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Sitting With Koans


"Sitting with Koans" 

Zazen sits zafu'd in the zendo
with the poetic monkey minds
echoing the sound of two hands clapping
producing sound bites bitten like Botticelli reprising
polishing red apples for eating the shining

listen to the sound of one
sea shell borne leonine 
Venus swallowing the ocean
sugar and spice salt and vinegar
sometimes cyanide viper sometimes nice

Koans was a philistine novitiate nun
practicing the time bomb ticking two step
walking a straight line sowing stitches most undonne
for the unpacked unpicking the packed in the smoking bitumen
with the other hips toting Ovid guns

bound breezing down the middle road
with the lotus eaters at loon junction
towards the Noble Eightfold Path 
revving engines on automatic read
led like Dobermans for fresh meat on their leads

somewhere other 
another story laughs 
polishing holes in the soles 
witness a shoe shine kneeling 
at the feet of Buddha paradox

a detour discourse smiling
to let the light bleed in
the road cross-bowed 
straight as an arrow 
psyche of Pythia hell bent

sharp and sweet as manuka honey 
yet never unwinding 
the galvanised Oracle 
passes on the sal volatile
extending violins for the vapours

(LadyLabyrinth / 2022)






“In the Waiting Line” / Pomplamoose
https://youtu.be/Q5Fvj5LM3_Q


“Give it Away” / Zero 7
https://youtu.be/HFBpKXaX_Eg


“End Theme” / Zero 7
https://youtu.be/nGNWMxj3epQ










https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Way

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/zazen

https://www.britannica.com/topic/koan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path

https://tricycle.org/magazine/noble-eightfold-path/

https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/manuka-honey-medicinal-uses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandro_Botticelli

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-donne

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythia






koan. 
a paradoxical anecdote or riddle without a solution, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and provoke enlightenment.


the shining. 
1977 horror novel/Stephen King. The title was inspired by the 1970 John Lennon song "Instant Karma", which contained the line "We all shine on"...



Inside each of us a horror story resides hidden, somewhere. 
It is reassuring when considering Lennon's lyrics, to contemplate 
that indeed, eventually, we do all shine on. But perhaps this is not the gist of the entire song. Spin the wheel, or take the wheel.

Copyright © Lady Labyrinth

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