the poetry zendo: April 2023

4/30/2023

Is the bardo as empty as earth?

Koson Ohara

A south wind tonight
Moonlight in the west
a south wind tonight
Where are you, son
Is the bardo as empty as earth?
That bastard, Death,
called on us in the wrong order;
one cannot make assumptions in life.
My son, my son
I am counting the nights until I join you
Moonlight in the west
a south wind tonight
Can you hear it blow

James Lee Jobe

Love never made a fool of me. I always was one.

Greg Brown

Bicycle Haiku

Late summer bike ride,

grasshopper lands on my neck --

where to, little friend?

James Lee Jobe

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.

Rainer Maria Rilke

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Good manners are everything
Be polite at your booking
Say 'thank you' when you empty your pockets
When you are fingerprinted and photographed
Is there a line-up for a witness identification
Smile and nod at the window that looks like a mirror
Imagine that you are in a talent show
Try to make a good impression
Introduce yourself as 'James'
Tell them you are happy to be there
Actually be happy to be there

James Lee Jobe

Playing With Bees, a poem by RK Fauth

You were wild once. Don't let them tame you.

Isadora Duncan

Koson Ohara

One night past full, the moon rises

Over the tree to my east

A lot of pine, some oaks

Four sycamores standing in a row

Like soldiers on guard duty

In walking meditation, I move slowly

Through the trees and out into the open

Step by step, breath by breath

Moonlight on my face, and finally

looking up, in my eyes

The Corn Moon, September

James Lee Jobe

Ithaka, a poem by C.P. Cavafy

Inseparable from right speech is good listening.

Mudita Nisker

Envying the life of someone else is like watching a pizza commercial on tv; don't be surprised if it really isn't as good as it looks.

James Lee Jobe

21st century Baltimore, Maryland

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James

4/29/2023

Birth is as random as anything else.

Crazy man, I was jailed into myself

Into my own head

I thought I was 'deep in thought'

The sentence was given to me by myself

Life-As-Jobe… with no parole

Oh, hell

But don't worry, I busted out of my cell

One night when the guard was sleeping

Foolish guard, that was me too

A word after silence; let it be peace

There is no future written

In the palm of a hand or in tea leaves

Tarot cards are nothing more than cards

Interesting, sure, but they're just cards

Scorpio? Virgo? No, sorry

Birth is as random as anything else

There is no fate or destiny to be found or fulfilled

And no yesterday that can held forever

Or even held accountable

That said, isn't this moment lovely enough

Draw your breath in, let it out

Ah, life

Even now, as ashes in a container

My son casts a large shadow across my life

It is as if it always late afternoon between us

And his shadow stretches from west to east

Across this broken thing, this lump

That I once called my heart

James Lee Jobe

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If every day you practice walking and sitting meditation and generate the energy of mindfulness and concentration and peace, you are a cell in the body of the new Buddha. This is not a dream but is possible today and tomorrow.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.

-Victor Hugo

Try being completely sincere. Say what you truly believe. Don't compromise yourself to be liked or affirmed.

-James Lee Jobe

The paradox of impatience is that, in trying to hurry toward enjoyment, we hurry past it.

-Dean Sluyter

Ledge, a poem by Kevin Young

Dawn Will Usher Me, a poem by Juan Felipe Herrera

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James

4/28/2023

the men are here to set up my tombstone

There are those times in the darkness

When I lose awareness of my body

And I wonder if I am the universe

Or if the universe is me.

Am I endless? Timeless?

What changes will the next day bring?

And then, like everyone,

I wait for the light to return.

Then comes the daylight.

james lee jobe

"As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency."

-- Caroline Kennedy

One Night ZZ Hill Sang at the Club Tupelo, a poem by Angela Jackson

Sonny Rollins & McCoy Tyner - In A Sentimental Mood

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The heatwave washed over us as quickly as bad news,

And it hung on to the world with both claws.

110 degrees one day, 112 the next, and so on.

So we sat and sweated.

We watched the clock as if time would help us;

We saw the seconds slip out of the clock

And drip onto the hot floor.

This second was for the world,

The next second was for the temperature of our lives.

Time and heat were the blankets that covered us.

And we didn't need a blanket.

james lee jobe

"Accept that your life is going on beyond your usual understanding."

— Dainin Katagiri

The Splendid Body, a poem by Rebecca Lindenberg

Ah, look - the men are here to set up my tombstone,

But there is something in their way; it's my life.

Oh, sluggard; move! Just let them get on with it.

james lee jobe

Anything is possible, which could seem overwhelming in some way. But the only relationship we can have—and which we can develop through a meditative practice—is we actually get more awake, more clear, more cognizant of the fact that anything can happen at any moment.

--Martin Aylward

"Sometimes the scandal isn't what law was broken, but what the law allows."

-- Edward Snowden

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james

4/27/2023

squirrels rabbits raccoon sparrows

I opened up my brain

Using a screwdriver as a prying device

I wanted to put something in there

Anything really

It didn't work as planned

But at least that little fly got out

Poor bastard

I live in Davis California

With about 65,000 people

(Once a native village was here

Called Putah-toi)

It's surrounded by good farmland

And even all these people here

Every now and then a coyote will show up

Maybe on the edge of town

Looking for a meal

More often I saw a hawk hunting

From up above or maybe resting

On a tree limb or a telephone line

And it's easy to hear an owl or maybe two

Hooting softly at night or sunrise

A little bit of the natural world

Filtering in among our buildings

And our concrete and asphalt

The trees are wild

They're here by the thousands

Squirrels rabbits raccoon sparrows

Are they in my world

Or am I in theirs

It's all the same anyway

In the void

Put on your hat and coat

Walk swiftly now through the door

And quickly move out across this world

See the universe now, as it is

Drunk with the morning light

The cool damp earth of winter

Feeding on the decayed leaves of autumn

And something is waiting for you

Out in the cold air

Now

Something that quickens your pulse

And puts a smile on your face

Now

This very moment

What is it

Your life

James Lee Jobe

THE BYRDS, Lover Of The Bayou

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There’s only one thing that’s better than getting what you want: it’s to know that you can be happy whether you get it or not.

Adyashanti

Don't expect others to praise you or raise toasts to you. Don't count on receiving credit for your good deeds or good practice.

Chögyam Trungpa

Do what's right because it's right. Period.

James Lee Jobe

You've got to dig it to dig it, you dig?

Thelonious Monk

This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

Naomi Shihab Nye (from her poem “Gate A-4)

Living in a big city, sometimes we feel that we don’t know our neighbors but actually we know them well. They want pleasure and don’t want pain.

Jeffrey Hopkins

POETRY LINKS:

Imperatives for Carrying On in the Aftermath, a poem by Natasha Trethewey

Throwing Children, a poem by Ross Gay

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James

4/26/2023

like the sky at dawn, silent

What do I want

nothing

to be myself today is enough

a spring afternoon

my doggo is napping in the sun

I'm sleepy too

and just let go

how lovely

There is an owl in the park across the street

I never see her

but her soft hoots at sunrise

are as warm as a mother holding her newborn child

sometimes the world is perfect

The summer heat in the Sacramento Valley

a dead jackrabbit rots on County Road 98

stinking in the afternoon sun

it has even less use for civilization

than I do

That I might find the strength to forego being clever in favor of being kind and that I might learn to silence myself from saying those things which help no one

Like the sky at dawn, silent and vast, let my being merge in the timeless immensity of being alive. I am the universe, the universe is me.

by james lee jobe

(Some of the above may be previously published.)

THE BEATLES, SHE SAID

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Cool Poetry Links:

Admit a Secret: On Sharon Olds, an article by Camille T. Dungy

Apology, a poem by Sharon Olds

Someone Forgot to Whisper Your Death to the Bees, a poem by Ansel Elkins

I believe in peace. I believe in mercy.

Malala Yousafzai

It's easy to make someone feel special. Ask open-ended questions and listen with genuine interest. Attention is the expression of love.

Haemin Sunim

The one we love is everywhere. By wakefully inhabiting our longing for the beloved, we are carried into the arms of love itself.

Tara Brach

james

4/25/2023

in the eyes of the Buddha

Robert Rauschenberg

______________________

Tree branches flailing in the wind.

Crows loudly claiming territory.

The river when it’s in a hurry.

The sky thundering about a coming storm.

The earth when she shakes and rolls.

Leather shoes dancing over a hardwood floor.

The automobile horn under an angry hand.

The chattering squirrel.

The orca lowing in the deep.

Things and beings speak.

Ssh. Listen.

james lee jobe

The teacher I need is always the one in front of me.

Byron Katie

Something rises out of the east, a new day, like an idea being formed, like a child being born. Light in the sky. Life on the earth. Breathe and it begins.

james lee jobe

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As Dogen says, people like what is not true and they don't like what is true.

Shunryu Suzuki

The universe is grand, endless and timeless,

yet all of it exists in one molecule of liquid,

the tiniest part of a tear in the corner of your eye.

james lee jobe

The world is experienced according to the state of one's mind. Remember that everyone appears as Buddhas in the eyes of the Buddha!

Haemin Sunim

Rain against the window with a tapping sound. My wife laughing, alone in another room. A sadness for the grief across the face of the world. Things that tell me I am still alive.

james lee jobe

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I grieve alone before dawn, when my valley is still quietly resting beneath the blanket of darkness. I stare into the last fold of night until the face of my late son becomes clear, and then I listen until I can hear his voice again, And then I allow myself to break down, to fall apart. For a long time I counted the days since his death. Now I count the years.

james lee jobe

james

4/24/2023

Monday is breathless and feeling tired

Nothing can make injustice just but mercy.

Robert Frost

I thought of writing a will

But what do I own that anyone would want

My doggo heard me laughing by myself

And came in to keep me company

James Lee Jobe

Poetry is an echo,

asking a shadow to dance.

Carl Sandburg

Gift, a poem by Hilda Conkling - 1909-1986

Etta James, Shakey Ground

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I have been sick lately

And I am behind in my chores

The stars are piled up all over the sky

And the wind won't hold still

The world keeps turning

Even when the people aren't ready for it

Sunday sucks all the air from the room

Leaving Monday breathless and feeling tired

But I am starting to recover

Hopefully just in time

James Lee Jobe

In zazen one is one's present self, what one was, and what one will be, all at once.

Peter Matthiessen

The goal of practice is not to pursue pleasure and avoid pain, but rather to experience both with full awareness, neither favoring one nor opposing the other.

Andrew Olendzki

Sixty-six years of walking on eggshells

What good could keeping secrets ever do for me now

James Lee Jobe

I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world. 

Eugene V. Debs 

The teacher serves as a mirror but also encourages your ability to trust in yourself. You begin to trust in your basic goodness instead of identifying with your neurosis. Pema Chödrön

In the dream I am worried

There is some unnamed danger

In traveling to the back of the island where I live

Most people take primitive rowboats

Because the jungle has many wild animals

But lately the ocean is rough

And several people have been killed either way

I spend many days working out a way to travel

Through the treetops with the help of friendly monkeys

"The monkeys will help you"

I go through the village streets shouting this

And the elders welcome me with a dance

It's not bad, this dream, as dreams go

James Lee Jobe

A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen as you are toss'd with.

Taken from: Henry IV, part I

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James