reflecting on the waters

water bird reflects
near the shore of the pond where
nothing is forever

imperfect people at the park

imperfect people
walk through tangled weeds and brush
nature says okay

the pond knows no politics

the water is close
the grass is under my feet
talk is far away

acceptance & imperfection

asked his religion
he witnessed for acceptance
and imperfection

lost duck

Photo by Rich Seeley, Nikon D70

lost female Wood Duck

misses migration formation

now "woman alone"

September early & late

fall will never come
and then it arrives early
on the wings of geese

heading off an argument

Cormac McCarthy:
I don't aim to get in a
discussion about that.

summer wanes, geese return

triple-digit heat
Canadian geese flew north
but now they're back

days grow shorter

the days grow shorter
sun up one minute later
sunset one sooner

beginning of summer's end

many thunderclaps
cool rain falls on dry ground
summer is ending

driving with oven mitts

driving with oven mitts
steering wheel won't burn my hands
hot day in hot car

follow your own star

follow your own star
don't sell yourself short or out
follow your own star

Obama meets Dalai Lama

President Obama
meets Dalai Lama today
same, same, all the same

102 too hot to haiku

it is so hot here
this haiku went up in smoke
but no great loss

the point of no point

no point in walking
around and around the pond
and that is the point

colorful black and white

black ducks and white ducks
a colorful addition
to pond on gray day

drinks water only

drinks water only
Walt Whitman said of his friend
and Abe Lincoln smiles

Buddha's no-rebirth day

today is Buddha's
birthday celebrating his
freedom from rebirth

around the pond

no path to the pond
the path goes around the pond
and around, around

early summer

summer arrives early
spring doesn't even know it
in the wings fall waits

farewell to phil

my search for something
has now come to nothing much
more than basketball

83F at 10 p.m.

it did not get hot
cold winter long forgotten
today the spring rolls

perverse

perverse what it means:
it's "per (through) verse (poetry)"
living poetry!
from a definition by Alan Watts
In My Own Way: An Autobiography

sun then rain

yesterday sunny
today scattered thunderstorms
the Buddha says same, same

admitting faults wise

admitting faults wise
defending our faults betrays
very unsound mind
-- Sutra of Hui Neng, haiku version

flow with the go

Peggy Radcliffe, brush on paper

flash flooding coming

Chuang Tzu says go with flow

practice treading water

the geese of ginsberg

Peggy Radcliffe, brush on paper

geese fly when they fly

and they walk when they walk and

they die when they die

working mother

Photo by Peggy Radcliffe (Nikon CoolPix)

mother duck busy

getting ducklings in a row

her job never done

what they say?

Peggy Radcliffe, brush on paper

me no hear TV

gotta turn on them captions

read mostly stupid

acquiescence

Peggy Radcliffe, brush on paper

acquiescence is

"acceptance without protest"

essence of Buddha

now & zen

acrylic on stretched canvas by Peggy Radcliffe

things the way we want

things the way we do not want

or "things as it is"

stormy night in tornado alley

lightening, thunder
hard rain, hail, and tornadoes
churches open doors

what would buddha say?

the buddha said this:
"contentious talk is painful"
how quick we forget

heading north for summer

Photo by Peggy Radcliffe

big goose struts his stuff
nice visiting your little pond
now off to Great Lakes

robin's early morning song

Photo by Peggy Radcliffe

robin's early song
calls our canary to join
birds morning opera

a leaf learns to fly

acrylic on canvas by Peggy Radcliffe

 

wind blows leaves around

LiPo the cat is entranced

a leaf learns to fly

sunrise on time, again

sunrise seven-o-five
solar system has no clock
but is always on time

bundled up to watch baseball

too cold to play ball
but baseball season starts
at crack of the bat

his words

acrylic on canvas by Peggy Radcliffe

his words leave his heart

impression on everyone

who hears forever

fishing fashion

paint on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

wears fisherman's hat

even when he's not fishing

and the fish don't mind

sun no sun

paint on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

sun and then no sun

cold gray day after warm night

it must be springtime!

a chance of spring

paint on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

 

morning clouds then sun

windy maybe thunderstorms

and a chance of spring

shopping for fun and not

paint on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

kids push shopping cart

in game but shopper must shop

without shopping cart

welcome wasp

paint on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

first wasp of spring

buzzes outside the window

Buddha says welcome

waiting for rain to quench grass fires

paint on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

no rain and grass fires

dry wind blows smoke into town

what would Buddha breathe

traffic can wait

 paint on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

geese crossing the street

to graze on suburban lawns

drivers stop their cars

fall leaves

 brush on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

old leaves survive snows

winter leaves room for springtime

fall leaves reminders

flowers boom

 brush on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

rainstorms bring thunder

tornado on horizon

daffodils pop up

loners at the pond

 brush on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

geese in groups eat grass

but one forages far away

lone man walks the path

natural facts

 brush on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

don't know if gods exist

but the pond's full of creatures

great and small and real

fish no fish

Brush on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

people fish the pond

rarely do they catch a fish

but water birds do

defying gravity

Brush on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

a goose flies overhead

at the pond they look too fat

wide wings make it so

human progress

Brush on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

birds perch on power lines

if telephone poles come down

birds will perch in trees

impermanent

 brush on paper by Peggy Radcliffe

gas and electric

if grid fails this screen goes black

stock up on pencils

resurrection blues

warm without sunshine
gray sky and brown not green grass
death waits for springtime

spring approaches winter's border

few cold and gray days
no more snow and not much ice
tornados coming!

chance of rain 100%

now it is raining
and rain drops do not care that
they are local news

Dual citizenship?

It's a little known fact
Canadian geese breed on
Alabama's coast

what sparrows know

Do not seek for the truth;
Only cease to cherish opinions.
- Hsin Hsin Ming translated by Richard Clarke

three months no cable
fall turns to winter for quiet
sparrows know no news

what the geese know

these geese own this park

mallards, robins, and humans

are just visiting

peace of mind is short lived

goldfish live one year
so they have no worries about
their cholesterol

nature's news

cardinal shows up

no bishop or first baseman

but first sign of spring

overheard poem

Like the empty sky it has no boundaries,
Yet it is right in this place, ever profound and clear.
When you seek to know it, you cannot see it.
You cannot take hold of it,
But you cannot lose it.
In not being able to get it, you get it.
When you are silent, it speaks;
When you speak, it is silent.
The great gate is wide open to bestow alms,
And no crowd is blocking the way.
-  Cheng-tao Ke, translated by Alan Watts in The Way of Zen

winter geese

snow melt floods the pond

winter geese spread wide their wings

ducks fly in from south

post-blizzard hazard haiku

a week of sunlight
rolls back the blanket of snow
now we see potholes

valentine's day health warning

"I think all the time about the medical industry's emphasis on longevity. It's a substitution of quantity for any idea of completeness or wholeness or any sense of real fulfillment or real worth, so that you prolong life past the time where it's worth living ..." - Wendell Berry

the healthcare
industrial complex
has determined
valentine's may
be hazardous
to your health
and asks you
to remember
kissing spreads
germs, germs
cause diseases
& diseases
can lead to
termination of
treatability
otherwise known
as death, which
is very bad
as it removes
people from
the healthcare
system &
threatens
the profitability
of big pharma

the problem of evil: the short answer

I form the light, and create darkness:
I make peace, and create evil:
I the LORD do all these things. - Isaiah 45:7

thanks to the late Alan Watts
for pointing this out
in a lecture on Hinduism

Republican family values 2.0

Republican Rep. Christopher Lee of New York resigned his House seat Wednesday after a report that the married congressman had tried to meet a woman on Craigslist. - CNN news item today

another Republican bites the dust
undone by Web-based lust

protect the family! GOP men insist
baring their chests on Craigslist

repeal of healthcare is the next thing
after they finish sexting

snowbound: day-nine rhyme

snowfall tops twenty inches

cars towed by trucks with winches

warming coming but the cinch is

ice melting in tiny pinches

snowbound, not the poem

snowbound the reality
day 8
i do this
i do that
read news on the web
watch web videos
there's something about egypt
many egyptians appear unhappy

i hear america singing:
'i know you have suffered much
but in this you are not so unique'
that was bob not walt on you tube
but a good thing to remember
snowbound 8 days & counting

no opinion

If you wish to know the truth,
then hold to no opinions for or against anything.
-- from Hsin Hsin Ming
Verses on the Faith Mind
By Sengtsan, third Chinese patriarch, died 606 AD
Translation by Dr. Richard Clarke


the questioner asks:
"why is this happening?
why isn't something better happening?
why am i stuck with this?
why don't i have something better than this?"

Wayne says: "the answer to why is because."

the questioner yells
"you're talking nonsense!
you're not logical!
you're irrational!
why do people like you
even exist?"

Bob said: "i have no opinion on that"

'Tulsa sets several weather records' -- headline in Tulsa World

snowed in since Tuesday's blizzard
we are becoming experts at playing
computer games, especially solitaire

our car is packed in ice
parking lots and streets
are not plowed after 5 days

the key to any kind of sanity
is learning how to surrender
now to what is

enlightenment slips away

We should always live in the dark empty sky. The sky is always the sky. Even though clouds and lightning come, the sky is not disturbed. Even if the flashing of enlightenment comes, our practice forgets all about it. Then it is ready for another enlightenment.

- Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"

enlightenment is impermanent
like everything loved & hated
like everything in the world

if you think you are enlightened
go spend a week with your family
as Ram Dass famously suggested

if you think you've achieved enlightenment
don't try to hold onto the feeling
it will slip away like soap in a shower

if you find an enlightened teacher
leave an apple on the desk
then find the nearest exit


if enlightenment is your goal
then loss of enlightenment
will be your achievement

settle for that
and go back to work

lonely book club

i haunt used bookstores
the few that remain
in this city or
any city now
that Amazon &
Kindle & poor
reading habits
are wiping them out

yesterday at
the state's biggest
used bookstore
the books looked lonely

little yellow paperbacks
crowded on shelves
crying "i was the best
selling book of 1955"
or "my author was the
toast of New York City
in the Sixties" or
"this historian won
the Pulitzer Prize"

there was no one
but me to listen
as the buyers hit
the used DVD
section stocking
up on movies based
on old TV shows
& classic films
& out-of-print
novels

so many lonely
old books &
so few readers

wouldbe authors
ought to meditate
on this

sweet surrender

give up on politics & religion
there's no future in all that
just keep your friends close
& your theology to yourself
talk to people you love
about how your day went
get DVDs and watch sports on TV
buy some wine, you'll need it