Short Encaustic Poems

HOT WAX ABSTRACT

 encaustic-
ironing trick...

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BURNISTA j

encaustic
      wax
on
lime
fused
  fired
for
cohesive
glossed
  effects...

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On 
canvas-
stars and stripes
melt down into
wax

Ekphrasis-encaustic Three Flags by Johns...

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("Eye of Storm" - aka "Tibetan Blue Poppy", 2017, original encaustic)

Eye of Storm

No matter where you go, there you are.

(11/5/23)...

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("Gentle Wind", 2024, original encaustic)

In the Ocean of Mind

In the ocean of mind
Ego
Is just the film that collects
On top

(1/24/24)
...

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("Eye of Raven", 2018, original encaustic)

Call and Response

Raven heart of blood
Where are you if not in me
Still you call my name

(12/13/23)
...

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JOHN

encaustic

emblems

PIPER

painterly

prints

MUNNINGS

exquisite

equines




TWINKU a double word distich with integral title...

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("A Moment of Grace, aka The Empty Mirror", 2024, original encaustic)

Unborn

Unborn, undying
The nature of awareness
Just is and isn’t 

(1/24/24)
...

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("Conceived in Light", 2017, original encaustic)

Conceived in Light

On this wheel of life
The man of constant sorrow
Plays illusion's game

(11/4/23)...

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(detail of "Gentle Wind", 2024, original encaustic)

As Is

As above, so below
As within, so without
Nothing more to do
Nothing more to say
Nothing more to know

(2/10/24)
...

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("AH", 2017, original encaustic)

AH…
(for Carol)

And with a single exhale
Life once lived 
Moves on 
Leaving
A pale and hollow shell
Along a river
Of no return 

(10/14/23)...

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("Red Tree in Blue Sky", 2020, original encaustic)

Someone’s Calling You

Someone’s calling you
To awake within the dream
Simply see the love
That has only always been

(11/19/23)
...

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("Before the Door", 2023, original encaustic)

Before the door
I thought my life was in a rut.
Before the door
I thought I was trapped in an endless circle.
Before the door
I thought no matter what, this was it.
Before the door
I hadn’t met you.

(3/20/23)...

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("Lone Pine", 2024, original pen and ink with encaustic mat)

Manzanita

Manzanita
atop a slight rise
forms a natural shrine
The place a person
could place an offering
or say a prayer
The place a meditator
would sit
and become a buddha

(9/30/91)...

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("A Moment of Grace aka The Empty Mirror", 2024, original encaustic)

The Clear Light

Looking within
We find what is without
Without doubt
Without compare
Without substance or thought or
Any sense of being something
That is somewhere
Either in or out.

(3/24/24)
...

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("Eye of God", 2018, original encaustic)

Everybody Talks To God

Believers, nonbelievers
It makes no difference
Everybody talks to God
And ain’t that the truth
Since God is the totality
Of this Life we live
And so the eyes and ears
Of everyone you meet

(9/2/24)
...

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(“Evil Eye”, 2024, original encaustic)

A Dance of Opposites

What is the world today?
Good and evil in perfect balance
A dance of opposites
With none the wiser, nor more powerful.
But good after all is good
And evil, evil
And in that, is all the difference.

(11/17/24)...

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(“The Longest Journey”, 2020, original encaustic)

A Moment of Perfection

Winter afternoon gently 
Settling into evening
Cold and clear outside
Warm and still within
Art Pepper blowing 
A sublime Patricia
Fits the mood perfectly
Leaving nothing 
More to do or say.

(2/7/25)...

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(detail from "Methow Water", 2024, original encaustic)

Hallucination Engine

Whatever we touch
Morphs
Into a reflection 
Of the toucher 
And so it is
With all senses
Each reflecting
Our sense
Of self
No other but
An engine of creativity
In ever changing
Display

(2/4/24)
...

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("A Particle in the Wave", 2018, original encaustic)

Poetry

The urge
the force
the light
the crack
of Life
that flows,
out and in
in and out
Reaching
to touch, and 
be touched
to change, and
be changed
to transform
awaken, display
remind
In words
what is ineffable

(9/5/15...

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(“Before the Door”, 2023, original encaustic)

Being In Context

Open awareness 
Conditioned mind
Two halves of a whole

Like a container and its contents
A sky and its clouds
A heart and its longings

An irreconcilable duality? 
Or simply
The gateway to unconditional love

(2/9/25)
...

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(“The Nature of Light”, 2018, original encaustic)

The Spark of Life

The spark of life exists
Whether self aware or not
Embodying Life in all life

This is the hint in the eye
That peers back 
Meeting and reflecting 

What it is that is 
Unconditioned within
All conditioning 

(11/9/24)...

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("Blue Kitty Nebula", 2020, original encaustic)

Nondual

In a universe of inherent unity
Where oneness is the natural state
Diversity is an illusion
Another word for it is
Individual identity,
And despite the rhetoric 
And positive PR spin,
It’s actually the root cause
Of all suffering

(1/28/24)
...

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("Swastika Moon", 2025, original encaustic)

Swastika Moon

Luna with her light of darkness
Reflecting Sol on Gaia’s face
Dancing with restrained abandon
Swirls within this holy place

All four corners so aligned
Holding to the Northern Star
While the heavens spin in silence
As you wish, so we are

(3/31/25)
...

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("Toats Coulee Pine", 2019, original encaustic/pen & ink original)

Light and Dark

Love is not all sweetness and light
it is also a blade
cutting deep
separating flesh from bone
Both together
the joy of embrace and acceptance
and the pain of loss, 
the terror of the void
light and dark
always dancing together...

(9/24/11)...

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