Friday, April 8, 2016

Alone and Drinking Under a New Moon

Lately a week feels like seven days.
And April has a tendency to freeze frame.
So I wouldn't say this is enlightenment
but I've deconstructed so much bullshit
I can see it in another almost instantly.
This makes it difficult for new relationships
and all the old ones have gone South
to die or be with loving grandchildren.
I like the Chinese poets and their way with wine.
I choose a stout instead seeking moderation
only because I value benefits of deep sleep.
This is where the poem will take a turn.
The absolute unknown is what I am
and every night I like to circle back
to pure awareness, black as Tao,
completely lost to memory or moon.
This is why Li Po jumped in the pond.

Tao. The Poem. Verse 28 to 36.


28.

Know splendor—
abide in obscurity—
return to the natural.

When something uncut
is split, it is used.
But a sage is unhewn and divides nothing.


29.

One can’t improve
the world—
it’s perfect spirit.

One’s hot—then cold.
Strong—weak.
On—off.

So a sage avoids indulgence in extremes.


30.

As armies occupy,
thorns arise.

The adept are resolute,
but never favor force—
for things gone overgrown decay.

That isn’t the Way.


31.

Weapons are tools of misfortune—
the sage avoids them.

When many are killed—
clearly mourn them.

But even in a victory—
observe it with a funeral.


32.

Tao is ever nameless—
none command it.
Rain falls without an order.

Make rules—
names rise—
stop!

Tao in use is like a river flowing to the sea.
  

33.

To know others—
wise.
To know self—
enlightened.

To overcome others—
strong.
To overcome self—
all-powerful.

To not be lost in status—
enduring.
To die yet not die—
immortal.


34.

Tao
floods all directions.

All rely on it for being
yet it claims no name.

Thus a sage not acting for oneself
accomplishes greatness.


35.

Whoever follows the Great Image
enjoys peace.

Song and cake entice the passersby
to stop.

But the Way is tasteless—
never seen, heard, or exhausted.


36.

To weaken—first brace.
To take—give.

This is Dark Light.

Soft breaks hard.
Fish aren’t caught in depths.

A nation’s weapon is its peaceful villages.



Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Tao. The Poem. Verse 19 to 27.


19.

Abandon knowledge, morality, and profit—
people will thrive.

Yet one more item is crucial:

hold to the unhewn—
self erodes, desires fade.
 

20.

What’s the difference between good and bad?
People conform—they’re all so full!

I’m homeless and useless with the mind of a fool.
I nurture on the Mother.


21.

Tao alone is truth.

Formless—it holds an image.
Indistinct—it shelters fact.
Hidden—it embraces essence.

How do I know? It tells me.


22.

Yield—
and be whole.

As hollow—
so filled.

Thus the sage embraces unity.

Not self-absorbed—
self-evident.

Not empty talk—
the way to the whole.


23.

Speak sparingly as nature—
wind and rain doesn’t storm all day.

To follow Tao is to be Tao.
In gain be gain, in loss, loss.

In Tao trust.


24.

On tiptoes, one can’t stand.
Showing off, one doesn’t shine.

For one on the Way, it’s called
excess food and a tiring pace.

Never indulge.


25.

Before all—
there was something silent,
empty.

Name?
Call it Tao.

Humans follow earth
follows heaven
follows Tao.

Tao follows itself.


26.

Firm—root of light.
Still—lord of the wilderness.

Sages walk with resources near—
calm amid lookouts.

Lightly—lose footing.
Wildly—lose direction.


27.

Perfect action is not undone.

Students are enshrouded light.
Teachers employ that fact
or lack all resources—
simply confusion!

So a sage sees subtly
 

Tao. The Poem. Verse 13 to 18.


13.

Honor and shame
bind us to judgment—

suffering is bound
to our own pretense.

But seeing all as oneself—
one is free to be here for all.


14.

Not seen, heard, nor felt—
one.

Rising, not light.
Falling, not dark.
Formless form.

Hold the Ancient Way
to journey here and now.

   
15.

Ancients were so unfathomable,
we only picture their appearance—

to be so murky as to settle into clarity,
so still to stir to life.


16.

Empty and resonate
in silence—

see all rise and return
to the root.

Not knowing is all-suffering
but knowing the way loses all

to be always.


17.

Best is nearly never known.
Next best is loved.
Then, feared—
the worst is scorned.

But words never do—
it appears
to happen
spontaneously.


18.

When the Way is forsaken—
responsibilities rise.

As knowledge ripens—
duplicity appears.

Then all becomes chaos—
blind faith persists.


Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Tao. The Poem. Verse 10 to 12.


10.

Can you rest
in the seam of opposites?

See Spirit and Instinct
as One?

Give birth
without claiming,

raise
without ruling?

This deepest power. 


11.

Shape clay into a cup—
from emptiness forms function.

As it is in a dwelling.

In being arises increase,
but in non-being rests value.


12.

Overkill deadens the senses;
wild pursuits enrage the mind;
treasure loses the way.

So a sage
observes insight
and overlooks eyesight.


Monday, April 4, 2016

Tao. The Poem. Verse 7 to 9.


7.

The world abides—
for it doesn’t exist for itself.

So by yielding the body—
one is present.

And being free of self—
one is fulfilled.


8.

As truth,
like water,

one helps all
and vies with none,

lives low—
as Tao.

All holds the truth—
by not resisting,

one is free
from illusion.


9.

A cup filled to the brim will spill.
Acts done in excess produce the opposite.
When work is complete, the self retreats—
Nature’s Way.


Tao. The Poem. Verse 4 to 6.


4.

Tao is 
bottomless

emptiness—
seeming source

of all things. 
Harmonizing,

it perhaps exists. 
Yet its birth is unknown—

image older than God.


5.

The cosmos isn’t humane
nor is the sage—

all beings are sacrificial.
The universe will always make more.

Thus abide in the silent center.


6.

The valley spirit never dies—
call it the feminine
mystery.

Its gate is the root of the cosmos.

Ethereal—
but in use
inexhaustible. 


Tao. A long poem. Transforming a transcreation.

In the summer of 2009 I started transcreating the Tao Te Ching, reading different translations (Ellen M. Chen, David Hinton, Stephen Mitchell, Red Pine and several others), pondering each word of each verse as translated in a word-by-word grid created by Jonathan Star, and abridging each and every verse into a 140 character tweet. I ended up publishing it in book form: http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Tweet-transcreated-140-character/dp/1466248912/

I am now transforming the transcreations into short sections of a long poem as a new project, making minor revisions along the way, and no longer holding to the 140 character limit, although not necessarily adding or subtracting or revising either, except in the lineation added to the original. I am trying to stay true to the initial transcreation, which attempted to stay true to the original as viewed through translations—this is not a project revisiting those translations or that amazing grid, for that was an extensive project in and of itself.

The first three transformations are included in this post, with more to follow in future posts. I am considering it a long poem based directly on the Tao Te Ching—

the latest transformation
of an original transcreation
of several unique translations
of the nameless...


Tao


1.

No words
for Tao—

words are for things.

To know Tao
no desire—

desires are for things.

Both are sourced
in darkness—

doorway to no-thing.


2.

Knowing good
creates bad—

as ordinary opposites
relying on each other.

So the sage does
without doing—

claims nothing as
deeds are never lost.


3.

Don’t praise persons and things—
people will distort.

Lead by clarifying desire—
fulfilling essentials.

If nothing is doing—
all is done.

Friday, April 1, 2016

April Fools Da Da Da

April is the month of birdsong. Great intent is in the air.

Even trees begin to show their heartburn.

In an hour or so the rain will fall like rain is always falling somewhere.

The wind will speak with nurturing authority.

One could say the earth awakens to desire.

One could say awareness is appearing in the memory.

None of this is true beyond the artifice of space-time.

Does the river of existence flow upstream to be the nameless source?

Game of Games

The game is called long division; the only rule is play your part. 
Know division by zero is an unlawful operation
because the answer is unknown. Outlaws call this insight.

As it is in quiet desperation, so it is with the cry of war.
Further, laughter is the spirit of deconstruction
as speechlessness is the matter of truth.

All the players are shaped by social conditioning.
The field of battle is deoxyribonucleic acid.
And doves go flying through the hall of mirrors.

Fear and taxes. Sadness and a movie.
Location is the holy trinity of real estate.
Yet Christ alive! Everywhere is here in consciousness.