Monday, August 29, 2016

Jeffree Skewes # 25 Room in Lhasa



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




3 comments:

  1. I enjoyed that!

    check out my Lhasa book if you have a chance, Jeffree

    https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Days-Lhasa-Christopher-Kelen/dp/0977297438

    ReplyDelete
  2. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful.

    I was once in a hotel room in Lhasa
    and I could not breathe, like I was monk
    at sea-level, missing the hills.

    ReplyDelete

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