Koans Poems


answer me know i don't, now

decision Buddha
decide there is no mission
i hate light
they will ever speak
never spear my ink's
my ink's compass
truist
again, decide we aren't a mission
tall clouds can't be ware?
limp and mundane wags
know feedbacks
concepts?
forty twenty seven seven sentences
won many to still your next kick
kicks, gone
out of timecards
my autumns a grain
only a single grain
know fame
just independence
Categories: koans, easter, fate, french, gothic,
Form: Spoken Word

The Vagaries



"The Vagaries"

You could go all Zen over Me,
I’d listen studiously, then, spit it out 
like cherry seeds for integration

the flesh of it all,
"The Past", savoured;
"The Future",

for lame time-wasting 
poetic rebels pretending
to be connoisseurs, parlaying -

"The Now", struts irreverently,
dealing its Bolchevistic
cards

and there sits You,
holding the mirror for Me,
expelling Your koans let loose

the sound of One hand clapping,
without the other, but still 
you hear it, the sound

Love, 
swimming
through the vagaries 

Integrity,
Love is
holding Her tight

vagaries

(LadyLabyrinth / 2023)
Categories: koans, muse,
Form: Narrative


Premium MemberOrigin of Koans

that that is embodied
by being and seeing
therefore knowing
and becoming
as definitive
wisdom
transcends
beyond doubt
caricatures of scriptures
interpreted by mind
that’s conditioned
by narrow belief
but we cannot
transfer the secret
since it requires seeing
without the aid of mirrors 

05-June-2023
Categories: koans, spiritual,
Form: Free verse

Premium MemberPerils of Self-Luminescence

The light that lights the sun
Shines within our glowing heart
Cognised when we come all undone
Whereupon bliss ignition within us starts

Eternal noumenon manifesting phenomena 
Innate aliveness screen of awareness
In silence no longer an enigma
As light of consciousness 

Light that from within radiates
Unable to behold it’s luminescence 
Save through mirrors in stillness sedate
Clear light shines upon meditative innocence 

Moon beauteous softens the suns bright light
Making the source of light itself envious 
For the sun lacks as yet inner sight
Of its own luminosity oblivious 

Fish in the river feels thirsty
How then may we fulfil its longing
Koans and parables dislodge serenity
Thus deluded earth entity keeps on weeping 

Ominous darkness under the light of a candle 
Illusion having no independent existence
Yet shadows get on mind a handle
Urging light to pay penance

11-April-2021
Categories: koans, light, muse,
Form: Rhyme

Premium MemberI Drowned In the Light

I've been writing some Koans.  A Koan is a sort of poem that is a puzzle.  On the surface it may make no sense whatsoever but, with thought, the answer comes. :


My soul was so thirsty,
the teacher gave me water to drink 
and I drowned in the light.
Categories: koans, deep, inspiration, introspection, perspective,
Form: Free verse


Nightime Revelations

After  a day of mixed hopes and disappointments 
I lay down upon my old mattress
and watch 
    the television station where thy play new age music
    and offer poignant quotes
      sometimes they have Zen koans 
Tonight I saw words
     from Allan Watts 
         and Yoko Ono 
   there is nothing wrong with being a New Age person 
   Beautiful images on this channel 
    I just viewed clouds around a mountainside
           Then a quote from Helen Keller - that remarkable woman 
I will drift off into a pleasant sleep 
   as I keep the channel on 
Enough of horrific news 
   I's find peace and wisdom 
here in my home in New York's Lower East Side
Categories: koans, introspection, peace,
Form: Concrete

The Best Koans Make Ice-Cream Cones

It hard to know
Why i was expelled
From the fundamentals of poetry.

Each day 
Like a loyal monk
i played my flute
With the basket
Over my head.
As the lemmings
Passed
In quadrangles of coe-eds.
For everything i must remember
Something must be forgotten. 

Often the days
Of learning
Have attempted to remove
Both the marrow and my intuition
From my bones.

Learning is to suppress
Creativity within
Like a poor mouse
Dreams of cheese.

In the first graduation
A woman matriculated 
From Adam’s rib. 

Into my textbook
i stuffed the snowflakes
i have cut kaftless 
 With my artless intellect. 


Learning
Is ego
And i am 
Priest of nothingness.


Some times
The best koans 
Make ice-cream cones.
Categories: koans, creation, imagination, inspirational,
Form: Free verse

The Unknowable Origin of Voice

Pen scribbles incantation 
As the writing reveals itself suddenly
Reveling thought unburdens its borrowed code
Bodies dance to release their outpouring presence

Humanly, we wait
A readership to hawk the landscape
And trot out footsteps in koans

As in dreams, I drift
Authorial indeterminate 
Nouns now shown as shackles-
Verbs take the crown
Unmistakably like Buddhist paradigm
All wood chopping simply no chopper

The self of no-self
Natures's embodiment
Writing embraces All
Soul at the beginning of whirpool
Categories: koans, allegory, art, death,
Form: Free verse

Depression Poems While the Guitar Player Tunes Up At Sandy Bottoms

1.  Inevitability

The rain will come
and be rude.
The wind blow away
all quietude.
Erase it?

Debase it?
You have no power
and when it's
your hour, you'll 
go, you know.

2. Drowning 

My foot tapping time, O sweet,
he cannot know he echoes mine.
He's not in this world, but I am.
Take me there! Right foot: the Koran, 
the Old Testament. He's young, 
I'm not.  He's playing for Happy Hour,
while his girlfriend sells her jeweled 
stones her shiny koans,  One, 
Two, his right foot beats rhythm. 

Testing,Testing. he doesn't know 
he keeps me from the ocean
the dolphin and the whale,
the ashes of my brothers, his
sandaled foot, beating time,
beating time.
Categories: koans, introspection, me,
Form: Rhyme

A Job Is a Job

Incognito
I am a Zen master
I am in the Enlightenment business
Let’s become partners
And enlighten others
I am almost broke
And cannot afford to sell Thai noodles 
In the night market
The queues at the unemployment office
Are long and require strong legs
As a Zen master out of work
I only get dirty looks
From the other vendors
Who never have heard
Of the Enlightened stage of life
When life as it is
Is all you can bear 
There is nothing else to do
Suffering is taking its toll 
But enlightenment requires a lot of patience
These Zen masters always talk around the bush
With their Zen koans
And are bored to death
With all the innocent bystanders
Who came out of nowhere
Staring at all the car crash victims
Looking for new koans
Categories: koans, parody,
Form: I do not know?

A Job Is a Job

Incognito
I am a Zen master
I am in the Enlightenment business
Let’s become partners
And enlighten others
I am almost broke
And cannot afford to sell Thai noodles 
In the night market
The queues at the unemployment office
Are long and require strong legs
As a Zen master out of work
I only get dirty looks
From the other vendors
Who never have heard
Of the Enlightened stage of life
When life as it is
Is all you can bear 
There is nothing else to do
Suffering is taking its toll 
But enlightenment requires a lot of patience
These Zen masters always talk around the bush
With their Zen koans
And are bored to death
With all the innocent bystanders
Who came out of nowhere
Staring at all the car crash victims
Categories: koans, funny, inspirational,
Form: ABC
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