When Lord Byron lived at Cambridge University, he greatly increased campus diversity. He lived with a bear. They were quite the pair. For the poet, the dog ban was a perversity.
Cambridge U. Limerick
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Category Archives: Poetry
BOOK REVIEW: Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law by Busshō Lahn
Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law: A Commentary on Hakuin’s “Song of Zazen” by Bussho LahnMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
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Release Date: December 20, 2022 [In India, may be out in your area.]
This book consists of a collection of essays inspired by the poem, “Song of Zazen,” written by the 18th century Zen master, Hakuin. Hakuin’s poem is brief (about forty lines,) and the essays composed by a present-day Zen priest (Lahn) offer commentary on a stanza-by-stanza basis. The book is divided into fourteen chapters, though the final chapter isn’t a stanza commentary.
I enjoyed reading this book and learned a great deal from it. The book benefits from the fact that the author is not rigidly sectarian. Therefore, the book is not doctrinaire, which warms the reader to the teachings. It’s also useful because it allowed the author to freely draw examples and quotes from a variety of sources, some of which may be more familiar or relatable to neophyte readers.
The last chapter offers a discussion of the fundamentals of zazen (seated meditation) as well as some other ancillary information that may be useful to readers new to Zen Buddhism, its practices, and its sutras. If you’re interested in Zen Buddhist meditation and philosophy, you may want to give it a look.
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Yellow Camphor [Haiku]
camphor flowers, in a disheveled bouquet, stretch warmly
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The Melt [Common Meter]
Our lives are blobs that melt away. You may not sense the drips. It happens slowly; you may never hear burbled blips. You may not feel that it's lighter, or that it's lost some girth. Because you've shed it gently each and every day since birth. And when you feel the withering, will you take it as loss? A good loss like becoming lean -- a skimming of the dross? Or like a vicious theft of the best parts of one's being: like time has grabbed the valuables and taken to fleeing? The melt will continue onward until there is no more. So, think yourself experience rich though you are time poor.
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Bold Butterflies [Haiku]
two butterflies stand their ground on the path, despite footfall quakes
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Red Bug Orgy [Haiku]
two red bugs mate
on one side of a tree;
on the other: orgy
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Frangipani Scribbles [Haiku]
bare frangipani scribbles shadow art on blank temple walls
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Wasp & Ant [Haiku]
a wasp & an ant converge on a cloying plant blithe on each other
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Feathertop [Haiku]
the Feathertop sways, as the river beside it glides inexorably
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Rage Monster [Common Meter]
There is an angry beast inside who shakes at me sometimes. It gives me mean and violent thoughts. It draws no moral lines. It'd kill them all in vicious ways without heartfelt remorse. This fever of being must be, until it's run its course. Then I can be civil again, and my blood can cool. And I can play my normal role: -n- be done playing the fool.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 