Long Tibet Poems
Long Tibet Poems. Below are the most popular long Tibet by PoetrySoup Members. You can search for long Tibet poems by poem length and keyword.
(On the road to Kailash, Tibet, 2009)
There and Back Again
Pilgrimage
An ideal place
Seen through
An ideal lens
And so we go!
The journey of all souls
In endless procession
To the top of the world
Up above the highest heights
Where the air is thin
Light bright
Mind clear
Up where idealism
Meets the rutted road
As dust settles
To be just this
And then more of this
Bad food
Bad sleep
Bad roads
And good company
All within a beauty
Best appreciated
In retrospect
And coffee table books
In the moment
Self-flagellating
Down the path
To enlightenment
Seeking what
We’ve always had
But never held
A view of inner peace
Light and love
Purified of its dross
By the grind of the road
We pilgrim on
This endless dream
There and back again
There and back again….
(9/11/23)
(Tibetan Nagpa at Zhitro, 2017)
I’ve met a few remarkable men in my life.
Some that were just peers and youths
Like me at the time, but have since grown
Into what was always their distinction.
Others I met when they were already wise
And mature beyond their years
As I was the relative youth
Who they somehow saw something familiar in.
One other was my father who was already old
Before I could appreciate all he carried
And how he pulled it off with a gentle
Under spoken sense of humor and dignity.
Speaking of dignity
I once had the opportunity
To spend a few days of ritual ceremony
In Eastern Tibet with about four hundred yogis.
And I have never in my life seen,
Let alone imagined,
Such a collection of dignified
And truly noble beings.
But of all the remarkable men I have know
And glimpsed, the most remarkable was in a dream.
A singular dreadlocked old yogi
Who had my full devotion.
Who playfully engaged,
Bringing songs of love out into the street
Turning unenlightened shadows of crying humanity
Into clarity and joy for this acolyte’s journey.
My own real life Hurdy Gurdy Man
Revealed within a dream
To be none other
Than my own heart and soul.
(10/25/25)
Spectacular would not even begin to describe the trip around the island
A whole day of fun and excitement with such a wonderful guide
A visual smorgasbord of things to see, vibrant foliage on one side
On the other side of the highway the giant waves the surfers ride
The magnificent experience is second to none, the contrasting colours arouse your senses
With lots of stops along the way, the dole plantation with its mouth-watering pineapple ice cream is a delight you would surely say
The macadamia nut farm with so many delicious varieties to sample, such a tasty treat
Stopped for lunch for a shrimp meal farmed right there, so delicious not to be beat
There is a temple nestled in the forest, such a tranquil experience not to forget
Something you might see on a visit to Tibet
In front is a beautiful pond with koi fish abound
Off to the side, small birds will sit on your hand and take food without making a sound
A stop at the beach where the large green turtles can be found, so amazing to see
Homes of the wealthy next to the beaches of the north shore , with its huge waves and the surfers riding them , as brave as can be
Our tour guide was so full of fun and knowledge , as well as being so proud of his heritage
As our journey has come to an end ,it's a tour I would highly recommend
Heavily laden boats, rectangular sails billowing
Under seas of low cloud, braving the fierce Yangtze;
Held between snowcapped mountains, earth and sky
Indistinguishable from steaming mist and rolling fog;
A long drawn straggle of Grey Geese plummeting down
From breathless, rarefied air to stumble awkwardly onto
Plum coloured mudbanks; an unrestrained, excitable
Cacophony of frenzied honking! Then wild monkeys
Provoked into howling each side of the river.
There, at the juncture with Longjin Brook, stilted homes,
Half-hidden by bamboo groves, crouch at the waters
Edge; maidens will come to wash clothes
Whirling wooden batons, twittering like golden swallows;
Fragrant wildflowers enhance their sweetness.
At drab, pale, first-morning light, fishermen cast
Nets over the cooling, placid blue waters;
The fish that swim here are said to be the finest
In the province.
We will exchange Black Carp and Blunt-Snout Bream,
Wrapped in moist bamboo leaf, for glutinous rice
With the clans that tend the terraces inside the fertile
River valley...
Does not the Emperor insist upon good commerce?
If you are dissatisfied as a peasant
You can take the ancient "old tea horse road"
And burden your back with heavy bales stacked high
On a rail;
The road will take you all the way from Zigui
To Tibet...or even further perhaps,
And sombre ravens will soar overhead and taunt your
Every footstep.
But I will remain where I am, in the
Village On The Water
Nestled deep within the Three Gorges;
My life, the endless horizon stretched beyond,
Held in balance as if it were Shaseng
The Shadow Play Stone;
And each new morning awakening to slow,
Chiming bells.
(“Lost Horizon Merit Badge”, 2010, original oil)
Memories come and go, stored in grey matter,
Cells, muscles, gut and bone
And where ever else they may lodge
To transcend the limits of time and space.
Moments remembered as thoughts, events
Sights, smells, sounds, feelings
All vibrations not just stored but layered
Into our structure
Physically, emotionally, psychically, spiritually.
This is the natural order of things
All things
And yet we think it special
When it happens to us.
I had a vision once in Canada
Sitting in meditation in a Tibetan temple
Of a wide rammed earth open windowsill
With a vast open view of a valley below,
And in that moment I knew
I was in a monastery in old Tibet
As I could feel the vibe
Of the sacred space.
And I knew it was a memory.
Later when I told my lama of this
I also told him maybe it was my first meeting
With the dharma, maybe even with him,
And that maybe also in that moment
I was a bird, attracted by a bit of food
But captivated by the sights and sounds
Of a holy place,
Like a higher dimension, octave, tone
Of a natural world I knew as home
Without a doubt
Planting the seed for some later life.
When I told my lama this
Cutting through any attachment
To being someone special in that moment
He just said, “Yes, probably just like that.”
(1/11/26)
(Dzachuka Tibet, summer of 2017)
The Madness of the Crowd and Other Popular Delusions
The crowd is always prone to madness
Since reaction as a herd in danger
Demands conformity without reason.
The fact we live in a time of madness
Is nothing new or unusual,
Relative Reality after all being
Merely a conspiracy of relatives.
But sometimes it seems it’s all now extra crazy
As traditional boundaries break down
And everyone is free to think and say
And increasingly do whatever they want.
The ascendency of gender dysphoria
And acceptance, even celebration
Of child mutilation
Being a case in point.
But the fact is, we live in a world of illusion
Which the madness and delusions of the crowd
Is merely attempting to adapt to,
As all our perceptions and thoughts filter through
A mind which can do no other than interpret and distort.
These are the tools we are given,
A mind and body hardwired to survive
In a world of illusion, thus adapted
To the point of expertise with spinning illusions.
It’s not our fault, but instead our destiny
To find a way through
Out of the Cave of Unknowing
Into the Space
Of a land before time.
(12/6/24)
In tertiary times, when two continents adrift
Titanically collided to tectonically uplift
The gasping ocean floor
Resurrected up once more
Left the water for the land;
Five miles high it made its stand.
And to these youthful mountains (that is as mountains go)
The monsoon clouds paid homage as they gathered far below
They strongly spouted fury and made the foothills wet
But the scornful Himalayas dried the plateau of Tibet
And then the disbelievers from the atheistic West
Where time is not a circle and there is no Ever-rest
Defiled up the silent crags
At the peak they planted flags
You, Himalaya, tried to hide those flags with snow
But...
We know.
Maybe I should have said something but I didn’t.
I thought it might upset the girls.
I stared for several moments
Lost between thought and action
Waiting for a sign, but no help was forthcoming.
I thought of Buddhists and worms in the movie:
"7 Years in Tibet". How Buddhists cannot harm even worms.
Any living creature may be your Mother in another life,
Therefore you must show respect to all living creatures.
In the end I said nothing, did nothing.
I left the daddy long legs resting on the metal roller
At the end of the swimming pool where I had discovered him.
I wondered how he had gotten there and what would become of him.
Two days later my wife returned from the pool and casually mentioned
How she and her friend had removed several bugs floating on the surface.
All of them were dead. One of them, she said, was a daddy long legs spider.
It was a small thing, but sometimes even the smallest of things
Can make your day feel heavier.
Great people have one desirable quality~~
humility.
You won't find them looking
to be 'top dog'.
They are already accomplished,
and fully know just that.
They do not run panting feverishly to be
ahead of the pack.
Somehow the winds of the seas,
are the sails at their backs!
I've noticed how they move through
life so effortlessly!
Whether it was Buckminster Fuller or the
leader of the Tibet.
Or the late John Denver, or the great,
famed, late Brazilian, guitarist, Bola Sete!
When I met them, all had that one ineffable
quality.....humility.
Plus a love for all humanity emblazoned on
their hearts.
It's the insignificant, boastful others!
Jabbering or writing endlessly just
to gain a stand on life's soapbox.
And the worst, those who demand
my adulation.
How ridiculous these mice look
next to men of accomplishment!
May I always measure any of
my minuscule successes, to men
or women free of false pride.
As one of my highly accomplished
comedian friends, surprisingly said
to me:
"None of my success is my doing!
It's all due to the man upstairs!"
October 3, 2019
Now, WHO
The towering twilight's twinkle tumbles thither thusly trembles Terra's theater, thwarting tales, tabloids, tidbits, totaling terrible troubles tethered to those traveling to Tibet...
An auspicious austere aubergine autumn awning advances, alerting all about appearances, alternating, almost alone, approximately ambiguous attitude abound, abroad Afghanistan...
Inevitably, indulging in ill-gotten information, involving inept individuals inadequacies, instituting invaluable, intricate, including, indisputable intel inside India...
Cool cast characterizes complete composites capturing celebrated cases concerning corruption, coercion, criminality, combustibles, calamitous crazed cold cases controlled comfortably choreographed Chinese counsel...
Now named, nay, nickname, naught, nice neighbor, no, naughty neighbor, nought, negotiable, never, noteworthy, nope, nevertheless noble, nevermore, nonetheless nifty--nincompoop!
2019 September 12