Hopefully, you will find this poem one to be savored over timelessness. Once again, a touch of the Japanese, and where there is Japanese there are multiple meanings, surface and deep, nonsense and the profound. Of course, while you read, think meditation; in particular, turn to Zen meditation, often called “shikan taza,” or “just sitting.”
Shikan Taza Rewrite
For Dainen Katagiri Roshi
In the three times
no say about what happens next
future poses as hallucination and mirage
no say about what has passed
things gone swirl like golden birch leaves winter-fallen
Good thing no-self sits here presently
driftwood turning in a turgid river
becomes familiar with eccentric currents
carried rootless on rippled waves’ ceaseless velocity
bubbling up curiously persistent luminosity
Contemplation One
Betrayal comes from misunderstanding
The woodsman’s axe fells the exquisite oak
Trust comes calling when someone needs forgiveness
An apple tree gives shade, apples, its very skin and heartwood
to a selfish boy who grows to harvest timber
Three times betrayed
All these rooted in the forest of imagination
settling slowly into the mud of inevitable stagnation
Still, snow-crushed branches snap back when unburdened
Contemplation Two
Accounting
for results in zazen of no progression
a vast breath-stillness going out into space
the globe spins through darkness filled with grace
feeling good is not a right
doing right a tenuous proposition
conflated with self-regard and bold opinions
in truth, these are all mistaken contradictions
birches green to gold with thick ice breaking
glittering leaf-coins scattered on the snowy paths we’re making
Contemplation Three
Still sitting – no hint of gladness – no apparent sadness
candles’ wax liquifying
all melting in one, being, created and then aging
Robed monk sits inside the world of contemplation
dots of music on the lines with flags flying
rising from sweet emptiness for an instant in their passing
Arigato
Background:
Some Zen schools stress intellectual study, whereas others focus singularly on seated meditation, or some combination of the two. Personally, I find both satisfying and worthwhile. I think I’ve told you before that I have been a practicing Buddhist for over thirty years. I gravitate toward Soto Zen, and what is called Theravadan. Theravada relies almost entirely on The Pali Canon which is a large set of volumes claimed to be the Buddha’s actual words and teachings.
With that, on to exploration.
Exploration 1: The number, “three,” appears a few times in the poem. Does this have any meaning for you as you finish the work?
Exploration 2: “Good thing no-self sits here presently”: What the heck is going on here?
Exploration 3: The Japanese almost always include images of nature, as does this poem. Have a look at the alternating mental points with such images.
Your Monday Poet, Jack Pine Savage
Reading this I yet find the images so Minnesotan, so much like 'here' " ... swirl like golden birch leaves winter-fallen ..."
ReplyDeleteWW: Well, think about where I/we live, eh? Sometimes a leaf is a leaf is a leaf . . . JPSavage
ReplyDelete