By Phan Tan Hai
The teacher taught: look into mind, no words appear—
in the wordless dawn, sunlight speaks.
Ancients and future ones smile like a dream;
who strikes the bell and steals a character today?
The teacher taught: rings, bracelets, ornaments—
all are one sky of non-duality, pure gold in nature.
To stir the mind of distinction is to drift away
into the vast waves of three realms, six paths.
The teacher taught: a hundred thousand cakes
are but one invisible dough.
Liking and disliking open countless worlds;
seeing the unborn mind is the unborn.
The teacher taught: this world is a play—
today this role, tomorrow another.
Suffering, like the great ocean of waves,
is still one nature of water, never apart.
The teacher taught: impermanence in all worlds—
to see it as real is delusion.
Do not say “is” or “is not”;
in wordless stillness, one does not err.
The teacher taught: emptiness is form—
like a hand turned over, palm to back.
To see nature is to see no self-nature;
hearing the bell, one sees the Dharma.
The Carrousel of sex
My sister held a party. She lived across the road from us
My wife wouldn’t go; she was not on speaking terms with
my sister, as they often did.
There were many women there, and one was especially and
charming laughed at my feeble jokes, and when it got late
I agreed to follow her home as it was dark and autumnal
We had sex on a park bench, but it struck me as sordid and
I pulled away, said sorry, and walked home.
I was riven by guilt and also anger. This was a trap I, a man,
had walked headlong into. I cursed my stupidity.
Back home, my wife was fast asleep. She had been at the gin
We had breakfast at ten, it was a Sunday, and I was sad
I was still tired and waited for her to berate me, but she didn`t.
In the affairs of the heart, it is better to tell an untruth
because women will only believe what they have decided
to be the verity
Years later, after we divorced- for another reason- she said
She told me she had been sleeping with the man who collected rubbish
every week, and I thought of the woman in the park and my
sister who had a reason for disliking my wife
Versatile Edgar Allan Poe
short stories always on the go
In style romantic gothic
disliking both allegory&didatic
Sandy surprised her mother with a pretty office make-over.
It was marvelous, there was a new bed for her Corgi, Rover.
In the corner was a monarch butterfly garden full of caterpillars.
This is what you needed said her snoopy neighbors, the Millers.
Dot did like most of the office, though it was not her taste.
When she let her daughter change it, this was done in haste.
She was getting used to it, but despised the butterfly chair.
Is it too pretty? Someone asked her. No, it is hard on my derriere.
After I read all of the Trixie Belden books I could find
My aunt Janice allowed me to read one of her Nancy Drew books
She had a book case filled with them.
She was chintzy with them, only allowed me to borrow one at a time.
I used to beg to take two, but she had her standards.
So I took one at a time, disliking how she was slowing down my progress.
I never liked Nancy Drew as much as Trixie Belden anyway.
Covid Christmas © 2020
by Bob Moore
T’was a month before Christmas, And all through the town,
People wore masks which covered their frown.
The frown had begun, way back in the spring,
When a global pandemic had changed everything.
They called it corona, But unlike the beer,
It didn’t bring good times, it didn’t bring cheer.
Contagious and deadly, this virus spread fast,
Like a wildfire that starts, when fuelled by gas.
Airplanes were grounded, travel was banned.
Borders were closed, across air, sea and land.
As the world entered lockdown, to flatten the curve
The economy halted, and folks lost their verve.
From March to July, we rode the first wave,
People stayed home, they tried to behave.
When summer emerged, the lockdown was lifted.
But away from the caution, many folks drifted.
Now it’s November, and cases are spiking,
Wave two has arrived, much to our disliking.
Frontline workers, doctors and nurses,
Try to save people, from riding in hearses
Bob Moore
I'll write only of my biggest fault,
over it, I daily agonize.
My heart and soul are under assault
I need to conceptualize.
I can't seem to conquer my dislike
of ignorance, I can plainly see,
As I introspect, there's disquiet
blaming is not where I want to be.
Realizing many cannot afford
a college degree, even a class,
And many with a degree ignored
truth, giving conspiracy a pass.
So, each of us could open a book...
on one hand, I love the concept
of thriving, thinking, but sure to look
where we're going before we have leapt.
Disliking a mind willing to be
told what to think, to believe, to speak
I'm discarding all their qualities
closing my mind, refusing to seek.
A closed mind, a form of ignorance
so I've come full circle with my despair.
I've fallen prey to my dissonance.
A conundrum that needed some air.
April 30, 2023
for “Character Traits” poetry contest
by Angela Tune
Often when someone catches me unaware
It seems an intrusion that I least expected
Makes me wary of surprises, I must declare
Most of the time, I prefer to be neglected.
It seems an intrusion that I least expected
I had already made plans for what I’d do
Most of the time, I prefer to be neglected,
Surprisers fail to consider the other shoe.
I had already made plans for what I’d do
Oh, I know they have the best of intentions,
Surprisers fail to consider the other shoe.
Still, I try to avoid disdain, I must mention.
Oh, I know they have the best intentions
Those who get a kick out of surprising me
Still, I try to avoid disdain, I must mention,
Being surprised doesn’t fill me with glee.
Those who get a kick out of surprising me
Makes me wary of surprises, I must declare
Still, I try to avoid disdain, I must mention
Often when someone catches me unaware.
Written December 2, 2022
Feiix Vallaton
in many ideas did front upon
Art in the round he did opine
so disliking the straight line
She had a big issue with public toilets
All those dirty horrible germs
She would do her best to try and hold on
Until her home….she did return!
Her sister came to visit her
When she resided in Singapore
To enjoy a fun filled sister time
Exploring, shopping and more
This particular day they were shopping
In a big department store
When a sudden call of nature
Came a knocking at her door!
She scurried away to find a toilet
Her sister stayed to look at shoes
It was quite a distance and busy walk
Before she discovered the loos
Disliking public toilets so
Toilet paper was piled to cover the seat
In and out and hands washed
Business over and done…..complete!
Long , crowded walk back to her sister
Who soon said “Hang on whats that?…..turn around”
There hanging out of her black trousers
Was a long tail of white toilet paper…. nearly touching the ground!!
You are uninvited
And though yes though i am
just at the tender age of 19
I am not frightened
To have my say
Be dismissed as a minor
As having nothing relevant
on offer worthy of listening
to all
But millions of jagged little
pills sold beg to differ
As nothing proves i hear you like
Platinum and Gold framed
disks and multiple awards
Matters not if you are on
board or not
No 1 can wish to be or expect
to be loved by everyone
For you so to can not garner
the likes of fan's
Without expecting the
wrath of disliking critics
maybe we choose stupor
disliking illusions here on offer
being a self defence mechanism
to slow ego driven thought pendulum
immersing us in hypnotic trance
freedom only in inner silence
in surrendered cessation
or during meditation
thought rested awareness
versus Tamasic stuporousness
either way we get rid of ego stain
free from delusion driving us insane
06-January-2021
After berserkers violated, nonviolent, virtuous, souls
residing in Ireland's verdant vales,
victims vented their intense disliking of the vile, vicious,
violent, vikings by valiantly fighting back victoriously.
Did I learn a worthy trade? Study war as a warrior?
Was I a helper, a first responder,
nurse, nanny, priest, pumpkin farmer,
a horny handed laborer,
did I lecture nitwit’s on the liberal arts or economics?
None of the above.
Yet I claim the kinship of all these,
my esteemed traveling companion:
Master Walt Whitman agrees.
I extol all of you America! All scoundrels,
wasters, longshoremen, coopers, sail makers,
beef butchers, mechanics, farriers, truckers,
tech analysts, grocers, grifters and daytime hookers.
I offer all of you my theoretical talents
and apply them generously to you,
the heaving throngs, and huddled masses.
Praise be and glory to all impractical scribblers,
liars, disgraced philosophers, tricksters, and drunks.
We poets celebrate ourselves,
save the world for ourselves alone,
warn of the terrible dire in the good,
the terrible good in the dire, while distrusting both,
yet still and all, disliking our own works
even more.
'
Where once stood two shadows
now there is but one
His skies clouded over,
disliking the sun
A lonely dark figure,
just seeking an end
From feeling the sorrow
of losing a friend
A desolate outline
displayed on the ground
As tears fall in silence
not making a sound
He looks to the sidewalk,
it's all come undone
Where once stood two shadows
now there is but one
'
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