Ango 2015 Poetry

[Kokuu]

Hi all

I started this thread to post any haiku I write during the 2015 autumn practice period and it would be lovely if anyone wanted to share anything they write also.


After months apart
my rakusu slides on
like an old friend.


Gassho
Kokuu
#sattoday

[Jika]

After months apart
an old friend
slides on the rakusu
like well-kept rice paddies.

Thank you for your practice, Kokuu.
Deep bows,
Danny
#sattoday

[Byokan]

Thank you for this thread.
It's a wonderful idea!
Ango poetry

Gassho
Lisa
sat today

[Jakuden]

I posted this in the Metta thread yesterday.. I was thinking about my teen daughter's schoolmate and her Mom who were tragically killed in a car accident on Thursday.

Autumn is coming
Impermanence visible
Gentle rain falling

Gassho,
Sierra
SatToday

[Kokuu]

Zazen
silence between
each tick of the clock.

[Shoka]

Kokuu,

I wish there was a like button. Nothing to say, but I missed your poetry.

Gassho,

Shoka
sattoday

[Kokuu]

Awww, thank you!

[Kyonin]

Hi Kokuu,

So happy to see you taking Ango. Thank you.

And thank you for this thread. I'll post some of my poetry here from time to time

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Kokuu]

Kyonin.


Somewhere between
sleep and wakefulness
the cry of a gull.

[Jika]

Drawing lines
separating
measured, uncut silence.

Gassho,
Danny
#pencilstainsmyfingers

[Kokuu]

Between concrete tiles
the whole sky reflected in
a single puddle.

[Kokuu]

All feather and bone
brushing the cool air my hands
become swallow wings.

[Kokuu]

Autumn --
neither coming or going
yellow birch leaves.

[Jishin]

Humpty Dumpty on the wall

Spat he goes

Feed us all

[Jakuden]

LOL Jishin!

Gassho,
Sierra
SatToday

[Jishin]

[Jakuden]

Thrushes are silent
Hummingbird wings hum elsewhere
A raucous jay screams

[Sven]

Just posted Ango poem
"NOLA Zazen"
over on my blog
seemed too many words
for this thread


http://svendavisson.com

Gassho,
sven

Edite: posted below

[Kokuu]

Not at all, Sven. Just because most of the poems have been short doesn't mean that longer ones aren't very welcome!

Gassho
Kokuu
#sattoday

[Sven]

NOLA Zazen

The Zendo near our house in Maine
the sound of the han echoes off trees and hill
and large rock where Gato-Roshi’s ashes lie.

The songs of birds chattering and trilling to each other
the mournful coo-ah coo of a pair of doves
and the cutting craw of a crow
the lone doe siding her way silently
through the remnants of harvest
the resonant tonal croak of a bull frog in the pond
the strike of an early rising carpenter’s hammer.

Here, the morning framed
by the warning of heavy equipment backing up
the rhythm of a train behind the house
broken by the sharp sound of poorly lubricated iron
wheels’ screech on rail as it makes the turn
edging by the decommissioned naval station
the backhoe digging through gravel and river silt
repairing the gas lines beneath the street
the occasional siren from the substation
at the end of the next block
workers’ voices raised over the noise of machines
five horns of a tug in the canal
and the answering clanging bell
as the drawbridge goes up
a car with bad muffler and loose belt waiting.

Behind the sound of rock on steal,
the sounds of two birds singing
a dog barks
another answers
a feral rooster crows WAKE UP

New Orleans 10.6.15

IMG_2050.jpg
Rusty Rainbow, Crescent Park, the Bywater, New Orleans

[Kokuu]

Breathing through pain
the whole world is covered
with falling leaves.


Gassho
Kokuu
#sattoday

[Byokan]

I didn't realize
I'd be sewing cat hair
into the Rakusu

[Kokuu]

Cat hair and blood
weaves into the rakusu
with all of life.

[Byokan]

- - - Sewing - - -
(a-poem-from-a-non-poet-who-also-does-not-sew)


Measuring carefully the spaces in between.
From this line, 3.5, and now 2.5, now 1.
Like one ring of the bell to the next...
One beat of the heart to the next,
One inbreath to one outbreath,
And one stitch to the next:
- - - - - Namu kie butsu
- - - Namu kie butsu
- Namu kie butsu
Look closely
no-space
just
-

[Jakuden]

Wow, Lisa I would say you are both a poet and a seamstress!! That is really beautiful! Thank you.

P.S. I also am sewing cat hair into my Rakusu, and it seems to have inspired some thoughts the past few days, I hope you don't mind if eventually they work their way out into a poem borrowing off your idea.

Gassho,
Sierra
SatToday

[Byokan]

Wow, Lisa I would say you are both a poet and a seamstress!! That is really beautiful! Thank you.

P.S. I also am sewing cat hair into my Rakusu, and it seems to have inspired some thoughts the past few days, I hope you don't mind if eventually they work their way out into a poem borrowing off your idea.

Gassho,
Sierra
SatToday

Aw, thanks Sierra, I know my poetry is pretty weak, but no one can say it isn't triangular.
Plenty of cat hair to go around, pick up a handful and a pen!

Gassho
Lisa
sat today

[Sekishi]

It was. It is. It will be.
I want. I do not want.
This small mind cuts and cuts,
But glimpse it for a moment and all is forgiven.

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sattoday

[Kokuu]

Watching leaves fall
I too may not see
another spring.

[Hoseki]

Watching leaves fall
I too may not see
another spring.

Very moving.

Gassho
Adam
Sat today


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[Risho]

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go

- John Lennon Roshi - from Watching the Wheels

What a talented person!

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[Jishin]

What a jerk!

I say to myself.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jakuden]

I am a jerk too
Concerning myself over
Life's inconvenience

[Nindo]

soft flakes drifting
floating falling
ever so gently
melting on contact

on the asphalt
on the wooden stairs
one on my cheekbone
a cold tickle

each a prayer
each saying, hush
peace, peace, peace
be soft
let go

[Byokan]

soft flakes drifting
floating falling
ever so gently
melting on contact

on the asphalt
on the wooden stairs
one on my cheekbone
a cold tickle

each a prayer
each saying, hush
peace, peace, peace
be soft
let go

Sooo beautiful, thank you Nindo!

Gassho
Lisa
sat today

[Tai Shi]

I've been reading about stealing in The Mind Of Clover. This has come after reading about killing in the precept. To foster life is the same as generosity. In one comment I see others commenting about how the precepts intertwine. As I grow older, I see my life as one of service. For many years taking is all this poor kid knew how to do. Now that I am older I can give of my time. I volunteer in a number of ways. I will say that for years I took from my little family and gave little in return. That changed when I nearly lost my life 3 times. When one is faced with an incomplete life, one must change and place all at giving. Now I am faced each day with terrible pain. So my job is to find ways to give. I do not drive, depend on my beautiful wife who I love with my heart. It comes to this, what is more important things or life. Therefore the act of taking things is deeply rooted in the act of generosity. Time and understanding. This is what I offer Fugen please write to me?
Elgwyn
sat today
Gassho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tb]

So my job is to find ways to give.
I do not drive, depend on my beautiful wife who I love with my heart. It comes to this, what is more important things or life. Therefore the act of taking things is deeply rooted in the act of generosity. Time and understanding. This is what I offer Fugen please write to me?

Hi.

Thank you, beautifully written.
Now the question becomes, how do we manifest this in life?

And thank you for your practice.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

#Sat2day

[Getchi]

I walk one path, alone.
SO many thoughts, so many loves.
Who should I meet but myself?
It thus ever was.

[Kokuu]

Fallen willow branch
the second ancestor stands
before Daruma


Huike, the second Zen ancestor, was reputed to have cut off
his own arm to demonstrate his determination to Bodhidharma
(Daruma): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazu_H...dharma_legends

[Sven]

You Live

for Brandon Lacy Campos

Watching your poetry series on YouTube
the retroactively ironic title, “I Live”
set against the previous in the playlist
unripe plums, metaphysics,
and Whalen’s meditation
on William Carlos Williams

Looking up from the digital
to the IRL window
the derelict blue house
its gutters hanging down
the tree scorched by fire
the vacant lot diagonal
where the house so recently burned
under renovation reclaiming the poetry
of a previous century’s architecture
gone in minutes of heat and electric fireworks
the lot now a graded smooth expanse
where once a firm frame structure stood
for a century or more

the sound of a car
tires crunching loose gravel
as it makes a U-turn
to head back up N. Rampart toward Poland

The meditative insomnia of memory
keeps my eyes open lids heavy
scorched leaves hanging brittle and brown
empty lot now the city cleared it
only char marks on back fence remain
the repetition of traffic turning 180°
at the center of the intersection

This vacant lot is not the house
wood is not ash, nor fuel fire
this street a dead-end yet a means to one
imperfect impermanent interconnected

A small dog barks twice
walking by with its owner
train whistle
a carpenter’s hammer

The living voice of dead poets
remembering dead poets
your words defy borders
the atoms of your body
expand out across the universes
in all directions and across all times
just as your legs spread wide across their limits
you defied their can’ts don’ts wont’s
and we love you for it

You live in ink in pixels in memory
your voice on the phone the week before
now more concept than cadence
the electric pop of dissolution
the unsuspected news on Facebook
even before the cell phone rang

Sound waves can’t be destroyed
the half life of your words’ radiation
will never reach zero
I replay the video
permanently transfecting the cosmos
with the vector of your defiance
Brandon you are still fine as Hell

11.24.15


Link to Brandon's poetry on my blog version...

[Ryumon]

Sitting on Sunday morning
Church bells peal, six notes descending, repeating
Sunlight breaks through the clouds,
It's warm rays illuminate my face
My cat yawns and stretches
The final bell rings and stops
Yet its memory lingers in the silence.



Gassho,

Kirk

#SatToday

[Shugen]

Thank you Kirk.

Shugen

#sattoday


Shugen
明道 修眼
As a priest in training, please assume I don't really know what I'm talking about....

[Shokai]

Wonderful !! Thank you for sharing this Kirk

gassho, Shokai

[Mp]

Thank you Kirk,

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Nindo]

I am going to publish this one in a local anthology.

Gassho
Nindo
sattoday



No trace of having entered the mountains

there’s comfort in knowing the names of mountains
- Bonhomme, Miette, Perdrix, Kerkeslin, Hardisty, Tekarra -
I want to write a poem about each of them

to capture how vistas open up on the drive in
and how the evening light makes a rock face glow
on the way home

how the layers of rock were thrust up
and came to stand vertically
and ice, water and wind ground and wore and dissolved

(does the rock miss the polishing touch
of the glacier that filled this valley?)

all this I want to write
but the breath-in, breath-out experience
of being (in) the mountains cannot be grasped
and using its name is not yet meeting the mountain

before language, mountains are
expressing themselves in continual change

in awe we become ordinary animals
that enjoy water and bread
and walk simply
with no name, rank or title
not even that of poet

[Byokan]

Wow, 2 in one day, we're rich! Thanks for posting, Kirk and Nindo, I love both of these.

Gassho
Lisa
sat today

[Jika]

Thank you, all who contributed!

Gassho,
Danny
s.t.

[Myosha]

Metta to all.


Gassho
Myosha sat today

[Anshu Bryson]

Not my work, but put a smile on my face...

This is from one of Junpo Kelly's students, on returning from Rohatsu retreat and being met by his 9-year old son:

"He came running out of school to greet me upon my return from Rohatsu. With this shit-eating grin on his face, he exclaimed: 'Daddy, daddy…I wrote down a haiku for you while you were away! Look, look ...'"

HAiKU

five syllables here

seven more syllables there

are you happy now?

[Jakuden]

LOL!! That's awesome.

Gassho,
Sierra
SatToday

[Mp]

Not my work, but put a smile on my face...

This is from one of Junpo Kelly's students, on returning from Rohatsu retreat and being met by his 9-year old son:

"He came running out of school to greet me upon my return from Rohatsu. With this shit-eating grin on his face, he exclaimed: 'Daddy, daddy…I wrote down a haiku for you while you were away! Look, look ...'"

HAiKU

five syllables here

seven more syllables there

are you happy now?

Awesome! =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday