zen laundromat

insert dime
spin dry
watch
take out clothes
fold
go home

Bloom

The night awakens, listen—
grass grows, breeze sings.
In the pond below
you look for the lotus.
But it already blooms
within your heart.

Beat Awakening

Let's go on the road with Kerouac
through a U.S. we've never met;
let's howl with Ginsberg
before we lose our own best minds;
let's bend poetics with Di Prima
breaking form, playing form.
Let's take our promise and
awaken, awaken, awaken—
roads, Buddha-minds,
ourselves.

interlude

This finishes up the first round of poems, which all shared a mythological theme. The next group of poems will focus on themes from Buddhism and Taoism which I've been studying for a while.

I am the______that__________s

A creative writing teacher suggested to me that I start my writing sessions with the exercise, I am the_______that________s.

So I do, and the results are fun:

I am the phone that rings,
I am the flower that sings.
I am the tide that turns,
I am the bird that burns.

I am the sauce that sasses,
I am the metal that brasses,
I am the cheese that melts,
I am the singer who belts.

Heh! It's like coming up with variations of "________is the new black."

Desert Traveler

Most travelers go in fair weather
and depart with the storms
or flee ahead of the winds,
leaving the seeker alone.
He watches them leave
as night wraps into the day
and goes forward,
staff in sand,
on his own.

At night the desert hums to him
lizards dart ahead
to guide his way.
He knows the green land
is near, is near,
and he walks on
through the burning days
and cold, vast nights,
listening to the stars
finding his way
back home.

Riddles

The sphinx loped
through the city,
leaving behind riddles
on doorsteps,
abandoned children
who knocked on doors
crying to be solved,
as the people inside
woke to stare at ceilings
that provided no answers.