Monday, February 28, 2011

impermanent

 brush on paper by Peggy Radcliffe
gas and electric
if grid fails this screen goes black
stock up on pencils

Sunday, February 27, 2011

resurrection blues

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

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Thursday, February 24, 2011

chance of rain 100%

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

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

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

Sunday, February 20, 2011

what the geese know

these geese own this park
mallards, robins, and humans
are just visiting

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Friday, February 18, 2011

nature's news

cardinal shows up
no bishop or first baseman
but first sign of spring

Thursday, February 17, 2011

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

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

winter geese


snow melt floods the pond
winter geese spread wide their wings
ducks fly in from south

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Monday, February 14, 2011

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

Saturday, February 12, 2011

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

Thursday, February 10, 2011

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

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

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

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

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

Sunday, February 6, 2011

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"

Saturday, February 5, 2011

'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

Thursday, February 3, 2011

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