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
by
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
by
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
The ascendent moon
negotiates the chase tree’s
dark-twisted branches.
_________________
There are momentswithin 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
by
In the slums, obscene songs
are heard from the Heights.
As children we mocked themwith songs they now sing.
There is no recompensebetween the rich and poor.
Unlike a baptismal font,blood does not absolve blood.
The dead cannot heartheir mournful lovers’ tears.
(May 10, 2022)
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Ikkyu Reiterations: Bodhisattva
by
He slips through the dusty streets
delaying his departure from sorrow.
What wisdom isthis wisdom?
The Sorceress’s warm breath at his earsoftly offers her seductive charms.
What wisdom isthis wisdom?
The priest offers redemptive prayersin patterns to protect him.
What wisdom isthis wisdom?
At both the chancery and brothel doorshe laughs like a nascent breeze.
Which wisdom ishis wisdom?
(May 9, 2022) -
Ikkyu Reiterations: Difference
by
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
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 tasteof 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
As if they know you,
gossips snipe and sneer.
Someone hands you a fanwith 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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Ikkyu Reiterations: All Ways My Way
by
Between bars and brothels,
I dance a whirlwind.
No one can see
with my blind eyes.
(April 30, 2022)
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Ikkyu Reiterations: Iconoclast
All these rituals—
incense and prayer!
You speak too muchwith too many words.
I spit; the sour tasteclings to my teeth.
(April 29, 2022)
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Ikkyu Reiterations: The Library Burned
by
What light does one see?
Without the body,
without a place,
without a context?
Truth remainsradiant throughout
a thousand worlds,
silently loquacious.
(April 28, 2022)
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Ikkyu Reiteration: Picture Yourself
The lotus, like a kaleidoscope,
unfolds through individual eyes.
One doesn’t inherit grace,
nor the wisdom of the old:
our addiction to fame and wealth
devours with rapacious hunger.
If you were to stretch to the skybeneath a grove of pear trees,
or bend to touch the dark earth
in a field of ripe melons—
then you’d be suspect—
and obviously a thief.
We are given nothing,and that is enough.
There is no more to give:
No trinket to distract
the sharp-eyed magpie
from the moment’s gleam.
(April 27, 2022)
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Nostalgia and Eternal Reoccurrence
Clouds cling to the cave’s mouth
disguising the demons who dwelt
there. Our words worked on us
like wine and laughter, while love’s
simplicity quickly complicated
all which was said. Thus the poem’s
parameters become the poem,
and our forms fall into function,
as peach blossoms frost
the temple walkways in spring
with a light pink brocade.
(April 26, 2022)
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