A room in Lhasa
a
lifetime of service
not
to others only one
an
undivided solo to the self
candles
prayer incense life's journey
high-wire
passages and bleary deserts
through
heat ice fire rock sometimes flowers
to
sit and not to wander here at last
gratitude
and chanting burns off
pain
Maya un-suffering rites
detaching
from attachments
contemplating
contemplating
preparing
for rebirth's mighty finale
in
solitude cold and unlit rooms
darkness
stark and hardness
but
for crack-thin light seep in doors
droning
archaic words and sounds
of
what it takes to be found
in a
room in Lhasa
dancing
down the upward urge
fighting
what appears fear
when
you're bound on the ground
outrunning
life's journeying
determining
truth and truthfulness
releasing
lifetimes spent
questioning
what is meant
with
a human form
filling
up on emptiness
posing
on stone and boards knowing
thousands
knowing what it's worth
to
pass through the immortal
nowadays
this room's a portal
on
a road paved in silk
time
has come to free
this
square farewell and
share
a Room in Lhasa
image: The Room in Lhasa – ink charcoal conte on recycled rice
paper & synthetic polymer paint on stretched canvas / jskewes
I enjoyed that!
ReplyDeletecheck out my Lhasa book if you have a chance, Jeffree
https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Days-Lhasa-Christopher-Kelen/dp/0977297438
I read Seven Years in Tibet as a teenager and have like nged to go to Lhasa but never made it. YOur poem brought it back to me.
ReplyDeleteWonderful.
ReplyDeleteI was once in a hotel room in Lhasa
and I could not breathe, like I was monk
at sea-level, missing the hills.