There is no mental pain
to one with no expectations.
All fears transcended
by one whose fetters are extinct.
It does not occur to me, "I am"
nor that I live or exist, so
what is there to lament?
All afflictive formations are destroyed
when one sees with uncoupled wisdom
the world as empty, substanceless--
seeking nothing to own as "mine"--no "I" or "me"
one does not desire nor grieve--arrive or leave
there is---no loss no gain, no ego no pain
such is the power of mind liberating itself from
all manufactured sufferings of a cyclic existence.
Seek out the waiting, awakening path--the true one
with the karmic stairway to nirvana.
(*An expansion/variation on a Buddhist passage by the arahant monk Adhimutta)
Five lines in the sand – his quintet of children is skimming the surf
Like ariels chasing youth not yet knowing Plath’s substanceless blue
Streaming chariots of gleams into fireflies dragons dinosaurs and castles
Oblivious to extinction the full impact of tides and dereliction of beauty
Just foot prints on the shore reaching fast for jetsam flotsam and joy
21st April 2019
...for Sylvia Plath
Her grasp of things is gone,
she fiddles, and is lost
with no prospect of redress.
She hovers shapeless,
rudderless,
in a storm-toss'd mess.
Substanceless, tottering
in limbo's loveless hold,
merely dross.
...for Sylvia Plath
Her grasp of things is gone,
she fiddles, and is lost
with no prospect of redress.
She hovers shapeless,
rudderless,
in a storm-toss'd mess.
Substanceless, tottering
in limbo's loveless hold,
merely dross.
...for Sylvia Plath
Her grasp of things is gone,
she meddles, she is lost
with no prospect of redress.
She hovers shapeless,
rudderless in a
storm-toss'd mess.
Substanceless, tottering
in limbo's loveless hold,
only dross.
(Note: One of her poetic devices
was the use of multiple double-
vowel and double consonant words.)
...for Sylvia Plath
Her grasp of things is gone,
she meddles and is lost
with no prospect of redress.
She hovers shapeless,
rudderless in a
storm-toss'd mess.
Substanceless, tottering
in limbo's loveless hold,
only dross.
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