Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Rob Schackne #120 - Three Gestures



Three Gestures



I. Dharmacakra

The gesture of teaching
beyond a gesture of learning
all my gaps, all that I forgot

We can see without mirrors
in the whiteout and the sands
sweeping the shapes we're going

Crazy streets growing wild weed
the contemplative mind, best to
heed the angle of deadly corners

The twinge, the fidget and the snore
the life-span, sweet roses and the sea
(strange all the dirty deals we made)

Help me learn the perfect cup of tea
teach me to dance the broken arrow
I might show them the broken steps.


II. Varada

A kitten was run over by a car
tonight it lay on the road crying
intestines on a razor's edge

Before I could crush her skull
she got up and licking her gore
walked back through the hedge

Nighttime, exodus, people
crossing perilous borders
begin their journeys of freedom


Probably died in the bushes
from her first true crossing
a kid, a plan, a nalpadika

No word for this in any language
no word can toy with compassion
learns too late that most of it’s deadly

I wrap the story up and let it go
later seal it inside a diamond heart
and send this to the ones I love.


III. Abhaya

How these days pass
old speeches are regretted
all the trees look different

Faces to carry faces
a foot in parallel dreamings
its baskets within baskets

A Möbius twist of tracks
a house is burning next to
an insipid piece of work

Faces to faces watch
while the mirrors crack
waiting for a train to pass


Nature, it isn’t feckless
sometimes rabbits wait
for long trains to finish

Birds searching for the world
an egg falls from the nest
an old lizard sucks it dry

Freedom is on the bend
now try, go home, try
and practise courage.



5 comments:

  1. this is a wonderful meditation poem, inspiring!

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  2. Me too, Chrys. But maybe in some way all poems are that mudra - and the earth gesture is the poetry that bears witness to the world around us?

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  3. Yes mediative is the way to describe this one. Really enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete

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