The Words In Their Sleep

Have you slept the whole summer away here
with the dogs
do you believe in waking,
do you dream that you are somewhere else
do you remember what you meant to say
do you remember the sounds of the voices
you once heard
do you know who you are
do you still speak the old language
are you older than you can say
you who never told the whole story
only what came to mind

 

W.S. Merwin
 

from
Garden Time 

 

pomegranates 

Collards, broccoli and marigolds

tomatoes gone crazy

 

NM Red Delicious apples

 

 

,,,By the light of the moon in the water

I sit in meditation.

A wide Palace of Cold soaking into smooth blue grass,

at midnight I rise, turn suddenly around.

And find the perfect circle of moon in the heart of 

the ripples. 

 

Guido Shushin 

from 

Zen Poems 

 

 

 

 

Hen by the pomegranate bush. I've let the chickens out of the chicken yard to help me with the weed explosion with all the rain we've had in two weeks! 

Pear tree offers rotting fruit and bugs

A roadrunner wanting to make friends with the girls.

 

 In the Moutain

Yellow chrysanthemums and green bamboo,
they don't belong to others.
Bright moon and clear breeze
are not for the sphere of the senses.
They're all treasures
of my house -
Fetch them home freely
use them, get to know them!

 Paegun
from
Zen Poems 

 

 

 

 This morning's mountain walk. Setting full harvest moon.

 

The years that lie behind you, with all their struggles and pains, will in time be remembered only as the way that led to your new life.

Henri J. M. Nouwen 

 

Dawn from Placitas Open Space

 

I love the joys of the moutains
wandering completely free
feeding a crippled body another day
thinking thoughts that go nowhere
sometime I open an old sutra
more often I climb a stone tower
and peer down a thousand foot cliff
or up where clouds curl around
where the windblown winter moon
looks like a lone-flying crane.

COLD MOUNTAIN
From
The Collected Song of Cold Mountain 

 

 Till  now
I thought that only 
others die -
that such happiness
should fall to me!

Ryou
Japanese Death Poems