A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

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jcsuperstar
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Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by jcsuperstar »

Roll the Dice
by Charles Bukowski

if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start.

if you’re going to try, go all the
way. this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.

go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or
4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,
isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance, of
how much you really want to
do it.
and you’ll do it
despite rejection and the
worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.

if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like
that.
you will be alone with the
gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.

do it, do it, do it.
do it.

all the way
all the way.
you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter,
it’s the only good fight
there is.
สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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Michael_S
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Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by Michael_S »

I Am Not I

I am not I
I am this one
Walking beside me, whom I do not see
Whom at times I manage to visit,
and at other times I forget.
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
The one who will remain standing when I die.

Juan Ramon Jiminez 1881-1958
Nobel Prize for Literature
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BubbaBuddhist
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Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by BubbaBuddhist »

O I can't believe nobody posted this gem:

Lama with one "L," that's a priest,
Llama with 2 "Ls," that's a beast.

But I will bet my silk pajama
There's no such thing as a 3-"L" lllama.


--Ogden Nash
Author of Redneck Buddhism: or Will You Reincarnate as Your Own Cousin?
Cafael Dust
Posts: 194
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:55 pm

Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by Cafael Dust »

no-doctrine

I tell you to think of onion skins furling
or rainforests like faces. I tell you the heads of pins
swarm with angels, and we are everything
that is neither metal nor Elohim. I tell you the jewel of the dance
is a pearl that everyone is running on
and one must not slip.

You ask what is life’s substance, its shape? I say
quicksilver or sand, labyrinth or symphony.
This tapestry tangles smooth, weaves past anew
as present glances by. Storm and eye
or not I and form no new words please

for what we cannot describe;
such words labour breath into barbed wire.

I cannot hear myself,
I will not listen, I do not desire to grasp the philosopher’s stone
or the unifying theory of hearts.

I must take these words to the river;
the water will make them its own.


by Cafael Dust
Not twice, not three times, not once,
the wheel is turning.
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AdvaitaJ
Posts: 234
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Location: Michigan, USA

Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by AdvaitaJ »

Li Bai

The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

:anjali: AdvaitaJ
The birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.
Li Bai
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Wind
Posts: 342
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:10 pm

Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by Wind »

My literacy is weak... when I read poems, my understanding is bleak. :tongue:
chownah
Posts: 9336
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:19 pm

Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by chownah »

Life

pass by
and die
plwk
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Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by plwk »

Some of my favourites...
From Soma Sutta:
That state so hard to achieve
Which is to be attained by the seers,
Can't be attained by a woman
With her two-fingered wisdom.

What does womanhood matter at all
When the mind is concentrated well,
When knowledge flows on steadily
As one sees correctly into Dhamma.

One to whom it might occur,
'I'm a woman' or 'I'm a man'
Or 'I'm anything at all' —
Is fit for Mara to address.


From the late Ven Master Hsuan Hua in his Dharma talk entitled, 'When People Don't Like You'
If your ideas aren't working,
look within yourself.
If you are kind to people
and they don't reciprocate,
take a look at your kindness.
If you give people orders
and they don't follow them,
take a look at your orders.
If you pay respect to people
and they don't return it,
take a look at your manners.


From the Diamond Cutter Sutra:
If one sees me in forms,
If one seeks me in sounds,
He practices a deviant way,
And cannot see the Tathagata.

All conditioned phenomena
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows,
Like dew drops and a lightning flash:
Contemplate them thus.
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BubbaBuddhist
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Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by BubbaBuddhist »

We do, doodly do,
What we must, muddily must,
Til we die, diddly die
And turn to dust
Bodily dust.

--Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Author of Redneck Buddhism: or Will You Reincarnate as Your Own Cousin?
WayE
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Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 3:10 am

Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by WayE »

Observing the Moon’s
Reflection in a pond
Frog is heard
Moon is gone
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zavk
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by zavk »

Buddha In Glory

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet--
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,

a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.

- Rainer Maria Rilke
With metta,
zavk
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zavk
Posts: 1161
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:04 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by zavk »

WHAT THE LIVING DO
by Marie Howe



Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there.
And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up

waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of.
It's winter again: the sky's a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through

the open living-room windows because the heat's on too high in here and I can't turn it off.
For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking,

I've been thinking: This is what the living do. And yesterday, hurrying along those
wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve,

I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it.
Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning.

What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want
whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss--we want more and more and then more of it.

But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,
say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep

for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless:
I am living. I remember you.
With metta,
zavk
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tiltbillings
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Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by tiltbillings »

bump
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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Aloka
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Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by Aloka »

HEAVEN
by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

So blue is the ocean,
Infinite is the mind.
So bright are the heavens,
Luminous is the mind.

Expanse of heaven
Meets with deep blue ocean.
Union at horizon
Takes me beyond breath.

Heaven is bullshit.
And hell the religion of fear.
Man needs no God
Freedom is innate.

http://dpr.info/art.poetry.heaven.htm

.
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tiltbillings
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Re: A thread for short (maybe longish) poems of any sort

Post by tiltbillings »

>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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