the poetry zendo: as perfect as the ocean

Pacita Abad

FOOD DOES NOT FILL ME and silence does not still me. I can walk a thousand streets and I will not find what I seek. What I want has no name and no face. What I love is as blank and null as I am. Ring the bell at midnight. Call out the names of the spirits one by one. Who am I? I am the one who seeks. I am the one who finds nothing.

james lee jobe

To praise others for their virtues can but encourage one's own efforts.

Nagarjuna

OUR BONES DANCE THEIR WAY OUT OF THE GRAVE to the music of midnight. Our ghosts break into song, a rap number. Owls click their beaks, keeping time. Skeletons without names pop and lock. A bonfire tosses the light of flame before us. There is no Hell, and Heaven will wait until the dance is through. Throw up your arm bones, kick up your heels. Let the song of death lift you up.

(The phrase "Our bones will dance out of the ground" comes from WHAT I MEANT TO SAY, by Robert Lee Haycock)

jame lee jobe

When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves.

Dōgen Zenji

I COULD DIE FOR THE BROWN EARTH OF YOUR EYES. I could remove my own eyes and slip them into your pocket, to go wherever you go, to be wherever you are. To watch over you. Or would my tongue be better? I could pray for the softness of your voice late at night, when the storms pass and I am reminded of how I love the tumult that comes from being a human in this fractured and storied world. Prayer is a blessing in itself. When you enter the ocean, as perfect as a fish, the salt water welcomes you the way that I welcome you to my arms, perfect and complete and whole. You are also as perfect as the ocean. As much a part of my life as my arms. As my eyes. This is the story that we populate. The beginning of our tale was written long ago and the end hasn't been written at all. We live this way, welded to each other, entwined like rope. This is the story of a long marriage. I could die to make your funeral complete. I could die to the beat of my loyal heart. I could die to embrace the sweetness of your grave. I could die to laugh at your fruit trees and tomatoes. I could die to sweep the sky of clouds and fear. I could die for the warmth in your feminine soul. I could die for the brown earth of your eyes. The brown earth of your eyes. But I choose to live here, for one lifetime, with you.

james lee jobe

Buddhism teaches that karma is not just the action that we take but also the state of consciousness that we choose to reside in. Our mind is the very thing that determines the nature and quality of the words we utter and every action we take.

Anam Thubten

poem - Once and Future, by Desdamona

poem - Once the world was perfect, by Joy Harjo