, there is chanting for the deceased monk, then the chief seat is invited to examine the seal of the deceased’s property before opening it in front of the assembly. The possessions should be displayed in the hall before the bell is rung. The items are auctioned one at a time, after which the rector again leads the chanting .... Other than the enlightenment that comes with spiritual cultivation, which is the chief goal for all those who have renounced the world, monks should seek to acquire nothing but their clothes and a bowl. They should not accumulate property, which leads to avarice. A monk should prevent the possibility that, on the day of the auction after his death, the assembly will sit too long and become distressed because of the excessive number of belongings to be auctioned.

The idea is that funeral expenses should be recovered, with the remainder going to the needs of the monastery, and perhaps in case of need, to the needs of the surrounding community, with the understanding that there is not much, because a monk should in a sense have had no possessions other than the sun, the moon, and the river. _()_

gassho
doyu shonin sat today and lah

Tai Shi
01-30-2021, 07:00 AM
I am beginning to read Snow Country by the Nobel Prize winning Kawabata, is the family name Yasunari? Jundo could tell us. I am impressed so far with description of these Japanese mountains, unreality of stark bare landscape as train resumes with Gishi playing with man ahead, who will find her, Comentary at the beginning of this masterpiece says it is built in structure arounds Haiku, and this is one of Japans greatest modern works of fiction, Haiku is metaphore.
sat/ lah
Tai shi

Kokuu
01-30-2021, 05:39 PM
I am still reading the Tanahashi/Levitt translation of The Complete Cold Mountain. For anyone else doing this, there is a great series of podcast talks from Upaya in which the authors explore this:

https://www.upaya.org/2020/06/levitt-tanahashi-poetry-legendary-hermit-hanshan-7-parts/

Snow Country sounds great, Tai Shi!

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

Seikan
02-01-2021, 02:05 AM
Seems like Han Shan/Cold Mountain is proving to still be a popular read around here. Nice!

Tai Shi, thanks for the recommendation of Snow Country. That looks like one that I need to add to my wish list. ;)

Between an online order and a visit to a favorite used book shop yesterday, I've added the following books to my collection this week (see photo). Now to stop acquiring books and put more time into reading them... :)

Gassho,
Seikan

-stlah-
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210201/747f368e75731f433b7a480e96c43e08.jpg

Kokuu
02-01-2021, 10:21 AM
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...0e96c43e08.jpg

Nice choices, Seikan! I have two of those. The Chiyo-ni one has always seemed prohibitively expensive when I have looked.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

Seikan
02-01-2021, 01:36 PM
Nice choices, Seikan! I have two of those. The Chiyo-ni one has always seemed prohibitively expensive when I have looked.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-Kokuu,

The Chiyo-ni was an unexpected surprise. Being used (but in mint condition) it was only $8, so I couldn't pass it up. I'll let you know what I think once I get into it. ;)

Gassho,
Seikan

-st-


Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

Tai Shi
02-07-2021, 04:50 PM
I've moved over to Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh. I am happy. I smile. I breathe out I smile. I breathe in I am happy. Someday I will return to Snow Mountains.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi

Tai Shi
02-07-2021, 04:51 PM
I've moved over to Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh. I am happy. I smile. I breathe out I smile. I breathe in I am happy. I am Peace. Someday I will return to Snow Country.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi

JimInBC
02-12-2021, 01:00 AM
I am currently read the poetry of Robert Frost. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210212/869a95964ccb67dd141f2e8bc28b3ec1.jpg

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Koushi
02-12-2021, 01:27 AM
I’ve been flipping through an old book of poems I’ve had for years called “The Best Loved Poems of the American People”. Until tonight, I never looked at the first empty page, and now I realize what a treasure I have:

7014

It reads:


“Ernie,

Remember how we used to read poems to each other? I do. I love you.

Betty”

Along with that one of the poems I read today says:

Through this toilsome world, alas!
Once and only once I pass;
If a kindness I may show,
If it’s a good deed I may do
To a suffering fellow man,
Let me do it while I can.
No delay, for it is plain
I shall not pass this way again.

—Unknown

Gassho,
Koushi
ST

Gareth
02-12-2021, 01:27 AM
I’m reading a collection of Haiku: “The River of Heaven - The Haiku of Basho, Buson, Issa and Shiki”, by Robert Aitken.

Gassho,
Gareth

Sat today

Seikan
02-12-2021, 04:20 AM
Thanks everyone! Its great to see such a wide variety of poetry being enjoyed by Treeleaf folks. Keep 'em coming! :)

Koushi, I love that poem. Thank you for sharing.

I also enjoy reading old inscriptions in used books. I have the following collection of poems by Edgar Allan Poe, and while the inscription isn't nearly as touching as the one you shared, I still get a kick out of the fact that this book was given as a present over 130 years ago...

Gassho,
Seikan

-stlah-

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210212/db0a4947460b08a89f448a436a0779a6.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210212/2df7dfa3f126a938166ead91a8ba2cce.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

JimInBC
02-12-2021, 05:48 AM
I’m reading a collection of Haiku: “The River of Heaven - The Haiku of Basho, Buson, Issa and Shiki”, by Robert Aitken.

Gassho,
Gareth

Sat todayOh, I love that collection! Enjoy!

Gassho,
Jim
Stlah

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk

Risho
02-16-2021, 05:20 PM
Thank you Seikan

You've inspired me to dig into 'The Complete Cold Mountain. Poems by the legendary hermit Hanshan' Trans. Kazuaki Tanahashi & Peter Levitt.

It's been sitting on my tablet for over a year! [morehappy] Maybe I'll give writing a whirl too...maybe!

Gassho, Yokai (Chris) sat/lah

I love this book! I have it on my table and pick it up all the time; thumb to a random page and read a poem; great stuff!

gassho

risho
-stlah

Gareth
02-17-2021, 02:24 AM
Oh, I love that collection! Enjoy!

Gassho,
Jim
Stlah

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk

Thanks, I really like it too. The commentary makes a big difference for me.

Gassho,
Gareth

Sat today

Tai Shi
04-13-2021, 11:03 AM
I still think often of my own death. As my new signature shows. I believe I have learned "impermanence." With this I am a happy man. I will finish Being Peace and I am graduating to metta. Therefore, I will start a wonderful book. I lectured about this book 10 years ago before I understood metta at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church where I had begun an "Insight Meditation" group. This group folded about 10 weeks into it's beginning because I think I did not understand metta. The book I will begin next is called Loving Kindness, and it is a classic. 11 years ago I was not ready for much because I was very ill, but I began my Buddhism with breathe counting which a friend, who I was with just before her passing, had recommended from her book How to Meditate. For many years I have been unable to find this How to Meditate, and I was not entirely truthful with my friend at the time of her passing. That was 1981, and she asked me at her passing, "Are you still with your lady friend?" I said yes. Today that lady friend who I married in 1982 is still my wife, and we have no plans to ever make this otherwise. Today I believe I understand metta largely because of my friend who passed in 1981. After Becoming Peace I will read Loving Kindness about metta. I understand metta today because of Kokuu who has taught me Tonglen. Tonglen evolves naturally out of metta, so the next book I will read is a book I will read with more understanding; Loving Kindness. I read this book in honor of my friend who passed in 1981, and who was the first person to suggest in 1976 that I meditate. She taught me the most I knew about life at that time of my recovery. The book Loving Kindness I think I will understand more. Jundo please do not delete this post because it is not like my old posts, and you know I like to tell stories. It is read with Loving Kindness for my friend who died in 1981. Much metta, the Buddha's words on metta, for our Sangha.
Gassho
sat/lah
Tai Shi

Onkai
08-18-2021, 07:57 PM
Such a wonderful thread! So much I want to read.

Right now I'm reading The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired By the Early Buddhist Nuns. The poet is a man in the twenty-first century. He doesn't translate the original Therigatha (“Verses of the Elder Nuns”), which were written around Buddha's time. He writes poems based on those poems. It's a little controversial, but I find his poems to be beautiful.

Another collection I started and is inspiring and I mean to get back to is African American Poetry 250 Years of Struggle and Song, Keving Young, Editor, A Library of America Anthology.

I haven't always appreciated poetry, but now I'm finding some that speak to my heart.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/lah

bakera3312
08-18-2021, 08:15 PM
I dont know if it counts, but for my degree I am reading the Pali canon and varies writings on Buddhist schools.

gassho2

Tony,

Jundo
08-20-2021, 12:30 AM
Such a wonderful thread! So much I want to read.

Right now I'm reading The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired By the Early Buddhist Nuns. The poet is a man in the twenty-first century. He doesn't translate the original Therigatha (“Verses of the Elder Nuns”), which were written around Buddha's time. He writes poems based on those poems. It's a little controversial, but I find his poems to be beautiful.


Yes, that book has been criticized as a man's writing something so far removed from the originals that he has basically stuffed words and his male 21st century sensibilities into the mouths of the ancient nuns. My previous comment:


if someone offers "translations" that are so far removed from the original that they are not really the original at all, then there is a problem. This book of poems seems to step over the line. That is though even though it seems that the author tried to disclose what he was doing in his introduction, at least to some degree. For example, his poem below seems to have little connection to the original. When we look at the controversial "translation" here by Weingast compared to the more literal and faithful to the original poems by the two scholars on the left side, you see that Weingast is on another planet. It barely reflects the original and is not a "translation."

In an interview, from the 8:20 mark to 12:00, he seems to say that it ran away with him, and it was mostly his own words as much or more than the women.

https://soundcloud.com/user-426156245/the-first-free-women-with

Here is one example:



Therīgāthā - Close translation of the original by a scholar and practitioner
I gave up my home, my child, my cattle, and all that I love, and went forth. And now that I’ve given up desire and hate, dispelled ignorance, and plucked out craving root and all, I’m at peace, I’m quenched.

Weingast
When I left the only home I’d ever known, I thought I’d left everything behind. But I was still carrying all the years of running back and forth and around in circles after this or that. Just sitting still, those circles have broken apart and been carried away by this simple wind blowing in and out. All your old thoughts like snow falling on warm ground. Just sit back and watch.

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/first-free-women-a-bogus-translation-of-buddhist-scripture/18681

Gassho, Jundo

Sorry to run long

SatTodayLAH

Jundo
08-20-2021, 12:34 AM
Such a wonderful thread! So much I want to read.

Right now I'm reading The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired By the Early Buddhist Nuns. The poet is a man in the twenty-first century. He doesn't translate the original Therigatha (“Verses of the Elder Nuns”), which were written around Buddha's time. He writes poems based on those poems. It's a little controversial, but I find his poems to be beautiful.


Yes, that book has been criticized as a man's writing something so far removed from the originals that he has basically stuffed words and his male 21st century sensibilities into the mouths of the ancient nuns.


if someone offers "translations" that are so far removed from the original that they are not really the original at all, then there is a problem. This book of poems seems to step over the line. That is so even though it seems that the author tried to disclose what he was doing in his introduction, at least to some degree. For example, his poem below seems to have little connection to the original. When we look at the controversial "translation" here by Weingast compared to the more literal and faithful to the original poems by the two scholars on the left side, you see that Weingast is on another planet. It barely reflects the original and is not a "translation."

In an interview, from the 8:20 mark to 12:00, he seems to say that it ran away with him, and it was mostly his own words as much or more than the women.

https://soundcloud.com/user-426156245/the-first-free-women-with

Here is one example.



Therīgāthā - Close translation of the original by a scholar and practitioner
I gave up my home, my child, my cattle, and all that I love, and went forth. And now that I’ve given up desire and hate, dispelled ignorance, and plucked out craving root and all, I’m at peace, I’m quenched.

Weingast
When I left the only home I’d ever known, I thought I’d left everything behind. But I was still carrying all the years of running back and forth and around in circles after this or that. Just sitting still, those circles have broken apart and been carried away by this simple wind blowing in and out. All your old thoughts like snow falling on warm ground. Just sit back and watch.

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/first-free-women-a-bogus-translation-of-buddhist-scripture/18681

On more example. Asavas means influxes, or mental defilements, in traditional Buddhism. The top translation is quite close to the original:

https://buddhistfictionblog.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/screen-shot-2021-02-19-at-5.17.41-pm.png

Gassho, Jundo

Sorry to run long

SatTodayLAH

Onkai
08-20-2021, 02:59 AM
Is the translation of the Therigata by Charles Hallisey good? Thank you.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/lah

Jundo
08-20-2021, 04:33 AM
Is the translation of the Therigata by Charles Hallisey good? Thank you.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/lah

I cannot comment as a poet, but it is of much higher repute as a close translation of the originals. Charles Hallisey is very respected, the "Yehan Numata Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures at Harvard University."

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

brucef
08-22-2021, 03:54 PM
The Zen Poetry of Dogen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace by Steven Heine.

It’s a fascinating book that shows another side of Dogen.

“In the dead of the night,
The moon low in the sky,
As Shakyamuni enters parinirvana,
The jade forest, turning white,
Cannot play host to
A thousand-year-old crane
Whose glistening feathers
Fly right by the empty nest.”

Gassho
Bruce
ST/LAH

Onkai
08-25-2021, 06:17 PM
Thank you, Jundo, for recommending a true translation of the poems of the first Buddhist women. The book I got has copious notes giving an idea of who each woman was, and the context of her verses. On the left page it has romanization of the Sanskrit. The poems are in a different order than the book I was reading before, so I can't compare them, but I find this translation to be lovely. The book is physically beautiful, too. I got a hardback copy. (The book is Therigata: Poems of the First Buddhist Women translated by Charles Hallisey)

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/lah

Tai Shi
03-27-2023, 01:48 PM
A wonderful book, simply Zen Poetry, the story of a man's visiting a Renzi temple near Tokyo, miles from the nearest public transportation, of Renzi, and differences between Rezni, the other Zen Buddhism, a word branch like Treeleaf, Soto Zen, all for peace. Beautiful experience of Haiku, etc. This book is called simply; Zen Poetry, ed and intro, by Lucien Stryk. It includes poetry from Dogen, and many more ancient poets. Including many types of Japanese and Chinese Poetry. Excellent.
Gassho/peace
sat/lah.

Tai Shi
04-22-2023, 10:59 PM
Reading; Living Nations, Living Words collected with an introduction by Joy Harjo, 23rd U.S. POET Laureate, forward by Carla D Hayden, Librarian of Congress, a full experience of Native American Poetry. Some of the best and greatest voices in the Americas. WW Norton and CO. First Edition, and; a Year & other poems by Jos Charles, Milkweed editions C 2022; gifts from Laurel Ann Taylor, BA, MFA, PhD ABD.

Gassho
sat/lah
Tai Shi

Tai Shi
05-01-2023, 11:39 AM
Classic Haiku, Edited and Illustrated by Tom Lowenstein, Photographs by John Cleare, Duncan Brand Publishers, London, 1988.

Gassho
sat/lah
Tai Shi

Tai Shi
07-20-2023, 02:35 PM
Robert A Heinlein, Have Space Suit Will Travel, Time for the Stars, Mathusala's Children, Starman Jones. etc. etc., more books, by the same author, This man called the Dean of Science Fiction, the greatest science fiction writer of the 20th Century.
May we yet find in fiction of science the essence of hope and a loving world where there is only peace in every action moved to space and beyond.
Gassho sat/lah
Deep Bows.

Onkai
07-20-2023, 02:46 PM
Robert A Heinlein, Have Space Suit Will Travel, Time for the Stars, Mathusala's Children, Starman Jones. etc. etc., more books, by the same author, This man called the Dean of Science Fiction, the greatest science fiction writer of the 20th Century.
May we yet find in fiction of science the essence of hope and a loving world where there is only peace in every action moved to space and beyond.
Gassho sat/lah
Deep Bows.

gassho2

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

Tai Shi
07-27-2023, 12:39 PM
I began this thread with the hope that some of us might share what we read of pride that we remain literate by sharing our interests in reading, and that all might help others know a little of these interests to hopefully provide a full and precious mind! I grow. Precious is using this most important organ of our body, a gift I nearly lost. Loosing one's mind to a tumor did not happen to me only because of a great friend, and because I am fortunate to have married a woman who provides me with medical care. Most of the world does not get the care I get. I have faced death in my life, as we all do, many times. With luck, I will be 72 on September 11th. I have learned, and I have tried to work at it my entire life. From Tootles, The Train to Great Books about my love of Poetry and language. May you find a place here to share your books, your love of learning. I continue to read books about my career of writing and teaching writing. Now I am reading The Poet's Companion that I might learn more of my craft. May you also learn something that is dear to you. This book is by two excellent poets, Kim Addonisio, and Dorianne Laux. I was a Wren, not a Robin or Bluebird, in reading ability. In second-grade, I was the worst. Furthermore, I am still a Wren, but I work at reading because I love words, and language, and stories, and poems, and a great deal more, so please list and share your books here. What are you reading now?
Gassho
sat/lah
Tai Shi (calm poetry)

Onkai
07-27-2023, 02:19 PM
Sorry. I misunderstood which thread this was.

I'm reading "The Liberating Arts - Why We Need Liberal Arts Education." Edited by Jeffrey Bilbro, Jessica Hooten Wilson, and David Henreckson. Each section has an argument against the liberal arts and then three articles refuting and reframing the argument.

It is published by Plough Publishing House, a Christian organization, and some of it has a specifically Christian viewpoint, but it allows for viewpoints of other religious traditions. It's available on Amazon.

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

Tai Shi
07-27-2023, 04:26 PM
It’s fine. Any post is good and you may write and share what you want.
Gassho
Tai Shi
sat/lah


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Onkai
07-27-2023, 05:01 PM
It’s fine. Any post is good and you may write and share what you want.
Gassho
Tai Shi
sat/lah


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Thank you, Tai Shi.

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

Tai Shi
07-27-2023, 06:12 PM
I went to a Liberal Arts college, Grinnell College in Iowa. BA in English literature and history, MA English and Ed.S. higher education, MFA creative writing. The degrees are more than adequate, More Daily Wisdom; 365 Buddhist Inspirations. Wisdom Publications, 2006. Apologies for any assumptions.

Gassho
sat/lah

Tai Shi
09-10-2023, 05:04 AM
I just wanted to make a little note. Now 11:16 pm and at 5:16 this morning I peeled off the last Fentynal patch. Up until today I did not know how to spell "Fentynal," but I got it right this morning. The first thing I did at 10:16 this morning I opened up my mind to A Little Treasury of British Poetry, books I bought when I was 15, and I read, read, read words, beautifully words, cascading down my mountain brook, watering my trees, filling my wells with sweet water at the end of Summer grass, Autumn wind, lake wind, mountain lake water rushing past my windows.I am free, like Yeats in his tower. "I pase on the battlements and stare." Straight talk eluded me when I was 15 and bought my first book of poetry. I know straight talk now when I hear it, when I hear it spoken. I will never trust implicitly any doctor again because when she says, "You are working on only one third of your kidneys!" 33% works, the other 66% is just there, so what does water have to do with that? What Auden knew, on Easter's end of World War One and 17 million had been senselessly slaughtered, in trenches, with mustard gas, with battlements of horses dead in their traces. What was to become of the human animal? Was slavery abolished by 1864? By no means, and girls are sold in their sleep, boys learn to weep, cry themselves to sleep, lose mothers and fathers in divorcees houses, let us all learn to wonder why we see nothing but open sky, what has become of the restless cloud of death...It is dying in the desert of Moses, and Issah, and Buddha, and Bodhidharma, so leave all to keep sacred the human body and the human mind opening on Peaceful Poetry to again learn what is important in the human heart and mind...A Little Treasure of Charles strong man poetry, Tai Shi poetry. He likes Tai Shi poetry best, he likes it best, it's best, best to remember happiness and freedom from chemical straight jackets, cry for ten years of attempted wonder, start and stop, start again at age seventy two, seven and two weight decades, looking back at six decades, and thirty six years of that seventy two years free from old wine, held by Martin Luther's ninety nine theses like Fire Sermons swollen with molten Buddhism no wonder drugs fifty times as potent as heroin reach the street at all, all reach the street and cry.

Last Thursday after one month of trying without Fentynal we my provider and I with the help of pain specialists, and several, Internal Medicine, Interventional Pain, Family Practice, and Geriatrics we have decided to keep a minimum patch one up from 12.5 the lowest, this and other means to control chronic pain, the Ankylosing Spondylitis is so advanced that patch every three days is at minimum necessary for me I am disappointed except to say that the dose is in no way intoxicating so adheres to the Precepts. Now for my dear friend who has suffered a stroke, Kyosui who saved my life has worked all his life as an RN, Ast Science, BA psychiatry nurse, I dedicate the series Rama, seventh Hindu God, Vishnu, disembodied one, those who would join me to read one or more of these books by Arthur C Clarke, scientist, writer. My friend loves Science Fiction and he has saved my life, and I cannot travel, I am 72 no longer drive, my wife is partly blind, she cannot drive me to my friend, and we may one day find a way to visit my brother 300+ miles away in Des Moines, Iowa who is finding about a cancer, Kyousui is my mittre or double, my other "brother in Buddhism," who would sit Zazen, Shikantaza with me at Shokai, 6:00 am at Treeleaf Zendo as a group on Zoom, once or twice as many times as you are able, you define this Ango activity, I invite you or anyone.
Gassho
sat/lah
Tai Shi
10/11/2023/ 7:32 am.

Tai Shi
10-11-2023, 01:11 PM
My dear Mittre, double friend in Buddhism who sent me to ER, saved my life, and he now has a stroke and needs all of us, and who also suffers cancer, and is becoming dependent on family I would as many as can sit zazen with Shokai, 6:05 Central Time USA, sit Treeleaf schedueled time, for Kyousui who has had this situation who is two years my senior, and we have nearly everyday called and chatted and cared for each other, read one or more of the Rama Series for my friend who loves Sci Fi, and this about a long gone race of space people, as from Earth Extraterrestrials, and superior to give humanity. This I dedicate for my own Ango and any partner in 2023 fall, come along with me in dedication to Kysoui a nurse RN/ BA, Morningside College an excellent college, all his life my dear friend, join me in celebrating his life. This is my Ango for all to join in Sci Fi, his great love in fiction, this we do for him and it is easiest for us to do this simple set of ideas and behaviors for him Arthur C Clarke, scientist, writer, read from Rama series the Vishnu God of second primary In India, so find the Relationship to Buddhism!
sat/lah
Gassho
Deep. Deep. Bows
Tai Shi

Tai Shi
10-11-2023, 01:27 PM
My dear Mittre, double friend in Buddhism who sent me to ER, saved my life, and he now has a stroke and needs all of us, and who also suffers cancer, and is becoming dependent on family I would as many as can sit zazen with Shokai, 6:05 Central Time USA, sit Treeleaf schedueled time, for Kyousui who has had this situation who is two years my senior, and we have nearly everyday called and chatted and cared for each other, read one or more of the Rama Series for my friend who loves Sci Fi, and this about a long gone race of space people, as from Earth Extraterrestrials, and superior to give humanity this second chance. This I dedicate for my own Ango and any partner in 2023 fall, come along with me in dedication to Kysoui a nurse RN all his life my dear friend, join me in celebrating his life.
sat/lah
Gassho
Deep. Deep. Bows
Tai Shi

Onkai
10-11-2023, 02:31 PM
Thank you for sharing, Tai Shi. I also wish the best for Kyousui and dedicate my practice to him. I've downloaded "Rendezvous with Rama." I have a lot on my reading list, but would like to read the series with you and anyone else who would like to join.

Gassho, Onkai
Sat lah

Tai Shi
10-11-2023, 02:35 PM
Onkai I know you’re priestess duties take a lot of time and I appreciate your recommendation to others and please don’t skimp on your studies. I will also be reading Homeless Kodoo (sp ?) with my Ango partner. I know required reading for priests-in-training.
Gassho
deep bows
Sat/ lah Gaia Rama
Vishnu creator destroyer
Tai Shi


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