Posted in poetry on November 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The rain which comes down
hopelessly pursuing itself
hunger for the woman
fierce gopi-girl
these words fragment of torn stuff
rachitic curtain put up
against far plain knotted space
between us
masque (for dancing)
another veil like this rain
shot through with holes –
the first to come in months.
Andhra Pradesh, June 2005
(published online in CHA: An Asian Literary Journal #27, April 11, 2015: http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/2015/489/)
Posted in poetry on February 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Posted in poetry on October 20, 2010| 4 Comments »
Don’t wait
traveler
for the ride before it comes
you’ve already seen so many
take your place before you
all those still yet to come –
pilgrims on the mountain sides
highways and arterials
streaming amoebic duty
Egyptian files of willing workers
cracking heads in the crush
to make or save civilization.
Where do you go
to take your place?
the pure space to receive you
bearing a child laying stone
putting down what foundations
to impermanence?
There will be no haste
to carry you there sooner
than you need arrive.
you are there already
turning memory’s soil
hitting metaphysical paydirt
in the hour of the sun…
Let go your belongings
drop the needless wait
noplace to stay or go
On the Way.
Paris, September 2010
Posted in poetry on October 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Old Conrad paperback ‘Twixt Land and Sea –
bought in Venice by St Mark’s a euro or two
trained to Trieste, bus to Rijeka then Zagreb – flew to Frankfurt
trained to Paris – back to Frankfurt – flew to Bangkok – bus to Mae Sot, back to Bangkok
flew to Rangoon – bus to Mandalay
sold there – for a song
in old market square…
Oct. 2010
Posted in poetry on September 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Around the Heart, Anti-Clockwise
bodies passing thick along hewn walls
revolving Gautama stupa his bodhi/mind
their prostrations law of reversed effort
anti-intention
graceful/clumsy no separation
this whole thing a dance – Shiva limbs, Chenrezig arms –
w/- DUALITY
sadhus sitting naked watchful under trees
smoke bidi avoid the temple
wait for nothing
there’s nothing to wait for
here
choking on humid
desire for desirelessness
these latitudes non-tropic
dispassionate fecundity bursts in
seed-brilliant pods of eyes and stars and mind
birthing in fallow Bihar plain
what went on here
500 years before the Cross
cow-splat shady underside of fig-trees
same birds of light in these leaves
beggar-boy at the gates
waiting to be taken
Across.
Bodhgaya, India, January 2001
Posted in poetry on September 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Homosapiens who swarm
to the glare of the 7-11:
that’s where civilization
burns the brightest.
California, 2002
whispered lineage 