poems by erring cloud

ashen

2012-02-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

night is mute
withholding secrets
if secrets you call them

revelations no one needs
to stand upright in the cold
and sustain the hunger of trees

silouhette of tales
blooming

sequence of events

2012-02-03T03:24:00.000-08:00

sitting among highland grass
overlooking a dormant valley
at blue mountains’ waning light
eastern crags blurred in mist

pointing to this terrain
shaded in old plum-trees
heard tokuda say one day
fine resting place for monks

on one of the steles
your name maybe
and this epitaph

kyuzan tetsu-un

journeyed far
when a cloud
now only
this mountain peace

atlantic

2012-02-03T03:11:00.000-08:00

ocean crossing
back to montreal
same journey as before
then it was some garden in england
now water everywhere
how much has changed
how much hasn’t

time’s remains
who’s remains
who remains

where it matters
little matter for change
things go through turnings
yet the same breeze
arrests you at the threshold

you are yourself
endings and beginnings
of paths converging
paths effacing
journeys to come

june 20, 1984

elixir

2012-02-01T19:06:00.000-08:00

a word to you blazing full moon
you have made of this night
a thick potion where you brew
sunlight of azure skies
dregs of pitless howls

a river of pain
is what you pour into me
i feel it broaden as it runs
serene into the sea

room on the cliff

2012-02-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

hours pass by
day begins to drift
twilight colors enshroud the sea

alone with roar of silvery waves
in a cliff-hanging room
and rocks' open-ended reply

it’s a single voice
where merge the caller
and the called

in deep slumber
find you lying next to me
from distant shores returned
face awash with moonlit waters

from where surfs whistle you return
in the garden of swaying palms
you become queen of the breeze

grace

2012-01-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

glance behind the shoulder
over spent springs
winters to come

you are but a breath
enacted for a dream
shudder
running down a shade

yes
it's me
this kneeling animal
with frosty eyes
starring outside
into vacant spaces
no its inside
no its nowhere

yes its nowhere

nothing divisible
in this void

not even wind
not even time
even pain
repletion of pain

friends on the road

2012-01-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

here is a song
for the songs i lost
written on the strand
with lucency of waves
and fingers of storm

vanished
you vanished well before me
witnesses to this crossing
once i named you
now we go without witness
nameless with no crossing
straight into the sand
straight into the sea

here in this dark
a votive in my hand
i bless you with oblivion
compañeros
bless me too with oblivion
compañeros

does a dog have buddha nature

2012-01-02T21:20:00.000-08:00

barking complete
barking so full
you can no longer call it
dogs’ work
god's work

it comes from everywhere
everything is barking
houses
trees
streets

seamless tapestry
pervading night’s remote confines

it becomes space
night is barking
stars are barking
world is barking

clamor
no one can stop
ruthlessly alive
dislodging you from your hiding

pains exposed
shames exposed
lumps in the throat
thawing in the dark
barking in the dark

mandrem, 2 january 2012

baltica

2011-12-29T03:07:00.000-08:00

water is perhaps turning
with it turning the river
clouds erring above the river
mirrors burning into smoke
galaxies reaching outward in haste

on this bridge footfalls fade
made of yesterday’s sand
tomorrow’s tears
unsettled dust of migrating souls
stars come here to cross path
with the living
with the dead

at doorway of shadows
in breezy night we meet
unlistened
your hands try to awaken my face

we herd in your paining stones
one by one
heartbeat after heartbeat

mandrem, 29 december 2011

what will you call it

2011-12-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

here again after so long
grazing grass as i promised i would

this is no longer the neighbor’s pasture
all the neighbors have gone
one day a heavy gale came and
all of us became water buffalos
now feeding off someone’s prairie
vast
where grass is verdant and profuse

as with bitterness
sweetness of its taste
our laments blend
with the river’s roll
running down the vale to no end

siem reap, 22 august 2011

sermon to the unborn

2011-11-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

the bridge on which i stand
name 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 all i have to offer
to hearten you in these draughts
as you stumble through bardos
solid night of weeping names
heavy on your shoulders

mandrem, 25 november 2011

bardo chill

2011-11-24T00:53:00.000-08:00

only when the last lights go dim
do you realize it is a dream
not before
before you are the dream
stream of raging images
learning to speak to mirrors
who have no use for your secrets

the shrub of dreams
does not draw water from our hours
its futurity is the wind’s voicing
herding trees through awakening

waiting for you has made me old
your call at the brink of the world
makes the heart shudder

in the temple yard
they open the fountain of blessings

mandrem, 21 november 2011

the other side

2011-11-21T06:20:00.000-08:00

what is coming back to you
from the other side

nothing

the mirror you grew up in
doesn’t reflect anymore

gone blind our mirror
lost to the dark
lost to late-night stars
our mirror

in its place a window
open to lush trees for now
tomorrow we do not know

we salute and wish you well
tomorrow we don’t know
you and all your seeds
your raucous birds
dipping at daybreak
into fury green

mandrem, 18 november 2011

end of land

2011-11-12T16:46:00.001-08:00

in a distant land
where souls are scant
left this morning in the cold
with a wind that no longer speaks
or speaks but no one hears
with trees no one hears
or hears but no longer sees
or green forever flows
far where the eye is drifting
to water's endless embrace

new brunswick,june 2011

in the open

2011-11-11T02:07:00.000-08:00

if we see ourselves anything other
than a flickering image in a mirror
wavering between the trivial and the tragic
then death could not be a pond where we disappear

there is perhaps a deeper humiliation
in being human
lacking the kind of literacy
that would enable us to tell the trees
how unloved we sometimes feel our hands

something consoles us in the breeze
as it animates our lives’ sketchbook
swiftly averting resistances
exfoliating our darker core
to redeem us from failings
that have much to do with distance

we are entrusted to the open
where all things
whatever they may be
wherever they may stand
are at all time beginning

siem reap, september 1, 2011

cévennes

2011-11-11T01:56:00.000-08:00

you slip outside your voice
speechlessly err at summer’s end
the dusky garden breathes in
wind’s many gates
wind’s many gold

cicadas hush up
slowly i approach their sleep

blessed by a night of loss
we become a moonlit vessel of song
consigned with stars’ orison
adrift on distant seas

saint-hippolyte du fort, july 2009

the road again

2011-11-09T09:33:00.001-08:00

regrets
unmet faces
unheard voices
hands not seized
smiles not returned

leave a place for that too

when the wanting fades in the being
and everything falls away
you still have
things are
it is

you still have sunrise above mekong
blazing the watercourse
as it breaks into branches

you still have the breeze
brushing silvery tree-tops
lining the river front

you are still in the reach of fire
and the waking voices

phnom penh, 1 november 2011

it's a mystery

2011-11-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

a mystery
the glow passed onto you
in unvarnished darkness

heart rejoices
in forgetfulness that comes
watching mirrors go down
over the precipice one by one
flights all fused and effaced
in sudden stillness

raucous cawing welling up
from lush mangrove
and subdued cries of the dead
converge course in wind’s flood
blossom into pristine air
lips stung again
with morning’s sparks

nilemba

2011-11-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

night not offering much sleep
me lying restless in the cot
you sandlewood buddha
sitting stifly on the pane

outside fireflies
mingle their glow
with stars clustering
above heavy boughs

shadows deepen
in this tiny cell
where death
silently remolds me

nilemba, sri lanka, 29 january 2008

waking

2011-11-09T03:31:00.000-08:00

its early morning as i
enter to sit in a circle
birds spread before me
with their subdued songs

that’s my gateway into
the mighty voice of the rain
as it pounds heavily
on tinned roofs and foliage
as it pounds
on the arc of sleep whence i emerge
soon there returning
without my bundle
or so i hope
after long ferrying this pain

often the need to unload
adds somehow to the burden

this listening redeems
for what you hear in the rain
is the most ancient of songs
it is the voice of the world
humming its own beginning

source of endless refrains
vibrant
where along with birds
we too find provision

siem reap, 26 august 2011

dreamcatcher

2009-09-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

early they sailed off
the boats I dreamed up
with wrecks retrieved
from uneasy tides
of one last sleep

wished their shadow's play
would distract me a while
from the loneliness one feels
drifting through to no end
these crystal flows of indigo

bilan

2009-08-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

page
yet another
on the journey turned

is that what it’s called
this erring oblivion
of ends and beginnings

not knowing why
not knowing whence
nor whereto from here

questioning no longer
what portent in
sea’s glittering mirrors
sands brushed away on dunes
echo of cries dying in the wind
dreams from threshold
to threshold displacing us

or

stars’ borrowed light
fadings that precede us

alliance

2009-08-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

here not to grasp
here just to bear
earth upholds us
universe motherly
we can cry our fill
cries heeded and heard

stones hear us
stars hear and entreat us
god hears us
god helps us stand upright
as we cast our lament
in his illumined night

with us in every waill
we could not have cried
had he not wished to hear us
we are the provider’s sigh
echoed in the provider’s ear

we are your tear
crystalline
lord
your eye
blind
a chaos adrift
mirroring loneliness
infinite

devenir

2009-08-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

why should you not
be cradled by palms
profuse with insomnia

metaphors drift asea
where cries are cooled
and aired better

you stand still and stare
beyond pain’s frame
to a pass from one end
to no end leading

sunset afterglow
spans lower skies

memory
you mourning moon
riding tideless nights

epitaph

2009-08-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

poems
milestones on this road

journey from where
to nowhere
witnesses to your passing
passers without witness

slowly diffusing
through oblivion
their timid light

what the thunder cries out

2009-08-27T03:03:00.000-07:00

what the thunder cries out
the wind need not remember

dormant beneath their spell
in remembrance
rocks may still echo
sea's many voices
and screams

it's a tearing into
breach
in the order of things

night pierced through
spans of dark
massive
tumble over a starlit bay

heart
an opening

shudder
remolded into a face

om beach

2009-08-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

still another return
yet to say
here i was once
now am here again
you can not

you were then not
so much yourself
as now you think you are
abiding nowhere
erring nowhere

erring with the wind
wind intimate
with faded journeys
obliterated paths

secrets too
gain vibrancy
in displacement

gokarna, 21 april 2008

was there

2009-08-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

was there truth to it
did i ever exist
perhaps was it you
here or there
now and then
in limbo of dreams
wastes of insomnia

did i see a sun set
from a hazy window
ever hear a bird sing
fusing from a bush
perhaps was it you

how to say i am or was
cannot stay nor say
the further more
the further still
blurred borders of me and you
same source to assertion negation
slow closure of despair
realm of speech retsrained
realm of speech faltering
words in disarray

from absence and presence
things human inhuman
confined to a round of cries
my vioce your voice the voice

the voice
rapid tremor of silence
returned to silence

moor park, california, 21 may 2009

all night long

2006-11-11T02:24:00.000-08:00

sound of rain
pounding
on sleepless grass

long winter furrows
run through these lids
where from updrafts
i try to shield a soul

from faraway
have erred till here
drawn by these vapors
pearling on the pane
all night long

transhumance

2006-07-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

bird’s path you follow
call it treading
flying
falling

from one end to another
notes of vernal branches
drift along the breeze

unseen traces unfold
song-clusters in echo
contained in silence

its one body
in one sphere
from one end
to another
azure

it’s the no end
mirrors coming
going
non-abiding

chiming bell of stones
meld with sigh of grass
slowly waking in the prairie
throbbed with morning light

call

2006-06-30T02:03:00.000-07:00

ocean's pure invention
each dawn
she summons the wind
to recapture me
from pits of sleep
where
mere keepsake of their cawing
one late flight
crows abandoned me

she draws me to her waters
where now
where now for ever I stand
a listening
to nothing bound
receiving her release
as she rolls

recollection

2006-06-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

fingers
plumes of yearning
beyond the body reach

nothing to grasp
nothing to yield
they know it now
we know it now

someone’s flawed memory
called us back to this shore
detouring our exit from exile
we know it now

images resurface on spume
the sea no longer retrieves

thirsting for new skies
leaking at the seams
we set a boat afloat

something veils us in the daylight
as we wait for waves to intercede

inquiry

2006-06-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

in a letter of intents
addressed to friends
to friends to come

healed of wounds
of wounds to come
softened with pain
yielding to a smile

brief but repentant in tone
blames passed on to gales
to tide-awakening mistral
where roars delivered
unroll scroll of seas
of seas to come

friends
where are you

one-way ticket

2006-06-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

it is bliss to live
it is bliss to die
starry or starless tonight
some obscured in wells
some still suspended
from blade of pledges

bliss to shed your foliage
offer every leaf to the gale
efface calumny of seasons
hue of their alluring rhymes

bliss to be a chilly wind
unsheltered by memory
sweep aside perception
breathe a hasty sleep
on things that shimmer
then descending the mine
rejoin early siblings
spark-filled stones
coffer where rests
the primal dawn

bliss to relinquish pain
tell it recall this heart
with your flames i fed it
crystal cleaving lifeless layers
confines that cannot reach
this rest of animal cry

sometimes

2006-06-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

when images all fade away
from nowhere surges a tree
lonesome you may add
with spark speediness
from a recess of universe
heeding its own appeal
yet words are too much
for such frail apparition

for such frail apparition
unaware of blooming
unaware of shedding
leaves apart from grief
orchards afar from fruit
roots severed from heart
is absolved of laws
that govern growth

question of us

2006-06-21T16:06:00.001-07:00

over and again I read
the poem you didn’t write
didn’t send

in it I see lushness of spring
fall’s transparency
evenness of pain
in summer’s full glow

in it I hear the wind
roam without direction
shaking early leaves
uprooting years
feeding paths with snow

nowhere a shelter
except in waiting
for the poem
never to be written
never to be read

murmured on quiet lips
restless echo of stirrings
unaccounted by our strife
nowhere a question of us
sky speckless of our lament

you stretch out your hand
palm open not to receive
relinquishing answers
to abide by the question
one left out in the wild

that mute unwanted prayer
for alms
you no longer wish
for in your heart
heart
you no longer wish

night

2006-06-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

watching big dipper
sink behind open fields

beneath a broken staircase
moon distils a winter sky

cold spaces to remember

unmindful of your path
of fortunes told
of before and after
fixing infinity

you are a mound
a prayer hive
promises
to you return

avici

2006-06-21T05:11:00.000-07:00

eight and last of hells
where I may have landed
for always persists a doubt
paraphernalia indispensable
to ever reeling torments

fall depicts the shift better
its getting better and better
as you confound sin and karma
confusion and insight
mind's cascading images

its still not here yet
further downwards
further pitwards
in deeper darks
you have to reach
or plunge or sink or fall
all options remain open
marvellously open
to quieten the source
that mirrors retribution

a lot of heart left in you
left to be skinned
cries to be pinned
born or dead
reborn
reborn to suffer
suffer proper

peace

2006-06-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

sky gets thicker
to shelter trees
night reaches closer

to everything
rest is given

tiles on star-lit roofs
the nettle
cobbles on the alley

ei tai-ji

2006-06-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

winter retreat

late in coming
slow in falling
year’s first snow

cimetière du montparnasse

2006-06-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

drenching rain outside
beneath an umbrella
here a couple kissing
there
people waiting for a ride
mourners
done with farewell
done with flowers

alongside the avenue
acacias shed leaves
dispersed on ground
stirring in puddles

long
their surrender to light
and those below
those above
same stuff
all homeless bound

parting

2006-06-18T03:11:00.000-07:00

your beam of light
adorns my eyes
blinded by erring in airs
darks where soul
cannot alight
cannot sojourn

earth
you call your lips
where for a night
you house the stranger

gates of wind
open up in my ears
its your whisper I hear

remember
this is nirvana
of all shores
the other

here
your hands in mine
weigh petals
as from the plum-tree
they loosen their hold

aire

2006-06-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

you said you didn’t know
sky has so many stars
you said you didn’t know
each day they age with us
you said you didn’t know
eye is lair to their sleep

rohatsu

2006-06-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

winter retreat ends
pain floods the body
chills the burning bough

roaming empty fields
icy wind inside sleeves
cold rain slapping
each step deeper into mud

night
where to turn to
tonight
bitter winter
on the road

soulwork

2006-06-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

east and west
waiting expanded
beyond threshold
of isolation

tear your lids
eyes open wide
stare into peril of light

its an even dark
deep spaces
signs nowhere
mesures to come

prayers
need not advance
need not return
accounts are squared
axes turning

sleep
sleep
yes
this far we have come

serene peaks

2006-06-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

clasping my hand he said
its all a tale about erring
little matters if you know
where you are going
just be a cloud
let not the wind
absence of wind
hinder you from floating
from returning
through bitter roots
of sky disconsolate
to a mountain shelter
where paths come to rest
all comes to rest

eclipse

2006-06-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

and why should you not
be cradled by palms
profuse with insomnia

metaphors drift seawards
where in cooler breeze
cries are shrouded

so still you stand and stare
beyond pain’s frame
a path from one end
to no end leading

sunset afterglow
spans
lower skies
deserted strand

memory
mourning moon
riding tideless nights

mujo

2006-06-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

it was April
remember
we were standing
on the temple terrace
the cherry-tree abloom
an easterly breeze
unpetalling its flowers
as we looked beyond the pond
at misty southern ranges

-what never changes
impermanence everywhere

-that which always changes

question and answer
simply seeing
seamless

mind and mind
no mind
just hearing

sound of one hand
echoing in the valley

hiver

2006-06-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

perfectly still
perfectly cold
mind-cold

light goes out
from the only hut
in the somber valley

mind-cold
sphere-cold
that lofty music
finally stilled

evergreens

2006-06-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

we were fated to meet
on this lost hilltop road
evergreens
you mantled in white
me a homeless shadow
our heart sibilant
evergreens
a mantra of storm
snowstorm
flurrying
evergreens
engulfing slopes
when we are turned
as we slowly turn
evergreens
the waning light
of winter pages
of no return
evergreens

mu

2006-06-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

it takes a dog
to delve into dog nature
a Buddha cannot do it
much less a man
were he to open the gate
spoon-feed you
with emptiness

exit tower of silence

2006-06-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

now that mirrors
lower their light
agony cedes to rest
now that my vessel
is released
you may close your eyes
and watch me freely slide
along the single watercourse

of all journeys
I shall join the flow

your blessings
budding fragrance
guides me home

nearest

2006-06-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

early one morning
sweeping linden leaves
from his doorstep
I go to see the Master
with Dizang’s case

asked to what purpose his pilgrimage
Fayan replies: I don’t know
hears the Master's consent
not knowing is nearest

marvellous
this unknowing

a smile lights Tokuda’s face

are we of one mind
as to this unknowing
who knows

only who knows

death-poem

2006-06-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

my death-poem
too early to be written
late to be read

winds sweep the mountain prairie
unfurl waves through wild grass

no one came here
no one ever left

peace unstirring

unmapped

2006-06-06T03:07:00.000-07:00

bird’s path you follow
call it treading
flying

from one end to another
notes of budding branches
in an early morning sky
drift along the breeze

unseen traces unfold
song-clusters in echo
contained in silence

its one body
from one end to another
it’s the no end
mirrors coming and going
non-abiding

chiming wind-bell of stones
blends
with sighs of slender grass
slowly waking in the prairie
throbbed with morning light

quinces

2006-06-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

captured from branch-tops
you enter the hermitage
your fragrance
preceeding you

overflowing the basket
it slowly sways
the dinning hall

sleeping and waking
are one to you
in this unknown closeness

you release
automn's last instinct
as you hear us chant
the Heart-sutra
each morning for you

rocher de la baume

2006-06-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

pile of books
drowsy
on the bed side

chill chases
insects from the room

wings left behind
without objection
they leave
one by one

behind the wall
water trickles
on mossy rock
all night long

automn

2006-06-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

breeze blows
branches sway
mind glides
on tree-tops

mountain pines in deep shade
this slope still sun-bathed

lying in the bramble
covered by reddening leaves
listening to insect cries
distant flows of human grief

inmo

2006-06-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

Master Tokuda

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

how far in the 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

désirs d'avenir

2006-06-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

visit to the memorial park
where your mother rests
brought a bouquet of roses
you wanted them yellow

arc of fingers
in prayer
over the headstone

sustainer of worlds
show us the straight path

what comes after death
you ask as you speed up
on the drive back home

elm lines
race pass the windshield
blazing
in the morning glare

demeurer

2006-06-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

time of leaving comes
that lifelong fascination
in every pore you feel
your place of stay
an island in Gulf of Siam

weeks long stray in Samui
where westerly winds are balmy
waters deceivingly shallow

what you leave behind
is what you take with you
lush tree foliages
bending coconut-trees
fanned by the breeze
combing the breeze
breeze-inebriated
swinging

mantra of directions released
chants of removal
from bays of distances
harbours of yearning

swiftly moving ritual
tidal cadences
reinventing shores
to brace mornings
stars to brace
retreating darks

anchor

2006-06-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

here our journey ends
trip within a trip
leaving one sea
for another
blue for another
night for another
with star-glitters
flaking in between
to keep the road going

reel of fishing-boats
string the dark
with shinning pearls
a distant roar
keeps immersing

Ryotan Tokuda's last teisho

2006-06-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

before entering nirvana
I open the window for you
here comes the wind
sweeping away the shrine
blowing out candles
glow of your questions
unasked
that you cannot see

nuit

2006-06-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

tu célèbres ton achèvement
et nous avec toi
l’ordre de tes étoiles
tourné contre nous

rassasis
avec leur ombre
nous tournons
guidés par ton appel
grimpons
pas à pas
tes marches spéculaires

il n’est de chemin
qu’en silence tu ne portes
douleur que tu ne brises
écart que tu n’effaces

toute soif
abondance de solitude
coule en toi
s’apaise pour toi

once again

2006-06-02T02:34:00.000-07:00

once again inside
this unachieved stone
digging out a name
your name
father
with finger rests

closest
I'll ever come
to knowing
forgetting

all forgetting

marga

2006-06-02T02:27:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

marga

lanterne

2006-05-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

soufflant
les chandelles des mas
tu emportes les oliviers
et te glisses dans la nuit
alors qu’elle met un arrêt
à la marche des collines
vers la mer

paupières arrachées
tu éclaires aux spectres
la grand-route
qui tombe dans la paix

breeze

2006-05-31T04:13:00.000-07:00

palm-leaves’ rustle
unending

waves on the shore
breaking

bird psalmodies
myriad spirals
loosened in the air

traveller
its the same book
erring
we write
writing
we efface

drinking light of sands
pouring into the eyes

calls
recalls of emptiness

élan

2006-05-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

no fear
I shall return your call
frightening though
these heights
where your calling
makes me soar

then the fall
into the precipice
where
whispering stones
golden rivers
into silence flow

it is one to live
one to die
to be released
roam with shadows
with these melodies
from distant shores
you stream inside

sutra chanting

2006-05-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

predawn sitting
then one by one
waking the patriarchs
for the daily call

none missing

its still dark outside
where mountains begin
valleys end
in this mantle of snow

wheeling rings of light
sink
behind the giant boulder

benumbed in this cold
never ending grieves
who's heart
stinging the fingertips

datsu raku

2006-05-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

body
left behind
mind too
shed
in a barren tree

moon-bathing now
in purple twilight

standing with you
erring with you
cleared of attainment
dying with you

and I look at your stone
my own true face
as it snows over
the last colour of grass

chronos

2006-05-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

heavy snowfall
on mountain slopes

sitting on a flat stone
beneath a stooping pine

is it
was it

time itself
is it
was it

span of its sway
over us
we the blind
divesting darkness
of orphaned nebulae

else
else than an erring cloud

timeless

2006-05-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

no matter in what state
the old Buddha’s mind
I’ve always been here
sitting
in the palm of his hand
heart flooding
with grieving and love

2006-05-30T04:07:00.000-07:00

clouds capping mountains
slowly darken the valley
from northern ranges
thunder echoes

crickets swarm the hawthorn
thistles dripping purple

it’s September
some cool is coming

udumbera
when shall your buddhas
rebloom again

Ps 104:2

2006-05-30T02:35:00.000-07:00

beacons
eyes roaming
in the dark

what farthest
they illumine
deserts
just deserts
beckoning

sisters out there
whimpering stars
hard to console
staring from
empty doorways

foliage
adorning
a wheeling
tapestry

further
creation

thirsting chaos

adieu

2006-05-29T14:41:00.000-07:00

there goes the moth
night’s sole companion
entering the circle of flames
sound of wings scorching
still echoes in the mind

not now but then
mourning begins whenever
a world comes to an end

sleepless
crouched in a cold bed
unable to write verses
in memoriam of
Jacques Derrida

echo

2006-05-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

clouds capping mountains
slowly darken the valley
from northern ranges
sounds of thunder echo

crickets swarm the hawthorn
thistles drip with violet

it’s September
some cool is coming
udumbera
when shall your buddhas
rebloom again

travel provisions

2006-05-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

as if the mind
recalling the mind
itself or another
always the other
mirror
reminiscing emptiness
where erring images slide
as the body is
sheared through with sleep

wherever you be
you are a gate open
to welcome seas
star or any mountain
hurdling your sight

each breath a circle
vertiginously expanding
enfolds galaxies unknown
returns you
to that single source
spring of your purest request

time and space
not apart from you
your emerging
eclipsing

poetica

2006-05-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

perhaps the last
these waning words

a pitfall
to think

ono
moto
moto po
motopoeic

help the breeze
ply soaked branches

wings outspread
soaring now
above wanting
and abundance

with the drizzle
taming the stiff herbage

mute
spiritless
murmuring
with the thousand holy ones

annunciation

2006-05-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

light
sky-light
wind-light
opening to receive
chimes
of your homecoming

sea-bright
sea a lightening
floods the eyes
tides unfurling
an infinity
breaking
on breathless cobbles

with ebb and flow of prayers
blind and heaving
I invoke you
you whirling voice
release your storms
release your chants
unseal visions of
captive emerald

mirage

2006-05-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

all night long
sound of rain
falling
on sleepless grass

dripping through lids
these winter furrows
where from updrafts
I try to shield a soul

from faraway
erred till here
drawn by these vapors
pearling on the pane
all night long

somnambule

2006-05-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

pour voir plus clair
les stries du sort
je laisse la mare des nuits
me remonter les veines

fabuleux fond bleu
tes yeux émergent

brusque ciel
où se dessinent

des hirondelles
un vol éteint

l’écarlate trouble
de ton sommeil

et de ta peau
les frissons dorés

sleep

2006-05-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

I offer you what resistance I have
for you consent to go deeper into me
in your nearness
shuffle of change resounds no more
wish to be burdened with heavier fruit
bare branches stretch out in the cold
flow of your sap stiffens my roots
where are we going in this dark
why is the wind so harsh on me
blowing light out of my cinders
before I take my heart to the wood

face to face

2006-05-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

its destiny you said
encounter of destinies
should one time we meet

it is an overnight stay
in a run down hermitage
stars spread over the sky
they greet your dark flame
hidden sorrow of the sea

you see my hour go blind
you see tides roll over me
for I have to step aside
to let your echo pass
in the rising mountain

requiem for a fly

2006-05-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

on the eve of nativity
you pass the gateway
unbaptized
dates unrecorded

I lift you from the floor
take you down to the garden
embed you on a golden leaf

the cold is behind us now
you can ease your wings
side by side
we listen to the rain
as she dissolves us
in the sombre grass

that night in Mandrem

2006-05-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

the village deep asleep
your face slowly flaming
with glow of candles
you kept rekindling
with glow of the wind

rougher now somehow the sea
left with straying tumble-weed
i chase among shipwrecks
early mornings on the beach

not questions' glint
it’s the sea
her foaming tides
inviting me to deeps
never thought in reach
when you left my hand
somewhere in the dark
that night in Mandrem

sansukyo

2006-05-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

its summer solstice
you lead me to this peak
where thunders clap
storms gather
before each going
its lonesome way

you open your hand
in your palm I see rivers
blue mountains flowing
its a scripture
where I read

from one word
all paths emerge
same path
wither all words return

its an old word
you keep repeating
making me appear
disappear
when night falls
reappear

la part du feu

2006-05-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

are you any closer now
blind rays of summer days
massively collapsing
over serrated rocks
horizon reeling behind
your floating locks
in tide whisperings or

shaded by an olive tree
old grove where mistrals
convened ages to shape
into twined lyres
the saddened heart of trees
strings snapping
as they sing

your eyes reflect
shivers
of pulverized growth

beyond choosing
ablaze
shed images of you
cracking
the ineffable lamp

nour

2006-05-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

wondrous too
our grieving samsara

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

where slowly I waken
as you wheel my soul
with rings of your song

we blaze
by fire’s breath
untouched

and its light
uplifting light

appel

2006-05-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

de cette coulée de lave
comment t’extraire
toi
feu
au feu abandonné

aiguisé
par le cri des mouettes
virevoltant
au-dessus des hauts-fonds
amour
lame refleurie
des abîmes du vent tu reviens
décharger tes débâcles en moi

là
encore debout sur cette grève
la peau ébréchée
par ta parole

for niemand

2006-05-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

with drifting dawns
that borrowed voice
mine
within yours
meandering

drowned in troubled waters
your voice now remembering

balmy breeze rises
a kingfisher
broods on his palm-leaf
watching hours ripple
on endless backwaters

alluvium
our voice
alluvium
mine into yours
sinking

closing in
we are closing in
no one
on fault lines of
reason

sans commencement

2006-05-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

palm-leaves’ 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 eye

calls
recalls
of emptiness

logos

2006-05-28T16:56:00.000-07:00

a full moon illumines stones
and sleepy pebbles
strewn on mountain pathway
grasses and hedges
gleam with frost

voice
the silent voice listens
obeys
the procession of silvery clouds

hereon your kingdom commences
jewelled branches your crown
let sombre tree shades
guide you to the frozen heart
where an austere throne awaits you
among shattering mirrors
myriad

seasick

2006-05-28T16:50:00.000-07:00

you suffering sea

ara
sara
samsara

your bed never stilled
endlessly somersaulting
keeling us over
into your dregs
loosening our grip
from the helm of sleep
dropping us to the ground
grounded again into falling

stasis

2006-05-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

entering
the deserted village
a single toll
from the steeple
arrests you

blast
passing through
dragonfly’s head

so goes
the fine mind
of nirvana

Nachtscharf

2006-05-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

digging out the cut
dark decreeing
wound tending
erased from mind
heart-flutters
flight chronicles
merrily creeping
around the moaning pit

etwas Nachtscharf
das nicht fliegen kann

it was blue

2006-05-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

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

leaving you asleep
beneath giant rocks
I move down a stony trail

shadow slithering on scree
crossing the bloodline
of voiceless crows

hishiryo

2006-05-28T16:28:00.000-07:00

in the heart of autumn
on a cushion I sit
covering golden slopes
with my robe

day and night
the rain’s voice pummels
chilling the marrow
of trees and beasts

am I thinking
am I nonthinking
dripping passed thinking

2006-05-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

circle of cries rise wheeling
white against the Amstel sky

stretches of hunger unveiled
in sudden snowstorm

wounds you once crossed
flood the mirror again
sweeping bridges along
old auguries of healing

Point Venus

2006-05-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

can no longer recall
an early winter poem I wrote
on that south sea island shore

for the same wave washes
what trace we leave on the sand
unfolds our riddled hearts
as we drown to fathom the sea