Best Bardo Poems
"Another Bardo Day"
Amaranthine
Illuminates
Samsara
legs and hips sway
wrapped around hard street
and through the
Beginningless Beginning
holds hands with Kali
Just another Bardo Day
enraptured en route
to the nefarious
Nirvana,
the emptiness state
there she resides
tempting impatiently
the bored and insane
the four noble truths at play
it’s all in the rebirthing
of dark night and silent day
arms, hands and lips
sensuously imploring
karmic imagination unchecked
delayed dancing around the
May Pole strewn with
all her rosy crucifixions
incandescence intermittent
transcendental and released
from the correct procedures
of escape between boundaries
Ad Infinitum
Ad Infinitum
Amaranthine
Illuminates
Samsara
Imbrication slow
intoxicating
between states
En route to Nirvana,
in her own world,
ambivalent,
now
bone’s calcifying
between states
it's just
Another Bardo Day
(LadyLabyrinth / 2020)
1. The Bardo
2. Samsara
3. Nirvana
4. The Four Noble Truths
5. Karma
6. Amaranthine/ Amarantos, Greek.
7. "The Rosy Crucifixion"/Miller.
BARDO.
May not the
Element of space
Rise against me
In acrid acrimony.
From the north
Arrives green goddess
Ghanta of serpent head
Garlanded with skulls
And in her hand
Holding metallic bells
Sounds of the surges
Deafening eared knell.
Let me remember
Infinite compassions
The past deeds
For all the things
Great and small
And for all the creeds.
For the white dove
For the yellow bear
For fields of worms
For earth borne cares.
Let not the
Element of sun
Arise against me
In wandering thirst
On burning symptoms.
Yogins arise westward
Bringing seeds of wisdom
With wavering garlands
Amid four coloured lights
And the scented perfumes
Moulded from purified elements.
In all prevailing circles
Let not the element
Of the seeded earth
Arise against me.
In some splintered segment.
( Interval between death & new life)
I take two long seconds
to watch my breath rattle
the snow
brittle and sweet. I don't want
to leave and I am so scared
of losing. the kettle sings
and we turn the pages.
even in despair, you burn
and I can't imagine you ever
dying. we laugh through the
cold, blood pounding steps.
god, please let me keep this.
flickering awareness
an in-between stage
with knowing imbibed
but not yet assimilated
we call it the bardo
26-March-2023
Before moistened grief crystallised in eyes dries,
humming aliveness of our heart exhumes pain
and positioned thus in the bardo, we rise,
as pristine soul presence, free from ego’s chain
invokes bliss magnetism to gently baptise,
wholeness of being in Holy Spirit’s rain,
moment by moment thus, all moments entwined,
dwelling in love and light, each breath reassigned.
Buddha numerics
Time between death and rebirth
cosmic waiting room
(bardo- intermediate space of time between
death and rebirth. Symbolically, 7 to
49 days in Buddhist time.)
sexy couple shooting pool
what was that covetousness rule?
when am i going to get over this?
in the back of my mind, memories of bliss
keep me looking, well attached
until this longing body is dispatched
to the dustheap, while this mind
propelled into bardo, still looking behind
at all the ties that bind...
Resting in our natural state,
as both feeble form and vast space,
mood and mode, release and embrace,
we watch thought forms rise and abate,
soon doomed to die, for that’s their fate,
doing nothing steps we retrace,
back to heart where boons of God’s grace,
bestow bliss as our soul’s true trait.
Life as impulsed still continues
but now in this dream we’re awake,
at ease in this world’s shifting hues,
in time stretched peace, calm like a lake.
With light of Self to us revealed,
no secrets are from us concealed.
I look toward the sacred symbol
Displaying my ignorance
For where is God not
Stuporous awareness
Oblivious to warning signs
Is now consumed by fears created
Yet within each half breath cessation
When polarities interchange
We are in the bardo
I notice this lifeline
Provided by the universe
And meld my consciousness therein
02-June-2023
("Nonbinary", 2023, original encaustic)
You’ll Never Come Back…
Thrown into an ocean
Deeper and vaster than thought
Carried on waves of sound
Waves of light
Propelled on waves of bliss
Through a portal
That has no name
No place
No time
But here and now
Washed up on a shore
After the storm
Bathed in warmth
Exhausted of all content
Left alone
At the heart of it all
Connected to it all
Without a doubt
Someone whispers
Somewhere
Just beyond sight
“You’ll never come back”
And in an instant
I am thrown into doubt
Back to what!?
To this timeless place
Or what I left behind?
And then in the next
Caught up in those waves
Propelled
Life goes on
Same as it ever was
Forever changed
Forever fresh
Forever
(9/27/23)
Through all of this noise
You came looking for me, and
Here we meet at last.
(2/25/24)
Stirred from sleep, early this morn,
ego shorn, refreshed, reborn,
feeling within bliss humming,
as notes of rapture strumming.
I was then, the light of Self,
with no desire on the shelf,
for mind was as yet asleep,
which is how I went in deep.
Bliss froze time, that soul may climb
toward heaven like this rhyme,
frolicking about carefree,
unshackled from my mind tree.
In time dissolved moments, early morn
Between the sleeping and waking state
In this bardo of pure bliss, we’re reborn
Love’s caress enlivens presence chaste
Each dew drop of joy, a unique unicorn
Aglow in our light, throbbing with delight
We are transfixed by soundless thunder
Feeling complete, heart refuses to alight
Savouring elixir divine in childlike wonder
Embarking fearlessly on a wingless flight
Nodes within form hum a tune in chorus
In rhythm with the music of the universe
Each pore a door, receptive and porous
Frolics with joy, without need to rehearse
At dawn soul thus becomes a bliss torus
("Through The Looking Glass", 2017, original encaustic)
Listen Now!
Listen now without distraction,
Within the endless cycle of distraction,
Recognize the pure forms
Of your projection
To be nothing
But the clear light
Of playful mind
Awakened One
Know this,
And only this,
Your true face
Greets you
In the illusion
Of death
Recognize,
Without fear emptiness
Cannot be harmed
By emptiness,
With joy
You are home
Again
(11/14/23)
With no agenda in our shelf,
having become the witness self,
our gentle touch and mindful eye,
allows life to flow by itself.
There yet are moments when we sigh,
since thought tempests take time to die
but for the most part, we are still
and in the vast void, wingless fly.
We sense in heart, bliss nectar spill
and drink greedily to our fill,
which is of course to steady mind,
surrendering to God our will.
Thoughts slow down and we become kind,
our head and heart, with love aligned
and as we slowly vaporise,
fears and desires no longer bind.
This oh monk, is the way we rise,
ceasing to weigh, measure or size,
merging soul with the all-that-is,
feeling each heartbeat in surprise.