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

omens

from afar

farther than birth cries

uprooting winds
are coming

taking you where

taking us where

salutary flames

back to stars of afar

prayers of rain

salutary flames

rolling us over the sea

taking us where

uprooting winds

back to stars of afar

brushing us off

earth’s hardened edges

into our arms they fall

lights of ripened pains

scars of hollowed trees

thoroughly bitter

thoroughly sweet
the stars of afar

                          

 mandrem, 24 april 2012

sleep

i offer you what resistance i have
for you consent to dig deeper into me
in your nearness sleep
shuffle of change resounds no more
wish to be burdened with heavier fruit

branches stretch out bare in the cold
flow of your sap stiffens the roots
where are we heading in this dark
why is the wind harsh on me
blowing out the ashes’ glow
before i take heart to the woods

after the rains

in this roar
nights many
and days
successively
slumber
reawaken

it floods and flows back
beyond your questioning

words not opening
not emerging from silence

their retreat
perhaps a sign

distances growwithin
wherein you raise
wherein you fade

growing too
with enclosures
walls
moss
caking stones of wells
paddies lavishly swaying
your questioning
blind


mandrem, september 2007

hishiryo

in the heart of autumn
i sit on a cushion
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 beyond thinking

meeting the face

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

it was an overnight stay
in a rundown hermitage
stars spread over the sky
greet your dark flame
some hidden sorrow of the sea

you see my hour go blind
you see shades roll over me
for i need to step aside
to let your echo pass
in the growing mountain

le rocher da la baume, 2000

passage

so drifting
is part of the stillness
sea's vast stillness
heaving heart of eternity

is this death now
tenderly dissolving me
in green reaches of water

is this still me
some human rest
murmuring with shells
in echo of distant tides
breaking on the beach

mandrem, winter 2006

ashen

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

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
and this epitaph

kyuzan tetsu-un

journeyed far
when a cloud
now only
mountain peace

atlantic

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

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

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