demeurer

hour of parting comes
that lifelong fascination

weeks stay in samui where
balmy westerly winds stir
waters deceivingly shallow

what you leave behind alike
to what you take with you
lush tree leafages
careening coconut-trees
ruffled by the breeze
combing the breeze
breeze-inebriated
swinging
wild

directions' mantra released
chants of removal from
bays of distances
harbors in longing

swiftly moving ritual
high tidal cadences
reinventing shores to brace for
morning rises to come

just as stars
when they brace
darks in retreat

koh samui, february 2004

with the rain

it is early morning
as i come to sit in a circle
birds spread out before me
with music that wears away
roots' heavy years in the air
in the air in the air in the air

gateway to a mighty voice
the rain the rain the rain
as it pounds on tin roofs and leaves
as it pounds on passages of sleep
whence i struggle to emerge
soon there to return
without this bundle
or so says the wish
after ferrying an orphan pain

though often the urge to unload
ends weighing on the burden

this listening redeems
it is an ancient song
it is the voice of the world
humming its own beginning
maybe a resurrection

source of endless vibrant songs
where alongside birds
we too glean our provision

siem reap, august 2011
ubud, july 2013

       

return

if i could say whence i would say back again

 

if i could say again i would say leaving again

 

it all springs from loss

 

incidental  the loss of more or the loss of less

 

nothing to be lost in time eternally forsaken

 

this much shall be preserved

 

what we are losing now cannot measure against the forever lost

 

joy of being part of or abandoned by the irremediable the irrevocable

 

sheer beauty of being a part of or being sundered by the perdition that floods the human mind

 

we are still human we are the too human

 

our lids closely sealed as visions race by in what we call our wake in what we call our sleep

 

 in what they call in what the dead call that slumberous journey

 

pulling into no station for ever marvellously rolling by

 

many a weathered tree witness our passage

 

for only to fire fire returns

 

upright and broken

to rise to soar

through verbal heights

shouldering trees hills

shouldering clouds

regal

to summon winds

scolding stars

chimera

chimera too

underworld images

guilt fault terror

human like the like unlike
captive to fateful tunes

as abysses slowly herd us in

in muteness to creep
to moan
you bemoan
bemoan separation

what separation

chimera

palms

light's calling you heed
ever rising
above scarcity
and abundance

its a dizziness we
pain to outgrow
thirsting for purer sources
itself submerges us

pulled along your wake
we leave our face
pearling in your hands





nice, 2007

praise to the unborn

for nima

the bridge on which i stand
call it gateway of the mute
life and death both
pass through its arches

what runs in these waters
is more than just obscured
parts of fortune and
home seeking souls

here sound of fish flapping as
more than a star cast shimmers
on the trembling surface

a candle by the window pane
is what i have to offer
to hearten you in these droughts
as you stumble through bardos
solid night of weeping names
heavy on your shoulders

mandrem, 25 november 2011

sans commencement

palm-fronds' rustle
unending
waves on the shore
breaking
bird psalmodies
myriad spirals
loosened in the air

traveler
its the same book
erring
we write
writing
we efface

drinking light of sands
as they pour in the eyes

calls
recalls
of emptiness


arambol, 2007

nour

wondrous too
our grieving samsara

where with a smile
adjourning time
you tie the seas
that sunder us

where i slowly waken
as you wheel my soul
with ring of songs

together we blaze
by fire’s breath
untouched

and its light
uplifting light


mougin, 2005

stasis

entering a deserted
mountain village
in white heat

that single toll
from the steeple
arrests you

blast
dashing through
a dragonfly’s head

so goes
the fine mind
of nirvana


la rochette, august 2006

langue invisible

since we need to stand our ground
where no ground is to be found
since we lose our way
where no way is to be lost
through and away from
language 
you mirrors of

since no one is to name

no one to call to recall
in forgetfulness to dwell
in forgetfulness to name

though no sound to enshrine
the homeless one
the nameless one
that no more of  you
nor less of me
could construe
with trust common to rivers

just promise of dust

some dust of you
some ash from me
kneaded together

just promise of us
awash in predawn showers

 

mandrem, october 19, 2009

near to harvest

thicker the veil than
what you were told

just a tremor at times
running through wet grass
basked in sleeping shadows

its late night moon
cloud fringes kindle
with whispers of her halo

silhouetted against woods
palm trees enlace the paddies
crops slowly ripening into gold

deep voices of frogs
squeezing songs
out of motherland lungs


ubud, 21 april 2013

 

 

gulls

circle of cries rise
wheeling white
against the amstel sky

stretches of hunger
in sudden snowstorm
unveiled

wounds you once crossed
flood the mirror again

bridges are swept along
healing auguries
of old



amsterdam, 1999

in a thausand years

clouds capping mountains
darken slowly the valley
from northern ranges
distant thunder roars

crickets swarm the hawthorn
thistles dripping
purple

it’s september
some cool is coming

udumbera
when will your buddhas
your buddhas
rebloom again



la rochette, 2005
 

orientation

dispersed and free
free of ancestry
free of smoke
chimney smoke
rubble smoke
exhaled from earth
from lungs of prayers


you now drift towards the
seven valleys of the mute
drift eastward
where strife births
redemption and
fabulous visions


there your hands are empty
empty of clouds
empty of dawn

melody brims with empty
heart joyous with empty

empty alone knows
empty alone stays

metanoia

we wake up in the morning
knowing little of light
groping for something
to appease the soul
savaged by hunger

out of blindness
and dedication
we offer prayers
to chaos

the wind's faith
is inscrutable

it takes more than a god
to grieve the pains of
this world



arambol, 2008

satyam dhukka

when we say here
we mean the other world

when we say there
we mean the other world

name's recompense
is in parting
soul's recompense
is in parting

there is no dwelling there
there is no dwelling here

in parting
we take refuge


mougins, 2006
                                

legacy

only few words will
remain with us once
of coming and going
we shall be dispensed
of destiny cleansed
of remains effaced
boneless
pathless
astray

and so these words
clueless
homeless
emptied
emptied of melody
tomorrow
breeze
silence

free


mougins, 2006


 

end of trance

from gold to amber
now for the end flight
cast in glassy brown
oak leaves
together
we shed summer
in these hills

letting you sleep awhile
at the foot of giant rocks
i move down a stony trail

shadow slithering on scree
and cross the bloodline
of voiceless rooks



la rochette, 2005

happy temperance

a cut in the eye
wish of parting
in the heart

we the dead

the living
munch the same morsel

a bitter root
at times mellow
night feeds us on

upon crest of flames

dust steers our fortune
ahead


paris, 16 September 1990




 

sometimes

despite the word twilight
bareness enters the day
without dispelling us

restrained by dormant melodies

the clock swirls above our heads

come what may
we will still be
part tomorrow
part forgetfulness
 
steps waver
misguided by sand
marine mantras 

spiral of dust rises from stone

does not linger on the poem

you weigh a mouthful of flame
so the wind contends

night pleases 
appeases us

marga

blue
never saw you so blue
as in this winter light
cold pale winter light

tides rising from earth
from heaven towers falling
mountains
you have traced our road

painfully long
yes
blissfully brief
these rungs we climb
up or down your ladder
not knowing which

marga

la rochette, 2005

remembering the hour

then 
the hour of clarity comes
so the blind man can see
what it is he has come to save
what it is he has come to ruin
for solitude to stay its course
as hands unfold
onto dreamless
opacity

in these lower hills
may night birds 
keep breaking
our bread of desolation
with swift songs
of blazing stars
consumed infernos

mandrem, march 2013

 

meeting the face

at summer’s end i greet you again
trade in my thirst with your roots

its twilight in blue mountains
my shadow finds shelter 
in yours

wall frames your absent face
as through sleep we move on


la rochette, 2005

rohatsu

winter retreat ends
pain floods the body
chills the burning bough

roaming on country road

an icy wind in the sleeves
cold rain slapping th feace
each step sinking you
deeper into mud

where to turn tonight

bitter winter
on the road

rohatsu sesshin, 1999

agean

in this night's tumult
were there still a voice
arms would open wide
to brace for what winds
may yet have to offer

lest my scream rejoin

rejoin the moving sea-bed 
of uprooted constellations

milos  6 september 1992

master tokuda

how far with learning
before knowing emerges
into knowing
before unknowing is revealed

how long in voiceless dark

before the unspeakable
murmurs the opening syllable
and the man of such
turns his face
begins to utter
words of water
streaming over
words of stone

your disciple

tetsu-un

ei tai-ji

september sesshin

2004

prayer

perfectly still
perfectly cold
mind-cold

light goes out

from the hidden shed
deep in the valley

mind-cold

sphere-cold
that lofty music
finally stilled

closer than before

voice itself is the stranger
it speaks to you in words
you cannot understand
speaks as you stand in the herb
speaks with the tall herb too
with wandering pollens
this year’s
that year's
unbesought
unbeseeched

thinking of walter

walking through wild grass
not easy to tell 
pre-dawn dew
from late morning rain
on bending grass

must be the same circle

where mirrors merge
wherein the hazel tree
forsakes cascade of gold
to draughts of november
whisperings

le rocher de la baume, 2005

dark of late

contentment with this
doubt all to cinder reduces
but dissolve itself cannot

still some sleep ahead
parted equally in days and nights
what comes after is of no concern
may what comes after keep coming

part of the howls you hear
goes to fill empty spaces
part we do not know

dogs tire of barking
into silence
night relapses


ubud, 2 december 2012