A poem I wrote on the journey home last evening.

At last a meaning caught, unknowing.
Now each day demands the capture.
And in that moment a murmuring
sea, and white fire voice.
Seize up my silence, deeper and deeper.

rhdr

The birds outside sing…
and there am I.
The rising and setting of people,
seen from old eyes
and there am I.
The essence of life,
descends from the sky
no longer trapped inside a body.
And there am I.
Today, I am awake
how strange.

In this place water drips long enough, released from a stone lotus.

Visible only by the clear-eyed,
who know nothing and go beyond

And that wind and wind, things
are not what they seem – nor should they be.

A poem I wrote this afternoon. More reflections on experiences and my growing interest in Buddhism.

A day blasted by gusts,
riding rough from an eastern gate.
My mind has never strayed, sifting
life to find what is pure and kind.

In my mind itself a Buddha exists,
to seek truth in distant places.
And linger watching things
themselves, waken to the one mind.

Down side streets,
in a sunlit wave
we drink from the beginning.
A kestrel hovers in the distance
returning thanks for life.
I draw a bamboo branch
down to my lips,
and blow a terse note.
An urgency for
the smallest affection.

A poem I wrote this afternoon in OnYangGang Village.

Autumn gust,
blow if you will.
Though the flowers
have faded, my life remains
a hundred times long.
Leaves of words
and temple bells,
wake me from my dream
that seemed so lost.
Let death strike where it will.
Does the sun not rise
again in the east?

oznorCO

With simplicity
and plainness,
I start the day.
A morning’s climb
across the sky.
Outside life sings,
but there is no wind.
My life an instant,
save these wondrous
words, in no voice
but my own.

To live in this realization,
a yellow sound
and all became sunshine.
There is no yesterday,
no today, no tomorrow.
Each stroke of the bell,
out of nowhere,
nothing answered.
We can be one mind.

rhdr

Within stillness there remains
a perfect way, a mind at peace.
Nothing in the laugh, nothing in the cry
a harvest of holy life.
So I sit here, side by side with nothing,
save a share in our humanity…
and awakened to mind.

After meditation a poem and a sketch🙏

Looking straight ahead,
what will we call
heart and soul?
Peace is every step,
or a life, diamond hard
but unhurting?
I choose to conquer myself,
that which is closest
to me – has to be.
Or so it seems
in my experience.