Deep in the woods
The path
Revealed itself
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mMb...w?usp=drivesdk
Jon
Sat
Deep in the woods
The path
Revealed itself
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mMb...w?usp=drivesdk
Jon
Sat
Shawn,Shawnzen
Member
This message has been deleted by Shawnzen.
Reason
I am dissatisfied with my poems, and so I have decided to delete a majority of them.
I am no critic of poetry, even Zen poetry ...
... but I do know that most of the critic often exists just between our own two ears. Perhaps you might repost them.
Gassho, J
STLah
PS - For what my opinion is worth, I truly really liked your poems.
ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE
desire -
the babbling brook
flows around it
There are no critics here. We post our poetry, and as is often the case with me, they are impromptu meanderings through the woods of words-- don't worry-- no one will criticise, and within reason, all are welcome-- we claim no bad or good-- we just are and we like it all-- Shawn please come back-- you are welcome here. I welcome you.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 12-31-2020 at 07:50 PM. Reason: helpful
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Tai Shi said it perfectly. This is a wonderful space to share our poetry with no unsolicited critique. I know that my own work won't resonate with everyone, and that's fine. If we're moved to share our work in the first place, that is all that matters.
Please do continue to share. The more the merrier!
Gassho,
Rob
-stlah-
Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk
聖簡 Seikan (Sacred Simplicity)
Thoughts racing, turning, chasing
Changing
Coming, leaving all at once
Grasping
Grasped
Gone
Underneath the storm
Is silence
Peace
Present
All along
Wrong is not the opposite of right
Wrong is right astray
Pushing and pulling everything in its way
Not seeking objects
Not clinging to views
I abide as I am
Without knowing right from wrong
Like a little boy
I drink my coffee
Abandoning my mind
I stumble forward
I cannot find enlightenment
I cannot get rid of delusion
Some things make me feel good
And other things hurt me
Sat today
This person that I witness
And his relationship to life
Is good in some ways,
Bad in others
A constant feeling
Of being bad
And trying very hard
To be good
I could not become a Buddha
By percieving the three marks
Nor could I become a jnani
By negating all forms
Looking upon people like Christ and Ramakrishna
A breath of fresh air fills my lungs and my heart is softened
Why do I like these people?
Perhaps because I feel that they are without judgement
My own judgements are harsh
Towards myself and others
I understand what the Buddha said,
But I cannot bare to try to be like him anymore
Sat today
Gassho
Thank you all for the kind words
Gradually learning to let go of unhappiness
And learning to be kind to others.
In the past, I have sinned
By hurting others.
In the present,
I abide as awareness and watch my life happen.
In my body,
I practice Zazen every day and try my best to uphold moral virtues.
Sometimes I feel like shaving my head,
And other times I do not feel like shaving my head.
The tall oak tree stands amongst blades of grass.
The blades of grass tickle the base of the tree,
And the tree offers the blades of grass some shelter from the elements.
As the wind blows,
Both the tree and the blades of grass sway from side to side.
Gassho
Sat today
Hi. One more poem for today. I promise I won't delete them again. I just need to learn to get past my own embarrassment.
Sitting on the couch,
The world is my self.
Even though I am different from the world,
I identify with the world.
Even though the world is different from me,
I merge with the world.
Sitting on the couch,
I allow all things to be as they are.
Allowing all things to be as they are,
I practice patience, kindness, humility, and love for self and others.
Sat today
Gassho
P.S. also, a question. I see some people writing "lah" in their posts. What does that stand for?
Thanks for giving me a chance to share my poetry with you all. I hope you all have a nice day, whereever you are.
Hey there! Embarrassment is normal I think. Us writers and poets are always so self-critical. Please keep sharing, they’re great
LAH is short for “lend/lent a hand”. Where signing ST/Sat/Sat Today is what you’ll see most, LAH is usually after if someone feels called to share
Gassho,
Jesse
ST
On Call
I'm not a doctor
Or civil servant
Yet I'm always on edge
Always waiting
For the other shoe
That may never fall
Few and far between
Are those sublime moments
When I let my guard down
Welcoming the anxiety
As an old friend
Who stays only so long
Before taking their leave
And I go back to pretending
That they're still here beside me
Gassho,
Rob
-stlah-
This Buddha Nature
He began to prove
From clouds found
In mother's eyes,
His Miss Emily
Her poetry like death,
Still in days she heard
Him cry, lost,
Blind to Buddha
Nature, left
His mindfulness,
In India, or Iowa,
In skys of stone.
Sioux Falls in spring,
Where Buddhists
In their Theravada
Robes were worn
Not for his cry for
Freedom. He ran
From darkness,
This loneliness,
His second chance.
Their seated Buddha
Statue free from spite.
Now Shikantaze.
Inspiration
His lost darkness.
Of 12th century
She walked in Kyoto,
Never in mountain
Shrine Eihei-ji temple.
In time of winter time,
Then to Black Hills
Highest Mountains
West of Rockies.
He could walk without pain
For a time, Turtle Creek,
Not to Dogen yet,
He found himself
His poetry, his pivcytures great,
This temple comes
Only for monks who wait.
Give Lay Members
Jukai undertaking.
Precepts do not show
Window vows taken
In youth, complet
As dawning in eastern light
Skies, through day, then
Sunset of life for each other.
As they climbed
They saw their days
Looked back at what
Was closed to them.
With his Inner world,
He dreamt of Zen, found
Years gave way
To meditation,
At fifty found again,
Freedom from drudge
His reward from school,
Teaching easys, lesson plans,
Dedication giving way
To difficulties not forseen.
Let them go, not student,
Not teacher, nor scholar,
His life in ordinary work.
Again he knew winter.
Felt arthritic spine
Inflamation, feeling
Ever ill, then poetry
Found delight in words again,
He found his Bower of Bliss,
Then September Jubilee,
Still more delight at sixty
Years set free by pain
Explore his inner world
Again, Good poetry, good food,
Then Shikantaza in 2014,
His ease, Insight meditation,
Counting Breath his reward
She sought to see.
Her eyes legally blind,
Her world dim with sight,
Marked by blindness
In left eye,
He helped correct,
With his cameras, composition
With Nature in magisterial
He was cloth cut clean, color
Theory, now she is his autumn.
He lives her spring,
She is his Queen of Peace,
His eyes forever
Her sight restored in him,
She is set free.
She ministers
To his body, takes his
Suffering away,
She is Zendo practice,
His final acceptance.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 01-03-2021 at 04:42 PM. Reason: concision, spelling. my grammar checker says 9+ errors.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Already perfect,
I sit down and celebrate my wholeness.
Sometimes I am confused.
Sometimes the blue sky is obscured by a veil of grey clouds.
The scenery of the sky is not a hindrance for the sky,
Just as the branches of the tree are not parasites on the tree.
Sometimes my heart is insecure.
Often I do things and then regret those things later.
Abandoning my need to be perfect,
I forgive myself and others.
Gassho
ST
what a strange thing, this life is.
between tugging, clinging and pushing away
we find the peace to drop everything.
Her World Is To See
Today someone
Thought of my need
She gave me Hafiz.
This body, my book,
Without Japan, Rumi took
My fear "Enjoy. I am here,
I lived too, and I survived."
Acknowledged my winter
Like Snowy life I know,
Nights of solitude, gratefully
Demanding scholarship,
Writing my journals, my grief.
Daughter, woman with love
Bound your Japanese Tai Shi
Your own scholarship, Snowy
Laurette surpassed
Your mother's Laurel wreath,
Your ring earned scholarship
Fire far above father's cry,
Your family always dear,
Your life this daily happiness
In Friends your greatest gift,
You are always near, daughter,
In universities, in Hokkaido.
Teaching English to children,
This poetry, your scholarship,
Like wood thrush song;
Sing for Asian skies,
Song bird fly now greatness
Accolade need not stand still,
Know why! I see no desire,
Relinquish your grief, daughter
Lift your wings and fly.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 06-03-2021 at 05:20 PM. Reason: revision
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Book Leaf
Book is my fig leaf,
Unforgotten in blizzards
Of yesterday's wind.
!00 kilometers an hour
I count this day
White snow to books
Yes, eternal yes,
This is my tower.
These are my ideas,
Not Bodhisattva.
Gassho
Sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Never Stone
Her Tales,
In grammar,
Morning star
Each moon,
Our meditations grow
Then Shikantaza
Dawn In Canterbury's
Eastern light.
Without her coat
Cold comes in waves,
Simple caves
Of thread, She stitches
Days of poetry
My cover her rakusu.
Verses grow,
Her blue eyes
Our Shore of light
My stories of ancient
Diggings wherever
Is Home, is ours,
Our residence
House on Mary Lane,
In South Dakota eyes,
Visions in sight returned
He becomes her eyes
Her Western night,
Never stone.
Gassho
sat/lah
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 01-18-2021 at 12:40 PM. Reason: Total revision
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
The Ordinary
Two black cats guard this temple -
It's just a house.
Who would live with such companions?
Razor claws and needle teeth.
They fly at intruders like dragons.
I sit and stand -
Meditating without meditation.
Alone in the world,
All my friends on the cushion with me.
Looking both inwards and outwards.
Cars, phone, a woman cooking,
A knock at the door.
Disturbance
Not ignored,
Not hated,
Not given importance.
A glittering boring perfect normal day.
Delight in the ordinary.
Live, breathe, eat, sleep.
Painfully, beautifully empty existence.
Not waiting, or wishing, for a better time.
All of life is our temple.
Gandō Seiko
頑道清光
(Stubborn Way of Pure Light)
My street name is 'Al'.
Any words I write here are merely the thoughts of an apprentice priest, just my opinions, that's all.
An English Buddhist Does Yoga
The young woman's voice said, "relax",
In a Doncaster accent.
I relaxed.
"Allow yourself to sink into the mat."
I couldn't stop myself.
"Feel your body in contact with the ground".
I melt into the mat.
"Sink deeper."
I melt THROUGH the mat.
There is no separation between my body and the mat.
I and the mat are one.
There is no body, only mat.
Later she asks, "Open your eyes into the dark and warmth of your palms".
Nobody hears.
"Namaste".
There is only mat.
Gandō Seiko
頑道清光
(Stubborn Way of Pure Light)
My street name is 'Al'.
Any words I write here are merely the thoughts of an apprentice priest, just my opinions, that's all.
Hackers Into America
Computer mind of perty
With no defences
Hacking in illeagle
Posting Politics, lies
Lies, Right Wing
Defeated in Rruth
As bird flies in
Computer truth
Foxie liying in wait
Kill the Beast
Kill the Buddha on the Road
Is this the end of all America?
For certain reason, thoght
John Lock smashed before plastic
Bottle industry gasoline,
I am American, I weep
For the name as democracy
Founders on Shoals,hard
Truth turned inside out,
Do we take refuge as those
Given shots cannot respond
Paralyzed Dharma I reach out
To dear Sangha, Help me
As all that I hold dear sitters
Shikantaza, death, will reighn as
Rich crush children in tiny
Microbes not seen through optical
Tube, we are dead in water. oh anger
Stop, stop, stop, as All colapses, fight
Cruze tip of iceberg as Titan flounders
In Atlantic, Pacific mess, death to others
Oh Buddha principle of LIFE be all
Who seek the flower of irriliougious peace.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi.
Last edited by Tai Shi; 02-15-2021 at 10:25 PM. Reason: word order (syntax)
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Seika and Seiko, thank you. You both comment well. The best critic praises all that's best, the best phrases, the best sound, the best images, the best metaphors, intrinsically knowing what comes next, and what has come before.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 02-28-2021 at 09:41 PM. Reason: syntax, punctuation
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Seiko I don’t mean this to be a mutual admiration society but I love this thought and feel of yoga beyond my body. I love the mat, i love the oneness the simple things that populated your everything you have brought me with you and I cannot practice yoga because of my pain and arthritis, but in your poem I find it momentarily one without fear of pain. Thank you.
Gassho sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
EMPTINESS
I'm sitting on a chair
and my spine is aligned
I breathe, settling my mind
I hear a barking dog
a frustrated car horn
my own far away thoughts
The emptiness within
is the hollow axle
that is moving the world
Gasso,
Mags
ST
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
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
Nice
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
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
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
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
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
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
合掌,生開
gassho, Shokai
仁道 生開 / Jindo Shokai
"Open to life in a benevolent way"
https://sarushinzendo.wordpress.com/
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Last edited by Tai Shi; 05-02-2021 at 08:04 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
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
Last edited by Tai Shi; 05-02-2021 at 08:53 PM. Reason: title
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
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
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
Last edited by Tai Shi; 06-08-2021 at 01:23 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
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
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
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Last edited by Tai Shi; 05-08-2021 at 03:39 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
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.
--
Hōkan = 法閑 = Dharma Serenity
To be entirely clear, I am not a hōkan = 幇間 = taikomochi = geisha, but I do wonder if my preceptor was having a bit of fun with me...
Today I sing for others
May we sing compassion
As the Buddha sang
His whole life in matter
Of days at 80, lingering
Beyond the Great Beyond
Sung memories
In this song of empathy
I sing, I sing in this moment
Let me but in my tenor
Voice unwind this day
In memory of my mother
Who like the Buddha passed
Away in silence for it is
Ultimately in silence
Our lives are gone,
But memory, yes memory
Lives on, in silence
Nothing stops the Buddha,
Our Christ in hallowed
Walk to Gethsemane
Gathered strength to die
In strength, as eighty
Years flashed before Buddha
Eyes, Jesus lay down his cast
Lingering no more on wring
Remined every day we all
Live on, not so much
In memory but in life of our song.
Gassho
sat / lah
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 06-03-2021 at 02:05 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Huh?
Oh, that's right!
I forgot what it meant to be unhindered.
The lingering taste of sparkling water
Sits on my tongue--
The lingering tingly-ness of a 25-minute Zazen
Slowly fades away from my leg.
I must apologize to everyone
For the nervous-wreck I have been these last few years.
I have been unwell.
Gassho
Sat today
Shawn B. M.
Anger greets me
'Round every corner
Of every street
And every avenue.
Seeking, seeking, seeking,
But never finding.
Moments pass me by;
And, blinded by my own delusions,
I do not notice as they slip away from me.
Gassho
ST