Sitting With Koans
"Sitting with Koans"
Zazen sits zafu'd in the zendo
with the poetic monkey minds
echoing the sound of two hands clapping
producing sound bites bitten like Botticelli reprising
polishing red apples for eating the shining
listen to the sound of one
sea shell borne leonine
Venus swallowing the ocean
sugar and spice salt and vinegar
sometimes cyanide viper sometimes nice
Koans was a philistine novitiate nun
practicing the time bomb ticking two step
walking a straight line sowing stitches most undonne
for the unpacked unpicking the packed in the smoking bitumen
with the other hips toting Ovid guns
bound breezing down the middle road
with the lotus eaters at loon junction
towards the Noble Eightfold Path
revving engines on automatic read
led like Dobermans for fresh meat on their leads
somewhere other
another story laughs
polishing holes in the soles
witness a shoe shine kneeling
at the feet of Buddha paradox
a detour discourse smiling
to let the light bleed in
the road cross-bowed
straight as an arrow
psyche of Pythia hell bent
sharp and sweet as manuka honey
yet never unwinding
the galvanised Oracle
passes on the sal volatile
extending violins for the vapours
(LadyLabyrinth / 2022)
“In the Waiting Line” / Pomplamoose
https://youtu.be/Q5Fvj5LM3_Q
“Give it Away” / Zero 7
https://youtu.be/HFBpKXaX_Eg
“End Theme” / Zero 7
https://youtu.be/nGNWMxj3epQ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Way
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/zazen
https://www.britannica.com/topic/koan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path
https://tricycle.org/magazine/noble-eightfold-path/
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/manuka-honey-medicinal-uses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandro_Botticelli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-donne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythia
koan.
a paradoxical anecdote or riddle without a solution, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and provoke enlightenment.
the shining.
1977 horror novel/Stephen King. The title was inspired by the 1970 John Lennon song "Instant Karma", which contained the line "We all shine on"...
Inside each of us a horror story resides hidden, somewhere.
It is reassuring when considering Lennon's lyrics, to contemplate
that indeed, eventually, we do all shine on. But perhaps this is not the gist of the entire song. Spin the wheel, or take the wheel.
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