Monday, March 11, 2019

Vipassana Scribbles



Forbidden Scribbles**
on a Ten Day Vipassana Retreat


Lying in Buddha posture
Outside I hear geese
Like me flying home

*

First Buds of Spring
Bird rustles in the underbrush
Can you ask a poet not to sing?

*

Old lady nods off
Drooping head signals torpor
Lion awakes without fail

*

Are clouds sky--sky clouds?
Where are you mind?
I looked everywhere and can’t find you 

*

Cars rush, Ocean of Dharma***
Squeaky door, cat’s meow
What’s real?



**Generally one is discouraged from writing or reading on a traditional Vipassana retreat. These mostly composed in my head outdoors during walking meditation, then jotted down on scraps of paper later
***Part of my Bodhisattva name



Monday, February 04, 2019

Great Clips




The following poem draft was written for my poetry group based on Gary Snyder's "Bubb 's Creek Haircut," one of my favorite poems


Great Clips Mohawk Trail Plaza 
hair salon in GreenfieldMA next door to Big Y
a uni-sex cut arises out of shorn chemo curls
carpeted in arcs on linoleum floor
I may not spit like a man but I got me
a man's haircut still burning with shame
silent chants of Tare Tare Tare to calm 
my already bad day worse
deemed an ugly visage staring scornfully back at me
earlier check up at Valley Medical
blood glucose higher than usual
blood pressure ok
looking forward to Mississippi trip 
practice with Ingmar and Sergio
moderate meals eaten same time everyday
thinking of snakes awakening seeking reprieve
from winter cold
can they really come into the house 
through plumbing to curl up
under toasty bed covers
sneaking about a common feature 
of Mississippi life
I read on the internet
now, I'm decades back 
at Tara Mandala siting on the banks of San
Juan river naked with the Methodist mom
Rocketeller wife as we watch our friends
across the river squealing in joy playing with Ute mud
said to be healing
then a snake swimming upstream towards 
the embankment with ladies its flat torpedic head
hideous sensing targets
crackling twigs behind us as two men 
with heavy boots stand above us
while we cover ourselves best we can
then evaporate into the bushes
were they real or another snake vision

Pondering all this jumble
snakes real or not
as I tip Jesse at Great Clips Hair Cuts.

February 2, 2019
Revised May 21, 2019
Highland Village
in Shelburne Falls, MA