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My Poetry and Commentary on Life

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: I Write a Poem Again

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    anger, babies, children, death, hope, ikkyu, meditation, poetry, students, teaching, tired

    A poor response to terror— again,

    to children slaughtered in their classroom—

    And again, will we learn anything this time?


    The politicians and news pundits

    gossip and chitter like crickets;

    and nothing, again, nothing is done.


    Here, a few hours distance to Uvalde,

    Black-eyed Susans and Horse Mint dance

    to the wind, as if nothing changes.


    Each time (so strangely common) I think

    of my students and the possible horror—

    and pray (in my way) for redemption.


    Tomorrow, my students will graduate,

    and head off to college— with the hope,

    again, that they will change this world.

    (May 30, 2022)

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  • Portraiture

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    aging, change, erasure, middle-age, poetry, transition


    I’m in this snapshot

    laughing at a party. 

    I look old, like a skull 

    embedded in a wall.

    I do not know myself,

    at least not enough 

    to admit what I’ve done.

    I deflect, disengage; 

    yet, I am still there, 

    disembodied: a voice, 

    thin and transitional.

    My splotched skin’s

    stretched thin 

    across my skull.

    The bones show through

    like field’s slow erosion.

    I wear myself 

    against the day, 

    until I am erased.

    (May 28, 2022)

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  • Possibility’s Collapse Into Singularity

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    aging, poetry, tired

    A slow cascade into old age,

    until the only choice is no choice:

    where there is no memory

    outside myself; where

    the story is only mine

    to revise, where I step forward 

    without hesitation

    and  unlatch the last door.

    (May 24, 2022)

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  • Blood of the Innocent

    by

    anger, change, paradigm shifts, rage

    I have said this before: There needs to be photographs published of the aftermath of these shootings. Not the bodies of the torn up 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders (6-9 yo), but the destruction of the room. Blood spattered across the walls where their work had been displayed by the teacher. The work the children had been so proud to see hanging on the wall. Walls that are now blood stained. These common classroom artifacts desecrated in blood need to be seen…these murders are not neat and tidy, easily forgotten (obviously). Do not show the dead children, show the bullet holes in the walls, show the blood. The blood of the innocent. Maybe that would help in bringing enough rage to the surface to bring about meaningful change. Maybe.

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  • Ikkyu Reiteration: The Elite Have Problems, So We Do

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    broken, control, definition, fear, ikkyu, poetry, politics, power

    Among the wealthy and secure,

    wealth and security breeds fear;

    then fear becomes the watchword

    no one will admit to knowing.

    We are all entangled in their lies;

    our hearts strangled with our sighs.

    (May 23, 2022)

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: To Suffer and Sorrow 

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    abstract, awareness, control, difference, fate, meditation, perspective, poetry, ways of knowing

    We are a two-headed bird lost on cold mountain. 

    Night unfolds into day, as day slips into night. 

    Guilt and regret caw constantly over the dead; 

    We forget the fruit left on the counter at home. 

    (May 16, 2022) 

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: Samsara

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    awareness, change, contentment, cycle, delusion, happiness, ikkyu, meditation, patience, poetry, process, process, not a journey, samsara, transition, ways of knowing, zen

    As if she has been here for millennia

    calmly chewing grass, the buffalo stands

    in an open field below the mountain.

    Aware of the biting fly and herself,

    but little else, she still provides so much

    into the life of the poorest village.

    What difference can the monk’s laughter make

    to her as it echoes through the valley?

    (May 14, 2022)

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: Fool’s Gold

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    aging, delusion, ikkyu, meditation, poetry, ways of knowing, work in progress, zen

    Caught in ecstatic wonder

    the young girls make love

    with tempestuous abandon.

    While he follows the rules

    of the old games, he’s mocked

    for his sad delusions:

    In dream’s river, the two

    drowned consorts come to him

    with promises of consummation.

    Thus he becomes a cuckold

    to himself, looking for coins

    beneath a withered willow.

    (May 12, 2022) 

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  • Here Now (iterations #1 and #2)

    by

    attention, clarity, life, meditation, poetry, time, ways of knowing

    The ascendent moon

    negotiates the chase tree’s

    dark-twisted branches.


    _________________


    There are moments

    within moments

    within moments,

    a slow descent

    into the repeating

    heart of the lotus.

    Sunlight takes on

    a clarity which radiates

    from all it touches,

    as shadows sharpen

    themselves against

    the light’s keen edges.

    From the river bank,

    the water glistens

    like distant laughter,

    while we stand still,

    watching, between heart beats,

    the river rush past us.

    (May 10, 2022)

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: Out of Tune

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    borders, ikkyu, interpretation, meditation, poetry, power, zen

    In the slums, obscene songs

    are heard from the Heights.


    As children we mocked them

    with songs they now sing.


    There is no recompense

    between the rich and poor.


    Unlike a baptismal font,

    blood does not absolve blood.


    The dead cannot hear

    their mournful lovers’ tears.

    (May 10, 2022)

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: Bodhisattva

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    attention, borders, chant, desire, ikkyu, meditation, paradigms, perspective, poetry, ways of knowing, zen

    He slips through the dusty streets

    delaying his departure from sorrow.


    What wisdom is

    this wisdom?


    The Sorceress’s warm breath at his ear

    softly offers her seductive charms.


    What wisdom is

    this wisdom?


    The priest offers redemptive prayers

    in patterns to protect him.


    What wisdom is

    this wisdom?


    At both the chancery and brothel doors

    he laughs like a nascent breeze.


    Which wisdom is

    his wisdom?


    (May 9, 2022)

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: Difference

    by

    community, difference, meditation, patterns, poetry, process, truth, ways of knowing, zen

    I tell you my truth;

    so does he, but his is a lie.

    Each morning we both shit,

    take a shower, drive to work.

    The mundane slaps my face,

    as if waking to a wet bed.

    In the tea house’s simplicity

    the same tales are told nightly.

    (May 7, 2022)

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: On Shaman Mountain

    by

    abstract, borders, change, delusion, desire, i ching, meditation, paradigms, poetry, response, ways of knowing, zen

    We delude ourselves with thought,

    with the sound of rain, like tears,

    outside, as a new song begins

    across the mountain. Change begins

    with Heaven and Earth. War separates

    us. Yet, for how long? War and duty 

    separate us. We may never lean

    again against the other through the night.

    The moon sets on me here tonight,

    as it does with you where we parted.

    (May 6, 2022)

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: The Interpreted World

    by

    aging, chance, change, eros, ikkyu, loss, meditation, middle-age, poetry, transition, ways of knowing, zen

    For decades he shambles

    along the same path,

    oblivious, naive —

    then there it is— blossoms

    arrayed along a branch.


    She offers a taste

    of a dewy-ripe peach;

    he cannot bear

    such divinity, and falls

    away into profane sorrow.

    (May 5, 2022)

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  • Ikkyu Reiterations: Koan

    by

    abstract, definition, difference, ikkyu, meditation, perspective, poetry, ways of knowing, zen

    As if they know you,

    gossips snipe and sneer.


    Someone hands you a fan

    with provenance. It’s broken.


    So, where  is this rhinoceros?


    That line on the page divided:

    a definition acts as a wall.


    One number resists division;

    neither the we, nor the I.


    Who were you then? Who now?

    (May 1, 2022)

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