ARTS: Big and Little Poetry--free verse, any verse.

[PeaceMan]

Deep in the woods
The path
Revealed itself

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mMb...w?usp=drivesdk

Jon
Sat

[Jundo]

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.

Shawn,

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.

[PeaceMan]

desire -
the babbling brook
flows around it

[Tai Shi]

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

[Seikan]

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

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

[PeaceMan]

Thoughts racing, turning, chasing
Changing
Coming, leaving all at once
Grasping
Grasped
Gone
Underneath the storm
Is silence
Peace
Present
All along

[Tai Shi]

Thoughts racing, turning, chasing
Changing
Coming, leaving all at once
Grasping
Grasped
Gone
Underneath the storm
Is silence
Peace
Present
All along

Very, nice, For me, so long as I relax, zazen is peaceful.
Gassho
sat/lah
Gassho

[Tai Shi]

desire -
the babbling brook
flows around it

Yes, I babble just like a brook. As a young man, I said little. I grew older more and more water eroded my stones. I am now smooth. I babble.
Gassho
sat / lah
Gassho
Tai Shi

[PeaceMan]

Wrong is not the opposite of right
Wrong is right astray
Pushing and pulling everything in its way

[Seikan]

Wrong is not the opposite of right
Wrong is right astray
Pushing and pulling everything in its way

Jon,

I really like this one. In particular the line, "Wrong is right astray". This is good food for thought/non-thought and dovetails nicely with our ongoing precepts study.



Gassho,
Rob

-stlah-

[Shawnzen]

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

[Shawnzen]

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

[Shawnzen]

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

[Shawnzen]

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.

[Koushi]

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

[Seikan]

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-

[Tai Shi]

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

[Shawnzen]

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

[Horin]

what a strange thing, this life is.

between tugging, clinging and pushing away

we find the peace to drop everything.

[Tai Shi]

I am so happy
Today someone
Thought of my need
Of understanding
They gave back to me.
My gift, card sent
Without mail said,
"Enjoy," So, I am
I live too, I am
Acknowledged in winter
Snow where one lives
Abidingly relived
Happy angle reality
Forgiveness in gratitude
Heightened, relaxed
Another 10 degree day
Daughter headed East
To Vermont, her Middlebury
Rebound of Japanese
Study, Great Library
Snowy Mountains
Of Nobel Laurel
Her name a garnet
Become ruby jewel
In Ring of scholarship
Above father's reaching
Her desire for scholarship
Woman, now she
Faces COVID-19 vanquished
In books of Japanese
Intent back to Vermont
Great libraries witnessed
In happiness, two angles
Reality together ever
Friends in Japanese,
One Librarian, the other
Teacher, Poet, Scholar
Like father but higher
Her dissertation underway,
Her greatest ambition
To know, to see, to be,
Yes, today I'm happy.

Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi

[Tai Shi]

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

[Tai Shi]

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