MY Annual Losar Poem for Year of the Wood Horse

Wood Horse Drawing by Bepe Goia

Mount the good steed of Windhorse
One-pointed on your journey eschewing
delays and obstacles debunked
Bearing the victory banner
Far from the confines of conventional mind.
Great strides, ablaze you shine a light
Through dark days for all.
Kindle your heart’s desire, hit the mark of one taste
Galloping through forests of greenery potential
Aflame with unending energy
That will lead you to where you want to go.
Let’s celebrate our good fortune!
Let’s sing and dance!
Let’s forgive one another!
Let (‘s) Go!

Jacqueline Gens
Tsegyalgar East
2014

Reprinted from the Mirror, International Newspaper of the Dzogchen Community

A Precursor to The Butler

A few years ago at the AWP Conference held in Washington D.C. I experienced a "Sighting" so vivid I wrote a poem about it. At the time, I understood that domestics must have played an important role in the social life of the capitol.

Domestic Sighting

Summoned at dawn

In search of Starbucks

At the Omni Shoreham

in Washington DC

I take the other elevator

Leading to the basement

Into a dead space I see

A legion of grey-clad maids

With frilly aprons and long skirts

Descend down the stairs opposite me

to the Palladian room with crystal chandelier

I’m curious who these Black ladies are

Some crippled gripping the railing 

Their bodies ample and tangible

In crisp attire of formality

Their faces glowing

Only later do I ask myself what are they doing 

Then and there, in uniforms of another era

as they congregate in the large empty ballroom

at 6:00 AM

Paracelsus: by Diane di Prima : The Poetry Foundation

Paracelsus: by Diane di Prima : The Poetry Foundation

The Beats in India -- A Film from the Asia Society

I came across this film posted on the Allen Ginberg Blog. The video is from the Asia Society conference on the Beats in India. While India was having an important impact on American spirituality, the "Americans" gone native in turn were changing Indian economics and culture.

First Lilacs

The Lilac Thief

This year I looked for lilacs
off the beaten track
in places no longer tended –

A different kind of boundary,
long rows where once houses stood,
lots now empty.

I love the deeper purple of old bushes,
their crushed bloomets falling into my hand
taken from gnarled bark bearing heavy plumage.

I am the local lilac thief,
that one who stops to follow
the scent of unseen blossoms.

Jacqueline Gens
2004