I am so happy to be part of Treeleaf with friends and it has made a big difference in my life and I hope for others!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I am so happy to be part of Treeleaf with friends and it has made a big difference in my life and I hope for others!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Even in this decaying body
the brightness of ten thousand things;
carrion crow, an oak tree in bud,
crab shells left behind by the tide.
Dog violets mix with celandines
on the forest floor,
clouds pass overhead,
gathering sun.
From the hour of our birth,
no moment is the same,
yet each contains all things,
how can any of us ever be alone?
One foot in front of the other,
waves break on the shore,
we follow our ancestors
as breath follows breath.
Lighting incense to Amida Buddha,
I empty my bowl
and already find it
full of blossom.
Kokuu, thank you for this. _()_
gassho, doyu
sat today/lah
For my friend Kokuu
Morning Glories Will Come
Time after time
We reach for sunshine,
Reaching from our beds
Of fertile soil where gardens
Grew roses, now The Glory
Of toil as chariot rides
Across our sky.
We lose nothing
In colorful gold days
Swept clean from clouds.
Why bother our bowed heads
Of yellow, green, red
To stem our winter's sleep?
Locked away our pockets empty,
No seed? Gardener reaches
Into tiny packets,
Paper thin pouches
Around crowns of earth.
Our women and men,
Lingering long in caves,
Still wakeful on walls,
Sentient beings
In books. Finding wisdom,
We reach lovingly
For packets of sun. Our seeds
bring forth deliverance
Of desire. Our graves are not
Dug as lives rejoice, given over
To delight of air,
Sunshine our mindfulness,
Into openings where rain showers
Bring water, bower of delight,
Now tiny blossoms sprout, bloom
Another day rich. We reach for sky,
Living things given to clouds
bursting water, sprouting seeds,
Without souls, We reach again,
Buddhas touch earth.
Now Sacred roots. This is spring.
Down, down, stems of cells,
Biology of wakefulness now alive.
Above is the Morning Star,
For others our earthly ocean
Of air is bright with eternal
Juno's energy, one after one
Cells of Earth's aquarium drop
Of dew point to Earth, reversing
Our Compasses pointing north,
For joyful sun rays give blooms.
Energy renews another spring.
Living seeds, we sing as our eyes
Close, resting notes of poetry
Simple Haikus, form natural,
Broken five notes sung to seven,
Dreaming generations
Such as Solomon
Never knew, so arrayed
Our gold is gone; new of gold
So old my song.
We are shown life every day,
While Venus dawns below Polaris,
New again, We find happiness,
Bright Sun above our morning,
We wake to full days,
Realization of our sun,
Like this morning star,
Our Air is never dry, full sun
Sweeps Starry Night away,
I wake to dawn, my work again
Poetry with bowed head,
Now I chop wood,
Now I carry water.
Now I fetch the Sun.
Gassho.
Tai Shi
sat
Last edited by Tai Shi; 02-09-2020 at 07:00 PM. Reason: revision.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Luke
Golden morning
Caught in a spider’s web
As the damp earth
Exhales
A sudden movement!
Caught in the corner of the eye
Ears prick, exited yelp
Paws barely touch
In the joy of the run
Gassho
Teiro
Sat
Last edited by Teiro; 06-01-2019 at 03:17 PM.
t h e re a r e r o o m s
There are rooms in a life that may sometimes
Have someone in them; but they are guests there.
Even when one most loves, one may find,
Really, a solitude that begins at this wall,
Ends at that wall; the rest is not entirely ours.
As years turn and suns, moons and stars
Rise up and fall like rain by every window
Even one's hands will shrivel soon enough
Right at the ends of one's arms, as hands
Of strangers. But to fret at this discovery
Of emptiness arrived at and emptiness
Made clear by moon's dance with water,
Sun's dance with dust, by endings never sought
In even that one room that is one's own, is
Not worthy of even that we call our life.
All our guests deserve from us restraint.
Little enough we can offer them as it is;
In a short while each vacates each room,
Feeling for the light switch as each goes.
Evening comes. Do not grieve the door.
gassho
doyu sat today
Visiting unsui: use salt
Thank you all :bow:
One day, I was in
Two minds, stay or
Sit?
Today i did neither, tomorrow
- ill do it all.
Neither gain nor loss,
Here nor There
Heaven and Hell
split
Through each other
we fell.
Gassho.
GEoff.
LaH / SatToday.
Nothing to do? Why not Sit?
Eating Genjokoan
Dropping pain to breath
Breathe in our master Dogen
All in Genjokoan yet in cooking
Public, private, drop away
More hungry ghost,
Les is more human,
Nirvana, here before me food,
Limited by tip of stomach
Growl; toast, juice, fruit,
Can pain drop away?
Not likely sinner ghoul!
No time is ancient
Twenty minutes until 1185
Came to pass in cooking bowl,
Five minutes now, now,
With no pain, pain again,
Hold on more, pain comes
I eat, I let go, cannot sit
In this easy chair, breathe
Breakfast I may eat, my only
Desire, oatmeal, after reading
Dogen this moment,
Mindfully hurting
Iced myself down, so I
May sit with steaming bowl
My gratitude in bowl of food,
From reclining chair
To hardwood table
Downing every morsel.
Tai Shi
Sat/lah
Gassho
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Last edited by Tai Shi; 02-02-2020 at 01:20 AM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Sitting Together
You sat today--
Your whole life in one decade--
Each day I'm fragile, I'm sixty-eight,
Light years old--farms surround,
Our Rocky Mountains gone, yearning
At sixty-four, you find my weaknesses,
Zen becomes your lesson, my sight,
My Horrible Satori July 22nd, 1987 Dry,
No bottle; yet January 7th, 1980 we
Talked, our only game, now quiet.
Yes, you taught me Zen formations,
Marjorie, you were Frightened child,
I became my poetry, contracts of teaching
Damned wine into darkness,
Then police drug bust, they stormed;
While I drank daily because I opened
My clarity. You surprised me with joy,
Our pools of old water smelled
Until I declined another drink,
Better for books, for our four-year-old
Girl child, days of liquid mindfulness
We declined this fate, we created,
This child; I walked like ball of string
With no shield or sword of growth,
Evergreens, daughter planted pine,
Twenty-six years ago, now she's thirty,
With spontaneity, emptiness filling us
Still my poetry, my Loneliness--
Cave where you populated us
With her--daughter of dreams
March 27th, 1989 this baby
Born despite our reprise, first kiss,
Rose gradually in silence,
You said at last this important act
Dispelled my illusions, imparting
Time we did not touch or press
After 2009 when bodies did not rise,
From marriage, we became our stories,
In Bach's Art of Fugue, your last
Let It Be, an example, sitting face
To face, joined four decades
In silence. Now we breathe,
This January 7th, 2020.
Tai Shi
sat/ lah
Gassho
Last edited by Tai Shi; 02-01-2020 at 09:27 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
is outstanding, by the way.To bring another generation
Such as Solomon
Never knew, so arrayed
Our gold is gone
Is gone until generation
New, new of gold
gassho
doyu sat today
Visiting unsui: use salt
For my friend Myogan
We Find a Little Peace
When I met you
There was slur of speech
Driven by opiates, grind
Of bones you did not
Know wrench nerves
Into neck, face entire
Head, so for doctors
I removed my hat, belt
Shoe laces, no floss
For teeth, only two
Pocket books and
Simple clothing
T shirt baggy pants
Tees and did every
Action, day I entered
Last 5 mg tablet
Only one look back
I did not turn to stone
Today tablets vanquished
Like peaceful surrender,
I do not stand alone
Never alone again
You may be my friend
May I be your friend?
Tai Shi
sat/ Gassho
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Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
I have a great fear of doing nothing welling up inside of me
To see that it is really nothing
Is real freedom
The anxiety still rolls
But the tide should drift back
And back
And back
Allow myself to truly feel peace and ease
And put it down
Put it down
Think nothing
And wait for the chime
Breathe through each wave
Gently work out the tightness
Each will try to hook me and glimmer
Just see
求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.
Geika
Outstanding, so I enjoy liberation poetry with respect-- thank you.
Tai Shi
sat/ lah
Gassho
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Flowers Around Each Other
Our age, nothing to do
With love or love or love,
Our child, each other,
Our selves each to each
Reply again, oh, "Yes
Love's beauty!" one
Love for us, for her
For me, it's true, flowers
Blooming in our yard,
She so includes my life
In hers, begonias
Bloom again, impatiens
Gone. Forget-me-nots
Bloom, spring in August
More, flowers grow again
Around our home
Around each other.
Charles E Taylor, August 4, 2020
Tai Shi
sat/ lah
Gassho
Last edited by Tai Shi; 08-05-2020 at 08:52 AM. Reason: spelling
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Sitting here today;
A moment never ending;
World lies before me.
-Daoren Bryan 09/05/2020
Side note for poets here:
How Many Syllables has a very helpful syllable counter to help writing haiku, sonnets, and tanka: https://www.howmanysyllables.com/syllable_counter/
I hope that others find it helpful.
Gassho
Bryan
Sat Today
Hi BryanSide note for poets here:
How Many Syllables has a very helpful syllable counter to help writing haiku, sonnets, and tanka: https://www.howmanysyllables.com/syllable_counter/
That is a very lovely thing to offer but in the case of writing tanka and haiku in the English language, 5-7-5 and 5-7-5-7-7 syllable structure is not used so much now, as it is realised that Japanese sound units (morae) are shorter than western syllables so poems are mostly written in fewer than seventeen syllables for haiku, and 31 for tanka.
Sadly, western teaching of haiku has focused on syllable counting rather than other important structures of the poem such as writing in the present moment, the season word (kigo) and cutting word (kire) which in English is more often a cut point which splits the poem into two contrasting images which give the haiku its internal dynamic. The 5-7-5 and 5-7-5-7-7 approach can still be fine but as long as other aspects of the poem adhere to the haiku/tanka style and not just the number of syllables.
Haiku are also, first and foremost, poems of images which bring the sight, sound, smell and taste of the world to the reader rather than purely concepts. In this way, they get us to be fully present in the moment and all it brings.
These are two useful pieces on modern approaches to haiku writing:
https://www.ahapoetry.com/haiartjr.htm
http://blogs.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/...by-jim-kacian/
We do have a dedicated Haiku Club here if you would like to participate in learning and sharing there:
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/foru...138-Haiku-Club
Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-
Last edited by Kokuu; 09-05-2020 at 04:36 PM.
Kokuu's details above are spot on. If I may add a couple of additional thoughts (please take with a grain or two of salt...).
A big issue with trying to strictly abide by the 5-7-5 rule is that, even if the other Haiku elements are all used, we often end up "stuffing" the Haiku with unnecessary adjectives and/or articles ("the", "an", etc.) just to attain the 5-7-5 syllable count. This usually results in the Haiku feeling bloated.
Dropping the strict adherence to the syllable count can be very freeing. And if you write a Haiku that lacks a seasonal reference, it just may be a Senryu! Senryu are very much like Haiku in appearance/form, yet they generally lack a seasonal reference and more often have a human and/or humorous element to them. Failed Haiku is a wonderful online journal of Senryu with hundreds of examples:
https://failedhaiku.com/
Finally, there is still something to be said for working with a poetic form that uses a fixed syllable count. The restriction can help to spark a more creative use of language in order to fit the form. For the reasons already stated by Kokuu above, 17 syllables is often (but not always) a few too many for English-language Haiku. However, the Lune is a unique English-language variation on the Haiku form that typically features a 5-3-5 syllable count. This offers a tighter form that is thought to better approximate the use of morae in Japanese. There are some variations of the Lune that use a 3-5-3 syllable (or even word) count, but 5-3-5 is generally the most common. Also, other than the syllable count, there are no other rules for writing a Lune. I find it to be a wonderful form for capturing experiences/insights that don't otherwise fit into a Haiku/Senryu form.
the sky understands
all these clouds
are just passing through
memories of youth
wet footprints
on the hot sidewalk
Actually, the second example above could possibly be considered a Senryu as well. All of these forms can naturally overlap if enough shared elements are present. Ultimately write what you write and worry about the form later. Unless of course, you are trying to work within a specific form. Form is not really important except when it is important.
Gassho,
Rob
-stlah-
P.S. I'm so glad that this thread has resurfaced as of late as there are so many wonderful poems within. I need to spend more time reading through all of them again this weekend. Perhaps this thread would be better placed into the Poetry subforum? Just a suggestion...
So, even in longer poems, tendency in contemporary poetry is toward short lines, and reduced connectives (as in articles and conjunctions) so even as connectives drop out, the sensory detail comes to the fore. I myself even attempt for short lines and images in my best poetry, though as in all great art, rules are meant to be broken, but for all good writers of poetry, rules are better than "no" rules.
Gassho
sat
Tai Shi
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Frozen
I sit shivering
In conviction
I am right
As fruit dried then
Rotting on branch,
Limb gone brown
My bent body cannot shake
Stiff with fear
Anxiety,
My Nature of fear
I shudder without shudder
Explicable inexplicable
Frozen stream under crust
Of snow.
Dead leaf
On brown deaf bush
I hear no
See no
Sound.
Ears, eyes,
Touch, taste
Preassure gone
No thought
I think.
Gassho
sat
Gassho
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 09-08-2020 at 05:32 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Agreed. Even with the longer poetry I write, I let my love of Haiku and other short poetic forms influence my diction as brevity is something I always aim for. I will start sharing more in the coming days/weeks.
At the same time, however, I feel that Whitman was anything but terse with his word choice, yet I dare say he didn't use any words unnecessarily either. Perhaps brevity/economy of language can sometimes be found in longer lines/poems?
Gassho,
Rob
-stlah-
Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
聖簡 Seikan (Sacred Simplicity)
I am so grateful you have decided to share your poetry-- short or long, long lines or short lines, any poetry that you wish to share. I am haqppy and in great shape to begin writing myself-- so, please all of us share our poetry-- this thread was started for all wheather you think you are good, or now experimenting, new, or not new to poetry, all are welcome here. Please share.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
I have looked over all the fine poetry posted here. I have not necessarily made writing my Ango vow, but I write a lot, much what I consider writing from my heart; if our Buddhist Sutras allowed from the heart, and I believe the early Days of Buddhism an oral tradition of memorization was possible, and with such joy our Buddhist ancestors must have recited.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 09-14-2020 at 03:04 PM. Reason: spelling
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
I linger in cave sun out yet opening, watch trees shed leaves new I walk out of cave, walls jut behind, black gone, red, yellow, with blue sky, day is here,
Gassho
sat ! LAH
Tai Shi
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Dear Ania, Dear Kokuu.
I bow my head, thank you, in dooryard where late...
Thank you.
sat
Tai Shi
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Big Moon Temple
Never seen, you loom
In blue aftermath
Of picture on Treeleaf
Page, well spring
Of practice,
I join my heart now
With "just sitting."
Gassho
sat/lah
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 09-20-2020 at 05:51 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
"Soft belly
Pretzel legs
Gentle cosmic mudra
Sitting with the unwanted
And learning to not want"
Gassho
Sat today
Schwanzen, thank you most interesting and so very good! Keep up your writing. Thank you very much!
Gassho
deep bows
sat / lah
Tai Shi
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Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
I WOULD
Not see these so what
Days without grinding
Oxy, God it’s gone!
I yawned
Zazen Sunday
Sit, withering pain
I rise again, like wind
Trees, and even
Nearly October,
Hearing birds,
Are round
Crickets lay
Their eggs,
Become fodder
Next year’s grass,
Perhaps I shall live
To see, smell, "Oh,
Taste, and see" grass
Mulch for grass.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Last edited by Tai Shi; 11-24-2020 at 11:46 AM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Immersed in the abundance of life.
Nothing lacking.
How could I even ask for more?
Bowing deeply in gratitude.
How could I be of service to all?
Gassho
Sat
Peerless Price
Full autumn
Of great growing
Cathedral
Celebrating life,
Sit in wonder
Of universe.
Sailing peering.
Night just ahead.
What great Being?
Zazen my giving
Warm black nights.
White cloud
I perceive day
Of great sunny
Spring in my
Eternity, great
Being answers
Every retreat,
Every future my
More emptiness.
I live eternal
In my thirty
Minutes, I walk-in ten.
More is less, less
Is more. I know this now!
Gassho
satTai Shi
sat / lah
Ha, ha!!!
Lah
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited by Tai Shi; 11-23-2020 at 10:02 AM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
My friend
In poems
Friendship
Morning wonder
I’m hungry
No zen ghost
Filled
Emotion rolls
Forth
Rob in poems
Not Robert
But Rob
My friend
Lithe of reward
He is wonder
Himself
In poems
He writes
If Friendship.
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
Today I’m thankful,
For me never cliche,
Thank you, my Sangha
Home haven? Real
Refuge, as Dharma,
Buddha, three Jewels
I know more today
More than six years
One month ago
Matters of emotion
Equanimity, Gratitude,
Giving as pours because
As boy I was poor, mother
Brother, and me older
Boy, how often I heard
I was mom’s little man
The Right age 17 called
What, did he, where was
He in Sierra Nevada.
How he would not
Only now learning
Equanimity, never
Politics, he’s leading
With calls, I lead letters
To him and new wife
At 90 he’s married
Again, why he cannot
Be alone, not me
We can say together
Father and sons, love
Finally, finally, though
He cannot say the words
At 69 I finally know he
Loves us he makes
Efforts, he calls, he
Listens as I’ve listened
Telling him letters
Better, we sit at our
Thankful food time
Our thanksgiving
Never. So today, I’ve
Given when it hurts,
Thanksgiving, give
Thanks, my loved one
I break bread with her
Our life a dedication
Intertwined in equanimity.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Last edited by Tai Shi; 11-26-2020 at 06:57 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
One wonders why
Buddha left his wife
Roaming country as boy
After running away, father
What happened? Did he
Remember his wife
So pretty, women
Of courtly desire
Tokens of pride, whispers
Of father, fetid desire?
Wrong? What of women?
Why were nuns real?
Why were priests alone?
Why no women
In courtly power?
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
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Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
As boy I raised
My hands in tongues!
What was spirit
When children wrote
In the air, gods gone
Where did I turn?
College, then all
Therapies led
Never kill the Buddha
On the road for who
Is enlightenment?
What are rules
To live by, what stories
“Stories keep” Emperor
Awake? When retirement
Is no witness especially
Gone is Buddha life;
I’ve killed just like
Every tongue of freedom.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
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Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
The rainfall matches my heartbeat
Rapidly, intensely, filled with purpose
Equanimity in each racing drop
Allowing time to simply be, falling
Always reaching the proper place
One day to see the journey end
Until then, we let the wind guide us
Is there no difference between blood and water?
Gassho,
Jesse
ST
My Mother Listens
For our friend Jundo
Mother saw
What I know.
Approval? Fire in Poems?
I saw my own mistakes,
"Oh, teacher please be
Like us. See our wisdom,
These lives in poetry."
These robes sewn
Hands by our priest-to-be,
His time our robes, his gift
Where he had sewn our
Disability, his thoughts,
His life our debt. "Teacher
Can he show you each of us?
Our pain is our reward.
May we speak again
Teacher, in paragraphs?"
To reveal these friends
With brolken wings,
Our only hope to tell
Truth, gratitude, equinimity,
Usuri understands us most
Of us as you understood once
When you taught us genetic
Code. You who reached out
To know without happiness,
Hppiness, to learn by mistake
Our accidental zazen
Of wounded light,
Never our desires. You
Who spoke some truth
Who spoke never of fear,
Made two, or three mistakes,
Sentences of what? To consider
Trusted friends could never
Speak education to your ears,
Eyes, mouth, hand. Zen replaced
Mother's cries. She witnessed
My stories without fear,
My mother listened deeply,
She heard my voice inside my night,
She helped free my mind
Rid me of divided self, releave my sin
Of everlasting days with pain.
Mother looked deeper!
Listened with full heart, beauty, truth,
Brought me poetry natural
"As leaves on trees." We Completed
Our voyages, terrible public days;
Stigma as they shouted lies
Branded water into our eyes,
This sea of grief was gone.
Without lingering death,
Life everlasting
Our knees were bent.
Gassho _/|\_
sat/ lah
Gassho
Last edited by Tai Shi; 11-29-2020 at 07:05 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Sat watching paint dry
Just sitting, facing a wall
It's already dry.
Gassho,
Phill
sat
I saw today
I saw God today;
In the leaves as they fluttered by;
As the wind blew through the pines;
Present in the gray, overcast sky;
As the birds fly;
While the squirrels scamper;
I saw God today.
Daoren Bryan
Written 11/25/2020
Sat today/lah
In Youth I Wept
Of Loving Kindness
Since sunset,
Words that make
Me weep into hands
Of indifference?
Rocks cry out!
Now love comes
For you, no chariot
Of compassion
As I understood
Words like nation
Militant, or patriotism
Revoke Humanity,
Jesus words
“The poor will
Always be with you!”
Buddhas lift songs,
Words in some sutras
To understand
Emptiness is whole!
People, I do not
Criticize Christ I’m
Gracefully falling
Into darkness?
My writing yet will
Spring into delight.
Life this is laughter,
My own equanimity
My own compassion
My love of humankind,
My father, my brother
My mother, combining
Care of the earth?
Moon rising in eastern
Sky while yet it’s day?
In caves of ocean
Trenches creatures
Make their own light!
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Last edited by Tai Shi; 12-14-2020 at 06:18 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
A restless mind lost in thought
Spoken words mean nothing
As steam rises from my coffee
In a porcelain mug left untouched —
Burning a hole into the oak table
Haze builds around the warmth of the window
Rain tiptoeing melancholy against the pane
Gentle snaking tears to the earth below
Gassho,
Jesse
ST
I'm finally having an opportunity to catch up on all of the beautiful poems that you have all shared recently. Just lovely!
Here's one that feels timely as we're expecting a bit of a snowstorm tonight/tomorrow here in New England.
Winter Mind
I draw the thickening gray skies up
Over this cold, tired world
Tucked in all warm and snug
The storm still yet to bloom
An ominous calm descends
As the sky begins to swirl
Winter’s icy tears crying
Upon my blood-warm cheek
Sitting quietly, watching
Thoughts and flakes mingle
Spiraling downward, slowly
Slipping below the fray
Silence unbounded
A return to zero
The lucid stillness
Beneath it all
Gassho,
Rob
-stlah-
I stumbled into a decrepit graveyard tonight
Every headstone was cracked and covered in moss
Surrounded by whispers I put my ear to the earth
As I listened to the decayed bones of my ancestors
A haunting melody kissed my rain soaked face
To hear of longing heartbreak from cracked jaws
And misty eye sockets gleaning of recant memories
A multitude of broken hands clasped in prayers
Oh, I’ve never heard of such a sweeter orchestra
That will one day welcome me as I take my seat
Gassho,
Jesse
ST
Cave of mouth
Flakes open, asking
"Why are there no
Ordinary people, why
does roof feel pierced
Today, how is it
Different than two
Weeks ago?" No
One answers as spit
bathes tissue, torn
By bone, scarring
Prevents more
Pictures of wound
Pierceing night,
Sleep deep into
Wilderness, without
Aid of opiate, dancing
Megatons away from
Spine, one does
Not consider neck
Part of spine, it's
Just neck, bone
Disregarded, seeps
Blood like any other
Disoned appendage
Without Solace.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai shi
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
Hm... where do I focus?
Just Sit.
This is boring...
Just Sit.
What do I do for dinner?
Just Sit.
Oh, this feels nice!
Just Sit.
This hurts, it sucks!
Just Sit.
I feel great!
Just Sit.
Man, I am tired today.
Just Sit.
I wonder what other people think of me...
Just Sit.
Maybe I should look for another Buddhist practice, I do not feel any progress...
Just Sit.
Just Sit.
Just Sit.
JUST SIT.
SIT
Gassho, Tomás
Sat&LaH
There was
A time
Torn tissue
Felt good
Talk about
Not today
Tissue’ okay
Born of light
Scissor or rock
It’s still my
Tissue
And all talk
Leads to better
Sharing, giving
To just listen
Listen,
Speak speak
So I may hear.
Gassho
sat/ lah
Tai Shi
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Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆
How shall I proceed
How to presume
I’ve found Metta, this
Gift of friendship
As I give all away,
As I’ve given worldly poems
To friendship
My fortune to her
My body to be burned to air
As I grow old have sat
Beneath my own Bodhisattva
Tree sat at Bodgyha as relics
Of all of us rise into nothing
We discovered the last hindrance
Let go even the body to nothing
After old age and birth Zen ah
Dogen Zendo is where we offer
Breath, no hindrance as breath
In ice is voluptuous and full
Given to the beloved,
We have lived out together
Promises the greatest of these
Is love Shi given all disclosure
To her this is beloved’s “crowned
Knot of fire’ the computer upon which
All is known in writing
The greatest of these is love, so love,
Is Metta, the Pali gives great knowledge of Agape the realizable
Made clear, all Metta to wold
Will young use wisely my personal
Love of ideas given to my daughter
Her paintings of Chess, I rise as books
My gift to our daughter her greatest love, her love, her love, love her Agape,
Gassho
sat / lah
Gassho
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Last edited by Tai Shi; 12-31-2020 at 07:43 PM.
Peaceful Poet, Tai Shi. Ubasoku; calm, supportive, limited to positive 優婆塞 台 婆