Thursday, April 16, 2009

buddhist carnival: april 2009, poetry month

This month's Buddhist Carnival over at Change Therapy honors National Poetry Month. Two of my favorite things, Buddhism and poetry, collected at one cool site.

buddhist carnival: april 2009, poetry month

April 15th, 2009

chaos in kanjithe 15th, buddhist carnival time. it’s april, poetry month, so i’ll post only poems and poetry-related articles.

from last month’s montreal zen poetry festival

i longed to visit the eastern cliff
countless years until today
i finally grabbed a vine and climbed
but halfway there met mist and wind
the trail was too narrow for clothes
the moss too slick for shoes
i stopped beneath this cinnamon tree
and slept with a cloud for a pillow

– han shan (translated by red pine)

if you have time …

from danny fisher’s blog

if you have time to chatter
read books
if you have time to read
walk into mountain, desert and ocean
if you have time to walk
sing songs and dance
if you have time to dance
sit quietly, you happy lucky idiot

– nanao sakai

the role of poetry in zen and meditation

zen mirror has an interview with zen master sÅ­ngsan about the role poetry plays in meditation practice as well as in teaching and conveying zen mind to the western world.

dc: thank you very much for all your wonderful gifts! that’s a very good answer. i was wondering about when you compose a poem, do you actually reflect on the situation and then write using “beautiful language?”

zmss: no. only whatever situation comes up or appears, then i will compose a poem. not so much checking situations, and not so much making something.

go here for the restof the interview.

Go read more.


1 comment:

isabella mori said...

thanks for the link love! once again, i feel really silly for not including one of your poems, either here or at elegant thorn. oh well. next month - you know how i always start with a poem? maybe you can send me a link to one?