Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, bomb, great experiment, Hiroshima, in memory of, Nagasaki, performance, Poetry, pouty, remembrance | Leave a Comment »
Light of Lammas.
Dew-drunk and tipsy with Time,
Skewed, slewed, slaughtered.
The slow, steady sun fires the cloudbanks,
Silver, silver, the grinding stones spill silver.
Seed nods, falls gold, is gathered in.
The scorched path, the well-worn path,
The weave of light that webs the world.
Morning my breakfast, twilight my supper.
This spirit-filled world exactly like no other.
Burn the seeds of concept
In the furnace of the dawn.
Dreaming is the clue
To the nature of things,
Laying light upon Lammas morn.
“Light of Lammas” an original print by Simon H Lilly
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged festival, grain, harvest, lammas, light, quern, seed, time | 1 Comment »
Dream, Dreamer, Dreaming.
The Master’s Garuda boat
Untouched by the turbulence
Of the rocked earth.
The long, deep lake shudders,
Sweeping away the lost
Into other worlds.
Winding avenues of rock
Rising from the shore,
Steps, tunnels, pathways.
The clustered, caved homes of disciples,
Comfortable, apart, sedate.
Shrines of Herukas,
Whispered shadows.
The First Seventy dissolving, dissipating.
Shallow basins and channels guiding
The flow of gore,
The seepage, the transformation
From flesh to food
For the invisible ones.
On carved, curved walls
The lives recorded,
The passage through hell-worlds,
The First Seventy Disciples return
To dissolve in mantra –
Butter lamps floating
On red globules of spent life
Drifting into sinuous darknesses.
Keeping watch, the New.
Taking turns as long as can be withstood,
In the presence of final collapse.
A chance to overcome despair:
To witness the passage of the Elements
Untouched,
To dance clear of the smoke,
The flame of laughter
Fanned
By True Emptiness.
The horror of Reality –
A flower of great beauty,
But no one name.
On the roaring edge,
The Master asks a simple question.
The Sublime awaits.
There is no answer.
———-
(Imagery from a dream last night, satisfyingly Jungian, dark, bright, strange. A mountain lake, an earth tremor sinking boats, a large prowed boat rides the wave, safe. The main story, a Master with disciples living in the steep rock-cut lakeside mountains. The return of the First Seventy Disciples, old men coming back to their Master to die together. The New disciples, set the task to be continually present during the dissolution of the bodies, encaverned, aware, candle light in small shrines. Hard to bear the horror and glory of the implacable transformation, taking turns, Master watching on, silent, slight smile, compassionate, unforgiving. One opportunity, every opportunity, to break through, to break out……)
( the diving, swimming, flying man is from an Iron Age Celtic coin of the Bellovaci tribe)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged caverns, death, dissolution, dream, practitioners, Realisation, the Sublime | Leave a Comment »
I
We are adrift in sunshine and birdsong.
The green fields turning golden hay.
Grandchildren like chirping sparrows.
Fresh breeze from the hills.
Nothing to report,
Lost in time and space……
II
Basho by the pond.
—
Pausing,
He turns to listen:
The sound
Of one hand
Clapping.
—
(Some more words scribbled down from my diary. It’s been a busy summer. Just recently missed a great flurry of strong words. It’s so important to write when those times arise, as the fuel that fires the flow is soon consumed..)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Basho, Britain, children, gardens, Haiku, summer, sun, zen | 2 Comments »
One moment here,
Or here,
An instant’s presence,
Or, maybe, fever.
Not choosing,
Nor discarding,
An equipoise of breath.
This moment,
Or this,
Weighed,
Released.
A point,
(Time or space),
Within which to expand,
Relax.
A skill,
Or no skill,
To continue
Regardless.
Existence,
Or non-existence,
Tasting the same-
A sharp flow.
Words
Or no words,
Insignificant attainment
Of the one song.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged awareness, existence, presence, time and space | 2 Comments »
Solstice: words revolve a standing sun.
I
On Momentous Occassions.
Not to be missed.
A once-in-a-lifetime experience!
This breath.
II
The Pleasurable Joy of Insignificance.
A seed on the breeze
Safe floating
Away from reach.
So small
In the hands
Of the world.
So safe
Amongst the cloak
of stars.
So small
So safe
No threat.
Floating free
Insignificant joy
Sparkle of bliss.
III
Two weeks of rain.
Finally, the moon!
An embarrassed smile.
IV
Hemlock and mallow.
The dead revived,
Stretch thick green limbs.
Cat’s ear and wild privet.
The living exhale
To fuel the world.
Yarrow and blood poppy.
The skylark’s song:
Blue and vast.
The apple, the cherry,
Yet small and hard,
Dreaming of sweetness.
Elder, oh elder!
A circumference of passion,
Honey cream and pensive.
The thick warm air
Slow, turning.
The world wants not,
Waits not,
Curls and moves:
A sleeping cat.
V
When I look into your eyes,
Moon of Guru Purnima:
Silver ripples across my heart.
VI
Steady rain.
No moon tonight,
Except the disc
Upon which you dance,
Goddess of Wisdom.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged flora, Guru Purnima, Haiku, insignificance, joy, moon, rain, Solstice, summer, waking | 2 Comments »
My mind is clouds
Shades of grey
Shades of light
Pellucid smoke
Moving to a breeze of birdsong
A dream of seafoam
A warmth
A honeyed breath.
Discard perfection
Disregard the starch ,
The po-faced judgement
Of those who weigh
Degrees of holiness,
Degrees of failure,
The world is
What the world is.
This river,
Not the water,
Not the valley,
Not the sound
Not the blackbird’s cool….
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged as it is, green world, landscape, Poetry, summer | 1 Comment »
Sunday Morning. No blue Sky. Some clouds reflect.
I
Haiku True Nature:
Not just a sentence broken
Into smaller lines.
II
Haiku takes a walk:
A garden path inviting
Unexpected view.
III
Tracing thought patterns:
The bright weave of consciousness
Belonging nowhere.
IV
Intellect, a fool:
Lost in a dream of stories,
Suddenly wakened!
——-
In my mail this morning a haiku post from fivereflections appeared as a single line of text ( as they always do). It set off a little line of thought. ( hmmph! ‘Taking a line for a walk’ Paul Klee…). Also fired by a lovely jewel of a piece by skyraftwanderer….
Punctuation, plurals, tenses,
line breaks –
all nuances difficult to translate.
The gestures of the ancient calligrapher:
an ink-blot attains sentience….
Wang Wei and me,
Gone fishing
For ephemeral beauty
Down by the slow river,
The boiling tea kettle
Forgotten…
<a
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged consciousness, Haiku, light leaks in, sense impressions, verse-forms | 3 Comments »
TRANSIT OF VENUS
( the dead pass by
The living pass by).
On long, rainy days
As summer floods in,
If only we could remain
Silent and listening
Hands still, ears open.
Not desiring anything –
The water-drop’s song
The grey and green light.
Remaining breathing
No wishes, no impatience.
Then we would not miss
The transits of bliss,
The constant reverberation
Of the invisible,
The passage of time,
The dance of space
Between one breath
And the next.
I wrote this on the day of the Transit of Venus, an event much heralded by some, invisible here because of steady rain clouds. It follows a lunar eclipse, much heralded by some, invisible because of rain clouds. This, together with complaints about our traditional weather (rain in summer), drew my attention to the yearning for the calendrical, anniversarial (?), momentous, special, ” once in a lifetime”, events. What do we strain to see? What do we let slip by unnoticed? The value of the unseen…..
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged astrological events, Events, omens, paying attention, Poetry, rain, signs, silence, summer, the insignificant, the unseen, transit of Venus | 4 Comments »
Blossoms of the Dakini.
“Aspiring to the levels of realisation and liberation
Means deviating from bodhi;
Aspiring to obtain happiness
Is the great suffering;
Aspiring to attain the state beyond thought
Is another thought.
If you understand this,
Seek no further.”
(Princess Gomadevi)
————–
I neither believe
Nor disbelieve
The thoughts that arise in me.
They are a mellifluous river,
A breeze in a high place;
Sounds and sensations
That arise and disperse,
Flowers that open and fade,
Stars revealed and obscured by cloud.
I move, the road stays still.
I stay still, the road moves on.
Following the paths of my ancestors
I return to their dwelling place.
Following my own path
I become lost in dream.
Staying still,
I listen to the forest;
Sun and moon dance before me.
The road disappears,
The need disappears.
One feather, one petal
Comes to rest.
Movement dissolves.
Resonance.
————–
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged dakini, Gomadevi, reality, wisdom, words | 5 Comments »
