Jisei Jisei
Between the belly and the soil
I do as I do I am as I am
and all it is, I mean all that it is
(every morsel, every moment)
is my scratching out a, no my
Death Poem.
When I fall from thought and
fall to rot
it will be yours to read,
to sing, to frame, to forget.
Yours to burn.
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Categories:
jisei, death, philosophy, poetry,
Form: Free verse
Categories:
jisei, age, angst, death,
Form: Senryu
This World of Dew
THIS WORLD OF DEW
This world?
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last?
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before dawn;
may an untimely wind not hasten their departure!
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
This world of dew
is a
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Categories:
jisei, age, art, autumn, bereavement,
Form: Haiku
Zen Death Haiku Ii
Today, catching sight of the mallards
crying over Lake Iware:
Must I too vanish into the clouds?
—Prince Otsu translation by Michael R. Burch
This world—
to what may we compare it?
To autumn fields
lying darkening at dusk
illuminated by lightning flashes.
—Minamoto no ago translation by Michael R. Burch
This world—to what may we liken it?
To autumn fields lit dimly at
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Categories:
jisei, death, imagery, life, nature,
Form: Haiku
Categories:
jisei, poetry,
Form: Haiku
Jisei
Phantoms, whirling
Beyond my grasp as I stroke the sky
Of familiar faces
Whom vanished from sight as our bonds died
Day in, day out
Waking up just to fall asleep again
Where is there meaning
When life exists just to end
Bonds of iron
Of friends who said we'd never forget what we had
Lost to ages
Lost beneath the waves in black cloth clad
Now
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Categories:
jisei, angst, memory, pain,
Form: Lyric