Before Beginning in the Middle: 3 poems


Here is some of the poetry I wrote just before and during the Ziji Collective leadership intensive at Karme Choling. 

Before

Having gone to bliss
Hope & fear are like detours
That end where they began.

Dropping persona and facade,
True creativity & interest
Are exposed as the ever present
     tidal-wave of nowness.


Beginning

Arriving is an abrupt
     And gradual
                          process.
The drala of this land is
     Instantly wakeful.
Habitual holdings, guardings, evadings
     Relax
               slowly.

Like a moon
Caressing the meadow,
Waxing one half

A rich column of smoke
     pirouetting its way
              up
     into an uncontrived blue sky.

Enlightened Society
     sounds like Nick's
              unobstructed beating
                      heart
Introducing us to the ziji
     of a shared flower petal.  


in the Middle

Heart break ice chest
Not so cold, but so hard
The Vidyadhara
       Lone leaf lilting down
       to the gentle ground
Softens me up.

Tightening up again
       hard hurts in my throat.
Rejecting my present heart
       to connect with someone feeling
                different from me
I trade the true ember
       for imagined flames: no heat.

Aloneness is openness
       full of poignant warmth.
Such a joy resting in
       Heart broken of habits.


Excruciating entrances Aside. 

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