call

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

winter retreat

late in coming
slow in falling
year’s first snow

cimetière du montparnasse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

nearest

early one morning
sweeping linden leaves
on 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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

anchor

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

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

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

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