Short Samsara Poems

Short Samsara Poems. Below are examples of the most popular short poems about Samsara by PoetrySoup poets. Search short poems about Samsara by length and keyword.


Premium Member Complicit in the Lie

("Exploded View", 2011, original oil)

Complicit in the Lie

Everyone you meet
Is complicit in the lie
That this is what’s real

(12/29/23)
Form: Haiku


Two Thoughts From Before

Mankind Alone

Reality…
humanity’s myth

(Des Moines Iowa: January, 1992)



Samsara

The music of the soul…
is truth

(Des Moines Iowa: January, 1992)

Premium Member Conceived In Light

("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)
Form: Haiku

Premium Member The Illusion of Progress

This is the progressive era
And so we’ve all been steeped
In the ideal of progress
As an inherent good,
An end in itself,
But for a life
Spinning on the hamster’s wheel
All progress is illusion.

(11/8/25)
Form: Narrative

Premium Member The Illusion of Progress

Where is it we are heading
If not where we began,
But when we arrive 
There is now a difference.
Hamsters on their wheel
Are always striving and always arriving
Since clearly the journey is the goal.
And yet there must be some goal
Held in sight, some vision to pull us
As we run round and round
Otherwise we would simply stop,
And, if truly a hamster,
Eat some of the roses.

(9/18/25)


Premium Member Lipstick On a Pig

No matter what you do in samsara 
in the effort to improve samsara, 
improve yourself, improve others, 
it’s still samsara.

All effort, all improvement, never leaves the wheel, 
but that doesn’t mean there’s only the wheel. 

The wheel is what spins, ever-changing,
the embodiment of impermanence, 
but what it spins in
spins around, 
spins for,
is another story altogether.

(8/19/23)

Turning and Tumbling: the Glooming Samsara

Hi all, 

A while back, I published a long epic free verse poem about the Samsara. I originally wished to publish it on Poetrysoup, but as I had a specific font and overlapping picture design in mind, it was not possible. Thus, if anyone wishes to view my poem, it is available here for free and in Public Domain:

https://www.scribd.com/document/323039548/Turning-and-Tumbling-The-Glooming-Samsara
Form: Epic

Premium Member Worn Out

Once again, worn out
From the simple act of living
Blown out of all held dear
Waves come and go
Stretching across time and space
A tragic loss here
A triumphant gain there
And still the waves come
Lapping at a shore
That is time itself 
Manifest in a million little grains
Lapping as I lay exhausted 
Too tired to think, too tired to feel
Anything but a sadness
Deeper than time.

(8/23/23)

Love

To chant day and night 
It’s not a mantra.
Kept in the heart throughout life 
A great commitment...

To revenge or to hurt 
It’s not a battle of love. 
To offer with devotion 
A noble Holy Mass...

To fall victim to sensual pleasure 
It’s not a human sacrifice.
For a never-ending affection 
A great gift...

To give up this life
It’s not a narrow feeling. 
In a Samsara affection
A fulfillment of perfection

Premium Member Carpe Diem

("How to Hold Love", 2019, original oil)

Carpe Diem

This life 
Precious from conception
Right on through till death;
Each moment a chance to break on through
To the eye within the storm
The center of a cyclone 
Of endless delusion and confusion, 
Struggle, and despair,
The heart of peace
That is only, always, peace.

Seize it now
With a mind of joy;
The simplest action
The greatest challenge.

(1/6/24)
Form: Narrative

Looking For An Augury

Relieving from sorrows of ‘samsara’
Looking for an augury
Wasted Time is up
I will not close my eyes
Looking at the eyes of Buddha
Immersing in the 
Overflowing metta stream
Enlightening the mind

Wash the dirt off
Awakening the five faculties
Taking the piety flowers
Blooming in the heart
Offer Buddha feet

Locate in Ariya path
Leading to Nirvana relief
Cutting off ‘Raga’ suffers
Wrapping my body
Worship Buddha feet

Premium Member The True Wheel

("First Light", 2006, original oil)

Samsara’s wheel of Life,
Wheel of ignorance and suffering
Is but an illusion,
A mirage of a vast collective
Of veiled ignorant minds,
Like a spinning projection
Of hope and fear,
Above the true wheel.

So what is this true wheel
That turns at the base of reality,
In the heart of each of us?
Let’s just say
It’s not something
That can ever be named,
Yet something actual and changeless
Just waiting to be discovered.

(3/10/26)

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